Arecont v Avigilon Battle of the HD Camera Giants!

Arecont vs Avigilon.

Both HD camera experts….both American….both high quality product offerings….both begin with ‘A’…….!

So which one?

Well, like most system selection questions, it is pretty much always down to a question of taste…

But, we think there may be enough differences to perhaps make the selection easier

Arecont….

Out and out IP camera manufacturers…..take a look at the extensive list of different products, almost to the point of exhaustion! But, there is no doubting that their products are awesome…. we tested their 2megapixel AV2110 Megapixel IP camera….and quite simply, it was stunning……sure, there are higher megapixel PIXC offerings out there, but put simply, when a camera produces a high quality image, is there a limit reached that does not need to be extended??

On an earlier post, we discussed the trade off between high quality vs bandwidth and really, with pictures as pin sharp and easy to set up as the Arecont AV2110, then it is a struggle to look elsewhere……

But…..

Avigilon….

Same selection of camera offerings……and boy, some beauties in that range – we checked out at IFSEC 2010 the 16megapixel 16-PRO-HD-C unit, looking at a section of crowd at a football match (ok, ‘soccer’ for our Atlantic friends!)……..

The thing that perhaps starts to separate these guys is that Avigilon are perhaps a little more ’rounded’ in the complete system solution offering…..they offer the software, NVR, encoders etc etc to enable a complete end to end solution….and lets face it, most installers appreciate the ease of dealing with one supplier – March Networks springs to mind……

Don’t get us wrong, Arecont have worked VERY hard to get themselves integrated into pretty much everyone – and that gives credence to their mentality that they want to concentrate on simply making brilliant cameras…….. on the other hand, Avigilon are showing that they can offer complete systems that rival other CCTV software, NVR and encoder manufacturers, taking away the need to have to shop around or re-train….

Interesting choice…….more will be heard from these 2 great companies no doubt.

CCTV Digital Recording – do you really need 31 days?

Many years ago, the options for CCTV recording were limited

Time lapse VCR, coupled with a Video Multiplexer, meant in essence 1 picture per second per camera maximum…..you couldn’t have different settings for different cameras, it was a global setting……everything backed up to your commonly available VHS tape.

The VCR manufacturers recommended replacing the VHS tapes every 10 uses – but more often than not, calls to a site to fix faulty VCRs led engineers to observe 31 VHS tapes that probably had never been changed since the installation was completed.

But, 31 tapes was convenient……rows of shelves with ‘week 1 Monday’ etc marked neatly on the spine of vertically positioned VHS tapes…..keen operators would add the daily cycle of removing yesterdays tape and replacing with today’s to their early morning to-do list……along with the panic if they were going to be late and the tape would run out leaving the system non-functional until the tape swap – ‘Mike, I’m late, swap the tape in the Video Recorder before Stan finds out’!!!!

Along came clever manufacturers such as Dedicated Micros and Tecton, who introduced amazing digital recorders that meant the daily routine was no longer required…….PC Hard Drives replaced the fragile VHS tapes……high quality images replaced the fuzzy images on used Tapes…..31 days recording at 1 picture per second per camera was now possible in glorious digital !!

Things have changed enormously since those first DVR days…..

DVRs now can have individual settings per camera, meaning important cameras, I.e. Cash office in retail, can benefit from more pictures per second….. Settings can also be time scheduled, allowing cameras to record continuously in one time zone and then motion only record out of hours – thus stretching record durations even further….

Add in the ability to set different qualities of picture resolution and the systems of today are truly flexible by comparison

But why are we still an industry hell bent on 31 days recording ?? Are we really stuck in the 31 day tape shelf mentality?

Too many tenders are released that stipulate ‘minimum 31 days recording’

But ask yourself this, back in the day, when were you asked to review ‘Week 2 Tuesday’ tape for vandalism to the front door?? Because, 9 times out of 10′ it wouldn’t be ignored for 31 days that the front door had been vandalised – more likely the next day at the most before Janice in Accounts let’s you know she couldn’t get in!!

Don’t get me wrong, there are applications that simply must have long term archives – banking and retail have policies that require transactions are accessible for long periods after they occur…..but in the main, most CCTV installations are designed to offer visual verification for ‘now’ or ‘nearly now’ incidents…..

With Hard Drives getting cheaper, the only real problem facing DVR manufacturers is the physical size available to hold HDDs inside…..most DVRs allowing 4 or 6Tb of internal storage without the need for external additional storage……

But, cameras are getting higher resolution…..megapixel IP Cameras, PIXCs, HD cameras, call them what you want but higher file sizes are what they offer……

Surely it would be better to record at the highest resolution and fastest picture update than to record for durations that simply aren’t needed? Reduce the duration to a week, maybe 2 if there are holidays, and see the recorded footage in the quality the manufacturers want you to see it in.

Don’t worry, the door will still get vandalised, Janice from Accounts will still let you know, but now it will be in glorious, high resolution, near real time quality!!

Let us know what you think – but get off the 31 day train !!!

Integrated CCTV

CCTV reviews.

Over the past few months we have reviewed many products. Below we link to some of the most popular posts and look for comments  from yourselves as to your views.

Engineers and sales alike, join in the debate and let us know what your experiences of IP CCTV really are. Too expensive ? too difficult to install or just too hard to sell at the moment . We want to know what you think.

Are your sales down this year?

What do your customers think about you …find out

Metal Mickey v Predator

PIXC v wide dynamic

Alhua

Just a few of the posts that have created a bit of debate and interest so far register today and feel free to comment and blog giving your views and comments about your products and company or just some interesting views you think that we should all know about.

Emerging Video Surveillance Technologies – PIXC revolution! Pt1

An interesting guide has just been issued from http://ipvideomarket.info/ entitled ‘Emerging Video Surveillance Guide 2010’

it details ‘What to Look for and what to Look Out for’ so over the next few days we will detail some of their opinions – for the full guide, head over to their website and simply sign up to receive the free PDF!

Emerging Technologies

  • IP Cameras
  • Megapixel Cameras
  • IP Based Storage (NAS / SAN)
  • Storage on-Board IP Cameras
  • Mesh Wireless IP Networks
  • Panoramic Cameras
  • Video Analytics
  • Business Intelligence
  • Remote Video Monitoring
  • Managed Video / Hosted Video Surveillance
  • Physical Security Information Management

they are keen to point out that the directory is purely meant as a survey of key risks for the ‘non-expert’

we think it is a great discussion document in this emerging Security arena…………………more to follow…………….