Megapixel CCTV cameras are often dismissed as an expensive technology, beyond the budgets of ordinary end-user applications.

Take a look at this video clip from the ACTi ACM-4200 Megapixel Cube Camera.

It’s a 1.3 Megapixel network camera. 1.3 megapixels is three times the image resolution of the traditional CCTV cameras watching over your Reception area or shop!

Simply connect it to the nearest network point and record the video on a PC (ACTi provide their NVR Professional video recording software free-of-charge on a CD in the box with each camera – for use with up to 64 cameras!).

NVR Professional and NVR Enterprise video recording software from ACTi are both free to use with their cameras.

ACTi NVR Professional free video recording software

ACTi NVR Enterprise free video recording software

The Professional version is shipped on a CD in the box with every camera purchased and can manage up to 64 cameras on any single site.

The Enterprise version can be downloaded from ACTi’s website free of charge. This version can be used for multi-site solutions where there are up to 16 cameras at each site. For camera counts greater than 16 on multiple sites ACTi NVR Enterprise can manage up to 64 cameras but, they charge for licences for 32, 48, and 64 camera versions – please contact us if you need any further details on this software.

Currently, this free video recording software only manages ACTi products, but you can mix their video inputs from their megapixel network cameras, standard IP video cameras and analogue CCTV to IP Video servers.

Their offer of free video software makes this perhaps the ideal migration route for owners of existing analogue CCTV cameras. Simply convert those CCTV cameras into IP video feeds by use of an ACTi video server. Then install their free recording software onto a suitable PC. Then add megapixel network cameras for better resolution IP CCTV into the future …

ACTi ACM-4200 is a great value megapixel IP camera, absolutely ideal for indoor applications for schools, offices and retail shops.

Don’t take our word for it check out the image quality from this budget-priced 1.3 megapixel camera in our video gallery.

A unique feature, compared to similar cameras in this price range, is the ability to change the lens – you can fit a replacement lens to give you exactly the field of view that you need to cover (the more closely you clip your field of view to the area you are actually interested in, the greater the number of pixels concentrated on that area, the better the delivered video resolution when you need to review recordings).

Don’t forget that ACTi offer their NVR Enterprise video recording software free of charge for use with up to 16 of their cameras.

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

You can add comments to this blog Post below.

Feel free to ask any IP CCTV queries at our IP CCTV forum.

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Axis 207 and Axis 207MW network cameras are to be deployed in 750 SPAR stores in Austria, according to the latest press release from Axis Communications:

SPAR Österreichische Warenhandels-AG is Austria’s largest retail chain with total sales of SEK 93 billion (2007). Between 10 and 15 cameras of Axis 207 and Axis 207MW (megapixel wireless) models are being installed in each of the 750 SPAR stores. Axis cameras will be integrated in SPAR’s existing infrastructure and will provide several advanced features through their digital technology.

The solution makes it possible for SPAR to conveniently bring together all components in one system that in addition, may be remotely monitored from different locations. Updates can be performed centrally in all the 750 stores and it is possible to keep statistics on the number of customers and purchasing behavior. This means that SPAR can plan store layout and product exposure.

We are proud that one of Europe’s largest grocery chains has chosen Axis network video products. The retail trade accounts for about a quarter of all the security installations carried out on the market and is an important customer segment for us. The installation is a valuable reference in the work of generating interest for installations of network video products.

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:

You can add comments to this blog Post below.

You can ask any IPCCTV queries at our forum.

You might like to subscibe to this blog in an RSS reader (top right of our blog home page).

We’d be delighted to have you sign-up for our email newsletter and allow us to keep you informed of the latest developments in this fast-moving sector.