An embodiment provides a method for compression of a real-time surveillance signal. This method includes receiving a signal from a monitoring device and analyzing the signal to be monitored to compute spectral content of the signal. This method also includes computing the information content of the signal and determining a count of a number of coefficients to be used to monitor the signal. This method includes deploying a strategy for computing a plurality of coefficients based on the spectral content of the signal and the count of the number of coefficients to be used for monitoring the signal. This method further includes monitoring the signal and resetting the system in the case of above-threshold changes in a selected portion of the plurality of coefficients.