The new 200 series IP camera range from Bosch

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The perfect IP solution.

The perfect all in one new 200 series IP camera range from  Bosch has been designed to take on Axis in the market place that uses on board camera recording rather than a DVR or a CCTV software recording solution.

Straight out the box.

The package comes as an all in one solution straight out the box. It is designed to be fitted into reception areas and other isolated locations within a building that may involve lone workers or staff who have exposure to the public that may potentially escalate into a violent or dangerous situation.

Audio alarm.

On board audio alarm means that a normal working sound level can be set that when exceed, perhaps because of shouting or a cry for help, the CCTV software will generate an alarm in order to alert a third party.

In addition.

Add to this built in motion detection to enable the 16 gigabyte SD card to capture only the required events and we have a very powerful IP camera.

More for your money.

Finally we have the benefits of POE but most importantly the quality of the image produced from this camera. As expected it is very good as with most Bosch products and with a lack of competition in this particular IP camera type, Bosch must expect some strong sales.

VCL Dome servicing.

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VCL Dome camera.  Buy spares

VCL in their time produced and sold one of the most successful dome cameras in both the UK and Europe. During the early part of this decade the VCL dome camera was renowned for its picture quality and ease of programming. Many  companies across the UK had the dome installed and there are still many thousands of them out there, many are still working perfectly well.

VCL dome repair.

Time however is moving on. A dome of course has moving parts, the most vulnerable of these to wear being the slip rings and both the pan and tilt motors. The VCL dome cameras can of course still be repaired and there are still companies that will do this. However these repairs are rarely cheap and as to how long they will last , who knows . Add to this the expense in certain cases of hiring a cherry picker to both remove and then re-install the camera and you start to look at thousands rather than hundreds of pounds.

VCL dome fix.

A solution is available though. Integrated CCTV have sourced a fix whereby the housing can be re-used and only the inner is replaced. This inner is produced by a renowned dome manufacturer and a lot of research has gone into manufacturing the bayonet to integrate seamlessly into many models of the old VCL dome housing. This fix is almost always a cheaper option than actually carrying out a full repair on the old inner. What is more the new camera comes with a full year guarantee therefore giving the end user confidence that he will not be re-hiring access equipment just a few weeks or months down the line to once again repair an ageing camera.

VCL camera repair solution.

So if you have grown frustrated with constantly being let down by a repair that never seems to last contact us and we will happily point you in the right direction.

Samsung v Videosphere-Wide dynamic v Megapixel

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Case study.

Integrated CCTV were recently asked to carry out a very interesting camera comparison in order to establish prior to an installation the effectiveness of  two different types of cameras and how they performed when used for two different applications.

Solutions must be found.

The customers main issue was that he needed to identify if stock became damaged on his premises while being loaded or unloaded onto his vehicles. The problems he had encountered in the past was that while looking out from his warehouse into the rear of the lorries the sunlight adversely affected the camera picture and his ability to view the stock inside the trailer. In addition, when replaying any events, when he zoomed in to get more detail, the picture became pixelated and unusable. Also cameras inside his warehouse viewing staff, never gave him the detail required for the wide angle view he wanted and so incidents frequently were either missed or when replayed, offered no real information that he could use.

Wide dynamic or Megapixel IP camera.

With this in mind, we chose to trial two cameras, the SCC-b2335p Samsung wide dynamic static camera and the Videoshpere 1080p Megapixel IP camera from March Networks.

Camera lenses.

To get the best comparison we used very similar lenses, the 2.8 – 8mm on the wide Samsung camera and the 2.2-6mm on the 1080p Megapixel IP camera. We set both cameras up on a tripod and powered the 1080p with POE as designed. The Samsung camera was converted to IP using the March Networks encoder so we were able to bring both cameras back into the Videosphere VMS CCTV software for recording purposes and then after the trial, demonstration of our results to the customer.

The test.

Firstly we positioned our vehicle in the loading bay and pointed both cameras out through the warehouse door. The boot of the vehicle was left open so all the goods inside could be seen. Or at least we hoped they could be seen but on initial power up, both pictures proved to be very disappointing. It was a very bright day and the warehouse had limited natural lighting and no artificial light at all . As a result, we could see little or nothing of the contents within the car, the reason of course was the huge difference in light levels between inside and out. We then turned on the back-light compensation feature within the Samsung wide dynamic camera. This made a huge difference. The Samsung camera then gave us a clear, crisp image of the boot contents and we were considerably impressed. We looked for a similar feature within the Videosphere 1080p but there seemed no adjustment we could find that would improve the picture and despite the progressive scan that we had hoped would help, the images had  to be classed as un-useable.

Playback.

