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The NW blog
Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category
Number plate recognition – factors for success
If you’re thinking of investing in a number plate recognition system, perhaps to restrict traffic into your site, reduce losses or to analyse the frequency of visits to your premises, there are a number of factors you’ll need to consider to get a system that delivers reliable detection and information.
Known as Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), License Plate Recognition (LPR) or Number Plate Recognition (NPR) is powerful technology that can help you remotely detect and log vehicles that pass your cameras.
Securing your small business IP camera network
If you’re looking to protect your small business by installing IP cameras, take a look at the steps below for ways to make your installation more secure. This blog covers the system set up aspect of your camera network security.
Date and time setup
Setting the right date and time at system set up ensures that your recordings show the correct time information. This makes it much easier to find and review incidents, rather than having to watch hours of footage. If you’re using a video management systems (VMS), it’s important that all parts of the system are in time sync at all times otherwise components can be prevented from functioning correctly.
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Dynamic DNS: is it still useful, or is it now irrelevant?
Over 10 years ago I wrote about Dynamic DNS (DDNS), asking if you really need a static IP address if you want to access your camera or CCTV system from the Internet. The answer was ‘no’, because of the ubiquity of Dynamic DNS services which were, at that time, starting to become embedded in camera firmware. Similarly, IP camera manufacturers were beginning to offer their own DDNS services which made life a whole lot easier for end users.
As DDNS is now a mature technology, is it still useful and relevant today?
Top 5 reasons why keeping your NVR or VMS up-to-date is important
In the world of IP-based security, we capture surveillance recordings largely either via NVRs or software-based video management systems (VMS). We procure a system, have it installed and (hopefully) properly commissioned based upon our real requirements and needs, and the system is handed over for operational use. Often, that’s where things start to go wrong.
In our experience, few integrators either make the necessity clear or offer ongoing update support in order to keep a system current and working at its best.
Using image rotation to optimise coverage and bandwidth usage
When choosing a camera for video surveillance in narrow scenes such as long corridors, staircases, aisles and tunnels, the traditional landscape-oriented setup may not be the optimal choice. If you’re monitoring a narrow corridor or passageway, a sizeable portion of the scene is going to be walls either side, making a lot of your image redundant. The full area and resolution of the camera’s image sensor is not being fully utilised and this means that evidence of events occurring outside this limited area of coverage may be missed. These redundant sections either side of the image also consume bandwidth and storage that could really be put to better use.
This is where the ability to rotate the image proves to be very handy. This feature allows you to obtain a portrait-oriented video stream – effectively turning an HD camera’s 16:9 aspect ratio to a 9:16 aspect ratio. By filming in this orientation, you are ensuring that the whole sensor covers the area of interest, maximising coverage and eliminating bandwidth and storage waste.
The benefits of live streaming your next event
Your next event is all set up and ready to go. The guest speakers have their time slots and your attendees have settled into their seats. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be a great success and all the people invited will find it rewarding and informative. But, have you ever thought that maybe you could get even more out of your events?
Could you be reaching a wider audience? Is the marketing potential maximised? Are you getting best value from your venue? These are all things that live streaming your next event could help improve.
This medium has become increasingly more popular in recent years and is already being utilised by a wide range of organisations including companies promoting their services, universities streaming educational seminars and start-ups conducting Q&A sessions.
There’s no reason why you can’t do the same and in this blog we pick out some of the big benefits to live streaming your next event.
Axis’ high-performance Q6155-E PTZ introduces laser focus technology
Conventional PTZ cameras may take longer to autofocus in difficult lighting conditions and this can result in a loss of detail during the time taken to achieve optimum focus.
Using Axis’ innovative laser focus technology, in combination with a host of other advanced features, the new Axis Q6155-E offers clear imaging as well as faster and more precise focusing – even in the most demanding conditions.
Laser focus utilises the camera’s integrated laser to measure the distance between the camera and objects of interest – regardless of lighting conditions. This method is much more exact than the auto-focus techniques currently used in most other cameras and the measurement is taken instantly too. This means the unit is always optimally focused and delivers clear images at all times. Laser focus is not currently available in other PTZ domes on the market today. However, if the technology stands up to claims of offering improvements in PTZ performance and instant identification of people or objects – we can see it being rolled out in the next generation of high-end PTZ units by Axis.
Bosch begin adding edge-based video analytics as standard
Bosch is renowned in the world of IP CCTV for its background in engineering and the ability to create innovative products.
They’re a manufacturer that prefers to launch new technology only when they’ve been able to maximise its full potential, so when we heard they were introducing edge-based video analytics in their cameras, we wanted to know more.
There are two types of Bosch video analytics – Essential Video Analytics and Intelligent Video Analytics. You could think of these as “Standard” and “Advanced” but it’s fair to say that even the “Standard” version is feature-rich with a varied choice of intrusion, object, direction and behaviour related motion detection rules including people counting and crowd detection.
Axis improves Zipstream with dynamic frame rate
Zipstream has been around for a year now. In that time it’s already proven itself as a game-changing technology, able to lower bandwidth and storage requirements by an average of 50% or more without sacrificing important details.
Development has continued and earlier this year Axis enhanced Zipstream so it could adapt to PTZ camera movements. Now, just when you may have wondered if could get any better, Axis announced another enhancement – dynamic frame rate.
Creating a free to use CCTV system easily with an app and no PC
If you’re a small business or home user seeking a simple CCTV solution, you’d probably like to be able to mount your new IP camera in a suitable location, connect it to your network and then use a free app on your mobile phone or tablet to access live video and recordings whilst on the go. That’s it – safeguard your business or home with no complicated set-up and configuration. Some might call this approach “Plug and play”.
Until recently, it’s not been that easy and as a minimum, a PC was still required during the installation of the IP camera. Now it’s possible to do using just a mobile app and although we probably wouldn’t use the phrase “Plug and play”, the solution is certainly very straight forward.
Both Axis and Hikvision support this app-based approach and we’ll outline how to get up and running, weigh up each brand’s offering and consider the limitations.
