The IP Expo exhibition in October might be interesting:
IP Expo now incorporates four great events: IP’09 (focusing on infrastructure & convergence), VM’09 (exploring virtualisation), and (new for 2009) Wireless ‘09 & Cloud’09 – The UK’s first independent cloud computing event, providing insiprational thinking plus practical solutions for your organisation
It aims to cover four key areas:
The convergence of voice, data and video over IP Networks
Network Optimisation, Security and Business Continuity, Communications & Collaboration and Datacentre Management.
Virtualisation
From servers to storage, data centres to desktops…Unleash the Power of Virtualisation in your Business!
Cloud Computing
Whether building applications in the cloud or integrating cloud services with legacy systems
Wireless
Define, develop and deploy the right mobility and wireless solution
Visit their website to learn more and register – IP Expo 09
The Mobotix Q24 is their latest 3 megapixel hemispheric network camera.
It supercedes the popular Mobotix Q22. The ‘4′ is a new designation from Mobotix and represents their new faster processing engine, we will in due course see this appear in other models in the range e.g. Mobotix ‘D’ series dome cameras and the original ‘M’ series cameras.
The hemispheric operating principles are quite difficult to understand from a cold start and we are often quizzed about just what the Mobotix Q24 can actually do.
The classic application is to ceiling-mount this camera in the centre of a room and gain the ability to monitor and record everything that occurs anywhere in the room, with electronic pan/tilt/zoom capability to zoom into any area of interest (either in Live mode or in recorded footage) to see more detail. But, you can also wall-mount the Q24 and view a 180° wide field-of-view in front of the camera OR set the camera to deliver views of three preset selected sections of the overall scene covered.
Those good people at specialist Mobotix trainers The IP Academy have just released a new video introducing the Q24 and explaining a few of these features, it does a far better job than my words above seem to …
IPCCTV is a complex technical subject and there are almost too many possible solutions to choose from.
We know that our customers like to do lots of research before selecting their network cameras and CCTV recording software so, we have put together a web page to collate all the IPCCTV Video Channels from our Partner manufacturers.
There is a growing trend to use video web services such as YouTube and Vimeo to deliver good promotional videos.
At the time of writing ACTi are obviously an early adopter with nearly two hundred videos on YouTube. Axis only set up an official channel yesterday, and Vivotek uploaded their first videos to Vimeo in the last 24 hrs.
And here for their review of the Axis P3301 network dome camera (with some interesting explanations and comparisons of MPEG4 and H.264 video compression).
Greenpeace used some smart technology to intercept video signals from a Kent Police helicopter and have now (2 years later) used the video clips in this promotional video.
A team of Greenpeace activists hacked in to and intercepted live CCTV footage from a police helicopter during a protest at a power station, to use in a documentary released this week.
Police are investigating how the activists managed to obtain footage beamed from their helicopter to officers on the ground during an invasion of the coal-fired Kingsnorth power station near Rochester in Kent, by Greenpeace members in 2007.
The footage has come to light only this week with the release of the documentary — made free of charge by Nick Broomfield, the Bafta award-winning film-maker — which uses parts of the helicopter footage to show the activists at the top of the 200-metre power station chimney.
Tim Hewke, who co-ordinated the 2007 protest, was reluctant to reveal exactly how Greenpeace intercepted it and said: “Someone, somewhere has a piece of kit that’s used from time to time.”
There’s obviously a hole in their transmission security and Kent Police are looking into it
Full twenty minute Greenpeace video via this link – A Time Comes.
We’re gonna leave any further comments on this one open to you, below …
JVSG, the Joint Video Surveillance Group, have developed a great software tool which helps you to calculate the bandwidth needed for network CCTV cameras.
This is one of the major concerns expressed (typically by IT Managers) when people suggest adding video cameras to their network.
The software can calculate the bandwidth requirements for cameras with all the common resolution specifications and allows you to calculate the effects of varying resolution, frame rates, numbers of cameras, the video compression standard (H.264, MPEG4, MJPEG) etc.
You can even estimate the impact of varying amounts of motion activity in the scene.
See below for more information on the settable parameters, or click the image above to visit their website.
You can download and run a FREE 45-day evaluation copy of this software from their website, and if you decide to buy it’s just £39 to licence the software for continued use.
Resolution – Camera resolution in pixels. You can select resolution from the drop-down list. The list contains most popular PAL and NTSC camera resolutions (like 352×288 CIF PAL, 704×576 4 CIF PAL) as well as some typical network cameras resolutions (like 640×480) including megapixel resolutions (1280×1024, 1600×1200), HD and full HD resolutions (1920×1080) as well as others.
Compression – Video compression. You can choose from MPEG4, H.264, four levels of Motion JPEG (MJPG) compression (from Low to High) and “RAW Data”. If you use Motion JPEG you can use different JPEG compression levels. If you use low MJPEG compression (level 10) you get best quality of picture and about 10 times lower frame size. If you use Medium MJPEG compression (level 20) you usually obtain a good picture quality and an optimal Quality/Frame Size ratio. With a JPEG level of more than 50 your picture becomes bad for video surveillance purpose.
FPS – Frames Per Second. Typical FPS for video surveillance system is from 5 to 15 frames per second. In some applications (like CCTV in casino) it is required to use higher speed values (25-60 FPS). Alternative name for FPS is IPS (Images Per Second).
Days – Required length of video archive in days (24 hours). Used for storage space calculation.
