1080p HD Video coming to YouTube
Friday, November 13th, 2009From next week YouTube will offer 1080p high definition video playback:
(Watch this in full screen to see the full hairy resolution potential!)
Archive for the ‘Tech News’ Category
Virgin Broadband; Faster and Cheaper Future
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009Virgin Media are reducing the price of their 50Mbps service to just £28 per month from September 1st (if you also take a Virgin phone line).
This price/performance milestone is a significant step along the road to one big happy high performance inter-network.
As IP camera specialists we can see – “Any picture, from any place, and any time …” – and these performance boosts continue to make it an improving experience!
Virgin have also announced trials of 10Mbps uplinks – bearing in mind that it is the uplink speed of your camera (out there somewhere on the internet) that is often the performance limiting factor, then this too bodes well for future performance.
They have also begun trials of 200Mbps internet download speeds!
Not so long ago, in a land consisting of many peer-to-peer networks, 10Mbps was the fastest that you could connect to a machine six feet away …
Virgin claims that at 50Mbps you’ll be able to download a music track in just one second!
PC Pro announce Virgin 50Mbps price drop.
Think Broadband announce Virgin 50Mbps price drop.
PC Pro on Virgin’s 200Mbps trials.
You need to wait just two more weeks …
Unless anybody can tell us all where to sign up sooner?
Related posts
CMOS CCTV Sensors
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009Traditionally CCTV cameras used CCD (Charge Coupled Device) image sensors.
Lately, CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) sensors have become common place, especially in the latest megapixel network cameras.
It has long been said that, as a smaller worldwide market, CCTV development follows the technology lead of digital cameras and camcorders.
Sony are probably the World’s biggest manufacturer of imaging chips.
In June 2008 Sony announced a new back-illuminated CMOS sensor technology which delivered greatly improved low-light performance. They branded this technology as ‘EXMOR’ ™.
These EXMOR™ image sensors are now appearing in new Sony digital camera products – check this early review at this site specialising in Sony Digital Camera Technology. Take note of the sample images at the end of the review indicating the much improved low light level photographs.
[By the way, amazing little cameras; 16mm thick, 10.2MP sensors, 10 images per second shooting, records up to 29 minutes HD 720p video, and much, much, more ...]
Check the comments in an earlier article at that same site when Sony first announced their back-illuminated CMOS sensor to see that they registered the patent in 2006 in USA, and probably earlier in Japan. That gives you an indication of the development timeline of these new technologies.
A brief abstract of the patent:
A solid state imaging device having a back-illuminated type structure in which a lens is formed on the back side of a silicon layer with a light-receiving sensor portion being formed thereon. Insulating layers are buried into the silicon layer around an image pickup region, with the insulating layer being buried around a contact layer that connects an electrode layer of a pad portion and an interconnection layer of the surface side. A method of manufacturing such a solid-state imaging device is also provided.
As I said above, CCTV technology has always followed the camcorder and digital camera technology lead. Well, there’s no prizes for guessing the lead technology sector now – in November 2008 Sony announced plans to launch a 12 megapixel EXMOR™ sensor for mobile phones!
This sample image was captured with that sensor:
Surely, eventually, this low-light, high megapixel CMOS sensor technology will find its way into future IP CCTV Network cameras, but I wouldn’t like to guess when …
Related posts
Gigapan Gigapixel image of the President’s Inaugural Address
Monday, January 26th, 2009We’ve mentioned gigapan technology before.
Take a look at this incredible 1,474 Megapixel image of President Barack Obama’s inaugural address.
Details of how he did it at David Bergman’s site:
My final photo is made up of 220 Canon G10 images and the file is 59,783 X 24,658 pixels or 1,474 megapixels. It took more than six and a half hours for the Gigapan software to put together all of the images on my Macbook Pro and the completed TIF file is almost 2 gigabytes.
This is amazing technology – click the image above to view and explore the full-size image – zoom into the crowd and wonder at the detail captured …
Via Memex 1.1
Related posts
Home CCTV on your TV
Thursday, January 15th, 2009As our home networks extend to connect more and more devices utilising our broadband internet routers, gigabit switches, media centres, wireless networks, multiple family PCs etc. it is becoming ever simpler to share any data on the network.
We don’t normally comment much on developments in televisions here, but just in case it has passed you by, we think it is worth mentioning the advanced connectivity options available from sets such as Sony’s latest Bravia range.
This HD TV comes with ethernet connectivity and is ready to connect to the internet:
Sony’s new XBR9 and Z-series models feature an Ethernet connection, allowing the sets to directly access Sony BRAVIA Internet Video content using an existing broadband connection. The service offers one of the largest selections of free and premium movies, TV shows, sports, music and more from an array of partners like Amazon Video on Demand, YouTube®, Yahoo!®, Slacker(sm), and others.
Read more details over at engadget.
The XBR9 and Z-series models are also Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA®) compliant, enabling easy access to digital photos, music and video stores on a PC or other DLNA server using the XMB® interface and the TV’s remote control.
This capability should enable you to connect to a PC or Network Attached Storage (NAS) on your network and access stored network CCTV video.
