Traditionally 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 …

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HD Network Camera delivering 180° seven megapixel images!

We found this over at Geek.com:

The D7 is a 7 megapixel camera capable of processing 100 megapixels of information per second. It also doesn’t have just one lens, instead incorporating 5 separate lenses allowing for a full 180-degree capture at 15fps.

As well as the high resolution capture, the camera doesn’t need a connection to a power point as it is powered over Ethernet. That means with a single cable you can have a very wide-angled security camera capturing HD footage.

Great for wide-angle CCTV surveillance!

Scallop’s Press Release says:

A single 180° Digital Window camera feeding into one DVR port can replace multiple conventional cameras for most security applications, enabling significant cost savings and faster ROI upon deployment. Customers benefit from an extraordinary increase in capability, at lower cost and lower bandwidth requirements than present IP camera solutions. The Digital Window camera delivers a down-sampled 180° situational awareness view simultaneously with a full resolution zoom window.

Digital Window also offers:
• Excellent facial recognition, in place of existing wide angle solutions that produce only a blur;
• Instant pan and zoom, with no camera movement;
• No fisheye distortion or blind spots;
• paired units can provide a 360° field of view;
• Compatible with video analytics software;
• Power over Ethernet (PoE);
• H.264 image compression; and
• 15 fps video streaming with seven megapixels of detail over standard 10/100 Ethernet networks.

Visit the Scallop Imaging website

Checkout the panoramic images with digital zooming

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Sanyo have launched a new 4MP HD CCTV camera – their model VCC-HD4000.

They’ve built a rockin’ promo website to launch this new IP CCTV camera (switch your speakers on!).

It’s got a great specification, including:

• 4 megapixel camera
• built-in 10X optical zoom lens with auto-focus
• 16X digital zoom in addition to the optical zoom
• Day/Night capability with IR cut-filter
• Dual stream H.264 and JPEG
• POE (Power Over Ethernet) ready
• SD memory card slot for video storage at the camera
• USB port for direct attached USB HDD
• HDMI port

Sanyo VCC-HD 4000 IP CCTV Camera now available to buy online from our webshop.

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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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 …

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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.

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.

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