IP CAMERA LEARNING & RESOURCE CENTER

It’s good to see one of the leading specialists in video surveillance security systems start to realize the potential of IP. Pelco have a long heritage in the CCTV industry and are well respected for providing robust solutions and solid, reliable products you can trust. We are excited to see them move into the IP video market.

The Pelco Sarix range is the latest from Pelco and offers megapixel, high-resolution monitoring up to 3.1MP. These cameras are fully IP and are powered using Power over Ethernet for quick installation. You can also choose between a standard color model or a day/night model which has an IR cut-filter allowing it to detect infrared light in low-light conditions.

What is it?

The model we have is the 3.1 megapixel IX30DN. We’ve paired it with a megapixel 2.8-8mm varifocal lens (DC-iris controlled), also from Pelco. This is the true day/night model so should react to changing light conditions and switch to infrared mode at night. The Sarix series also supports H.264 compression which addresses the problem some installations can face with bandwidth saturation.

Pelco tell us their megapixel cameras are the best in their class. Let’s find out.

What’s in the box?

The camera is supplied with:

• 1x CDROM containing installation/operation manual, device utility manual and safety instructions, device utility and install programs for Java Runtime Environment, Quicktime and Adobe Reader.
• 1x Ferrite core
• 2x booklets, a quickstart guide and important safety instructions

When you buy the camera from Network Webcams we bundle the most appropriate lens with the camera so you will receive the best possible images.

Installation

Installation is fairly simple and typical for an IP camera.

As with most IP cameras new to the market the IX30DN is Power over Ethernet (PoE) compliant so using a standard PoE midspan you can easily supply both power and data connections to the camera through the standard Ethernet cable. This greatly simplifies installation making it a quicker, easier and more cost-effective way of installing security cameras.

The camera’s default network and login details:

IP address: 192.168.0.20

username: admin
password: admin

For the initial setup Pelco supply a setup tool on the CDROM called ‘Pelco Device Utility’. This is easily installed from the CDROM and used to initially find the camera on the network thus taking the hassle out of installation for non-technical users. You simply plug the camera in, allow the network to give the camera an IP address, run the Pelco Device Utility to find the camera and click on the ‘Connect’ button to access it.

Special mention must go to the CDROM being a hybrid disc which will run on a Windows based machine or a Mac. Pelco are the first IP camera manufacturer we have seen to offer a full installation program for the Mac and it’s really great to see. We wish more manufacturers would cater for Mac users.

Our Setup

When we set up the camera we did it the manual way. We used a crossover cable and attached the camera to our PC directly. We then changed the IP address of our PC to be compatible with the camera’s default IP address and accessed it using a web browser.

Don’t get caught out by the Power On Self Test (P.O.S.T.) routine of the IX30DN. From its initial powering it will take approx. 3 minutes to respond. This caught us out to begin with as we re-checked out network settings wondering why we couldn’t access the camera. Luckily the Pelco Device Utility works as it should in this respect, displaying the camera only after the 30 seconds have passed when it is accessible on the browser and not before.

Auto Back Focus (ABF)

One feature we really like is Auto Back Focus (ABF). This allows the back focus of the camera to be adjusted automatically so that the optimum image from the camera is acheived every time. This feature can be performed by holding the ‘F’ button down on the camera for a few seconds or from the camera’s setup pages. This is useful when the engineer sets up the camera or for adjusting the focus of the camera remotely.

Quicktime

By default the camera is set to its primary stream which is full resolution 2048×1536 running in H.264 at 2400Kb/s. It uses Quicktime to stream H.264 video and the first thing the camera told us was to update my version of Quicktime to 7.5.5 or later. This can be done from the CDROM or by visiting Apple’s website.

Network Settings

The network settings are fairly typical of an IP camera. Both static and DHCP addressing are supported as well as the option to give the camera its own hostname. No ability to change the HTTP port number from the network settings page tells us that the camera is designed to be integrated into IP video surveillance systems, not for monitoring remotely across the Internet… That’s not surprising, we can’t see many people purchasing a high-end security camera soley for use as a webcam.

User Interface

The camera opens with the live view. The interface has a clean, minimalist design and very easy to use. Icons denote basic functions such as stream selection, device listing, multi-camera viewing modes and snapshots.

It is also possible to maximize the live viewing area to fill your display or open in a pop-up window which can be maximized to full screen size, ideal for dual head displays and we found that the more we used the interface the more we started to like its simplicity.

However, inconsistency in UI design (some options save immediately, others require you to hit save button) suggests areas which need improvement. We found ourselves especially confused when setting customer stream profiles as the selection process was not intuitive at all.

