PSIFebruary2018

TEST
The camera is very
solidly built with a
metal case and good
thermal management
supporting a stated
operational and
storage range of -30°
to +60° C
NOTE: This PSI Product Test
was carried out by an
independent third party,
not editorial staff. The
manufacturer had no input in
the review or the final result
(continued from p14)
stated maximum resolution. It is possible that this
is a feature of the sensor that is not supported by
Dahua’s current recorders. The generic nature of
the operational manual does not explain such
anomalies.
There is no removable infrared cut filter at
switch-over to low light level, the camera depends
on its sensor’s performance and simply removes
all colour components from the image. The
analogue output maintains its colour subcarrier
burst signal to prevent colour noise. The A&E
specification document for the camera does
though state that “The Box camera shall offer a
mechanical day/night IR cut filter…” so this could
be a problem for tender response if quoted.
Playback from the local SD card shows a
Timeline that can be adjusted between 24, 2, 1
hour or 30 mins duration. General, Event, Alarm
and Manual recordings are colour differentiated.
Transport controls are simply Play/Pause, Stop,
Next Frame, Slow and Fast speed.
Video clips from the SD card can be
downloaded as native .dav or as .mp4 files. The
.dav files can be played using the supplied Smart
Player software though it was noted that its
functionality was quite limited.
Four Privacy zones can be set based on easily
re-sizable rectangles that can be shaped and
dragged to their required locations.
Two audio input channels and a Line-Out are
available on the rear panel of the camera and a
front mounted internal microphone can be used if
the camera is not fitted into a housing. In practice
the camera vision and sound were reasonably
well synchronised on live images but a delay of
around half a second was noted on SD card
recordings. This may be improved by different
resource and resolution settings.
The video dynamic range is stated as an
impressive 140dB but this does need to be turned
on and does reduce the overall sensitivity. While
not stated as a digital WDR it does depend on
sensor output processing to achieve the extra
20dB of range. Alternatively, there are Backlight
compensation and Highlight Suppression modes
that can be utilised to suit the environment. These
settings can be assigned to separate Day and
Night profiles to take advantage of the likely
scene and these can be time scheduled or input
triggered.
A large amount of image processing is used to
reduce image noise at low light levels.
Supplied with the camera is the SmartPSS
software. This does identify as a Dahua product
and can be used both to display multiple camera
images with up to a 64-way screen split, map
displays, event handling and recording capability.
System latency at 1920 x 1080 was an
impressive 355ms average when used with IE11
and 414ms with SmartPSS display. At 3840 x 2160
(8MP) this increased to an average of 580ms for
IE11 and 557ms for SmartPSS.
Alarm handling is flexible with a variety of
analytic modes available. Two relays can be
directly controlled from the browser or a suitable
control system and these can be associated with
internal detection methods.
Image loss and network associated alarms can
be raised to generate alerts or send notifications
as appropriate.
IVS features such as Face detection are
relatively simple to set up and provide good
results if care is taken to follow the manual
instructions. Detected faces are highlighted and
can generate recordings, snapshots or alarm
events. Audio detection is level based and can be
set to trigger if a threshold is overcome. A simple
on-screen level meter indicates the sound and
trigger level for test and configuration purposes.
There was a tendency for the alarm schedule to
default to a single day’s activity so it is important
to check all settings when establishing alarm
actions. The non-specific manual does not always
help in this regard but is essential reading for
some of the trip-wire and missing object alarms.
The camera is very solidly built with a metal
case and good thermal management supporting a
stated operational and storage range of -30° to
+60° C.
Conclusion
It is to be hoped that some of the initial problems
encountered here are due to an early release of
the support CD and information. A model specific
manual would be advantageous for such a
potentially complex device.
It is likely that lens choice will be limited for
some time unless this mount finds more common
usage in the security industry. Various compact
mirrorless digital cameras use the M43 format so
this may be the best way to provide a variety of
options, but controlled zoom versions may be
limited and expensive.
It is of concern that manufacturers will state
that a camera will perform in colour down to
0.0005Lux without providing any proper context
for their measurement process. This may lead to
major difficulties with handing over systems if
tenders are based on this information alone
without site testing.
Apart from the concerns regarding the initially
available information this is a very sensitive
camera with flexibility of configuration.
8.0 out of 10
14
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