hardwired

There was a key point there in mentioning standards as set forth by the Japanese manufacturers, in that I think you would be hard pressed to get suppliers from other offshore countries to be as truthful, and without enforcing third party testing, the printed specs would only be worth the paper it is printed on. Nonetheless, I think we may be looking at this question from the wrong end, perhaps we need to be looking at raw imager capability, like scientific / astronomical cameras specify. That seems to be a more reproducible, quantifiable standard than anything supplied for our industry.

That was what I meant, as well. Wi-Fi built-in cameras tend to be fairly low quality, and the camera location may not be where you need the antenna to be for best performance. Also, you can often link several cameras at a remote location using one link, providing a performance and cost savings there... Wireguys and I both seem to have found great performance, and often even better pricing, from wireless products designed for wireless internet service providers (Ubiquiti, EnGenius, Mikrotik, Etc.) than from anything marketed specifically to the CCTV market. BTW, Ubiquiti just released a line of "N" speed gear that should be great for our industry, the "N" standard is optimized for multiple streams, at up to 300Mbps throughput. I have one install going in with it right now, and it's looking good so far...

Just got the bulletin on that one... Here you go http://www.psdn.info/psdn/bulletins/PanasonicBulletinPN2009-11_WV-NP502i-ProFixedCamera.pdf

I agree. In my experience, Panasonic, Sony, and Chugai / CBC America have been the most honest with their ratings. FWIW, I think anything beyond 2X frame integration is usually pretty worthless. Also, I've got it in for manufacturers that list their B/W sensitivity as "0 Lux, IR sensitive" ....useless BS!

Here's a link for info on the dome. http://www.psdn.info/psdn/bulletins/PanasonicBulletinPN2009-10_WV-NW502SVandalResistantDomeCamera.pdf From what the rep said, the box cams are 2-3 weeks out, dome 4-5 weeks to distribution (we use Northern)

As for advanced motion detection, the Panasonic has an interesting feature that's not well mentioned in the documentation, that I saw demonstrated- Face detection. The cam can detect up to 8 faces in an image, and output that info as XML data. I think that would reduce false triggering significantly, at the expense of a few missed detections- maybe record on all motion but speed up frame rate, resolution, and send an alert when a face is detected?

What is the model number? Best, Christopher Here's a link to the box model... Ive got a spec cd that has more info, let me know if you need more info... http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ModelDetail?displayTab=O&storeId=11201&catalogId=13051&itemId=360500&catGroupId=14471&surfModel=WV-NP502

Wireguys, what lens are you using? Kowa has some new D/N corrected lenses I am trying, and there does not seem to be anywhere that much focus shift on a Arecont AV5100DN... BTW, the new Panasonic 3MP box / domes have their auto back focus feature... And a CCD imager with fairly impressive low light capability (I only got to use it for a few minutes, though, while the Pano rep was in our office... I do have one on order, will post images when I can.. Thanks for the info on the Arecont utility, that sort of irritated me too, having to install / uninstall all the time..

..And at a 352 pixel width, at a 90 degree angle, that yields about 7 Pixels per foot, which is not exactly what I'd call "Crystal Clear"... Katie, Francisconet, Etc. (you know who you are) Please stop spamming our boards. You are an insult to those of us here that attempt to provide helpful information to people, without attempting to sell something to each of them. somi97, if you can provide more details on what you are trying to achieve with this system, we can try to provide more information back to you. Just for reference, though, a professionally installed system with eight cameras would typically run at least 4-6 times your original budget, or more, depending on what you are trying to achieve.

Survtech: Here's the link for the twisted pair products / new coax adapter http://netsys-direct.com/index.php Megapixel man: I was referring to Megapixel cameras with additional analog output directly at the camera (Sanyo VCC-HD4000, Panasonic WV-NP502, etc.) with coax adapters at the camera combining the feeds and then splitting at the matrix for the analog and IP feeds. BTW, google G.hn for what I think is probably going to eat HDcctv's lunch.... Up to 300 Mbps on coax, twisted pair, or powerline..

I've been using twisted pair/ Ethernet converters for a while now that are significantly less than that price... and the same company just came out with a converter for coax using HPNA 3.1 that can go up to 100 Mbps bidirectional, point to point or multipoint, up to 4000 feet at lower rates... for $220 for the pair! It was designed for foil RG59, but it's operating frequency band is 12-44 MHz, and attenuation on copper core RG59 is lower than foil in that band. Just ordered some to try. Going to try DC power injectors on the same line to see if I can make a power link on the same cable, but most of my long run coax installs have remote power supplies, but if I could localize power, too, that would be a bonus. Survtech, think through that one, you probably could run an IP camera that also has analog output up the same coax, keep your matrix (no latency for ptz, no forklift upgrade, etc.), and peel off megapixel video for recording. HPNA specs have QoS, too, so you should be able to control the stream pretty well. I'll try feeding baseband video through my test pair and see how it works, what filtering might be needed, etc, and let everyone know.