Image

The IX30DN supports both H.264 and MJPEG video with dual streaming capabilities. From the camera’s setup pages you alter the preset stream configurations for both the primary and secondary streams.

With no support for digital pan-tilt-zoom (DPTZ) a user will never get the full benefit of the camera’s 3.1 megapixel resolution using a standard computer monitor as the camera’s own interface always shrinks the image to fit the size of the display. We think the only way a user will see a 3.1MP image from the camera directly is if they have a monitor with a native resolution greater than 2048×1536 (3.1MP) but we don’t have such a thing in the office so we couldn’t test. I put this question to Pelco who told me that no, there is no DPTZ in the camera but you should be able to perform that function using a recording solution such as a third-party application or an Endura-based NVR. We know that the camera is meant to be integrated with a recording solution of some kind but other manufacturer’s of megapixel cameras such as Mobotix or IQeye allow you to view the full megapixel image when you access the camera directly.

The image can be adjusted using a number of controls in the camera under the ‘Imaging’ heading. The general settings allow you to adjust the sharpness, contrast and saturation or you can let the DSP control these settings automatically.

Other pages under imaging allow you to control the exposure, backlight compensation, focus, white balance, gamma correction etc. so you can fine tune your image to suit your display. A nice touch is the dynamic histogram on each page which shows the results of any changes you make in a graphical format.

Performance

We took some example shots from the Sarix IX30DN:

The IX30DN is a true day/night camera offering infrared sensitive black and white video at night. This shot we have taken around midnight using a Raytec RAYMAX RM25-120-IP infrared lamp. The results are impressive for a room which is essentially pitch black:

Image taken at night in pitch black conditions (0 lux) with illumination from a Raytec Raymax RM25-120-IP IR lamp

As a comparison, same image as above taken during daylight hours.

Comparative model

Here is a shot taken at the same location with a comparative model, the Axis Q1755.

As you can see above, the images from the Pelco IX30DN are very high quality. We especially liked the color reproduction as it delivered bright, vibrant natural color. The night performance was also very good as demonstrated above with the use of a Raytec IR lamp.

Advanced Features

Alarm Management

The camera supports alarm events and has an FTP client and SMTP emailing capabilities. You can set up the camera to send images by FTP on a periodic basis or set up alarms using an external sensor which will record images to an SD memory card or send them by email/FTP. The only thing missing from the camera is motion detection. This is handled by the recording solution whether that be an Endura-enabled NVR or a software recording applications.

SSH

The camera supports secure login using SSH (Secure Shell). This should enable us to access the camera using a command-line SSH client. No details are included in the manual about what level of control we have over the camera using SSH, in fact the manual states it’s only for use by Pelco support. I asked Pelco about getting a list of commands for this but was told there was none available at the moment. I’ll keep trying…

Conclusion

Pelco entering the IP video market is validation that the CCTV industry is making a concerted push towards IP video. We’ve taken a look at all of Pelco’s IP-capable cameras and their Sarix range is their first product that is fully IP. For their first outing they have produced a high quality camera we would recommend for installation in medium-large sized businesses or in enterprise solutions.

The image quality is good and color reproduction is excellent and while it’s not going to compete with the Axis Q1755 in terms of frame rate it will still give a respectable 12fps at full resolution. We found that it controlled the exposure really well too giving a nice bright image without washing out the skyline.

The more we used the camera the more we starting to like the simplistic interface but on the downside we felt it needs a little more development. Inconsistency in user interface design sees some pages save your settings automatically while others require the click of a submit button. We felt the way the user is expected to configure their streams very confusing too as not all resolutions or frame rates are available for selection at all times. The only way to access some of the settings was to clear everything and start again from scratch, something we only found out after reading the help pages.

We also found that the camera doesn’t cope too well with changing lighting conditions and doesn’t always automatically adjust the focus to the scene. We noticed this when we checked on the camera during our evening infrared test. We found the camera slightly out of focus and had to readjust using the remote auto back-focus (ABF) controls to get a sharp image. On the plus side the ABF controls are extremely useful for getting the focus right at the point of install or making fine-adjustments remotely once the camera is in position.

It’s a positive step into IP video from Pelco. Their camera is stylish, functional, easy to set up and use. It compares favorably with comparative cameras on the market from IQeye and Mobotix in terms of quality but perhaps lacks some of the performance of the Axis Q1755. We hope that some of the user interface issues are looked at for future products and we look forward to seeing what Pelco have for us next…

For more information:

Pelco Sarix IX10DN
Pelco Sarix IXE20DN
Pelco Sarix IX30DN