With worldwide recession at the forefront, video surveillance users turn to encoders as a cost-effective and efficient migration path to IP. A&S investigates the market potential for video encoders, the differentiating criteria and its applications outside of security. Additionally, the competitive features of video encoders and the reasons why analog cameras set with encoders have leverage over network cameras will also be discussed.
As video surveillance heads toward IP and analog cameras still make up most security applications, video encoders and servers demonstrate a tidy migration path to digital. With the current recession in mind and technological development factors to consider, choosing analog cameras supported with video encoders or servers is becoming a trend.
Both video encoders and servers are devices that convert an analog video signal to a digital video signal over an IP network, such as LAN, Intranet or Internet, said Roni Klein, VP of Sales, Verint Video Solutions, Verint Systems Asia Pacific.
Rising Compression Standards
Currently compression formats used in encoders for video surveillance applications include M-JPEG, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264 and proprietary compression formats, with MPEG-4 being the most widely used.
Comparing MPEG -2, MPEG -4 and H.264
While MPEG- 4 is the most common compression format for video surveillance, H.264 is gaining momentum, said Steven Zhang, President and CEO of Fibridge.
"H.264 is a joined development between ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) and ISO/ IEC Motion Picture Experts Group, resulting in the best possible picture quality at the lowest bit rate," said Nafis Jasmani, Regional Sales Manager ASEAN of Axis Communications. In comparison to MPEG-4, H.264 retains MPEG-4's video quality but is three times more efficient in streaming and uses about half the storage space of MPEG-4, resulting in a 50 percent reduction of storage costs, said Beachler.
However, one reason users today still prefer MPEG-4 is that MPEG-4 is a matured compression format and many developers of network video related software currently support it. The software developed is integrated with features of the
"As compression algorithms can be implemented in very different ways, the standard itself does not imply quality. All H.264 is not created equally; variability exists in bit rate, video quality, resolution and the encoding profile," said Ruud Toonders, Product Marketing Manager IP Network Video EMEA, Bosch Security Systems.
An overly simple H.264 implementation may produce worse results than a proper MPEG-4 implementation, Klein cautioned. The technological struggle for H.264 lies between improving video quality image and sacrificing as little computing power as possible. As computing power increases, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 will be replaced by H.264.
The cost and availability of H.264 equipment has made the market slow to accept the new compression standard, which was more expensive than MPEG-4. "Now
Proprietary Compression
Bandwidth is an expensive resource, and requires better compression to utilize network resources more efficiently. Some video encoder manufacturers develop proprietary compression technologies, catering to different bandwidths to optimize video transmission and recording. TeleEye specializes in a compression format that can achieve 50 percent faster refreshing frame rate compared to MPEG-4 in transmitting video through broadband Internet connections, said Dr. Wallace Ma, CMO, TeleEye. For storage purposes, its
Flexible Platforms
With video encoders, flexible platforms differentiate between needs of large-scale applications and small-to-medium businesses. For less demanding applications, such as small-to-medium businesses, users may not require running multiple encoders on a single platform simultaneously. For larger applications, some vendors take one video input and use two or more compression algorithms to convert analog signals to digital, known as "dual streaming."
As today's video surveillance installations serve multiple applications of viewing, storage and remote client access, every compression algorithm has been
Dual streaming allows a video input to be encoded with different parameters, for a live-view stream and a recording stream with different frame rate and resolution settings, Klein said. Video can be viewed and analyzed at high resolution for superior clarity and analytic accuracy while recorded at a lower frame rate. This reduces data transport and storage requirements.
Scalability
As video encoders will be used in hybrid environments, scalability is an essential feature of differentiation. To be expandable, encoders should be able to accommodate several channels.
Expandable Channels
"Some encoders are designed in one box (with channels of 8, 16 or 32), whereas
Placing a different spin on multichannel encoders, users can choose encoder boxes that are essentially empty cases with available slots, insert encoders in the casing and digitize cameras six at a time. "When all slots are occupied, you can
Storage Solutions
Aside from flexible compression platforms and scalability, storage features receive a great deal of attention for video encoders. Because network connections may break down, memory cards are offered as a supplementary mode of storage, which can be attached directly to video encoders. These flash memory cards are used as local storage for redundancy purposes to prevent single points-of-failure that arise during streaming, said Jasmani.
Other options to record at the encoder level include recording via Internet Small
Technical Challenges
As security converges more and more into the IT world with IP networks such as LAN, Intranet, or Internet, many users are experts in safety and security, but are not familiar with its IT aspect, Klein said. For encoders, there are compatibility issues for third-party software and hardware. A great deal of digital information proceeds from the camera to the video management software, involving storage, streaming to remote surveillance, and other functions. Incompatibilities between
Non-Security Applications
Video encoders in security are expected to eventually be replaced by network cameras. However there is a range of ancillary applications for encoders that use installations and technologies similar to surveillance. These include remote monitoring, guidance and meeting, as well as broadcast, video conferencing, and video phones. The broadcast industry has used encoders in differing forms to stream broadcast TV across a network, Beachler said.
Encoders have also been used in machine vision applications, industrial control and military applications, including robotics and UAVs, where form factors and interfaces may differ but the encoding and streaming of video is used in a similar way, Rotem said.
Even for medical purposes, video encoders can be used to stream video sent from an ambulance to the serving hospital, speeding up processes and efficiency,
Paving the Way
"The video encoder market will be strong and dynamic in the years to come," said Junke Chen, Project Manager, Hikvision. The current industry is slowly but surely moving toward total IP solutions. Several vendors agreed that as network cameras are developing and becoming less expensive, they will replace video encoders.
However, it is important to remember that security remains a conservative business. With the economic recession, previous predictions are wavering and the way ahead is characterized by users with a marked preference for proven technologies. It is therefore prudent and strategic for video surveillance providers to take heed of the analog encoder landscape and offer clients flexibility when designing solutions.