survtech

It is not a day/night thing, it appears to be a color/bw thing. I've seen that symptom before - many years ago. It used to happen on tube-type color TV's. The 3.58MHz color reference frequency oscillator would go out of lock causing almost exactly the same symptoms. Damned if I know what the cause is, but I would guess that the camera is sending a B/W signal but the ACK (automatic color killer) on the DVR card is not engaging. Can you attach an oscilloscope? A color signal looks like this: . A normal B/W signal should look similar but without the color burst signal. My guess is that something is missing. Most likely is that there is color information coming from somewhere without the burst signal. I don't know where.

You might also look at consumer LCD TV's. I wall-mounted 17" LG's in another casino that had the same issues as you (11' x 19' Surveillance room for everything, including the equipment). We had custom swing arms made for the wall mounts so that they could not only be tilted, but also turned to make the far end units visible from each station. That worked out pretty well except for the 16:9 format on the LCDs. I hate wasting the space for the format differences but also I would never stretch the picture to fill the screen. I'll never understand why many casino designers think that Surveillance can fit in what amounts to an office. Where do they think we will put all of our equipment? What about the noise from it? And the cooling and fire supression systems requirements play havoc with the room design.

That's for sure. I figure at least $100k to add 100TB for our system, not including the additional electrical and cooling needed for 10+ RAIDs. We're using Infortrend 24-bay and 16-bay fibre/SATA units. By the way, I forgot to answer your question about monitors. I still believe that one-for-one CRTs give the best picture when using analog interlaced cameras. We are using JVC 21" monitors mounted in racks that are approximately 4-5 ft. away from the observers for the matrix and 19" hp LCDs sitting on their desktop for the DVR Viewstations. The problem is CRT monitors are getting harder to find and the quality has been dropping so next time we replace monitors, we may have to go with LCD. 16:9 seems to be becoming standard so we will be wasting part of the screen, though. I've also found that most analog-to-VGA converters are not very high quality. De-interlacing seems to be a problem and the conversion process appears to be somewhat lossy on cheap units. I guess we are lucky with our Gaming Commission and casino management. The casino pays all capital expenses for Surveillance (equipment, etc.) and they and the commission have been very generous when we have asked for new/additional equipment. It also helps that DVR upgrades have usually been required by and coincided with major projects that the casino plans. Our latest upgrade of servers and RAIDs was necessitated by a new parking structure that adds 80 cameras.

The new MICS for DVRs is not a real regulation - it is only suggested. I'm not saying that your gaming commission shouldn't use the rules as a guideline, but there apparently would not be any adverse consequences if you don't follow them exactly. We have the same quandry and are in the process of deciding how and when to implement the latest recommendations. 14 days on all drops and count operations would mean another 100TB(+) of storage since their suggestions encompass nearly 80% of our cameras. Automatic failover is not a simple thing to accomplish with many of the systems out there. 4-hour repair times are a bit onerous and unnecessary if you have automatic failover capability. I would also dispute the need for 4CIF on the whole gaming floor. We run all of our cameras at 30fps but vary the resolution and bit rate to suit the need of each camera and situation. High resolution and high bit rates on table games, cash handling, WAP slots and some other areas; medium in other areas and low resolution and bit rate in little-used, and especially small, areas. That saves us appreciably on the storage. The 2007 NIGC DVR recommendations are here: http://www.nigc.gov/ReadingRoom/Bulletins/BulletinNo20072/tabid/738/Default.aspx

How many channels per monitor? I know you need to save money, I've dealt with a similar situation. I chose the Sanyo DSR-M8xx series for another casino despite its limitations (latency and slow, clumsy interface), they are simple and bullet-proof. The thing is, have you seen any of their other installs? Have you talked to any of their users to see if they are satisfied with the product in a similar application, preferrably another casino. There have been a lot of companies come and go already in this field. I would think twice before I invested in an untested technology. Was Bill at Reliable selling the AD Intellex? AD, like Sanyo and some of the others, is not going to go out of business next week. That means a lot in a casino environment.

I had the same problem. I had to be creative in posting links so that the BBS software would not recognize it as such. I know that it is a pain, but it often helps me to copy/paste my reply somewhere before I hit the "Submit" button. That way, if my post gets lost or messed up, I can re-paste it and don't have to re-think the whole post again.

