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!!

Google has launched a new wiki service known as Knol, I have posted an article there:

Megapixel IP Security Cameras – The Future of CCTV

I tried hard to stick to just one theme, and to explain (pass knowledge – knol) to people that analogue CCTV cameras have reached their performance peak in terms of image resolution, and for this reason (more than any other) Megapixel IP security cameras will become the standard for CCTV applications in the future.

Sure, there are many other factors that we can debate; bandwidth, storage, cost, compression standards, etc. But for article one, let us just consider that the analogue versus IP debate should fizzle-out soon simply because analogue CCTV cameras cannot improve significantly on 540TVL resolution; which in turn means that each camera should only view a scene width of 4.3m or 14ft (to deliver images adequate to recognise a known individual).

End-users have greater expectations now, they can do so much with cheap digital stills cameras and their PCs (not to mention what they see via the internet). They are often disappointed with analogue CCTV performance; currently conscientious surveyors, consultants and installers have to take time to brief their clients properly and spend most of that time explaining the limitations of CCTV, what it won’t do, setting realistic expectations, explaining why a camera can only cover a small scene width effectively ….

To use a consumer market analogy, there is no way that the public was ever going to persist with VHS VCRs once DVD players became affordable, and in time we will all move on to blu-ray and HDTV, it’s just a matter of price performance ratio.

I believe that the time is now right, and that IP CCTV has reached that ‘tipping point’.

To invest in new analogue CCTV now is to limit yourself to a narrow view of the future – maximum 14 feet wide, narrower would be more effective ……

Read my Knol article now and I hope that you will readily understand why there is simply not going to be a better analogue CCTV camera produced any time soon, so why, in 2008, would you commit to co-axial cables and BNC connectors???