Paxton energy saving reader

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Paxton, always a company that likes to promote innovation are currently promoting their energy saving reader. The Paxton energy saving reader is designed specifically to help Paxton users reduce energy waste and save money on electricity bills. It is a fairly simplistic in design. Once inserted, the card toggles a relay that is connected to all the equipment in the room that needs to be enabled. The reader is designed to retain the card that will then toggle the relay again when removed thus isolating the supply to the room in question.

paxton energy saving reader
Paxton energy saving reader

The idea behind the reader and why it works so well is because the user will always remove his card when exiting the room because he will need it to move freely around the building opening other access controlled doors. This concept can also work on machinery both saving energy and restricting access to only those who are authorised to use that machine. Any company reviewing health and safety should consider this option.

For more information you can review the product at HTTP://paxton.info/1055

Dahua HD SDI DVR

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Dahua HD SDI DVR.

Dahua are one of the biggest manufacturers that have recognised that HD SDI CCTV is going to be a big seller especially here in the UK. At IFSEC this year they were able to demonstrate the effectiveness of this technology. See the link above for a demonstration of the technology and what it is capable of. Of course we hope to bring you more on this product in the near future.

Avigilon … how have they achieved such stunning growth during a worldwide recession?

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Avigilon UK , will it take off over here?

Here at Integrated CCTV we do like good products. We have recently been concentrating on HD SDI CCTV and we like it!  It will take off in the UK and it will challenge HD IP products for market share, no doubt. However megapixel IP products are not giving up and going away, far from it and here is why. A recent demonstration of Avigilon HD CCTV and VMS has to go down as one of the most impressive dems I have seen in many years.

Avigilon UK

So why are Avigilon the fastest growing IP camera manufacturer in the world right now?  We are still in times of limited growth and only just out of a recession. Yet during this period Avigilon have simply gone from strength to strength. Having seen the equipment and image quality, approach to sales and support,  the commitment to research and development,  it is is easy to see how.

Avigilon Camera HD Pro
Avigilon CCTV

When the equipment is demonstrated, the ease of set up is so simple. The 16 megapixel camera is built like a tank and the images are simply brilliant. It is the use of the jpeg 2000 format and it is the way this format is manipulated that enables Avigilon the ability to produce the pictures without completely swamping the network.

Ok, so you see the dem and you are impressed now you wait for the price. As we all know in the UK bringing existing analogue cameras into any CCTV solution is important . The use of encoders is crucial to the migration from analogue to IP and of course HD. So to hear that an Avigilon 4 way encoder comes in at under £250 was remarkable. This must be a loss leader? It brings existing analogue CCTV cameras back into system design for those who do not wish to sacrafice their existing systems but allows them to fit additional HD CCTV of exceptional quality.

HD CCTV cameras

But surely the cameras will be costly? After all the build quality is excellent and the pictures are faultless. Well now Avigilon have produced a 5 megapixel  camera for under £500 and a 1 megapixel for under £300 . This beats just about everything else around and its better.

Avigilon ACC-4.6 Range

As a company Avigilon have always impressed. We have written about them for years, spoken to Rick Ramsey their production manager and know they bring quality to customers looking to upgrade to HD CCTV. Now however they are using their new found strength in the market place to bring sensible pricing to. They claim that in 6 years time they will  be the largest IP camera manufacturer in the world. You know, I’am not sure i would bet against that right now.

HDCCTV or IP Megapixel. What is the difference?

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Viewing some HD SDI CCTV images the other day from a new Calsys HD SDI DVR and camera set up, it raised a question amongst my colleagues as to why, if you could have such clear precise pictures from HD SDI 1080p cameras, would you ever need anything more? HD is HD is it not? Do we need more resolution for a commercial CCTV system?

5,10,even 16 megapixel cameras are available, it has even been mooted that a gigapixel camera is now out there somewhere, but in the real world , in a proper sales environment, can the extra pixels be justified?

Of course the answer is yes – there will always be a situation that demands the very highest quality image and the maximum amount of performance from a fixed lens that in turn can then be zoomed into without loss of definition.

However, we live in the world of needing sales every week to survive. We need a concept that can give HD images as the general public perceive them and supply into applications such as retail, reception areas, small yards, petrol stations, garden centres, boat yards, transport depots and so on.

In the real world people now want HDCCTV. It is a proven concept and one that is desirable rather than a grudge purchase. Customers, however, have limitations on budgets and there are far more corner shops, petrol stations and garden centres out there than there are multimillion pound football stadiums or airports that of course may well benefit from a 16MP camera and an IP solution.

In the UK there are also many thousands of legacy analogue CCTV systems all wired in RG59 coax and all screaming out for one or two HD cameras to compliment their analogue CCTV system. So is the Hybrid HD SDI DVR going to provide a solution here in the UK amongst a public who are drooling over the quality of HD TV? A public that are also highly aware that any purchase must fall within stringent budgets, we are after all a nation up to our necks in debt!

The answer is an unequivocal yes. So HDCCTV fits the UK perfectly, as for the rest of the world ,who knows. Actually who cares…we live here and sell here so will recommend what will suit our market place. In the UK that is an HDCCTV solution.

VideoIQ iCVR edge recording solution

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VideoIQ have claimed they have a unique product that can fulfil a niche in the IP video marketplace that as yet no one else has attempted. In effect they have managed to create analytics on a megapixel camera and use edge technology to achieve a simply better surveillance solution. A bold claim, but does it work and can the new technology really live up to the claim? As part of the day job we got VideoIQ to do us a demonstration. What was seen was an impressive product with some pretty impressive features.

iCVR VideoIQ camera
iCVR Video IQ camera

Firstly unlike most other IP video solutions there is no requirement for a NVR. The VideoIQ  iCVR camera looks a pretty robust unit and all the recording is done at the edge of the network. This means that it’s a scaleable approach to recording. If you need just one camera then that’s all you buy, no need to buy expensive recording equipment that is under used, equally no need to upgrade each time you want to increase security across your company or group.
Because all the recordings are stored on the edge of the network, the iCVR camera only needs to stream what is requested or deemed an alarm event. The streamed video can be set up by the use of rules and this means that only minimal bandwidth is ever required, essentially by-passing the most expensive part of a new IP CCTV installation i.e the cabling infrastructure.
So have VideoIQ really achieved effective analytics with a megapixel camera? Yes is the answer, once installed the advanced analytics calibrate themselves. The self learning technology was demonstrated and the iCVR camera seems to get more intelligent with each object detected.

The whole point of this technology is no wasted network capacity but still be able to achieve excellent image quality. Alarms can be generated via email and advanced search facilities mean that objects can be easily tracked and zoomed into. With browser access, viewing is possible from any PC and an event driven alarm review screen incorporated into the VideoIQ view software makes operation easy. The software is included with the purchase of the camera.
VideoIQ claim the iCVR is a fully integrated solution, we tend agree. The package includes the iCVR camera, the embedded DVR, powerful analytics and the video management software.
A complete solution? Well there are those I’am sure who will dispute that, but from what we witnessed it goes a very long way towards one.