You are going to multiplex up to 128 channels? Is that for monitoring or recording? You do realize that at best, 16-channel multiplexers will give you less than two frames per second? Even worse if you enable motion detection. That reminds me of a story where someone was stealing meat from an outdoor freezer. The camera was fed through a 16-channel MUX. In successive frames you saw the door closed, then open, then closed again. No video of anyone entering or leaving. Also, if you MUX the video of front-of-house cameras prior to recording, you will not meet NIGC MICS requirements for 30fps. Also, if you plan to use the system as your primary DVR for cameras, I would not recommend PC-based DVR cards. They don't have the reliability and redundancy of a dedicated system like the Honeywell Enterprise or Dallmeier or Pelco Endura, among others.

Termination is a load equal to the impedance of the cable. The DVR should terminate coax (or a balun converting twisted pair to coax) with 75 ohms. By the way, what type of cable is that? Is it twisted pair? If it is twisted pair and not coaxial cable, do you have a balun at each end (or at the DVR end if the camera has direct hookup for twisted pair cable). Most DVR's will automatically terminate their BNC inputs with 75 ohm. But some may have a switch at each input or a control in software that would remove the termination so that the camera signal can be "looped" through to another piece of equipment. The last piece of equipment in a loop has to have proper termination or the picture may looked washed out and blurry.

If the picture looks better at the camera, you must have a cabling or termination issue. What is the length of cable between the camera and the DVR? Is that twisted-pair or coax? Is the DVR input properly terminated?

Have you checked the image at the source? I'm wondering if this is a problem with image transmission and not the camera itself. It looks like you are running a siamese cable. Perhaps you have the wrong termination or no termination. Also try a different lens. I've seen brand new lenses that would not focus properly. And yes, those types of buildings are not the most stable mounting platforms. Try to get the mount attached to the frame for the siding. Look where the screws that attach the siding are and mount your camera on the same plane. That should be much more stable. Or get a mount that spreads the weight over a larger area.

The higher numbers are usually for cameras with Pixim chips. These chips have slightly higher resolution than standard chips. Also beware of quoted specs. The maximum resolution for NTSC color is typically 520 to 540 TVL. I don't believe that an analog color camera is capable of better than that. But some manufacturers using day/night technology spec their camera resolutions in the B/W mode, which can produce 600 TVL resolution.

Mostly we use CAT-5e. It depends on what we can get. We use 25 pr. trunks with 66 punchdown blocks at each end of the trunk and 4 pr. at each end from there. We plan to start following ethernet standards in future construction (100 meter limits and better patching methods) to accomodate future IP cameras. Perhaps the difference is due to our choice of cameras. A lot of our newest cameras have baluns built in. We are using the Ganz ZCD-3000 series in many areas but also using Pelco CCC series and Ikegami standard cameras with external baluns and Pelco Spectra 2, 3 and 4 in both flavors (with/without NVT baluns built in), depending on when they were purchased. We also use Pelco CM9760-MDA's on all inputs. Their buffering capabilities could also explain the difference. In some of our newest installs, we have started using the West Penn siamese cable that has 2 CAT-5 pairs with 18/2 or 16/2 power at the camera end. We locate our punchdown blocks next to the power supplies so it is easy to split the siamese cable at that end. The GVI and Vigitron baluns are not expensive. We get them for under $30 each.

The difference is what signal the lens requires for the iris control. Video auto-iris lenses sample the video signal from the camera and convert it to a DC signal in the lens to adjust the iris accordingly. With DC auto-iris lenses, the camera has the circuitry that converts the video signal to a DC voltage that the lens uses to adjust the iris. DC auto-iris lenses are simpler (and therefore cheaper). Most modern cameras use DC auto-iris lenses. Some cameras can use either and will have a switch to select the type of A-I lens.

Yes, WDR cameras could improve that picture. You might also try a camera with an "eclipse" function that would black out the bright areas. Probably at least part of that is caused by reflections on the dome. The problem with eliminating the dome is that would subject the cameras to possible tampering. You might try another enclosure type (wedge, corner, etc.) that has a flat window. It should be less affected by glare.

"Blade servers'?? Wikipedia: "A blade server is essentially a housing for a number of individual minimally-packaged computer motherboard "blades", each including one or more processors, memory, storage, and network connections, but sharing the common power supply and air-cooling resources of the chassis. ..." IBM, hp, Dell and others make blade servers. They pack many computers (servers) into a relatively small space and usually include redundancy and failover as part of the package.