We then played the Samsung images back on the VMS CCTV software we found we could zoom in to the boot contents up to 2x before any pixelation occurred and we deemed that with the camera position we could attain using brackets hanging from the warehouse roof ,we would be able to deploy the Samsung camera successfully.

Looking at movement inside the warehouse.

Onto our next issue, this was getting detail from a wide angle view of staff movements inside the warehouse. The areas that needed to be covered by each individual camera were approx 25m by 50 meters and the number of cameras had to be kept within reason to keep costs within budget.

Looking into the dimness!

Both cameras were turned round to take in the view described above. We identified a few distinctive objects at certain distances to help us compare the pictures. Both cameras offered up good pictures but the image quality from the Videosphere Megapixel IP camera could only be described as stunning. The clarity was incredible considering how low the light level and the distance we were asking it to look. However we were to be even more impressed when we looked at the playback . Even when zooming right to the back of the warehouse the pictures were of superb quality.

Image storage issues.

We must not however forget that with this quality comes certain issues. Data storage when using IP Megapixel cameras runs in several terabytes and this pushes up the cost.

Customers opinion.

We then took the opportunity to show the customer the results of the trial he was very impressed with the results of the Samsung B2335P. For a long time he has been looking for a camera that can cope with extreme lighting issues and he now finally has a solution. With regard to the Videosphere Megapixel IP camera the pictures quite simply sold themselves as he said “it’s a no brainer I have got to have these in my warehouse”. Of course there are price issues, this sort of quality cannot come without cost implications.

Conclusion.

In conclusion the review and testing highlighted the fact that there has never been a clearer example of the fact that there is always the need for the right camera for the right job. Careful testing and specifying will ensure we get a happy customer at the end of the day. The Samsung wide dynamic camera definitely performed as designed and as for Megapixel Ip camera technology the picture quality was fantastic . This can only help to make these cameras a very popular choice with  forward thinking customers.

Bosch release new IP camera 200 series

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IP camera 200 series.

Bosch have just released their new 200 series IP camera range that they are calling “the perfect all in one IP solution“.

Two new IP cameras

They have launched two new models the 225 and 255 IP camera that comes complete with an SD memory card so that no DVR or server are required to store recording and they claim several days of clear crisp images can be achieved. Viewing is achieved by using surveillance software that is is included in the package price and together with the boast that they come out of the box ready to use, the attraction of the IP camera 200 series is very apparent.

Other features include.

Features to talk about include built in motion detection together with tamper and audio alarms.  a choice of fixed or verifocal lens. Most importantly power over Ethernet P-O-E. Compression wise the IP camera 200 uses H.264 which increases storage capability.

Conclusion.

Bosch have always produced quality products and this latest series comes with the 16GB SD card included. This offers excellent picture quality and very good value for money.

DVR CCTV recording v CCTV software recording solutions

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 Digital recorders are they a thing of the past?

 Digital recorders have been a huge step forward for the CCTV industry. When they first appeared to the mass market seven years or so ago they were hailed as the ultimate recording solution. To some degree this is true however they do have limitations and the black box is slowly but surely about to give way to VMS CCTV software as the primary way of recording CCTV images.

In the beginning.

At first the DVR’s that hit the market place were small 4 or 9 way boxes with what would now be considered  ludicrously small hard drives around 40 – 80 gig. They tended to be unstable and fail with relative frequency something that gave Security installers quite a headache in the early days. Things however moved fast. Soon remote connectivity became a must have feature as broadband begun to become more wide spread and IT managers got less and less concerned about streaming the data across their internal networks.

Front end CCTV software.

 CCTV software for DVR’s began to look and behave in a more user friendly way and once the central stations moved to remotely monitor some of the DVRs out there, it seemed that this technology would be here to stay.

Things change so fast.

Things however have suddenly shifted to a different level . This is being driven by IP camera solutions especially HD CCTV and Megapixel IP cameras. CCTV software in the form of VMS is quietly becoming the preferred way forward for those who appreciate the benefits of IP cameras and know how IP solutions are shortly going to dominate the market place. The flexibility and the way that software becomes cheaper the more cameras a system has is going to drive sales but most importantly the picture quality that is quite simply stunning will persuade customers to invest in the IP way forward.

Is it the end for DVR CCTV recording solutions?

So is it shortly going to be the end for the black box DVR , well quite simply no. The DVR is still a relatively cheap purchase and many smaller installations simply do not require the sophistication and larger costs of Megapixel IP security cameras and the accompanying CCTV software. So we are are a long way from seeing the discontinuation of the DVR CCTV solution but the amount of investment and development from manufacturers will start to fall away in favour of  various CCTV software products.