At the last IFSEC gathering in Birmingham 2012, the real buzz around the NEC was about this “new” technology that allowed us to send HD images over RG59 coax. The number of exhibitors that were showing various HD SDI CCTV products had grown from the previous year almost 10 fold and to many of the attendees it was a new concept to them after the constant hype that previously had surrounded IP
Why should they be surprised by the concept of HDcctv over coax? Well as an industry we had been told/conditioned to believe for many years that HD quality images could only ever happen over an IP network. We thought we would never see old coax being re-used and quite frankly believed that it all needed to be replaced by CAT5 as the HD revolution started to take hold.
Of course HDcctv is not quite new . The concept had been turned into reality around 2009 . What is remarkable is the speed from which it has gone from a simple idea thrown around in a discussion between an elite few to a real workable product that will help to shape the CCTV industry for the next 10-20 years.
HDcctv has its place. The desire to re-use an existing cabling infrastructure will seem like a very good idea to those companies who invested heavily in analogue and RG59. Small installations of 4,8 and 16 ways will be prime targets for salesman looking to push their HD SDI DVR and cameras. However the HDcctv alliance has been looking to add to their standard and get alliance approved HDcctv products to work over existing and new CAT5 as well as coax. This opens up a whole new world of opportunity for both upgrades and new installs.
So what does the future hold. As cost of equipment plummets as more volume is produced then soon HDcctv will cost the same as analogue. At that point end users will see little point in continuing to upgrade analogue with analogue, so faced with the choice between HD SDI and IP they will probably go for the most cost effective solution, time will tell what that will be.