Megapixel cameras are supposed to help people see better, react faster, but oftentimes limited network resources prevent them from working at their full capacity or capability. Camera manufacturers have devised a number of ways to cope with this harsh reality, enabling their cameras to stream smarter and deliver full HD footage.
|
Ways to Reduce Bandwidth Loading |
How |
Known Brands |
1 |
Image cropping |
Cut out unnecessary or stationary background to minimize video data size; dynamically cut out invalid footage filled with noise to minimize video compression and streaming requirements |
Axis, Panasonic, Sony, Vivotek |
2 |
Auto day/night mode adjustments |
Automatic day/night switches based on ambient light conditions, to optimize video capturing and minimize unnecessary data streaming |
Most brands |
3 |
Digital PTZ (or sometimes ePTZ) |
Pan/tilt/zoom digitally to offset larger bandwidth loading with real-time optical PTZ |
Arecont Vision, Axis, Basler, Brickcom, Everfocus, Panasonic, Sony, Vivotek and others |
4 |
Edge storage |
Surveillance cameras with memory card (SD or otherwise) slots, to capture footage when network is down/congested or when bandwidth is limited |
Most brands |
5 |
Activity-adaptive streaming (AAS) |
Low resolution (such as CIF) and frame rate (such as 2 fps) when there is no activity in the scene; high resolution (such as D1 or megapixel) and frame rate (such as 25 to 30 fps) when there is activity/movement in the scene (while keeping the stationary background low resolution and frame rate) |
Vivotek |
6 |
Image compensation |
High resolution only on specific parts/ strategic choke points of the scene |
Arecont Vision, Axis, Basler, Brickcom, Everfocus, Panasonic, Sony, Vivotek and others |
7 |
Scalable video coding (H.264 SVC) |
SVC standardizes the encoding of a high-quality video bitstream that also contains one or more subset bitstreams. A subset bitstream is derived by dropping packets from the larger video to reduce the bandwidth required for the subset bitstream; the subset bitstream can represent a lower spatial resolution (smaller screen), lower temporal resolution (lower frame rate), or lower-quality video signal. |
Axis, Vivotek and many other Chinese brands |
* |
Surveillance video and audio coding (SVAC) |
A combination of the above seven |
Chinese standard/brands |
8 |
Hybrid C/VBR streaming |
Automatic detection of available bandwidth and changes in such, to stream accordingly |
Most brands |
9 |
Digital filter noise reduction |
Digitally filter out noise from CCD/CMOS sensors, to enhance video quality and reduce bit rate |
Most brands |
10 |
Progressive scan |
Digitally link CCD/CMOS sensors and compression codecs, to effectively stream high-resolution video with motion/moving objects at 512 Kbps to 2 Mbps |
Vitor and others |