Avigilon have announced a new range of vandal-resistant megapixel dome cameras.

These new Avigilon HD colour/mono domes will be available in 1, 2, 3 and 5 mpix camera models as per their current HD body camera range.

There will also be a range of variants with built-in IR LEDs for night-time illumination.

We’re anticipating that these new products will deliver a great new value proposition; as VR domes they include the camera, lens and outdoor housing all in a single easy-to-install, POE-enabled, IP camera package.

Just as soon as the full information and datasheets become available we’ll add these fantastic new products into our IP CCTV shop.

IP CCTV has been around for a number of years now and it’s interesting to just pause and consider who is committing to it as their chosen surveillance technology.

It’s interesting to note that more and more of the big system users, with the resources to carry out in-depth trials, and the experience of previous technologies are now rolling-out IP CCTV solutions at their sites. IKEA, John Lewis, casinos, shopping centres and ports all feature amongst this set of big customers that have switched to IP CCTV.

In the world of smaller surveillance systems, there are two clear categories of customers that select IP CCTV:

CCTV Upgraders

People who already have traditional analogue CCTV systems and want something better. They’ve had incidents, they’ve reviewed recordings, they would like to be able to ‘see more’ next time there’s an incident …

The Tech Savvy

People who ‘get it’ – they have their finger on the pulse of technology, they check lots of websites, they consider and compare different manufacturers, they read the specifications on the datasheets, they understand megapixels, bandwidth, gigabytes and lux levels, they call and discuss their application …

Who doesn’t buy IP CCTV?

Basically, the price conscious consumer. They know (or have been told) that they must have CCTV. They look for the cheapest solution to tick that box, they don’t consider the image quality, they don’t read specifications. They don’t profess to understand analogue or ‘digital’ CCTV. They may have been told (by a friend, or the first installer that they spoke to) that they need a DVR. They are often keen to get the job done, and they just buy cheap.

Of course, these people become the ‘CCTV upgraders’ of the future … because once they have committed to the co-ax cabling and BNC connectors of traditional CCTV they’re not going to be able to do a lot to improve their system by simply changing components, and in due course they are quite likely to upgrade to IP CCTV …

Axis Communications have just announced the launch of their new HDTV Network Camera the Q1755 for January 2009.

The camera delivers HDTV 1080i or 720P resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio.

AXIS Q1755 Network Camera connected to an HDTV monitor is the perfect solution for securing areas where greater image detail is required.

This camera supports both H.264 and Motion JPEG in full frame rate. With day & night functionality and progressive output, it provides exceptional quality images even of fast moving objects in all lighting conditions – without any motion blur. With 10x optical zoom, 12x digital zoom and auto focus, it can instantly provide the desired field of view in perfect focus.

Buy Axis Q1755 online.

Unfortunately, not much is manufactured in the UK these days (especially not high-tech electronic security equipment).

In recent months you were getting $2 for your £1, you now get $1.475.

One euro used to cost 70p and now costs 86p.

(source www.xe.com noon today)

Messages (warnings) received from manufacturers and distributors in the past few days have carried warnings of price increases of up to 20% for some products!!

Some of these price hikes are scheduled for 1st January 2009.

Manufacturers are recommending that we reduce the validity period for any quotations or proposals that we prepare.

What can you do? Well, it sounds like a terrible cliché, but, if you know what you’ll be needing:

Buy now to beat the price increases!

SMT – Security Management Today – Magazine will no longer be available in print.

It’s disappointing to learn this, as it was a stand-out different magazine in the security sector. Most security magazines are aimed at the installers, SMT (as the name suggests) was aimed at Security Managers. I know that many of the Security Managers that I have worked with were on the circulation list and found it a useful source of information.

Its strapline was:

The UK’s No1 for security managers

The magazine now has its own online pages at SMT Online, but I’m not sure that they’re distinct enough from the other information presented at that portal, and in my humble opinion I cannot see security managers visiting those pages in the same way that they liked to turn the paper pages.

Of course, if you are a Security Manager and you want to stay informed of all the latest developments in the field  of IP cameras, then why not subscribe to this blog or to our email newsletter?

Update 12th January 2009 – this page is attracting a lot of visitors:

If you’ve missed your SMT magazine and found this web page, please feel free to leave your thoughts in a comment below.

Update 20th January – people are now phoning us for SMT magazine’s contact and advertising details – if you click on the magazine image above you will be re-directed to their new web portal.