IP network cameras are dominant in new projects, however, what should you do with existing legacy systems? Daniel Ogilvie from Singmai spoke to asmag.com on their new device that can help increase image quality and extend the useful life of existing legacy systems.
In recent years, IP network cameras are dominant in new projects, however, what should you do with legacy systems?
Daniel Ogilvie from Singmai Electronics spoke to asmag.com on their new device that can help increase image quality and extend the useful life of existing legacy systems.
“You want your camera images to be more detailed and less noisy so you are considering moving from SD video (NTSC or PAL) to HD. But there are problems. First, there is a big cost increase. Secondly, HD video needs more space to record its images so your disc drives need to be larger to record the same time. Thirdly, whereas SD video can be transmitted long distances across low cost coaxial or twisted pair cable, to transmit HD we either have to compress the video at the camera, increasing the cost and power consumption of each camera in the installation, or transmit using analogue HD (AHD, HD-CVI etc.)” explains Ogilvie.
contrast enhancement (view of tunnel) showing on the left the wide dynamic range input bleaching out details in the blacks and then, on the right, the processed image from the SM03 showing the details in the wall of the tunnel
Singmai introduced a new video processor, the SM03, which processes SD video images using a variety of techniques to produce an image almost indiscernible from all but the best analogue HD images.
“A lot of SD video processing actually creates artefacts and noise in the image. Properly processed SD video can be of surprisingly high quality, and 960H even more so. Our new processor allows you to retain all those cost and ease of use attributes of SD” says Ogilvie.
The SM03 allows you to immediately realise better quality from your existing SD installations, delaying the time when you need to completely re-invest in new cameras/DVRs to move to HD. “Just because something is called HD, doesn’t mean its performance is. Older AHD and HD-CVI offered no more resolution than well processed NTSC/PAL and even the newest version the performance increase is marginal” added Ogilvie.
The cost benefit of the SM03 comes from eliminating the need to replace and install all of the old cameras and DVRs and monitors. In addition, it offers the advantage of longer record times, noise reduction and adaptive contrast enhancement which are do not exist in Analog HD.
The improvement on an SD image that can be achieved using the SM03 (sharper image and no artifacts -3D comb) compared with conventional SD processing you find in all DVRs (2D comb)
The SM03 can also be used to improve the quality of old analogue tape recordings. The SM03 is ideal for processing old security video tape (e.g. VHS) recordings, having a special mode to recover detail that is otherwise lost. A specially adapted version of the SM03 (SM16) can also process those multiplexed time-lapsed tape images.
Other features of the SM03 include:
• 12-bit analogue to digital converter.
• Proprietary video decoder, including adaptive 3D comb filter.
• Sample rate converter.
• Full frame synchroniser.
• Adaptive median filter.
• Adaptive contrast enhancement.
• Recursive video noise reduction.
• Audio delay.
• Colour edge enhancement.
A 4-channel version of the SM03 is also available.
For more information on the SM03: https://www.singmai.com/Modules/sm03.html
For further information about this press release, please contact Daniel Ogilvie at daniel@singmai.com