Category Archives: IP CCTV

Brickcom FB-300A megapixel IP camera

Posted on by

Brickcom launches its three megapixel network camera with full HD

FB-300A brickcom 3 megapixel IP camera

Brickcom has released the FB-300A the first full HD three megapixel network camera into its range

Delivering full HD at 1080P resolution Brickcom are pitching this camera as a potential replacement for a PTZ camera within an installation enabling end users potential savings on installation costs.

The series has been designed to The FB-300A camera is capable of streaming video at up to 2,032 x 1,526 megapixel resolution.The FB-300A series provides true day and night surveillance and is feature rich to allow it to operate with reduced bandwidth to suit storage requirements.”

Equipped with an Internet browser or 3G mobile phone, the camera can be accessed from anywhere and the FB-300A can also transmit the video to portable devices. POE enabled the camera can be integrated seamlessly onto an IP network and has the edge recording capability through an on board SD card.

Built-in motion detection allows the FB-300Aa version of the IP camera to support Intelligent Video Analysis, which can be used for applications such  people counting, and object tracking.

Brickcom are forward thinking and progressive in their design and the FB300A is no exception the fact that Brickcom were able to release this IP camera with such high resolution in time for IFSEC 2011 is a credit to them.

 

 

IQinVision. The interview.

Posted on by

IQinVision CCTV

IQinVision are one of the largest and most progressive technology companies in the USA, but what is the secret of their success and where did it all start. In a frank interview with Ian Johnston, Integrated CCTV find out all the detail on how IQinVision has  become one of the biggest names in the security industry.

 

1. Ian, what is your role within IQeye?

–        I am IQinVision’s Vice President of Engineering

2. IQinVision is a well established company now but how did it all start and who was behind the company formation.

– We were established more than 12 years ago out of an Engineering Design services firm called Gordian.  Our current President and CEO, Peter DeAngelis, was one of the founders of IQinVision. I personally have been with IQinVision for almost 5 years now. IQinVision is the oldest company in the very new, exciting industry space of megapixel technology. We are known as a company of technology “firsts”. Please visit our website to view our full full range of technology achievements.

 

3. You have just exhibited at ISC West and you featured your now complete Alliance line of dome cameras. What are the main features and benefits of this camera and how was it received at the show?

– The updated Alliance-pro uses cutting edge encoding technology to provide high quality H.264 encoding at high resolutions.  It also offers many features such as multi-stream video and on camera recording.  This camera is offered in true day/night as well as a rugged IP66 rated outdoor version.

– Our mid-tier dome, Alliance-mx bridges the gap for folks who need an outdoor vandal resistant dome that features a verifocal lens, but at a very aggressive price. It offers a full suite of H.264 resolutions and since it’s a true day/night camera, the low light performance of this device is outstanding.

– The Alliance-mini is perfect for those who require a very small form-factor dome with stunning image quality.  It’s also priced very aggressively and is offered in both a vandal resistant and standard configuration.

So, IQinVision can now offer our end users a dome camera solution with the price point and feature combinations that fit all their specific needs.

 

IQinVision also announced at ISC West, what we believe is one of the largest all-megapixel camera installations—the 3,200+ HD megapixel cameras installed in 336 buildings on 12 separate campuses throughout the state of Texas for their Department of Aging and Disabilities.

Alliance-pro IQinVision

 

4. Will you be at IFSEC this year if not what is your marketing strategy here in the UK?

– IQinVision will be exhibiting at IFSEC with a stand in Hall 4, space F143 and is a finalist in the Security Project  of the Year category of the IFSEC Security Industry Awards.  We have been participating at IFSEC for a number of years and the level of our business in EMEA continues to grow nicely. IQinVision will continue to build key partnerships and relationships throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia to support our growing business model. In 2011, we expanded our advertising, support, education and training programs and will continue to do so in 2012 in conjunction with an increased focus on our vertical markets.

 

5. Who are your nearest competitors ? do you try to beat them on price, quality or both?

–      Our largest competitor is Axis and we beat them both on price and quality.

 

6. IQinVision seems to be very forward thinking. What are your plans over the coming year and do you have any new products being released here in the UK?

– Over the coming year, we will be extending the resolutions of our product line up to 10 megapixels H.264.  We are also adding focus assist features to all of our higher-end products.

 

7. NEW IQsentry VMS looks like a great product but is this an expensive piece of software?

– We’ve worked very hard to make it available at a price point our end users can readily afford.

IQinVision IQ sentry VMS

 

8. We have asked others their opinion on this but will a megapixel camera replace a dome PTZ camera?

– Yes, it’s already happening.  The two will continue to co-exist as they sometimes serve very different purposes, but it’s now possible for megapixel cameras to capture a much wider field of view and still see everything that you would see using a PTZ speed dome.

