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ACTi models, KCM-5111 (fixed box), KCM-5211 (zoom box), KCM-7111 (fixed outdoor dome), KCM-7211 (zoom outdoor dome), all of them give 8 fps at 4 Megapixel under H.264.

Good evening, Here, I wrote an instruction of how to add a microphone to ACTi cameras, such as ACM-3511 and others. http://www.acti.com/kb/detail.asp?KB_ID=KB20100114003 I hope it is helpful!

The zoom module spec of KCM-5211 is: zoom range 4.7mm-84.6mm / F1.6-2.8

To be honest, I have no idea what was the aperture level at given moment of time. The ISP exposure control manages three parameters dynamically at any moment of time depending on the change of scene - iris level, shutter speed and gain. The only way to know what the aperture is in any given moment would be to attach a console to the camera to read data directly from ISP. Unfortunately I do not have such tools.

I will take some close distance shots (5-6 meters or so) next week to show the night video quality so that you can compare it against other cameras that you use every day within that distance. It is quite normal that a camera that shoots from 60 meter distance (as the video) cannot bring as bright image as the one at 5 meters. I thought you would be impressed seeing what can already be done from such an extreme distance as shown in the video.

Yes, eventually this technology will be applied to all product types. However, there will likely be no bullet camera within KCM-series in short term. There will be a next generation models by the end of 2011 that come with 5-16 Megapixel cameras with ACTi specially designed compression module that is able to process up 16 Megapixel without loss in video quality. It is not reasonable to build a 10+ Megapixel camera without having a compression chip that is powerful enough to deliver the expected quality. That generation will cover all camera types. To sum up, I believe if you need to use an outdoor bullet camera, your options will likely be ACM-1231, ACM-1431, TCM-1231, TCM-1431 for about 1 year.

I do not have a night video of KCM-7211 yet, but here's a clip from box camera KCM-5211 18x zoom, shot at night with 1080p resolution mode: (remember to watch it is 1080p mode instead of default 360p). What "BSI sensor + new ISP" does is totally new level compared to any ACTi products of the past. No IR illuminators were used. Please notice that the camera is able to auto-focus properly even under such low lux level, which is a biggest headache for other zoom camera manufacturers. It was a headache for ACTi too. That is why ACTi decided to design their own Image Signal Processor from the scratch. When all the sample models come back from ASIS and Essen trade shows, I will make more video clips if you are interested. Thanks a lot! Ando

Good morning! Allow me to explain the minimum illumination specifications. The KCM-series cameras come with the ACTi newly built Image Signal Processor that comes with three adaptive profiles for day, low light and night. The night profile has its principles of best night video quality. It also includes the minimum required depth of field. A primitive camera would open the iris to largest at night, to compensate the poor sensitivity of the CMOS sensor, resulting with extremely small depth of field. So many items would be outside focusable range. ACTi KCM-cameras have BSI (backside illumination) image sensor (the same one that is used in iPhone 4) that has 30% increase in captured light compared to traditional CMOS sensors. Therefore there is no need to sacrifice depth of field for the sake of improving exposure. ACTi ISP will lock the P-iris and not allow it to be fully openened. The image at 0.05 lux is good and you get the best possible depth of field under these settings. To sum up, although the lens spec is F1.4, the ISP uses only up to F2.0 of it. For more technical information on KCM (incl. videos), allow me to provide some reference documents from ACTi Knowledge Base: KCM-5111 Product Introduction KCM Zoom Cameras Let me know if I can help in any way! Thank you! Ando

Good morning! There are several different software items inside ACTi cameras, such as drivers, device capability, profile, firmware. While firmware is quite obvious for the users, the profile is perhaps not well explained. Profile is a set of algorithms and settings with the sole purpose of improving the video quality of given product. It includes better auto white balance algorithm (no color rolling. instant white balance even under extreme lighting changes regardless of their colors), tone enhancement, less noise, etc. Profile is independent from firmware and is to be uploaded to camera separately. It can either be done via IP-utility or via firmware interface (find menu item called Profile). Profile Pack contains profiles of all the cameras for the convenience of user. While uploading the pack, the camera will automatically pick the one from the pack that fits to the camera. Where to find profile pack? When you download the zipped firmware pack from ACTi web, you find the IP utility in the pack as well as the Profile Pack file (with .bin extension). The good thing about profile system is that the customer does not have to change the hardware to improve video quality over time - as ACTi releases new profiles, the video quality can be improved on existing camera for free. On the other hand, if you are satisfied with the current performance of the camera, then there is no need to upgrade the profile. With the new profile, keep White Balance mode in firmware always "AUTO" for best performance. Thank you!