We have been using TP with passive baluns side-by-side with coax for 4(+) years without noticing any of the losses you describe. I don't know what your experiments showed but I could show you two cameras on adjacent gaming tables; one using coax and one using CAT-5 with baluns (GVI VB-59 and/or Vigitron VB1001M) and I'd be willing to bet you could not tell the difference. And literally every visitor to our department compliments us on the PQ of our table game cameras.

1. Because it is already in place for Telco equipment. 2. Because it is difficult, if not impossible, to find direct-burial CAT-5, especially in 25 pair or more.

By the way, we have had a number of problems with CAT-3; both in existing runs and where we pulled separate new cable. We had to use CAT-3 for a 1,500 ft. run that required Direct Burial cable due to questionable conduit. Direct Burial CAT-5 is very expensive and hard to find. All of the CAT-3-rated Direct Burial cable that we found has almost no twist in each pair. That appears to have a major effect on the signal-to-noise ratio. We have also experienced the same kinds of ground loop issues with twisted-pair as with coax since baluns do not isolate the grounds. Even the Vigitron active receiver hub is not immune. We are hoping Pelco's active receivers have less noise issues and ground loop sensitivity.

I don't understand the question. RS-485 is used for direct PTZ control.

In our fairly large system (more than 900 cameras), we started with RG-59 in 1999 and started pulling CAT-5 in 2003. We use cheap ($30) passive baluns at both ends for runs that are less than about 500 ft. and have had few problems. Oscilloscope tests of passive baluns vs. RG-59 do give the nod to RG-59 but eyeballing the picture, both live through the 9760 Matrix and played back on our DVR system, shows no perceivable difference. The resolution of our table games fixed cameras is virtually identical and video noise is no better or worse on either. One possible difference could be the way we set up cameras. We aim and focus and adjust iris settings via radio at the main monitors rather than in the field. That could compensate for any differences in video levels. We also use CM9760-MDA's on each input so that could have some effect. As far as active vs. passive, we have found that there are also no perceivable differences for shorter runs (less than 500-600 ft.). On longer runs, we have not been very happy with the Vigitron Vi6016. We are replacing ours with the Pelco active receivers with Adaptive Technology. Don't believe the NVT hype about how their product is superior to other brands. We have tested both side-by-side and for all intents and purposes, there are no differences except price.

Yes, what kind of housings? I ran into a similar situation and we had to add an exhaust fan to the back box and drill air inlet holes in the trim ring around the bubble to keep the camera cool. It was a royal P.I.T.A.! That was with an analog camera in a very hot area above a hard lid ceiling. What fans you use would depend on what power the camera uses. If 24VAC, you will have to rectify & filter the AC to supply a fan. If POE, you may have to think of another way to power the fan because you might not have enough current in the Cat-5 to power both. Of course, fans are not the ideal solution. The first thing would be to contact the manufacturer to determine the cause of excess heating. I don't see any logical reason why well designed IP cameras should dissipate much more heat than analog. Perhaps they have inefficient passive power regulators rather than DC-DC convertors.

A major upside to varifocal is that they can be adjusted to exactly the field of view desired. A major disadvantage is that they are harder to zoom and focus. They are great for their flexibilty.

I'm not suggesting that any casino use 12" monitors. In fact, I recommend at least 19", depending on the distance between the viewers and the screens. Still with 36 images on a 1920 x 1080 screen, your resolution would be approximately CIF (320 x 240). That's approximately the same resolution as VHS. I seriously doubt if you could see suits of cards on a fixed table cam. It doesn't matter if the screen is 150" or 1500", pixels are pixels. It's tough enough to see with 720 x 480 (D1). Resolution is far more important than size. IMO, the only thing a large projector is good for in a casino surveillance room is to impress the visitors.

Thanks, that is interesting. So who is the manu? That is the question of the day. Does anyone know? The reason I ask is that we are supposed to get a demo of an Arecont in June and I'd like to see what compatible competing cameras are out there. We can't use just any IP camera because our DVR system only has "transcoders" for certain ones (Axis and Arecont are the only ones as far as I know).

Unfortunately, I've found that many, if not most of the conferences are just you-pay-for-it advertising for the manufacturer putting on the class/conference. And most are only an hour long. You can't learn much in an hour when over 1/2 of it is spent listening to a sales spiel. Just my opinion.