 

9. Can you run video analytics on your HD and megapixel cameras?

– Yes, we work with quite a few analytic vendors to host their solutions on our higher-end devices.

 

10. VMS and servers are the future. Do your cameras integrate with third party software out there? Do you have a way of fully integrating with access control?

– Yes we integrate and work seamlessly with all the major VMS players in the market today.  We work with a few access control solutions and also provide a software solution called IQaccess ourselves.

 

11. You have been involved several projects but which one are you most proud of and why?

– We have thousands of cameras installed in many very interesting locations and we have IQeye cameras that have been running continuously for 5, 7, and even 10 years.  While it’s difficult to choose one, the project I’m most proud of is the Texas Department of Aging and Disabilities. The installation comprises more than 3,200 H.264 HD megapixel cameras installed in 336 buildings on 12 separate campuses located throughout the state. The project was completed on budget and ahead of schedule and it is probably one of the largest all-megapixel camera installations in the world.

 

12. Finally can you give us 3 reasons why customers should consider IQinVision products over your many competitors out there?

– Q3 is a symbol of IQinVision’s continuing commitment toQuality Engineering, Quality Service, and Quality Support. As one of the only IP camera manufacturers to design and engineer our full line of products, IQinVision ensures consistent camera quality through the thorough testing of each and every camera shipped, onsite at our San Juan Capistrano, California headquarters. As a result, IQinVision boasts a truly impressive 0.7% return rate and an unprecedented 0% out-of-box failure rate on our IQD3 and IQD4 cameras since shipping commenced April 2009. These rates have resulted in the newly established 5-year “bumper-to-bumper” warranty on the IQeye Alliance-mini dome camera line and 3-year warranty on all other IQeye cameras. In addition to extending our warranty, IQinVision has increased standard operations to include 17-hour live service, support and training, which is available in 7 languages: English, Spanish, German, French, Dutch, Japanese and Portuguese.

Q3

Some great information and answers there as to why IQinVision will be a name we hear about more and more for many years to come so many thanks to Ian for his time .

 

 


IFSEC 2011 news and reviews

Posted on by

So here it is again. IFSEC 2011, time flies. Well it was a good journey up . No traffic and straight into the car-park without fuss. Have to say we were well impressed with the organization there. Still £8 for parking and we were all thinking inflation was running at 4.5%!!.

So into the show and checking in was easy. Faced immediately with the Risco stand we thought we would take a look. Lots of wireless intruder options and generally helpful chaps, well done Risco. We had no real plan in mind so started to wonder around and see what caught our eye. Bold communications were advertising that they were celebrating 30 years in the business and their stand certainly outlined that fact. Bold communications are the suppliers of integrated security monitoring software for small to medium sized central stations but also boast some pretty good customers such as the Mitie group, they certainly were able to demonstrate some advanced monitoring technology and and we left quite impressed.

Bombarded with literature we carried on taking in as many stalls as we could but generally attracted to the big names on show. Panasonic stood out and we headed that way. We have to say the stand was impressive, the cameras look great , the DVRs seem to be able to do just about anything, but the guys on the stand just did not seem to understand any of their products, each seeking answers from each other from what should have been simple questions. Not impressed although this observation can only reflect on those we talked to not all the guys on the stand. The Bosch stand was good and the Dallmeier offerings equally impressive, still exhibiting the Netbox we noticed! Walked past dedicated Micros as it just did not seem to have much interesting going on. We wanted to get some information on the Honeywell HRDP DVR did not seem like there was any literature left though, but the staff were helpful, so fair enough. Then we became interested in the HDCCTV on show. Now HDCCTV is a concept where by HDCCTV cameras can be connected to existing coax and the cameras viewed without the need for compression so true HD images can be viewed. Well plenty of  HDCCTV cameras on in the exhibition but no-one seemed to be able to offer us a recording solution, that was until we found Everfocus. They are pioneers of  HDCCTV over coax and offer the complete solution. This technology will sit nicely with smaller installers who have customers craving  HDCCTV cameras but without the cost involved of upgrading analogue to IP, lets see how this HDCCTV technology develops.

Lunchtime……. could IFSEC 2011 beat the offerings of IFSEC 2010? Well….. it was …..ok……..So on we go to the Adpro stand. They have released the new FastTrace 2 , now this one is a winner, a good name and a great product. A Hybrid recorder with transmission that central stations are familiar with and rock solid delivery of images, quality images at that.

Stand of the day was Samsung, fantastic,impressive and must of cost a few quid but it drew the crowds in and with good reason, excellent products to view and very helpful staff. Panasonic, learn from this!!!

Now a few mentions for others. Silvernet, great product.Wireless IP transmission, easy to set up and and some rave reviews about how successful some of thier projects have been. Recommended if you need wireless IP. Paxton as always were there and their new POE IP solutions look like they will make life easier for installers, so well done Paxton. Avigilon………..Quality !

