Testing Arecont Vision's AV3105 H.264 Camera
by John Honovich, IPVM posted on Jul 07, 2009 About John Contact JohnArecont Vision's H.264 megapixel product line has drawn an immense amount of interest. At the beginning of 2008, Arecont was the first surveillance company to announce H.264 multi-megapixel and is currently the only manufacturer offering H.264 megapixel up to 5MP.
At the same time, a lot of questions have been raised about image quality, CPU utilization and actual bandwidth savings.
In this test of the AV3105DN with the MPL4-10 lens, we explore the performance and benefits of Arecont's H.264 offering.
Key findings include:
- Image quality was sharp with basic manual focusing of the lens
- Compared to MJPEG, H.264 CPU usage was consistently lower
- Bandwidth utilization for H.264 streams was up to 90% lower than MJPEG
- High motion or low lux levels caused H.264 bandwidth utilization to rise significantly, reducing efficiency gains
- Numerous problems existed using the Arecont Vision VMS software though 3rd party VMS software worked well
[As always, the test was not paid by the vendor. They loaned us a camera and provided technical support.]
Comments: Only PRO Members can view and submit comments
for this article.
Most Recent Industry Reports
BREAKING: Tyco Acquires Exacq on Jun 19, 2013
Tyco is spending $150 million in cash to acquire VMS/NVR manufacturer Exacq, who generated $54.6 million in 2012. This is one of the most expensive and significant deals in the video surveillance i...
Axis MP Pinhole Shootout on Jun 18, 2013
For covert surveillance, pinhole lenses / cameras are a common choice because they can be hidden behind walls, or in ordinary objects. Until recently, the only options were analog / SD. However, Ax...
Testing Pelco Sarix IL10 on Jun 12, 2013
Value / budget cameras are becoming increasingly important for even 'professional' oriented manufacturers and are viewed as a key means to expand IP to the lower end of the market. This spring, Pel...
2013 Mid Year Surveillance Guide on Jun 11, 2013
The 229 page, 2013 Mid Year Surveillance Industry Guide, covering the key events and the future of the video surveillance market, is now available. Our Picks Here are some picks of key news and s...
Testing Advanced Drivercam on Jun 07, 2013
Most dash or driver cams have few features - they record audio and video to an SD card which you pull out and manually review. That is certainly the case with the top selling CarCam on Amazon which...
Axis Beats Patent Troll on Jun 05, 2013
Axis has beaten one of the biggest and most powerful patent trolls, landing an important victory for the surveillance industry. Two years ago, Walker Digital filed suits against Axis and other secu...
Testing Sony's 6th Gen IP Cameras on Jun 03, 2013
Sony's long awaited 6th generation IP cameras are now available. In our 2010-2011 tests, Sony's 5th generation cameras were one of the top offerings of that era. However, the market has advanced in...
Testing Avigilon's Image Enhancement on May 27, 2013
Typically, VMS software displays video 'as is'. While there may be basic brightness, contrast and saturation controls, those require manual adjustment with significant tradeoffs. By contrast, Avig...
30 vs 60 FPS Shootout on May 21, 2013
30 frames per second used to be the maximum practical limit for surveillance cameras. Now, it is becoming increasingly common for IP cameras to support double that, 60 frames per second. (For backg...
#1 IP Camera Benefit on May 19, 2013
Megapixel was, far and away, the number #1 cited benefit in going to IP cameras / video. We asked over 100 integrators to name the "3 biggest reasons" they found, allowing them to name whatever the...