Case study.

Integrated CCTV were recently asked to carry out a very interesting camera comparison in order to establish prior to an installation the effectiveness of  two different types of cameras and how they performed when used for two different applications.

Solutions must be found.

The customers main issue was that he needed to identify if stock became damaged on his premises while being loaded or unloaded onto his vehicles. The problems he had encountered in the past was that while looking out from his warehouse into the rear of the lorries the sunlight adversely affected the camera picture and his ability to view the stock inside the trailer. In addition, when replaying any events, when he zoomed in to get more detail, the picture became pixelated and unusable. Also cameras inside his warehouse viewing staff, never gave him the detail required for the wide angle view he wanted and so incidents frequently were either missed or when replayed, offered no real information that he could use.

Wide dynamic or Megapixel IP camera.

With this in mind, we chose to trial two cameras, the SCC-b2335p Samsung wide dynamic static camera and the Videoshpere 1080p Megapixel IP camera from March Networks.

Camera lenses.

To get the best comparison we used very similar lenses, the 2.8 – 8mm on the wide Samsung camera and the 2.2-6mm on the 1080p Megapixel IP camera. We set both cameras up on a tripod and powered the 1080p with POE as designed. The Samsung camera was converted to IP using the March Networks encoder so we were able to bring both cameras back into the Videosphere VMS CCTV software for recording purposes and then after the trial, demonstration of our results to the customer.

The test.

Firstly we positioned our vehicle in the loading bay and pointed both cameras out through the warehouse door. The boot of the vehicle was left open so all the goods inside could be seen. Or at least we hoped they could be seen but on initial power up, both pictures proved to be very disappointing. It was a very bright day and the warehouse had limited natural lighting and no artificial light at all . As a result, we could see little or nothing of the contents within the car, the reason of course was the huge difference in light levels between inside and out. We then turned on the back-light compensation feature within the Samsung wide dynamic camera. This made a huge difference. The Samsung camera then gave us a clear, crisp image of the boot contents and we were considerably impressed. We looked for a similar feature within the Videosphere 1080p but there seemed no adjustment we could find that would improve the picture and despite the progressive scan that we had hoped would help, the images had  to be classed as un-useable.

Playback.

We then played the Samsung images back on the VMS CCTV software we found we could zoom in to the boot contents up to 2x before any pixelation occurred and we deemed that with the camera position we could attain using brackets hanging from the warehouse roof ,we would be able to deploy the Samsung camera successfully.

Looking at movement inside the warehouse.

Onto our next issue, this was getting detail from a wide angle view of staff movements inside the warehouse. The areas that needed to be covered by each individual camera were approx 25m by 50 meters and the number of cameras had to be kept within reason to keep costs within budget.

Looking into the dimness!

Both cameras were turned round to take in the view described above. We identified a few distinctive objects at certain distances to help us compare the pictures. Both cameras offered up good pictures but the image quality from the Videosphere Megapixel IP camera could only be described as stunning. The clarity was incredible considering how low the light level and the distance we were asking it to look. However we were to be even more impressed when we looked at the playback . Even when zooming right to the back of the warehouse the pictures were of superb quality.

Image storage issues.

We must not however forget that with this quality comes certain issues. Data storage when using IP Megapixel cameras runs in several terabytes and this pushes up the cost.

Customers opinion.

We then took the opportunity to show the customer the results of the trial he was very impressed with the results of the Samsung B2335P. For a long time he has been looking for a camera that can cope with extreme lighting issues and he now finally has a solution. With regard to the Videosphere Megapixel IP camera the pictures quite simply sold themselves as he said “it’s a no brainer I have got to have these in my warehouse”. Of course there are price issues, this sort of quality cannot come without cost implications.

Conclusion.

In conclusion the review and testing highlighted the fact that there has never been a clearer example of the fact that there is always the need for the right camera for the right job. Careful testing and specifying will ensure we get a happy customer at the end of the day. The Samsung wide dynamic camera definitely performed as designed and as for Megapixel Ip camera technology the picture quality was fantastic . This can only help to make these cameras a very popular choice with  forward thinking customers.