PSISeptember2017

PANEL
Back in business again?
UK analogue video camera
technology sales are reportedly on
the up. What does the PSU Panel
think the reasons for this might be
and what does it mean for the
video surveillance/security market
in the future?
Up until recently we were told by some
manufacturers that IP would dominate
analogue systems into extinction and
anyone still insisting on fitting analogue video
was living on borrowed time. However after
talking to a number of people at IFSEC this year
it became apparent that the trend is actually
turning full circle and the sales of analogue
cameras is going up. What can we make of this
state of affairs? The PSI Panel is in session...
Gareth Williams –
Oprema
The UK is the most mature
CCTV market in the world with
wide reaching coax
infrastructure already in place.
With the development in HD
over coax technology, such as
HDCVI, TVI, AHD, installers can offer end users
HD quality images and even 4K over their
existing coax infrastructure. This solution can
provide a less time consuming and disruptive
upgrade path compared to re-cabling with CAT5
and IP. Another potential driver for analogue
technology is installer familiarity and the barrier
of retraining the engineering force, and the
potential added layer of IT complexity that an IP
system can present. Considering these added
features and benefits, combined with the
relative low cost of the hardware and ease of
upgrade, analogue technology will continue to
hold its own in the marketplace.
We are currently experiencing further
research and development, which may not have
been the case three or four years ago, into HD
over coax technology with analytics and 4K now
becoming available. However, we see a
significant majority of new build projects using
IP technology as the de facto standard.
Underpinning this is interconnectivity and
integration with other systems such as
intrusion, access control, fire and BMS, which is
significantly more achievable over IP
technology. Using video combined with
www.psimagazine.co.uk
analytics as a form of business intelligence is
now more prevalent in spaces such as retail,
whilst safe city schemes are evaluating facial
recognition technology which will no doubt
increase the need for IP.
Pom Chen – Hikvision
UK & Ireland
Analogue technology has
improved significantly over the
past two years giving a new
lease of life to legacy security
systems. The ability to display
ultra-HD 4K images over
regular coax cables provides installers with the
opportunity to offer 21st century quality images
using infrastructures which can sometimes be
decades old.
With the increased image quality naturally
bandwidth requirements and storage capacity
are increased, this is no longer an issue for
professional security installers, systems
integrators or their end-user customers with the
advances in smart codecs. For example the
Turbo range from Hikvision benefits from a
H.265+ smart codec which can reduce
bandwidth requirements by up to 75%
compared to the previously used H.264 codec
allowing for high quality images without the
worry of heavy bandwidth usage. Storage costs
can also be significantly reduced as the smart
codec provides ultra-high definition image
quality without the need for large storage
requirements making this solution a win-win for
security installers and their end-user customers.
(continued over)
“With the development
in HD over coax
technology, such as
HDCVI, TVI, AHD,
installers can offer end
users HD quality
images and even 4K
over their existing coax
infrastructure”
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