AIMING FOR QUALITY ON CCTV CAMERAS
Filed Wednesday, June 25. 2008
Are you buying the wrong equipment for building or campus surveillance because your on-staff expert only reads specification sheets?
Video surveillance and the use of more cameras for various enterprise functions on IP networks are making many public and private organizations look at cameras and supporting storage devices. There’s also an industry trend where analog cameras are being replaced by IP cameras because they can be integrated onto Web-based applications instead of dedicated, single-function networks. Unfortunately, the “experts” are using the wrong yardsticks to measure competitors and many are looking for features that are meaningless in comparing quality, longevity and overall service. All of this was discussed on Tuesday at a CCTV seminar that I attended, which was sponsored by several companies including JVC, Berk-Tek, Ortronics/Legrand, NVT and S2 Access Control. Choosing the Right Camera They covered several subjects including structured cabling and network design. I thought the advice for looking at the technology hanging off the network was the area to spotlight. It was excellent. It paralleled what I have always preached: “Learn what to buy and then buy what you know.” There are six criteria that Adrian Parvulescu (network engineering manager of security products for JVC) pointed out. They made a lot of sense. They are picture quality, low-light operation, motion picture, innovation design, reliability and impact on network performance.  Picture quality and color accuracy: Both are very important. While all the major manufacturers use the same CCD chip, the big differentiator is how the colors are processed. As the JVC technical engineer pointed out, that’s the big trade secret. Most cameras you will buy have one CCD (charge-coupled device) chip. Better ones for broadcast quality have three. Don’t buy based on comparing specification sheets and pixel counts. Compare the actual color results. By the way, did you know that the CCD was first invented by Bell Labs as a form of new memory circuit for computers in the 1960s? Low-light operation: If CCDs are the same, why are there differences in quality? Aside from the proprietary processing of colors, check the lens and find out what you’re getting as a usable signal (especially in low-level lighting situations). Some lenses are cheap plastic and they won’t give you the resolution that others will. Lux (one of the camera lens measurements) doesn’t tell you how the camera operates. Few manufacturers will give you all the measurements of the camera in order to make a real comparison of how much light is actually processed. The other great secret that was pointed out was that you might buy a six-megapixel camera but it’s only as good as the lens it has. Some consumers buy based on the megapixel rate of the camera only to find out that the lens can’t provide the “capture” of the resolution that the processor can handle. Motion picture: While most cameras are rated at 30 FPS (frames per second), some are actually 60 FPS. Crisp resolution is more important than frame rate. If you go to a movie theatre, did you know the movie you’re watching is only 24 FPS? Security at 30 FPS is overkill. Instead of 30 FPS, it is recommended to have five to seven frames per second and get the resolution crisper. Here are three tips for better use of security cameras:
Innovative design: Check the camera’s mechanics. Plastic gears will crack in cold temperatures. Software management systems are tied to cameras. How are they licensed? Is it free? What happens if you switch out a camera? Do you need to license the new camera again? There were many good suggestions in comparing the overall operation and service of cameras versus a feature-by-feature comparison. Reliability: Check the guarantees. Is it a one-year guarantee or a three-year guarantee? What is the camera’s overall MTBF (mean time between failures)? There are many other issues to check. Reliability should not be looked at lightly for critical applications as well as long-term ease of maintenance. As with any technology used in all-weather conditions, you get what you pay for. If you have a camera on your garbage dumpster, you can afford some downtime. If you have a camera on a door leading to the cash room in a casino or a nuclear reactor, you can’t afford any downtime. Impact on network performance: How do you integrate the cameras into your overall enterprise? Is there network management software available? Is it free or do you pay for it? Can you run the network management software on a PC? Most IT experts would say we can save money buy running the software on an existing PC. That’s wrong. Are your IT staffers really qualified? A PC is optimized to run data applications rather than video applications. Do they know how to tweak everything inside including the motherboard for video applications? There are many technical questions that include understanding the maximum speed of the internal PC bus architecture. Don’t let the techies sell you on their ability to convert a PC to process video network management. Buy the NVR (network video recorder) that integrates with the cameras. That way, you’re guaranteed the equipment was designed specifically to mesh together and all you have to call is one vendor instead of two or three when something goes wrong. What is that worth? This approach is so much better than the “don’t worry: I’m a PC expert” internal staff approach that appears like you’re saving money when you really aren’t. Remember that there’s no such thing as a new $5,000 Rolls-Royce. There’s also no such thing as a Formula One Yugo for $5,000. You get what you pay for, and if you want quality, there’s never a fire sale price on it. Carlinism: Aiming for quality in technology investing means knowing what you’re buying. Last modified on 2008-08-28 06:05 Trackbacks
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