Tangible benefits from Full HD SANYO camera technology

Tuesday 15th June 2010

CCTV camera technology has advanced dramatically over the last two years and the days are long gone when image quality was only sufficient to verify that an incident had taken place.

The recent introduction of HD cameras is an excellent example of how new technology is equipping the security industry with the ability to offer customers solutions that go way beyond those delivered by standard CCTV systems. High definition cameras can deliver identification grade images and with the availability of these high quality images comes the opportunity to bring added value technologies into play such as video analytics and automatic vehicle number plate recognition. Whilst “added value” is partly about ensuring customers achieve maximum benefit from their investment in security, it is also about providing customers with the opportunity to derive benefits from a CCTV system to match the whole of their day-to-day operational requirements. This may include, for example, Health & Safety monitoring as well as the provision of management information to improve efficiency. A full HD image of 1920 x 1080 is approximately four and a half times better than a standard IP camera transmitting VGA sized images. That means if you are looking to monitor a wide area, you would need to deploy several IP Cameras transmitting VGA sized images to look at different sectors of the same view in order for those individual cameras to achieve the image quality and resolution of a single HD camera. The potential cost savings are therefore substantial, but HD technology also offers other benefits such as ‘Face Detection’ which equips the camera to recognise that a face or a group of faces are present in an image. If so, the camera optimises the focus, contrast and back light compensation functionality so that a clear image of any face is achieved, regardless of whether the scene is high or low backlit. There are nine cameras in the SANYO Full HD camera range. These are collectively designed to provide a solution for virtually any project with vandal resistant domes, PTZ cameras and a zoom camera included in the range, as well as a choice of three fixed cameras with CS mounts to provide a choice of lens. All the cameras have the capability to capture full high definition (1920 x 1080) sharp and crystal clear colour images at 25 frames per second and are equipped with a Dual Codec to support both the latest H.264 compression standard as well as MJPEG. Top of the range models incorporate a multistreaming function to enable simultaneous transmission of up to four video streams with, for example, one low resolution stream being used for real time surveillance and another set for recording at full HD for post incident investigation. All the cameras are 40% smaller than conventional CCTV cameras as a result of utilizing SANYO’s miniaturization and mounting technical know-how acquired through the development of its digital movie cameras and digital cameras. An HDMI output allowing the full quality of the cameras’ images to be observed on an HD monitor and PoE (Power over Ethernet) are built into all the cameras as standard, whilst there is the option of adding an external HDD for storing recorded video ‘on the edge’ SANYO are working closely with Scottish Communications to ensure that a wide audience is made aware of the benefits that HD technology can bring to the day-to-day operations of endusers, many of whom will be looking for added-value to justify further investment in CCTV.