jhonovich

Hawaii is a US state so there are no customs. However, higher delivery charges and shipping delays are common. That being said, only about 1/3rd of our tests use manufacturer loaners/samples. We tested over 20 VMS systems and all of them have been downloaded off the Internet. We also buy a significant amount of cameras and devices off of Amazon (though of course this is for lower end IP cameras). While there are barriers, most tests and training for IP video surveillance products can be done without depending on manufacturers physically shipping items.

We are in the US but we are a 5 hour flight from the mainland. I am not sure how important being in the US is. For example, over half of our readers and members are outside the US. They say on the Internet you can be a dog. It seems similarly, that you can be based in many different countries. I have obviously never lived in the Bahamas so I cannot understand your situation exactly. On the other hand, we are based in a very remote location and it has not been a problem for us.

Bullwinkle, nice job on the IP camera reviews. I enjoyed them. On the topic of testing, good testing takes a lot of time. Testing a broad range of products takes an immense amount of time (thousands of hours). If you are going to test systematically, the costs mount up. One either takes funding from manufacturers/sponsors or charge readers a membership fee (We went the membership route to minimize conflict of interest with the vendors we test - that is, no ads, no sponsors, no testing fees, no consulting, no selling products). We have 4 full time people testing video surveillance products and have done over 70 tests in the last year and a dozen training series. We include video screencasts, video sample downloads and extensive analysis - see a free example - http://ipvideomarket.info/report/testing_trendnets_internet_camera_server_tvip110 As for testing analog cameras, we would but we do not receive many requests for that. It seems that most new purchasing decisions are looking at IP. Finally, we are based in Honolulu and the location has not been an issue. I think it's great what Bullwinkle is doing. I shared his site on my Twitter feed and will recommend to others.

I have not used an AVTECH DVR but problems with controlling PTZs over the Internet/WANs is common. I am guessing that there is insufficient bandwidth and because of that packets are being dropped. Those dropped packets may impact the signaling controls for the PTZ.

Pelco has a free camera design tool with tight google maps integration. It is betaware and we have found some usability issues. Also, it's nowhere near as full featured as JVSG URL for Pelco tool is: http://www.pelco.com/sites/global/en/sales-and-support/downloads-and-tools/tools/pelco-camera-tool.page IPVM members can watch a video demonstration of it at: http://ipvideomarket.info/updates/577

A convenience store owner emailed me asking for help accessing her Tempest Microsystems DVR (i think she did a search and stumbled onto my site). With the line discontinued and the website off-line, I can't find it. She mainly wants to know what the default username and password is. Anyone here know it off the top of their head? Thanks.

Is recording the camera at your office out of the question? That way you could go as high as you want on frame rate and resolution and only consume bandwidth when you watch live or access recorded video. I am sure you have considered this so just curious . . .

Hi Mike, See our test results on the Theia lens. I have made the complete test including sample videos, screencasts, etc. open to the general public so anyone from CCTVFoum can view them. http://ipvideomarket.info/report/testing_wide_angle_megapixel_lenses__theia_sy125m

Hi Christopher, I would expect bit rates in the range of 1-5 Mb/s but that would depend on the implementation of the specific manufacturer and frame rate selection.

In comparison to using cameras from a single manufacturer, using cameras from multiple manufacturers has a few potential issues: 1) If you use cameras from a single manufacturer, the manufacturer often provides the software for free (Axis being a notable exception). 2) If you use cameras from multiple manufacturers, even if they support the cameras, there may be some limitations on what functionalities of the cameras can be used (less efficient CODEC or key features not supported).

Not only do you need physical access but you need to be able to hack the proprietary interface for each different camera manufacturer plus a bunch of other steps that makes this more hollywood than reality. See http://ipvideomarket.info/report/is_hacking_ip_cameras_a_major_risk for a discussion.

I spoke with Veracity two days ago. They are finalizing the spec sheet, etc. I got a pre-briefing, looks pretty good and fairly inexpensive. I think they will have the public release wrapped up soon.

The Veracity product is called PinPoint and prelim info can be found at: http://www.veracityusablog.com/2009/07/veracity-announces-the-release-of-pinpoint/

TV lines are an expression of actual resolving power of an image and as such represents something meaningful to a viewer. Pixels are a physical element of a sensor and are, at best, indirectly related to actual visual resolution. I think pixels are misleading as discussed at length in the articles I cited.

