IP CAMERA LEARNING & RESOURCE CENTER

Vivotek are a Taiwanese company established in 2000. They say they are committed to providing total solutions in the IP CCTV surveillance industry and their large product line-up is a testament to that. Their products range from small home security cameras to high performance day/night speed domes. They also market video encoders, NVRs and recording software solutions.

One thing that strikes us about the Vivotek range is that their cameras often contain features you don’t commonly find in IP cameras of any other range and the camera we are looking at today is no different.

The IP7142 is a compact outdoor-ready fixed CCTV camera which contains built-in infrared LEDs for around-the-clock surveillance and in complete darkness.

For more information and purchasing, please see:

UK Store: Vivotek IP7142 outdoor day/night static IP camera

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IP cameras can be installed in both indoor and outdoor locations giving you the flexibility to choose the right camera for your needs.

Outdoor IP cameras come in two distinct variations. They can either be suitable for outdoor use with the addition of an external enclosure (such as an Axis 214 or Panasonic BB-HCM580) or they can be placed outdoors with no additional protection (such as a Mobotix M22M-IT-D22 or Panasonic BL-C160).

External enclosures are normally rated against the ingression of solid matter such as dust, dirt etc. and against water penetration (rain, snow etc.). The rating is normally expressed as an IP number and the values attributed will give the overall protection rating of the enclosure. Most housings also come with fans and heaters and are thermostatically controlled to keep a reasonable ambient temperature so the camera view doesn’t steam up with condensation in colder climates.

Cameras which require no additional enclosure benefit from being a lot more compact than traditional CCTV enclosures. This offers discreet outdoor surveillance. They are also much easier to install, normally supporting Power over Ethernet so they can be connected up with a single cable with no need to hire an electrician to run power cables.

Remember, outdoor cameras can also be used for security around the home. There are small, unobtrusive, easy to install cameras which are ideal for monitoring your property, vehicles, garage, entranceways etc. and some even have infrared lights or bright white LEDs to enable you to see better in low-light conditions.

More information

For your convenience, we create product bundles for cameras which require additional outdoor enclosures to ensure that when you order an outdoor camera from us you get all the parts you need:

Outdoor IP Cameras for the US >>

Outdoor IP cameras for the UK and Europe >>

Interlacing is a way used by IP camera manufacturers to speed up the refresh rate of their cameras.

An IP camera sensor is made up of a mesh of pixels. The colour value of each pixel is transferred to the computer as a series of numbers which the computer then interprets back into colours and outputs on your screen. However, in particular with megapixel cameras, there can be millions of pixels to retrieve, which can require a large amount of processor time, either slowing the camera down, or pushing the price up as more powerful processors need to be used.

Since IP cameras take many pictures per second, the time between images is very small, leaving very little time for objects to move significantly. With this in mind, interlacing was developed whereby instead of reading each line of pixels one after another, only every second line is read. On the first pass the camera will read lines 1, 3, 5, 7 and so on. Once the last line has been read, the camera returns and reads lines 2, 4, 6, 8 etc, meaning that each frame only half the image is read, saving time and bandwdth. This means the camera can achieve a greater frame rate without requiring more powerful hardware.

The downside with this is that since objects are moving between shots, the position of the objects in view will change between shots. With slow moving objects this is fine, but with fast moving objects such as cars or people, a tearing effect occurs along the edges of the object.

The image on the left is from a progressive scan camera, the image on the right is from an interlaced scan camera. As you can see, the difference with moving images is huge.

Pixel is short for picture element and is the term used for each of the small dots of colour on a computer screen which make up a picture. It also refers to the small receivers on IP camera sensors which transfer the light recieved into data.

Each pixel has a colour value of red, green and blue. Varying the values of these three colours will alter the overall colour of the pixel. With IP cameras, the sensor records the red, green and blue values for each of these pixels and then transmits the values to your computer, which then rebuilds them in an image on your screen.

Home security is not a new concept. People have been looking for ways to protect their home for many years and are now beginning to look at new technology to help them in their fight. Traditionally the solution of choice for the home security aficionado would be the humble burglar alarm. This represents a good deterrent but is of little use when it comes to catching intruders in the act or capturing evidence for the authorities (and let’s face it, would normally do more to annoy neighbors than catch crooks).

IP camera technology has, over the years, moved from the realms of a fancy gadget to a serious home security solution and this is no more evident with the launch of Panasonic’s latest offering the BL-C160.

Aimed at the home user the BL-C160 offers plenty of advanced features at an entry-level price which represents great value for money. It is a static camera with a fixed lens offering viewing angles of 58 degrees horizontal, 45 degrees vertical and like other products in the Panasonic’s BL-range of cameras it’s easy to set up and use.

For more information and purchasing please see:

US - Panasonic BL-C160A Outdoor ready static IP camera (available soon!)
UK/Europe - Panasonic  BL-C160 Outdoor ready static IP camera
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It can be quite a challenge to find a suitable lens for megapixel cameras. It seems that the technology in an average IP camera progresses at a much faster rate than lens manufacture. After all, crafting lenses is a highly skilled industry with very traditional roots while the electronics industry tends to move faster than a freight train.

So when we heard that Axis had began to replace the lens that ships with their popular 211M camera with a brand new megapixel lens to improve picture quality, we had to take a look. Any improvement in megapixel image quality is very welcome and of great benefit to the IP CCTV industry.

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