CCTV POE enabled IR illuminators

ANVS is a U.S. based manufacturer of professional infrared illuminators for security applications, distributed under the AXTON brand name. Axton have now released a PoE enabled, wide-angle, long-range professional infrared illuminators for CCTV and security applications.

The new PoE enabled infrared illuminators simplify system design and speed up installation by using a single PoE enabled cable to power up both the IP camera and  the IR illuminator. Each unit is designed with an IP input and two outputs for power and data. Connecting the power injected Ethernet cable into IR illuminator, and then connecting the two output cables to the IP camera power and data inputs and you have a fully operation camera and illuminator powered over the Ethernet (POE).

Standard features include an integrated photo-cell,the units are IP66 rated for external applications and ease of installation is the key to this product.

Please contact us for more information on the unit and where you can buy.

A tale of POE woe….

POE…..that magical ability to send power to a POE compatible device…

Pro’s? Saves cost on cable and requirement for local power……

Con’s? 90m maximum distance before repeaters required

But…there is a new Con…… ensure the POE Switch is acceptable for the POE devices you are installing

We hear of an installation where there are well known, reputable IP Megapixel cameras (fully POE compatible) all of which at under 90m cable distance……

Set up beforehand in their offices, this trusted and experienced installer are a rare breed that actually test the entire system before shipping to site…..a dry run of the installation if you like….

Take it to site and install and they find that when connecting more than 4 cameras on the POE Network Switch, only the first 4 appear……disconnecting the first 4 results in the next block of 4 appearing…..certainly proving that cables and cameras are fine, but the ‘juice’ from the POE Switch is just not delivering…

But the Switch is a 24 port HP Switch, offering 15w per output…the cameras are only 4w maximum…..

A quick email to the manufacturer (not in the UK !) results in an admission that the Switch in question, HP, has been known to throw this ‘oddity’ up before….apparently, the issue has been rectified in a newer Hardware version of the…..wait for it….IP Megapixel camera !!!! (hhhmm, where is the fault??)

These cameras are fresh out of a recently delivered order….therefore, the (supposedly) very latest batch or ‘hardware’…….

The installer had to urgently (and frantically!) organise another expensive Switch to be delivered directly to site in order to rescue this installation….and their image!

So why do these IP manufacturers not take care of valuable information such as incompatibility and be up front ??? This is not a negative, it is called looking after the customer!!

Come on Manufacturers, remember the rule, a bad installation might result in your kit not being used again…..

***Update*** replaced the £700 HP switch with a £400 Netgear version and it now works !!

What do you think?

TCO of an IP Surveillance system. The burning question!

Analogue CCTV v IP camera solutions

An acquaintance  of mine is responsible for building very large hotels from the ground up to the handing over the finished building. Nice work if you can get it! Being a very astute kind of fellow he phoned me up for some advice regarding the security aspect of his newest project. The question he asked was one that is being put to many specifiers at the moment and is one that we believe is the burning question about IP surveillance systems today. That is the TCO or total cost of ownership of IP video systems v analogue CCTV.

Why do IP cameras cost more?

What was confusing my friend and quite rightly, was this. Why was his ME contractor charging him £500 per camera for a 68 way IP camera system? He saw this as costly and the first thing he did, as many would, is check this out on the Internet. He quite simply could not justify this cost when he saw that he could buy what seemed like a perfectly adequate analogue CCTV camera for not much more than £100. So armed with some prices he rang me to know what I thought and find out if he was about to get ripped off.

NVT

Firstly we explored how far the hotel build had advanced and how the cabling had been structured. It seemed that from day one the designers of the networking infrastructure were always intending to go down the IP camera route. I explained that if we wanted to use analogue cameras there was a little more we needed to cost in before we could make a fair comparison. Firstly there was a possibility that we may be able to use the CAT5 cable and by using an NVT solution we could encode and decode the analogue video at each camera and termination point. This however involved a cost and quite a bit more labour to make each end off. I also explained that cable distances were important to decide whether he would need active or passive transmitters and receivers. In addition I asked him if the analogue cameras he had sourced also came with lenses because other wise we need to add £50 per camera straight away, the answer to this was no.

PoE is so much quicker!

I then explained that each camera would need a power supply as the  IP cameras would be PoE, so perhaps another £30 for each PSU once installed needed to be added. In addition for each power supply we would need a fused spur, that would also need to be certificated, so add another £100 per camera. We were not finished yet as each camera would take longer to install and set up, perhaps another £25 or so per unit.

Is it still cheaper?

My friend could see that now costs were beginning to add up but still the analogue CCTV system still seemed a cheaper solution …just.

DVR  v NVR

I then asked him about what recording solution was going to be put in place. Although he was not exactly sure of the make , what he seemed to describe was Milestone software or something similar together with a server to record all his images, I asked if this needed to be accessed remotely and it seemed it did.

High quality DVR.

I then explained that to get a similar picture quality together with the 28 days recording he was asking for would mean he was going to need some high end spec DVRs and what was worse he was going to need 5 of them. I suggested that he check out the cost of these but said in reality this could potentially add at least another couple of thousand pounds to his cost of going analogue.

Clear crisp images

We then went onto picture quality and features that Megapixel IP cameras would be able to provide over an analogue CCTV solution. PoE , auto-focus and better flexibility with recorded images all added to the benefits of the IP option.

The decision.

In summary he was left to make some difficult decisions but in the end I believe that it was the future proofing that an IP surveillance system could give him,  just about made his mind up!

Temporary CCTV solutions

Temporary CCTV

A temporary CCTV solution is always a difficult one. Often a customer will take the approach that they have a problem that they believe they can solve with the help of a CCTV system in a relatively short space of time and therefore only want to pay for short term rental.

Still costly.

Most forget that a temporary system differs little in cost to buy for the supplier and still takes the same time to install, so the question has to be asked whats in it for the installer?

Who will install temporary cameras?

Well nothing really and this is why there a few about that offer this service. The solution for the customer may however be coming in the shape of IP cameras with on board recording. Cameras such as the IP camera 200 range. Simple to fit and using POE all the customer really needs to provide is an IP point adjacent to where he wishes to site the camera.The cameras are however not designed to be of a covert nature so a little inventiveness may well be required if the end user is looking to catch someone in the act and use the evidence against them.

Summary.

So in the past the temporary CCTV system was a difficult one to solve but now thanks to IP it is a solution that could be increasing as customers look to solve problems at a reduced cost.

Bosch news, IP camera 200 series.

200 series IP cameras.

This great little camera is ideal for small business who only need a one or two camera solution and don’t want to have to pay out for an NVR or DVR recorder. What is more, all you require is an IP point POE switch and a screw driver and this IP camera can be simply removed from the box fixed to the wall and plugged in. That’s all there is to it.

ONVIF compatible.

Ideal for reception areas or small shops the IP camera 200 series comes in two forms.The 255 and 225 versions. This gives you the choice of a fixed or a varifocal lens. The IP camera produces crisp clear images and is ONVIF compatible.

CCTV software.

As well as on-board recording the camera can be integrated to a Bosch surveillance software for ease of viewing recorded images. The camera has built in motion detection so recording space can be saved on the on board SD memory card. Using the very latest H.264 compression standard the camera seems to fit into many applications.

Backlight compensation needed?

Having been demonstrated the camera I have to say I agree with all the above but the images could have been better when looking towards doors and windows especially because it seems to fit so well into the area of viewing doorways in reception areas.