The only problem with that is the newer firmwares don't work with Luxriot... the camera keeps losing its connection to the server. Like several other posters, I had to go back to an older firmware revision to maintain functionality. I'll probably stick with what I have... better an imperfect picture than no picture. As I understand, the compatibility issue with luxriot is the result of firmware and not the issue of profile. In that case: 1. Upgrade firmware to 3.11.13 2. Upgrade profile to version that comes with 3.11.13 package 3. Downgrade firmware to 3.10.22 As a result, the camera keeps the new profile while using old firmware. So you have nice colors as well as compatibility with Luxriot. Give it a try?

The Firmware and Profile are different items. You can download the latest firmware pack 3.11.13, and when you extract it, you will find both firmware files (md5, upg) and profile file (bin). The old firmware versions did not allow changing the camera Profile by user interface in Web Configurator, but 3.11.13 is different. So, first, upgrade your camera to firmware version 3.11.13 (if not done yet) using the md5 and upg files, and after successful installation of new firmware, in the UI of Web Configurator you will find a new menu item PROFILE by which it is possible to upgrade camera's Profile. Use that to upload the Profile file xxxxx.bin into camera. And then it is done. No more color rolling or wrong colors ever!

I forgot to mention, when you have installed the new profile, you can keep the White Balance in "Auto" mode, to let the new formula have its best effect. There is no need to use "manual" or "hold current". Both the left and the right side camera displays of the youtube video were made in "Auto" white balance mode.

Yep... that's pretty close. I see. Are you going to install the new profile into your camera?

Sawbones, perhaps the blue image that you saw is similar to the one on Youtube video clip on 0:25 second?

I also made a video clip to show the difference between old and new profiles responding to the extreme changes of lighting conditions. Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76SJMFr2Ikw As you see, the new profile is totally different from the old one. And you can download and install it into your camera for free.

We are sorry to hear that there is an issue with using ACTi product which makes you feel upset. We would like to help in every way possible. However, we have no notice about this problem at all. Our customer helpdesk has not received an issue on this matter, so we are not able to help on this matter, to make sure whether there is a misconfiguration or device issues. If you are talking about the white balance issue, then that may be caused by an old Profile inside camera. All the new cameras sold today come with new profile that has an excellent white balance and no color rolling whatsoever. Please refer to the document http://www.acti.com/support_old/Package/%7B06C8A4DF-4B6D-490B-82D6-1325596FC53.PDF It explains the features of new profile and also mentions how to download and install the new profile. You will not have any wrong colors after that. I hope this can solve the problem. Once again I would kindly like to let you know that we DO CARE, and we are 24/7 standby to help our customers. In most cases, there exist an easy solution to problem, but because those cases are not reported to customer helpdesk, we are not simply aware of them. Thank you so much!! Please let me know the result with new profile. All the best!!

Thanks a lot! It would be great if you could also post them to our online Customer Helpdesk - lots of bright and helpful people are standing by there to assist you with the solution as well as learn from your feedback.

Good morning, everyone! I have seen that there are some more notices on latest firmware in this topic. I am very thankful for your feedback, and we will study every case very carefully and contact all the involved ISVs. However, some things confuse me a bit. Such as, the posting where the red images were related to Exacq software. Is it really an integration problem? Or camera problem? Or misconfiguration? The best way to get answers to these is if you contact your software vendor (if you have a strong reason to believe it is the recorder problem) and for other camera related problems, please contact ACTi Customer Helpdesk. We are very eager to assist you through Customer Helpdesk no matter what the issue is. For example, the "red image" issue - if you get the same result by using Web Configurator through IE, then there is nothing wrong with integration to Exacq. The reason then must be a hardware or wrong settings. For the Avermedia case, we have already confirmed that there is still an issue with integration regarding latest firmware, and Avermedia has been notified about it and they are dealing with it now. So, thanks to your posting in this forum, we were able to study this issue deeply. Unfortunately, both ISV and our Helpdesk do not get such reports from customers directly. Customers prefer to discuss it only in forum and do not to let us know. Therefore it is difficult to have quick response and make improvements in short time. Some issues I have picked up right in this forum and forwarded to corresponding engineers for study. About firmware vs models: all ACM models use the same firmware file.

Oh, thank you for reporting this. We will immediately contact Avermedia to confirm the cause of this failure. As soon as we have an update on this, I will let you know.

Hello! May I know more about the problems you mentioned? I have a ACM-7411 here and I upgraded from 3.10.22 to 3.11.11 and in both cases the camera could found by both IP-Utility and the NVR ActiveSetup. Could the reason of not finding the camera is that you tried to access the camera by NVR immediately after firmware upgrade? Sometimes it may take up to 30 seconds to restart completely after upgrade and during that time the NVR will not be able to retrieve camera information from that device. Can you please tell us about the LED problem you mentioned? I would like to learn about this matter and see where the problem is an if any enhancement is needed. Thanks a lot!! Yes the Avermedia EH 5216+ will fail to find the ACM-7411 camera if it has FW 3.11.11 on it. I have 15 of the 7411 cameras and the first three I tried failed when trying to locate the camera from the EH 5216. I switched all cameras to 3.10.22 and they were found immediately. It is not the 30 seconds where the problem is. Like I stated I have 15 and all work fine with 3.10 but the first three I tried with 3.11 do not work. No problem with LED's. I was just wondering if they can be switched off or if others find them to be very bright at night. I find the LED's very bright and depending on how the cover is mounted the LED's will cause the camera to glow at night when looking up at it on the side of a building. I checked with our ISV integration engineer about this issue. You are right, there is a compatibility issue with 3.11.11, which affects Avermedia, Nuuo, Qnap, Exacq, and perhaps some other ISVs. There was a quick follow-up firmware version released, 3.11.13 which addressed this issue. Please try the latest 3.11.13 version.

What PC's can support 64 channels with 2Megapixel resolution in good quality and at 25/30 PPS? JD It is another good question. There is a project solution design online tool called Project Planner at http://www.acti.com/project_planner/WEBSITE/pc.html It provides recommended PC specs per every 16 channels up to 64 channels. It is calculated based on 1.3MP cameras which is ACTi standard today. If you have any proposals about what specs should be incuded there, please let us know, so that we can learn from you.

This is a good and important question. I have seen some software manufacturers pushing their NVR specs over 10 000 channels! At the same time, they do not tell you how it could work in real life. ACTi, for example, limits its NVR software purposely to 64 channels based on realistic consideration - assuming that all the channels are megapixel at maximum frame rate, then most newest available PCs in the market can support all the 64 channels. As the computers specs advance year by year, ACTi will re-announce the number of maximum channels, for example 128. But as long as those high spec computers are too expensive for a customer, the 64 channel limit is kept to protect customer from bad investment resulting from misunderstanding. Some manufacturers might set very high channel limits to their NVR in order to attract customers, but it is not clear to me how they are going to do the support for those customers who bought their product in good faith and then realize there is no actual physical solution today to make it work.

This monster lens is really amazing! However, it's application is very limited. You have to have at least 5000 lx lighting conditions to be able to see something with this lens with satisfactory quality. Basically it would mean that it is ok for cloudless daylight condition, but anything less than that would cause problems.

Hello! May I know more about the problems you mentioned? I have a ACM-7411 here and I upgraded from 3.10.22 to 3.11.11 and in both cases the camera could found by both IP-Utility and the NVR ActiveSetup. Could the reason of not finding the camera is that you tried to access the camera by NVR immediately after firmware upgrade? Sometimes it may take up to 30 seconds to restart completely after upgrade and during that time the NVR will not be able to retrieve camera information from that device. Can you please tell us about the LED problem you mentioned? I would like to learn about this matter and see where the problem is an if any enhancement is needed. Thanks a lot!!

While some manufacturers put emphasis on high megapixel resolution (3MP, 5MP..) while having poor night time support, some others stick to lower resolutions with enhanced night time support. What is more important to the customer? More pixels or clear and noise-free pixels? I believe both are important and there has to be a balance between these two requirements. In my experience, 1.3 megapixel (1280x1024) cameras are perfect night cameras. The resolution is high enough to have important details, such as faces, license plate numbers recognized. At the same time, the pixel size on sensor board is big enough to have sufficient sensitivity for night mode, to avoid noise. 3-5MP cameras two main night mode issues are: 1) the physical area on sensor representing 1 pixel is too small, so the base for collecting light is too small. The only way is to slow down shutter speed (hurts frame-rate) and amplify the signal (generates noise). 2) with given computing power of existing IP-cameras, camera does not have enough time to process 3-5 million quality pixels within satisfactory frame-rate. At best, it becomes a noisy slide-show, and not a security video. The best night cameras are those who offer perfect balance between every step of video processing inside the camera, starting with quality of lens and ending with codec that quick enough to process all the pixels within given frame-rate. Speaking of future, I believe there will be great 3-5MP night cameras in about 2 years. Until then, I recommend to use the perfectly balanced 1.3MP cameras. To understand it better, perhaps we could add videoclips here of the night views, to show the difference between 1.3MP and 3-5MP?