Over the years, Dahua Technology has established itself as a leading video surveillance solutions provider. This year, Dahua will roll out the new generation of its HDCVI technology and“true” end-to-end 4K solutions.
Over the years, Dahua Technology has established itself as a leading video surveillance solutions provider. This year, Dahua will roll out the new generation of its HDCVI technology and“true” end-to-end 4K solutions.
HDCVI 3.0
A pioneer in the so-called HD-over-coaxial technology, Dahua rolled out HDCVI back in 2012, a breakthrough technology that delivers HD video — long associated with IP — over the user’s existing coaxial cable. After HDCVI 1.0 and 2.0, this year Dahua will launch the new generation of HDCVI — HDCVI 3.0 — at ISC West.
According to Fu Liquan, President of Dahua, a defining feature of HDCVI 3.0 is the HDCVI 3.0 DVR supports not only HDCVI but also HDTVI and AHD edge devices, a major innovation for users who are no longer limited by the type of camera they can choose. “For a long time, for the end user choosing a particular HD analog technology, they have to side with a particular alliance. That’s no longer the case with HDCVI 3.0,” Fu said. “For HDCVI 3.0, we’ll add interoperability or multi-mode features into storage. That means the HDCVI 3.0 DVR supports not only our HDCVI but also other signals, including AHD, TVI, and IPC. For users, it protects their investment, as with our DVR you can choose whatever type of camera based on your own preference or your own use scenario.”
But what truly sets HDCVI 3.0 apart from its predecessors is its high-definition and intelligent features. In terms of high definition, the maximum resolution currently supported by analog is 1080p, and HDCVI 3.0 seeks to change that. “For HDCVI 3.0, we’ll introduce 4-megapixel cameras, and research and development work is currently being done on 4K cameras, which we plan to announce in the second half,” Fu said.
Further, Dahua will incorporate more intelligent features into HDCVI 3.0. These include facial recognition, people counting, heat mapping, and fisheye-dome smart tracking whereby the user can zoom in and out on an area of interest on a panoramic view. These are features that are otherwise found in IP solutions.
“Dahua believes that high-definition and intelligence should not be reserved for IP only. They should be applied to analog as well,” Fu said. “For the overwhelming existing analog install base, they want extendibility and continuity of their infrastructure.”
‘True’ 4K
As for Dahua’s IP offerings, it will offer what it calls “true” 4K, rolling out solutions for each part of the video surveillance process, namely image capturing, transmission, storage, and display.
At the end of last year, the company already launched a series of 4K cameras including 12-megapixel bullet and IR dome cameras. But a challenge facing customers these days is bandwidth and storage management, amid ultrahigh-resolution images captured by 4K cameras. Compression, therefore, becomes critical. Dahua uses two approaches to compression: either the equipment is H.265-ready, or it supports Dahua’s own Smart H.264+ technology, which builds upon and optimizes the existing H.264 architecture. The technology uses various algorithms to lower bitrates, one example being motion-still extraction that extracts the still portion of the image and does more compression to it. “The end result is compression by as much as 70 percent for still images, as well as 40 to 50 percent for daylight images with moving objects,” Fu said.
Aside from these, Dahua also has 4K display solutions that are especially helpful in city surveillance projects. One example of how this has helped end users is a solution for police in China’s Jianxi Province, where the police monitoring station comes equipped with a giant TV wall made up of 500 60-inch panels, allowing operators to pinpoint every minute detail shown on the screen.
“What we offer is not only the front-end capturing of image, but also everything from transmission to storage to display. This capability to offer true end-to-end 4K solutions is what sets up apart from others,” Fu said. “For our competitors, their end-to-end 4K may cover the frontend and the backend, but to add display … not a lot of players can do that.”