Umm, problem? From the HDCCTV page "New and existing installations can use CCTV industry standard coaxial cable (RG/59, RG/6 and RG/11)", not any words about passing through twisted pair, probably the most likely infrastructure in their biggest potential target market, casinos? For my uses, the ability to use multiple transmission medias, often changing midpoint in a single run, is one of the biggest advantages of IP protocol cameras. Also, I doubt that SDI type transceivers and capture cards are going to reach the price of a Ethernet transceiver anytime soon. I have no doubts of the technical superiority of HDCCTV, just that it's benefits are only applicable to such a small niche that it is unlikely to make a large market impact, or be cost effective in many cases.

Hijacking this thread slightly off-topic, but the Panasonic rep was just in my office yesterday with the new WV-NP502 Megapixel box cam, same specs for the dome, and guys, it's awsome in low light. They are shipping the box model for delivery in ~2 weeks, the dome in about 3-4 weeks. If you can wait for drivers (rep said Milestone in next device pack, and Exacq has one on their test bench, too) This might be "the" one to wait for.....

Sounds kind of like when old Robot multiplexer power supplies half fail, passing some AC through to the mux. You might want to start with a new PSU to test. 这是我的年龄！太老了！

For a RF modulator, the NetMedia MM70 works nicely, and allows CATV channels 70-94, 100-125. If you need other feeds for your home, they also have a 3 channel model.

When setting up license plate recognition, you also want to go with the highest shutter speed possible to reduce motion blur. If you have your cameras near the illuminators, and have reflective plates, this can result in a great picture of a plate, but floating through black space. You may want to add an lower resolution, higher sensitivity cam as a wide overview for all the activity area, and cross tighter shots from the megapixels in a way to catch the plates as close to head on as possible. White lighting (if you can) would add overall deterrence value, and let you determine color of cars, which you cannot under IR. Also, some plates will not resolve well under IR (AK357 up in Canada has white plates with red numbers, almost no contrast)

I'd second the IP camera/ link choice first. If you have to use analog cameras, I would still choose to use encoders, and if necessary, decoders at the headend with a good wireless data link before I would try to send 2 analog channels that far. After 10+ years of playing with various analog links, I still have not found anything as good as a IP wireless link. Frankly, the CCTV market is such a low volume market compared to the computing world as a whole, that no manufacturer in this industry will be able to compete without getting margins we do not want to pay. (ask yourself why you can buy a 8MP pocket camera with a decent 4X zoom lens for ~$150.00 or so, compared to anything offered up in the CCTV world? Volume sales, efficiency of scale, that's why!) Anytime you can use products that were developed for mass market uses, jump on it!

In an install where I had no other choice, I used one of these http://www.netmedia.com/tuner.html ,but all the other posts are right, you would need 4 of these, plus a distribution amp to make it work, and you will have significant signal degradation. Sitll, if you have no other choice, it would work.

Any one of the lenses you described should be a great improvement over the stock lens. One of the greatest improvements comes, though, when you close the iris a little. That may somewhat negate the lower F-stop rating of the other lenses, but it still will be a great improvement. You will definitely want to check your iris settings in day and night conditions, or at least simulate night with a #5 welding filter during the day. For the record, I'm using the Computar T3Z3510, a 3.5-10MM, F 1.0 lens, and been very happy with the results.

Here's some documentation from Acti on RTP streaming to various clients. (You may have to create a login to access) http://www.acti.com/support_old/Package/%7BFCCD9EA1-3AA7-4C31-8F94-B17BCDAA67E.PDF In connection settings set stream type to RTP, control data on, and sample URl/MRL is as follows: rtsp://Admin:123456@192.168.1.107:7070

I've had a couple of setups like this running through a few (110 degree) summers, now. Having said that, if Mobotix cams can do well enough, I am looking at separating the cam and recording hardware with a wireless link to get the recorder in a more hospitable location. That will also enable me to use a NAS, instead of a full-blown OS/ software install on the units. Thinking maybe a Q24 overview with tight shots from the M12-devkit. Any experience with the license plate filter cam module?

Depending on what you need to run, something like the Via Pico-ITX form factor board might work. See http://www.logicsupply.com/products/px10000g for an example. I've used the Mini-ITX boards in some applications outdoors, with the proper ventilation they work fine, these should be similar. I've used the C7 1.2 Ghz to run Exacq or Milestone for two AV5100DN's outdoors at 3-4 FPS, the 1.0 Ghz should be fine for one cam.

I've used the identical model in 24 volt from Speco (IR20024) for a year or so now, with no problems. It's a little cheaper from them, too (usually under $150 or so). Ugly, but functional.

They do have documentation available on their website under the wiki for the "AirOS" that most of their equipment uses.. try here http://www.ubnt.com/wiki/index.php/How_to_bridge_internet_connections for your most likely setup... Incidentally, I have found their equipment to be very good performing, and priced much better than most marketed to the cctv industry ( many wireless ISP's use their products.) I started with parts marketed to the CCTV industry, but soon found much better performing products in the wireless ISP category (Ubiquiti, Mikrotik, ARC Wireless, Etc.) Some have a steep learning curve, but offer much better performance.

I just got a PDF on this, (for the box cam, at least) PM me if you want me to send it to you. Looks great, models are with or without ICR, 12/24 or 120V, box style replacing the CP484. 0.01 Lux without frame integration, 650 lines res, auto back focus... Still saying due to ship in August...