HOWTO: Setup Multi-Camera viewing in Panasonic IP cameras (BB and BL)
Multiple Panasonic IP cameras from the BB and BL range can be viewed together through one camera interface by using the Multi-Camera page. This guide walks you through how to set up this feature for viewing your cameras locally and over the Internet.
HOWTO: Embed the live image from your IP camera in your web page. Part 2 – Panasonic
Continuing our series, this article focuses on the consumer range of Panasonic IP cameras, specifically the cameras which have a BL or BB prefix.
These ranges of Panasonic cameras are very popular and sell very well. They cover a wide range of uses from entry-level (BL-C1/C20) up to a professional pan-tilt-zoom model (BB-HCM581) and this guide will work with them all.
This guide is suitable for the following Panasonic cameras:
BL-C1, BL-C20, BL-C101, BL-C121, BL-C10, BL-C30, BL-C111, BL-C131, BL-C140, BL-C160
BB-HCM3xx Series, BB-HCM5xx Series, BB-HCE481
Key differences between the Panasonic BB-HCM331A and BB-HCM531A
Panasonic recently launched updated models of their more popular IP cameras for the home or small business security market.The new model not only brings an updated user interface which makes it even simpler to operate (and much more responsive!), but also it contains some quite significant upgrades too.
Below we take a look at the key differences of one of their most popular models, the BB-HCM331A vs the new BB-HCM531A. (these will also be true for the BB-HCM311/511 model)
| BB-HCM331A | BB-HCM531A | |
| Power over Ethernet | No | IEEE802.3af PoE Compliant |
| Video | MJPEG | Simulaneous MJPEG and MPEG-4 |
| Max. frame rate | 12fps @ 640×480 MJPEG | 30fps @ 640×480 MPEG-4 |
| Full screen mode | No | Yes (ActiveX only) |
| Multi-camera monitoring | 12 cameras (4 simultaneously in 3 groups) | 16 cameras (16 cameras simultaneously) |
| Analog video out | No | Yes, analog composite |
You can view more information about these products here: