VideoIQ – an interesting entry into the UK IP HD Market

VideoIQ

a name not commonly known here in the UK……..but they have some extremely innovative products…

Video IQ claim, to be the ONLY IP HD manufacturer that can offer intelligent Video Analytics on HD and Megapixel IP cameras…..most of the IP HD pixc units out at the moment cannot offer video analytics ‘at the edge’, instead relying on D1 modules for the clever on board Analytics

Here’s a snapshot of their range

Probably the main interesting point, is that EVERY device is also an onboard DVR…….Dome cameras and Encoders all have onboard storage for up to 6 months recording! 1GB flash and then SATA Ruggedised HDD means that network outages are irrelevant.

Video IQ have made Software available or alternatively 3rd Party integration with companies such as Genetec and Milestone mean these products are flexible as well as feature rich.

Offering Analytics on Thermal is another string to their bow

And, sshh, we’ve heard a rumour that a certain UK manufacturer of PTZ IR, Thermal, Overt and Dome cameras could well be linking up with VideoIQ to add analytical tracking and onboard recording to its range of high speed PTZ units…….more soon!

So, VideoIQ, keep an eye as we think these guys are going to be getting some good attention in 2011!

Video management software the battle has begun – Price War

Video management software, we guessed it would happen – for IP to really take off, prices have to fall, certainly to a comparable level of analogue, before mass acceptance can take place

We learned recently that Milestone, long the main pioneers of video management software, have halved the cost of their entry level VMS……and at the same time, released a completely brand new version for absolutely FREE !

VMS

We like free…..free stands for FREEdom to try, use, decide……and Milestone have been an established brand in this market arena for some time

So what has this done for the price range for VMS systems pricing?

Well, beginning of 2010 average camera price per licence was around £70-100 – this latest buzz by Milestone changes that to a price range of FREE to around £30……if you are selling video management software… that will help gain traction!!

Software in CCTV – can it replace the control system and can it be chargeable?

More and more, software is becoming the heart of the CCTV System……..

In days of old, a system would have one control point, and if additional control points were required, the system practically needed replicating in order to provide additional controls to another point.

Come the age of the computer and now adding another control point is as easy as loading software onto a network enabled PC……..

Most DVRs these days come with free software that provides accessibility to stored images, live cameras and PTZ controls..

But an interesting surge in the market appears to be coming from the software only control systems – BMS style software that controls the full range of Security disciplines, including Fire, Intruder, Access Control and CCTV etc….

Honeywell are big leaders in this arena, but new products from the likes of ESSA and CNL offer interesting control angles on the control system

Milestone and IndigoVision are also big players in this industry area too………Milestone particularly have set their business model on the ‘licence per camera’ basis, allowing flexibility to expand the system without too much expense or inconvenience…….it’s an interesting idea – we are all used to paying subscriptions for software such as anti-virus programs, so to pay a fee on annual basis seems like a good way to ensure maintenance agreements are kept by linking the camera licences to subscriptions…….

Of course, some end users see the extra current premiums that IP allegedly imposes over SD (Standard Definition) CCTV as enough to pay let alone additional subscriptions for software………..but, as prices fall, then we think subscriptive CCTV is an interesting idea – potentially locking end users back into reliable installers via the maintenance/subscription model

Time will tell, but certainly there are massive advantages to the control systems being PC software based………

Package-price-and-terms1.jpg

IP camera Choices?

Here’s a conundrum….

Do you, as a valuable IP surveillance Installer, install a system because of the camera choice or because of the Software / Recording choice?

We posted a while back about how in the good old days, it simply didn’t matter whose camera you wanted to use, whose DVR (actually, multiplexer and VCR!) you wanted to use etc etc

Today, we have stunning HD and Mexgapixel ip cameras coming from the likes of March Networks, Arecont, Avigilon, Sanyo etc and on the other hand, great Software VMS solutions from the likes of Milestone, IndigoVision, March etc

Don’t get me wrong, each PIXC manufacturer is trying real hard to get their cameras compatible with everything and anything….and there is RTP/RTSP standard protocol that ‘sort of’ gets around things (streaming video but without the settings/config capabilities)

ONVIF promises to deliver a ‘uniform’ experience – we don’t think it can happen fast enough really…… the industry, particularly the IP camera industry, will get choked if it doesn’t open itself up more to co-existence and compatibility….

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!