Earlier this year, a major typewriter manufacturer closed down its last facility. While initial reports claimed that it marked the extinction of the revolutionary device, it is far from dead. However, the magical device that took the world by storm has withered significantly and now serves only in niche markets.
The typewriter changed the world. It was a simple, elegant solution that solved a very specific problem — the inefficiency in recording the written word. It was a straightforward device with a concept that was easy to grasp.
After a little more than 100 years, the personal computer appeared on the scene, providing much more than simple word recording. “Word processing” was the name of the game, along with other applications, such as spreadsheets and automated processes.
Earlier this year, a major typewriter manufacturer closed down its last facility. While initial reports claimed that it marked the extinction of the revolutionary device, it is far from dead. However, the magical device that took the world by storm has withered significantly and now serves only in niche markets.
The typewriter changed the world. It was a simple, elegant solution that solved a very specific problem — the inefficiency in recording the written word. It was a straightforward device with a concept that was easy to grasp.
After a little more than 100 years, the personal computer appeared on the scene, providing much more than simple word recording. “Word processing” was the name of the game, along with other applications, such as spreadsheets and automated processes.
Initially, personal computers were clunky and expensive, compared to typewriters, not to mention the fact that users needed to learn new skills and rewired their mindset to utilize the powerful, new tools. Contrast those to today's Macbooks, Ultrabooks and smartphones!
Video surveillance is undergoing a similar transition. HD video offers clearer and smoother pictures, which in turn enable a whole new batch of use cases, such as more practical video analytics. The benefits are clear. What is not clear is how users should approach this new technology and what they should expect from it, especially when the lack of universal standards is not helping at all.
Not too long ago , video surveil-lance was simply a combination of video cameras and recording devices. Though limited in use cases and functionality, video surveillance systems were simple to understand and easy to implement. Misconfiguring or overloading the system was difficult, and it was relatively simple to troubleshoot problems when things were not running as expected. Nor did they require significant technical and IP knowledge to design, implement and maintain. All this allowed for more predictable performance and TCO.
Analog cameras have served their purpose well throughout the years, but video surveillance has evolved with the advent of new technologies, which enable exciting new possibilities for video surveillance and security in general. First, we saw the rise of network cameras and IP-based video surveillance, which have already outshipped analog systems in some regions. Now, the battle moves to megapixel cameras and HD video.
According to research, by 2015, megapixel cameras will account for 88 percent of the video surveillance market, of which more than 70 percent will be HD. SD network cameras still outsold their HD or megapixel counterparts in 2010, but there was also significant growth in the number of HD and megapixel network security cameras shipped, said Mrinalini Lakshminarayan,Video Solutions Strategist for Motorola Solutions.
In any case, as with any product in a free market, customer demand drives availability and brings down price, while the increased competition drives quality and innovation. The costs of these cameras will only go down in the coming years, further fueling wider adoption and better solutions.
So…Who Needs It?
Strong demand is a given, but is HD necessary everywhere? Applications that benefit the most from HD surveillance are the ones involving forensic search or archiving, due to the increased amount of detail captured, said Craig Howie, Commercial Director for Visimetrics. “A typical example would be casinos, where the level of detail available from HD systems could prove financially significant during a dispute investigation from a gaming table.”
In general, the benefits of higher resolutions can be approached with two mindsets: reduced costs due to fewer cameras needed or increased performance through upgraded cameras.
Some vendors argue that the higher resolutions and wider view allow users to have one HD or megapixel camera assume the role of several SD ones. While this may be true to some extent, optimal camera placement is still required for effective coverage. With this approach, the larger field of view with HD can cover a larger area due to the 16:9 aspect ratio, but with only the same number of pixels per meter as SD. So, there is no performance increase, but product and installation costs go down due to fewer cameras required, said Ad Biemans, EMEA Product Marketing Manager for CCTV, Bosch Security Systems. “However, there is a catch. Your cameras do need to point in one direction, such as at checkout lines in a supermarket, car lanes at a petrol station, check-in desks at airports and so on.” In short, this argument is moot if the setup requires cameras to point in different directions or need a persistent front-facing perspective.
With the performance increase approach, you get more details (pixels per meter) with the same field of view — ideal when requiring the best quality for retrospective interrogation or needing a flexible camera installation, Biemans continued. “Superior HD captures all the details for applications involving cash registers, check-in counters, access gates, reception areas and grandstands.”
Applications with camera scenes covering larger fields of view are also better suited to using HD surveillance over SD systems by virtue of the increased information available in post event analysis, Howie agreed. “Citywide systems with complex street scenes and wide fields of view will provide the most significant demonstration of the improved results of HD over SD.”
In city surveillance and safety, HD video enhances identification because of its higher resolution; similarly, crowd surveillance will be of better use in arenas and stadiums. Together with improved identification capability, HD installations typically require fewer cameras than SD solutions to cover a similar area, Biemans said. “This can significantly lower TCO for large systems, such as those in airports. Obviously, highly detailed images of HD systems are also important in the finance and banking market.”
Today, there are few, if any, applications for which SD is “good enough,”as years of frustrated surveillance operators can attest, said Becky Zhou, Sales Director for APAC, Arecont Vision. However, there are still instances where SD is an optimal choice, said Karen McCarrison, Product Marketing Manager for IndigoVision. “For example, if you are covering a narrow field of view, SD cameras may be more than capable of giving the level of detail that you need.”