High definition cameras are now presented as an alternative that substantially improves video surveillance systems. In this article learn a little more about this technology and its arrival in Latin America. By: Duván Chaverra A. In many of the world's homes the word "high definition" has already been included in the lexicon of mom, dad and children. Everyone talks about what high definition is; the rooms and rooms of homes are increasingly invaded by the rise of televisions and High Definition (HD) cameras and nowadays any item that has these characteristics is in great demand.
But technology does not only include this type of equipment, because the universe of security does not plan to be left behind, so the most recognized brands in the industry already have their own systems, which seek to improve quality and give greater security and confidence to the consumer. High definition surveillance cameras are a technology that, although recently being announced, will become a solution that will gradually be established in the market hand in hand with the evolution and change of equipment analogous to IP systems, especially in a market such as Latin America, where the process has been slow.
More detail
Beware lawbreakers! With the use of high-definition cameras, the detail of the places monitored by this type of product is greater and the identification of those who violate the law is facilitated much more, as well as the identification of car license plates, among others.
In the first edition of 2010 of SECURITY SALES we will talk about this topic, in order to give all our readers a basic guide and a new element to take into account when performing a CCTV installation; for manufacturers this is the opportunity to know the opinions of the competition about it.
In addition, we will know from the hand of our experts the operation of this type of cameras, the developments they have presented in recent times, their demand worldwide and in Latin America, and if this will really be the technology of greatest demand in the coming years.
Therefore, we will have the participation of four industry experts, who represent companies that already have experience in the manufacture and handling of this technology.
Fernando Esteban, manager of Axis' Mexico, Central America and Caribbean division; Juan Echavarría, technical support engineer at Mobotix; Jason Spielfogel, Sanyo's representative; and Mark Wilson, Vice President of Marketing at Infinova, are our guests on this occasion.
During the development of this theme you will also find, in the printed edition, a comparative table with the main products supplied by each invited company, in which we contrast some particularities of each of the high definition cameras.
Its characteristics
It is necessary to start with the operation and the main characteristics of this class of systems, so we will talk initially about what are high definition cameras and how do they work?
In this regard, sources agree that this recent technology stands out above all for the quality of the image compared to cameras that have analog technology.
"High definition technology consists of transmitting live images and recording them in high resolution (say 1 Megapixel or higher), in order to have as many pixels available in the image to make digital editing processes, such as Pan, Tilt and Digital Zoom (or virtual), so the quality of the final image is as optimal as possible for facial recognition situations, of car licenses, images with forensic acceptability for police situations, court trials or insurance lawsuits," said Juan Echavarría, of Mobotix.
In the same way, Fernando Esteban, from Axis, added some of the most important features of high-definition technology, highlighting that the resolution is at least three times better than an analog camera.
"Megapixel technology allows network cameras to offer a higher resolution of video images than analog cameras, i.e. the ability to see details and identify people and objects, a key consideration in video surveillance applications. In principle, the cameras use an image sensor that has presented dramatic improvements in recent times, allowing not only to capture a greater number of pixels to increase the resolution but has raised the number of colors and sensitivity to light, in order to offer the most important features of HD video such as the following:
A) ensure Megapixel 720P and 1080p resolution
B) ensure frame rate per second; 30 and 60 frames per second are those specified by the SMPTE - Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers standard. (Recording and transmission standards).
C) Color fidelity
D) 16:9" image format
On the recent developments or improvements that HD cameras have had in recent times, Jason Spielfogel, from Sanyo, spoke about the H.264 comprehension system: "A number of new technologies are currently involved in high-definition cameras. The main one is the use of H.264 comprehension technology, which combines integrated audio synchronization, enhanced high-definition image understanding and intelligent motion prediction analytics to eliminate the "halo" effect seen in old compression technologies such as MPEG-4."