Choco, VMS manufacturers rarely support the recorders/servers of other manufacturers. The category of software that provides a single view of multiple manufacturer's VMS feeds is called PSIM (see http://ipvideomarket.info/companies/PSIM ). PSIM is quite expensive (minimally tens of thousands) so it's only for big deployments. Unless you are willing to spend lots of money on PSIM software, you need to get rid of one of the current recorders and use a single manufacturer's solution for both sites. Not an efficient result but the reality of the situation. There are also no interoperability standards for VMS systems that will resolve this anytime soon.

Good topic. IP camera manufacturers essentially stopped measuring resolution using HTVL. Its replacement is the pixel (as Soundy mentioned). Using pixels as a measurement is problematic as pixel measurements can distort the actual visual resolution a camera delivers. This is a common criticism in the digital photography world that more pixels does not always equal better resolution. The reality is HTVL has been abandoned and it's a loss for the industry. There's some discussion on IP Video Market about these topics, including: http://ipvideomarket.info/report/megapixel_cameras_better_image_quality and http://ipvideomarket.info/report/how_well_do_ip_cameras_work_in_low_light

Take a look at: http://gspamerica.blogspot.com/2009/06/understanding-poe-power-over-ethernet.html and http://www.sdmmag.com/CDA/Articles/Feature_Article/BNP_GUID_9-5-2006_A_10000000000000511488 and http://www.securityinfowatch.com/Homepage+Articles/1311582 Btw, you can search for video surveillance topics at my search engine: http://ipvideomarket.info/search . I simply entered PoE and picked a few results that I had previously read and reviewed.

A lot of you have recently heard about a new trade group promoting a digital, non-IP alternative to Megapixel cameras. Essentially, those cameras would re-use existing coaxial cable and would not require network configuration of the camera. For background reference, see: - http://ipvideomarket.info/report/hdcctv_analog_megapixel_video_surveillance - http://ipvideomarket.info/report/hdcctv_alliance_ip_megapixel-competitive - http://www.experteditorial.net/securitysquared/2009/06/hdcctv-alliance-releases-non-ip-hd-spec.html What do you think? Interested? Skeptical?

I recently wrote a report examining the use of PTZ cameras. http://ipvideomarket.info/report/should_you_use_ptz_cameras_surveillance Summary of Advantages: - Monitor Large Areas - Tours/Patterns - Respond to Incident - Low cost per area covered Summary of Disadvantages: - Only record where they are looking - Service issues - High storage costs - Mispositioning of PTZs - Works poorly over IP networks - High per camera cost I'd be interested in other's experiences using PTZs.

Sorry to hear that! Your explanation is a perfect example of the challenges in using PTZs. Thanks for sharing! Hopefully your comment will save someone else from doing that

Hi Monty, Milestone offers a calculator for PC capacity - see http://www.milestonesys.com/support/questions_and_answers/estimator_and_calculators/server+estimator? From a practical standpoint, I have used 4 cameras on my laptop using Pro with no problem. It's a recent Dell Studio - middle of the line. Best, John

Hi Kaon, I agree with your breakdown of the pro and cons of this approach. I would add that this is best for smaller camera counts. The other element is that very few manufacturers support this in their VMS offerings (D-Link and Mobotix being 2 of the exceptions). If you find a manufacturer that you like that supports this, it can be a very economical way of deploying an IP system. Best, John

Hi Kaon, Most interframe codec implementations (like MPEG-4 and H.264) in IP cameras default to variable bit rate. In practice, the bit rate can vary significantly depending on the scene. In a recent test of an Axis camera I did, the bit rate for 1080i, 30fps ranged from 1Mb/s to 8Mb/s per second depending on the complexity of the scene and the time of day (see http://ipvideomarket.info/report/test_axis_q1755_hd_surveillance_camera) What poor performance are you seeing? Best, John

See: http://ipvideomarket.info/report/introduction_to_city_wide_video_surveillance and if you are considering using wireless (which is common in citywide surveillance, see: http://ipvideomarket.info/report/why_wireless_video_surveillance_systems_fail

Lots of new cameras released at ISC West. Hottest area: H.264 multi-megapixel cameras I have compiled a directory of links to all the new announcements: http://ipvideomarket.info/report/isc_west_2009_announcement_directory Hope this helps. Let me know if you have questions or feedback.