Finally we had the side shows lots of exhibitors who had obviously travelled from afar to show off their cameras, DVRs, IP products etc. but they still lack the clout in the UK enjoyed by the recognised names so they tend to get politely passed by.

All in all a good exhibition, was not so IP focused as last year but the market place is still taking time to move that way , much to many peoples surprise. However IFSEC 2011 as an exhibition certainly held its own and will be worth a visit again next year.

IP CCTV at IFSEC 2011

Posted on by

IP CCTV, we all want it to succeed, we all want it to take off , will IFSEC 2011be the launching pad we are hoping for? In 2010 we  saw lots of the big manufacturers launch IP cameras, codecs and NVRs in the hope that this new and ever improving technology would be the inevitable upgrade path for installers and end users whose analogue CCTV had reached the end of its useful life.

panasonic WJ-ND400

It did not all quite go to plan though.Very cheap CCTV imports of analogue DVRs that to there credit did pretty much everything that some of the more expensive better known DVR models did made customers and installers think twice about IP CCTV. Specifiers who were being squeezed on price found the additional benefits that IP CCTV had to offer still too difficult to sell when analogue could be installed so cheaply. In addition to this installers found that getting a network point installed adjacent to their camera position was difficult. Co-ordinating a customers IT department into action can prove difficult especially if the head of that IT department has not been actively involved in the sale. Installers also found that installations of IP CCTV far from being easier actually took longer and demanded more effort and organization than a simple analogue install.

pelco

We all hope IFSEC 2011 will change all this. More innovative products and demonstrations of massively superior picture quality will tempt end users eventually but what can the manufacturers do about price, we have yet to see a huge reduction on price for codecs. The first guys that produce a decent codec for sub £50 will see them fly off the shelves as this will empower the installers to offer hybrid CCTV systems, the first step towards a full upgrade.We all know that once an end user has seen the quality of HD and megapixel IP cameras they will be tempted to buy more each time they need a new camera.

Sistore MX hybrid DVR
Hybrid CCTV

So if anyone out there knows of such a codec or a HYBRID DVR that does not cost the earth we would like to hear about it. Actually we are more than hoping that we will find one at IFSEC2011 this year.

WV-SC385E Panasonic network dome price

Posted on by

So what would you expect to pay for a network dome camera? Well a good example of a quality product that is going to do the job is the Panasonic WV-SC385E network dome camera. The unit is well built , easy to install and is able to be powered over Ethernet. (POE) something that we consider to be a basic fundamental part of any network CCTV camera.

SPEC: 12 V DC, PoE (IEEE802.3af compliant)Power consumption: 12 V DC*: Approx. 1 A, PoE: Approx.

With an audio facility and 1.3 megapixels  the sound and picture quality are outstanding….. but how much is it to install?

 

Well we carried out a survey of what the main distributors were charging, remember these prices are not available to members of the public. The mean price of the WV385E Panasonic network camera came in at £1370 +vat. Not bad for a megapixel dome camera backed by Panasonic built quality.

What would you expect to pay to get it installed though into your premises? Well lets forget about the recording equipment for the moment and concentrate on just the dome. We will need a POE switch for starters. Firstly as a customer you need to decide if you want the installing company to supply this or whether you want your own IT department to take responsibility for the POE switch. For arguments sake lets say your own IT department supply this switch. Then of course we need a network point. Some CCTV companies will run a network in for you, some won’t , they will simply ask for a network point adjacent to the camera. So once again lets assume that the customer supplies the network point.

This leaves us with the cost of installing the dome itself. Do we need a bracket? How easy is the access? If its in a warehouse do we need a cherry picker? Do we need to make considerations for asbestos? Can the installation be done during normal working hours?

We will take the easy option here and say that its easy access and can be done in normal working hours, no cherry picker needed, no asbestos.

So the overall installation costs of the dome will need to take into consideration the cost of the engineers wages, depending how far he will have to travel its likely he will only get one job done a day, so we need to take his whole days wages into account. His travel costs of course , fuel is going through the roof at the moment. The cost of shipping the part to site. What about the companies over heads? Cost of office staff, cost of sale, cost of storage, cost of IT department, mobile phones, and the list goes on. Oh and one last thing, the installation company actually needs to make a profit, sorry guys but this is true!!!

All things being equal you would have to add 65-75% to the purchase price this would mean the cost of an installed Panasonic WV-SC385E camera would come out at £2260+vat.

There are some mitigating factors that may make this unit cheaper. The buying power of the installer may mean they get a significant discount from the distributor, or the installing company may be small with limited overheads so again they may be able to get this price down, but you will need to consider if they will be able to provide the service post installation. Lots to think about, but please bear in mind when you get a cost of a camera off the Internet this is not the price it can be installed for…….something many people forget!!