Axis, for its part, talks about other types of developments that can be observed during this year: "The first HDTV network camera in the world (the Axis Q1755) was presented to the market in April 2009, during the ISC West security exhibition in Las Vegas (USA), since then the development on this technology has been very important for the industry; in new generation cameras you can see benefits such as recording and intelligence inside the camera, autofocus lenses for fixed cameras and more recently the introduction of a new standard in the management of the aperture of the iris of the lens called P-Iris, which we will see in the next generation of Axis P13 cameras that will be launched in February 2010". Esteban said.
Mark Wilson, from Infinova, highlighted the importance of the number of pixels and the frame rate: "The reason why people use HD cameras has to do with their 16:9 feature in pixels and the frame rate of 30ips, which is important for places like banks as well as in casinos and sites where it is very necessary to follow activities very closely."
Technological improvements
Despite all the evolution of surveillance cameras and specifically on high definition cameras, technology does not rest on developing new applications that improve the product.
Therefore, our guests talked about some technological improvements that the manufacturers of this type of products still have to work on. For example, Fernando Esteban talks about developments in lighting.
"In the future we will see the development of more light-sensitive sensors, as a sensor with more megapixels will always be less light-sensitive. On the other hand, the lens industry must accelerate the pace to offer more options for this type of cameras."
Meanwhile, the representative of Sanyo explained that there are three main challenges in the use of high-definition cameras:
- They are not as sensitive to light as the old standard definition images. This is because as technology has progressed the imagers have become smaller and therefore the pixels are smaller. An image from an A330 TVL 2/3" from a decade ago would be much more sensitive to light than a 1/3" 4-megapixel image produced today.
- Bandwidth. HD cameras, which have six times the resolution of a standard definition camera, also increase up to six times the bandwidth. As network technology improves and more buildings use gigabit networks, this is a challenge, but proper planning and bandwidth consideration is needed.
- The third has to do with the size of the files and their storage. The files of HD cameras can be significantly larger than those of an SD camera. However, with new comprehension technologies such as H.264 and the factor that storage costs fall by 50% every 6-12 months, this may also be a challenge that needs to be considered.
On the H.264, Juan Echavarría assures that this option is not the most suitable for HD cameras, because the quality of the image can be decreased: "Here I want to mention that the MPEG-4 codec and the H.264 is not efficient for HD, since the algorithms of this codec (developed for cinema applications and not for security), they are made to strongly compress the areas of the image in which movement is presented, and compression in all cases will mean loss of quality in the final image; and not only this, the image must first be decompressed and then analyzed, and this requires a high load of processing power by the central server or NVR, which limits the number of cameras that it can handle and increases the requirements and costs of the same. "
The representative of Mobotix explains that in his company the cameras work with a different codec "thanks to the benefits of our MxPEG codec, which is the only codec in the world developed for video security over IP".
However, Fernando Esteban, from Axis, assures that the new developments of understanding H.264 have allowed a greater acceptance by the user. "With the launch of new video compression chips in H.264 format we have managed to dramatically reduce bandwidth consumption, increasing video compression; this has made it possible to reduce the costs of storing and transmitting video on the network and therefore the acceptance of this technology in emerging economies such as Latin America."
HD in Latin America
The United States and Europe have already become familiar with this class of video surveillance systems, there are more and more users who acquire the technology. But what is happening in Latin America?
In this region the transmission of video by analog equipment still reigns, however, the trend is that IP systems begin to increase their presence in the next five years.
"I think the High Definition cameras will be starting to be used during this and next year, it will be a kind of transition stage, as they will take some time to establish. We have the experience of handling both analog and IP technology and we can say that in this place there are still many customers who still use analog equipment for their security."
On the part of Axis it is stated that sales have begun to increase in the region: "Since the second half of 2009 the sale of HDTV cameras and megapixel form almost 50% of the total sale of cameras".
"Latin America has begun to make a gradual transition to high-resolution technology. People expect to get a little more than just video-capturing cameras, due to the difference in cost of analog and digital systems," the Mobotix representative explained.
While Jason Spielfogel, from Sanyo, explained that in this region the high definition market moves slowly: "The market in Latin America has taken much longer to acquire HD cameras, except in areas such as universities and resorts, because the market in the region has been one of the last to move from the old CCTV analogues to the new network-based cameras."
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