November 2010 - Integrated CCTV

Avigilon

Avigilon Camera HD Pro

AVIGILON

At the end of 2004 the Avigilon storey begun. In just 6 years the company and products had evolved enough to be ranked in the Deloitte Technology fast 50 growing technology companies in Canada. An enormous percentage growth in revenues of 33,664% speaks volumes as to why Avigilon are ranked as one of the best success stories to come out of Canada in the last few years. In addition Avigilon was also named in Red Herring’s North American 100 list in 2010 as one of private industries most promising technology ventures in North America.

We were lucky enough to speak to Avigilon and ask then what they thought the future holds for IP video surveillance and Megapixel IP camera solutions.

March Networks new HD Nanodome

Oooh, we like cute, small, neat new gadgets!

And yes, the new March Networks HD Nanodome looks like it will be a neat little gadget!

But, apart from being a gadget, will it deliver value for money in a tough and competitive IP industry?

the main point here is ‘1080p’ – yep, full HD resolution out of this little baby!

and early indications are that the price is going to be VERY competitive………….cheaper than some standard SD (Standard Definition) PIXC IP cameras!

Could March be stealing a ‘March’ on the HD Industry!!!!??

Let us know!

CCTV installation,before Xmas,lets wait and see

CCTV for Xmas?

How things turn around. For the last 18 months the CCTV security industry has been eerily quiet. The reasons are obvious. The recession has driven many areas of business to cut back and one of the casualties of this has been the security budget. A make do situation arose where by end users were happy to cancel service agreements and ignore faults that would have normally been rectified as matter of urgency. However the last 2-3 months has seen people seriously considering their security needs again.

CCTV installations start to grow.

CCTV installations have picked up slowly as the economy starts to grow again and there is now signs that with the many bankruptcies that occurred to security installers means there may be a shortage of good installing companies left out there to meet demand.

Can we get installations on the wall before Xmas?

Now it is always the same, Xmas seems to bring mass panic and everyone wants their intruder alarms and CCTV working, upgraded or installed for the holiday period. There are rumours that the “big boys” are already telling their clients that they can’t meet the deadline and intruder alarm and CCTV camera manufacturers are suddenly quoting 2 week lead times for delivery where we have all been used to next day for last couple of years.

Buy cheap buy twice!

So the moral of this story seems to be if you have a fault , fix it sooner rather than later. If you need an installation don’t expect miracles from installing companies who have had to cut staff and prices just to stay in business. And finally those who stuck by their favoured , reliable installing companies instead of shopping around for cheap inadequate replacements, will find that they will have their CCTV and security systems working for Xmas while others are left woefully exposed to crime. It will be very interesting to see how this one pans out.

March Networks enter the Hybrid arena

Not content with offering IP VMS solutions, March Networks announce the imminent arrival of their Hybrid 7532 DVR

Ok, so this isn’t new territory being trodden here – but, this unit comes from the March Canadian stable of High End DVR solutions – products that for years have been trusted by the North American Retail and Financial sectors in their thousands.

Offering up to 32 IP inputs or a blend of 16 IP and 16 regular analogue (or analog for our North American friends!), this integrates seamlessly with the VMS and Sitemanager platforms.

Who will use it? Well, consider this – if you have a legacy analogue system, you can either upgrade to IP cameras and forget your current kit (expensive) or you can add IP Encoders to each analogue camera to IP enable it (cheaper, but depends on how many analogue cameras you have) or you can use a Hybrid system – simply plug in existing analogue cameras, add new IP cameras if expanding, and replace broken analogue cameras in the future with IP !! Simples!!

Looks another good unit from the well known March Networks brand!

iPhone, iPad and CCTV

We blogged some time back now about iPhone/iPad requests for CCTV accessibility…………….

Just recently, a new app ‘app’eared (like what I did there!) in the Apple App Store that gives access to the 360 Vision OpenVision range of DVRs and NVRs

Called iDVR-Vue, it draws on the fluidity of the iPhone/iPad interface to offer a really intuitive way to view cameras on your installed H or T DVR, or even your Hybrid/NVR system.

Connection setup is as easy as selecting the model, entering the static IP address (this is normally provided by your ADSL or ISP provider), and putting in the Username and Password and clicking connect

First connection presents a Quad display………..if you have more than 4 cameras, a simple swipe across the screen moves the display onto cameras 5-8, a swipe again onto 9-12 and finally 13-16…………. and if any of the cameras are PTZ domes such as the Predator or Black Hawk range, then tapping on that quad image brings the camera to full screen where the fun really begins!

Anyone that has used the iPhone/iPad will know that the screen is great for touch control……….. a swipe in any direction sends the camera moving in the same direction…..the further you move across the screen, the quicker the dome will move………….Zoom is very much like viewing pictures, pinch to zoom in and out and the dome camera will respond by zooming in and out!

We’d like to see preset and tour initiation and also maybe some playback/search controls, but we are told that will be in the next release in the App Store

The real beauty to this? IT’S FREE !

We like free, it shows a manufacturers commitment to offer additional services to what is often considered a grudge purchase

And let’s face it, who these days does not have an iPhone or iPad!!!

Also available for the Blackberry range