Cameras – Number of cameras in your CCTV installation with the same parameters.
Recording % – Estimated motion recording activity. 100% for constant recording. This parameter is used to calculate disk storage space in case the video is recorded on a schedule or on a motion detector.
Image Complexity – Frames from some CCTV cameras are more detailed and have a higher frame size.
Motion % – Motion activity (100% for constant activity). This parameter is used for MPEG4 and H.264 bandwidth estimation.
The new Pentax Varifocal Plus megapixel CCTV lens as captured in action at IFSEC 2009:
Pentax are well known for the quality of their CCTV lenses, but they have taken a long time to produce and launch their first megapixel CCTV lens. However, it seems that the wait may have been worthwhile as judging by the pre-production model demonstrated at IFSEC they’ve built in a new feature which might well see them take the lead in this sector.
Firstly, let’s explain what a vari-focal CCTV lens is – it is simply a lens which allows you to manually adust the field of view being monitored by the camera to exactly that which you wish your surveillance to cover.
Once upon a time we only had fixed focal length lenses available to us e.g. 4mm, 8mm,12mm, etc. These lenses provided a certain field of view, perhaps a horizontal viewing angle of 60° and that was what you got i.e. the view could not be adjusted. A set focal length lens provides a fixed field of view (horizontal and vertical viewing angle).
With the advent of the varifocal CCTV lens we were able to adjust the scene covered / field of view at the point of commissioning, so that only the area which we wished to cover was ’seen’ by the camera. This allowed us to concentrate all of the camera’s available resolution onto the important area. For this reason vari-focal lenses are now used in the vast majority of all new CCTV installations.
With all of the currently available vari-focal lenses, as the field of view is adjusted, you then need to re-focus the lens at each scene setting. With their new ‘Varifocal Plus’ lens Pentax have developed technology which allows the lens to stay in focus as you manually zoom.
The guys on the stand weren’t revealing too much about how Pentax had achieved this first, they simply said that it utilised technology transfer from their lenses for the Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera market.
Precise focusing of CCTV camera lens combinations is something which many end-users struggle with, so this new lens from Pentax should bring great benefit to many end-users and field engineers.
It’s a 1.3 megapixel lens and should be available Q3 2009 for a price in the region of just £99!
Click the image to the right to visit the new page in our webshop and to download the datasheet from there for further information.
NB This lens will only work with cameras which have a lens connection socket and can be back-focused with an adjuster ring at the front of the camera (if you need any further help or information then give us a call on 01304 827 609).
The Sanyo VCC-HD4000P was awarded the top prize of CCTV Product of the Year at IFSEC 2009 – click the image for further information about this 4 megapixel CCTV camera …
VCC-HD4000P Full High Definition (1920×1080p) Network Camera
The SANYO VCC-HDN4000P is a full High Definition (HD) network camera equipped with the world’s first 4 million pixel lens which has been matched with a 4 million pixel progressive scan sensor to deliver incredibly sharp, crystal clear images.
A built-in 10 x optical zoom makes the VCC-HDN4000P an ideal solution for banking and retail environments or indeed an application where there is a requirement for close up detail of any activity.
The VCC-HDN4000P further capitalizes on advances in technology by the dual streaming of H.264 and JPEG, enabling simultaneous high definition recording and real time H.264 live monitoring across a network. An HDMI output allows the full quality of the camera’s images to be observed on an HD monitor, whilst there is an option to display the video onto an analogue monitor at a remarkable 680 TV lines.
On-board recording is via the camera’s SD/SDHC memory card or via USB onto an external hard drive. Other key features include motion detection, privacy masking, automatic transmission/email of images upon alarm and Power over Ethernet support, whilst a 16 x digital zoom provides the VCC-HDN4000P with a combined 160 x zoom capability.
Last week I spent a couple of days out of the office at the International Fire & SECurity (IFSEC) show at the NEC in Birmingham.
This was my tenth year of visiting IFSEC, and although it looked a little different this year (new halls and visitor numbers down a little) I’m pleased to report that the show is still going strong.
I’ve only had time so far to upload some images and a few notes to our Picasa web album, but rest assured that as usual much was learned and there’s more to say.
Click here to see our snapshot view of IFSEC 2009, and rest assured that we’ll add more detailed blog articles over the next few days.
If you went to IFSEC we’d be happy for you to add your thoughts on this year’s show in the comments below …
Webcams from all over the world (8,000 and counting) can be found and viewed at the Webcams.travel website.
They’ve got some really neat Google integration – so much so that between that and the site logo looking very similar to the one used by Google’s own Chrome browser, the person that pointed the site out to me told me that it was an official Google site!
Some well-thought out features, like their ‘Daylight’ button feature – which captures the webcam scene at noon and allows you to view it as captured in daylight if you happen to visit the camera after dark – a neat solution to a problem I’m sure we’ve all come across.
Specially developed iPhone Apps allow you to integrate with the Webcams.travel website and view your favourite tourist hot spots directly on your iPhone. Some, such as WorldView, offer a free App version. Moxier World uses their API to deliver world time, weather forecasts and live views from webcams to your iPhone, iPod Touch, or Google Android phone handset.
All in all, it’s an impressively well executed set of applications. They are adding 1,000 webcams every couple of months or so, and yet it is still in Beta!
It’s fascinating to sit and watch this gadget ‘tour’ the webcams of the world – simply click on the image from any camera that takes your fancy and you’ll be taken to its home page for further details and information.
