At use-IP we are very keen that you should have the opportunity to be able to appreciate product performance before you have to make your purchase decision.

We realise that we are in the vanguard of IP CCTV and megapixel security cameras, we have a point to prove and we’ll do all we can to demonstrate it to you. Megapixel IP cameras ARE the future of CCTV.

We see some great high-definition video clips from megapixel cameras, but not everybody browsing our website is going to be keen to download the manufacturer’s player software onto their PC and run their own demo with the footage provided.

So, we’re pleased to announce that we have found a high-quality video clip player that does a really good job of delivering that compromise between performance, image quality and patience. Please realise that nothing that we can easily host online and present to you on your own PC via the web will be quite as good as using the manufacturer’s player locally. Most online video services, such as YouTube, Flickr, Google Video, just do not even come close.

use-IP have set up a SmugMug Pro Account to showcase our video clips. SmugMug is probably THE preferred online photo album showcase for professional photographers – they care about quality of image, and quality of service.

We’re really pleased with the initial playback performance results that we are seeing. The video images that you will see played back from our SmugMug Pro account are probably the best comparison playback clips for CCTV performance that you’ll find anywhere on the web!!

As we said above, they are a slight compromise to video delivery performance – they will take a little time to download and play, but you would probably not be willing to wait for the full file sizes which we uploaded.

You’ll be interested to learn that SmugMug use H.264 video compresssion to achieve this web playback performance.

You can adjust some playback settings and choose what size you want to view the clip at.

One great feature that’s built-in for the pro photographers, but we spotted and loved straight away is the ‘Smugloupe’ – if you switch your view of our album to ‘Critique’ – using the dropdown at the top RHS of the page. The clip preview images will be presented one at a time, above the preview you’ll see a tick box for the smugloupe; tick this and you will have a 4.5X magnifying glass that you can move around the image with to checkout a better idea of the available resolution in the image.

We have opened our SmugMug album with video clips from the ACTi ACM-1231, we will of course add further clips from other cameras in due course (but if we’re entirely honest it was the need to show to all of you the fantastic footage achieved from this camera that spurred us on to find this solution!).

Without further ado, you can visit the product page in our web shop to see how we’ll be featuring these video clips:

ACTi ACM-1231

Or, go straight to our use-IP SmugMug Album

As always, we look forward to your comments and feedback:

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All that Olympic TV coverage that you’ve been watching in HD quality with Dolby 5.1 surround sound made its way back to the UK / USA via IP networks:

In order to bring these signals back to the UK the BBC will employ more than 200Mb/s of fully redundant international fibre capacity, travelling multiples routes around the globe between Beijing and London. These digital links are supplied by the EBU and also provide voice and data communications between London and Beijing and include the 16 channels of video over IP streaming for the remote logging operation in London.

Read this story over at Info 4 Security telling how two CCTV systems in the USA that had been recently upgraded to Megapixel IP cameras delivered results that they simply could not deliver previously with traditional analogue CCTV.

One was a restaurant, the other was a jeweller – we’re not exactly talking large systems, but it is interesting to note that in the States system owners and installers already ‘get it’ – they are ahead of the UK in terms of their acceptance of IP camera solutions.

In the UK, the big system owners get it; Heathrow Terminal 5 has IP CCTV, so does St Pancras station.

We would like to think that this website is in the vanguard of helping all UK businesses and CCTV system owners get it!

If you need more convincing, read my Google Knol to learn how the best traditional CCTV cameras only provide 0.4 megapixel resolution (and are not going to get any better).

If you have queries please feel free to enter your questions in our forum.

Comments here or at the end of that Knol are welcome.

If your installer or supplier offers you an IP camera with a 540TVL resolution – they don’t get it, that’s not how that jeweller and restaurant got results, that is same old, same old, with a different plug on it!!

Amity Systems becomes Bada Networks, with the mission (and funding) to deliver real time IP Video everywhere, at once …..

Read all about this breaking News over at Network World.

“Large-scale collaborative video surveillance” – does this mean that we’ll all be able to watch each other?

Apparently, Bada is a Chinese term that means to reach in all directions. It is used by the company to convey the concept of seamless connectivity and collaboration.

The Axis 233D fully-functional dome camera now has auto-tracking capability!

Ideal for unmanned sites, the camera will now be able to detect and track movement within the scene.

This was already a great camera with its 35X optical zoom and progressive scan image clarity.

Existing owners of 233Ds can upgrade their firmware to gain this new functionality.

Read more on the Axis website News Page