How to Sell IP Cameras’ Advanced Degrees of Impact

Switching to an IP multimegapixel camera allows the reduction in the quantity of cameras needed to adequately cover an area, potentially saving both money and installation time.

By Duane Richendollar

In the past, if you wanted high quality detailed video coverage, it was necessary to have a lot of cameras in place while being within close proximity to the object being monitored, or have expensive lenses that could zoom in to view areas of interest.

Now, because of the increase in pixels that an image sensor can produce, high resolution images from IP cameras can be obtained while covering a much larger area. And that’s just one benefit of implementing a device whose network connectivity yields other attractive attributes too.

To show how far the industry has come and the improvements made by using a multi-megapixel camera, here’s an example of a camera mounted on a 10-foot ceiling looking down at a table 30 inches high:

  • An analog camera at 4 CIF (704 X 480) with a 9mm lens produces about 86 pixels per foot.
  • A 2-megapixel IP camera at HD (1920 X 1080) with a 9mm lens produces about 605 pixels per foot (based on Axis’ online lens calculator).

It’s clear the IP camera’s image quality is several times more detailed than the analog camera. By using a wider-angle lens on an IP camera, a much larger area can be captured and still provide good image quality. Switching to an IP multimegapixel camera allows the reduction in the quantity of cameras needed to adequately cover an area, potentially saving both money and installation time.

Seamless Viewing & Tracking of Areas
Higher and higher resolution cameras and unique variations of IP cameras are now available and are more effective. Some manufacturers are making single cameras with multiple lenses that give 180° view and some up to 360° coverage. In large open areas, this can reduce the camera count significantly without sacrificing detail.

The fisheye lens camera is a unique variation, in that it can display a 360° field of view. While this lens has been around for many years it normally creates a warped effect to the image; today’s technology can dewarp that view and split it into multiple video streams almost as if it were two, three or four cameras in one.

Another advantage of the multilens camera is that, in most cases, only one IP address is needed. In today’s crowded IT world … it will allow your IT department more design flexibility.

A big advantage of 180°- and 360°-view cameras is that they allow for seamless visual monitoring of the visible area. Tracking a person or object from camera to camera can be challenging and often results in gaps in coverage between cameras. With the 180° and 360° views, the gaps are eliminated and tracking becomes much easier.

Another advantage of the multilens camera is that, in most cases, only one IP address is needed. In today’s crowded IT world, since IP addresses are needed for connectivity, obtaining a new one can be a challenge, depending on the organization. By reducing the number of IP addresses needed it will allow your IT department more design flexibility. Being able to view and protect large areas with a single camera has specific benefits within various industry sectors.

For example, to have video documentation and monitoring of the seating area of a college or professional football stadium, hundreds of regular cameras, often supplemented with pan/tilt/zoom (p/t/z) cameras, are required. These are able to obtain effective close-up images of situations or events, but only if they are pointed in the direction of the incident.

With 180° and 360° cameras, large areas can be covered with excellent visibility and remarkable detail. This is not to suggest you should eliminate p/t/z cameras completely; however, having a wide-area view quickly facilitates where to aim the p/t/z camera to help locate incidents.

Deliver More Thorough Protection, Analytics
End-user facilities may house high value assets including anything from jewelry or pharmaceuticals, to manufacturing or research lab equipment, that need safeguarding. When visual monitoring or documentation in the event of a theft or other incident is needed, multimegapixel cameras can be an effective option.

By using a combination of multimegapixel wide-area cameras and single-lens cameras, previously unnoticed details may help to identify the individual who took a ring at a jewelry store or the assembly line worker who didn’t put a certain part on a machine, for example. IP cameras have opened up an entirely new area for analytics.

Now, people counting, heat mapping, determining direction of travel, following an individual throughout the camera’s view, and seeing objects left behind or determining if an object is missing are now common functions of IP cameras. All of this information can be networked into a reporting system to give visibility into information never exhibited before.

Whether looking to gain visibility into a large area, optimizing the way video is captured for documentation, or, looking to utilize video footage for analytics and data insights, multimegapixel IP cameras may be a the perfect fit for the application, thanks to recent advancements in camera technology.

Duane Richendollar is Director of Technology, Vertical Markets, for Stanley Security. Reach him at [email protected].

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