IP Cameras
IP cameras are widely seen as the future of video surveillance. Unlike traditional analog security cameras that require a dedicated cable to connect the camera to video management systems, IP cameras can connect to standard computer networks, allowing dozens of IP cameras to be transmitted over the same cable to any location with Internet access and sufficient bandwidth. As of 2009, though widely promoted, only 1 out of every 5 buyers choose IP cameras. In the next 3 to 7 years, IP cameras are projected to be the dominant camera type selected. However, there are still key challenges for IP cameras and you must understand IP camera advantages and disadvantages before purchasing. If you do choose IP cameras and currently have analog cameras, you will need to determine how to migrate from analog to IP cameras (an often complex and costly process especially because there are no standards for IP cameras).
Most Recent Coverage on IP Cameras
"Over and over, we are told that this is the most common and fundamental problem techs have gettin..."
"Multiple styles of PTZ are available, though little clear-cut guidance on which is best for a giv..."
"Getting high quality images in low light is a common challenge. With the problem being so widespr..."
"You are wrong about the best aspect ratio for surveillance, at least statistically speaking. In t..."
"Nighttime video may crash your network. During the day, under ideal conditions, bandwidth remains..."
"How often do integrators fight temperature extremes to keep cameras operating? In our latest Inte..."
"Getting started with IP cameras can be daunting for those without experience in computer networks..."
"Reducing your surveillance bandwidth means lower storage costs and better remote monitoring. As s..."
"Camera installation is fundamental to the security industry, but in many cases, little thought is..."
"Encoders play a secondary, but vital, role to IP cameras in surveillance systems, normally relega..."
"Run as fast and far as you can, if you are looking for a good low light camera and the manufactur..."
"Some of the most popular cameras on the market, like Panasonic and Sony, are especially tricky to..."
"Integrators may find the low price of cube cameras a tempting reason to propose them for surveill..."
"While H.264 is often considered a single 'thing', many different 'types' of H.264 exist. These ty..."
"Using IR for night time surveillance is a popular choice. The added non visible light can improve..."
"Monitoring criminal hotspots, where graffiti, drug transactions, and dumping are taking place is ..."
"How many PTZs are actually used? What's normal? These are especially interesting questions as mul..."
"Providing backup power for equipment is generally accepted as best practice in surveillance syste..."
"How you stream video has a major impact on quality and bandwidth. Typically, when people think st..."
"Installing surveillance in an elevator can be challenge. Unlike regular camera deployments, cabli..."
"This directory collects our lens test reports and related lens information.Lens TestsHD Lens Shoo..."
"The following is an alphabetical list of IP camera manufacturers and their default usernames and ..."
"PTZ cameras have been a staple of the industry for years, often being installed as the only means..."
"The following directory lists all of our camera shootouts. These shootouts pit 4 - 8 different su..."
"When selecting lenses for surveillance cameras, there are two fundamental options: varifocal and ..."
"When troubleshooting or testing IP cameras, it is very useful to have clear and immediate visual ..."
"In using fiber for surveillance applications, there are typically two scenarios that users must a..."
"With the growing use of megapixel cameras and associated low light concerns, the use of IR illumi..."
"Iluminar has announced a new IR illuminator for use in 'super' covert applications. Iluminar..."
"The question of what recording mode to use is an ongoing debate in the surveillance industry. Som..."
"Auto back focus has become a more common feature in the past couple of years, with many, if not m..."
"Determining the correct Field of View (FoV) for each surveillance camera is one of the most impor..."
"What IP camera manufacturers have integrators had the worst experiences with? Over the last month..."
"Low-cost IP camera provider Pixord has released two panoramic models targeting much lower price p..."
"What IP camera manufacturers do integrators really like the best? Over the last month, we ran an ..."
"Dome cameras have become, without a doubt, more popular in the past few years. Surveys of manufac..."
"One issue which IP surveillance systems must address is syncing of time between cameras and the V..."
"Last month, we released the first ever Megapixel lens test where we did a shootout between 5 lead..."
"Perhaps the most fundamental decision in selecting a camera is its form factor. For fixed cameras..."
""Too expensive" is probably the most frequent complaint about IP cameras. While IP cameras have c..."
"IP cameras, like PCs, take some time to boot up. And just like PCs, the amount of time can vary g..."
"While image quality and reliability get the lion's share of discussion when talking about IP came..."
"Before picking a specific camera or manufacturer, you should consider a few fundamental issues. T..."
"Conventional wisdom says that lenses make a big difference in image quality but the question rema..."
"Motion detection is an important element of many, if not, most surveillance systems. It plays a c..."
"Frame rate selection has a major impact on bandwidth consumption for surveillance cameras. While ..."
"PTZs, like fixed cameras, are moving to megapixel. With PTZs, though, real questions remain about..."
"One of the industry's top growing myths is that IR illumination massively reduces storage and ban..."
"Often users will find a camera that they trust and will prefer to get that camera rather than ris..."
"One of the most heated video surveillance debates is when the market will 'tip' to IP cameras, ty..."
"Dealing with direct sunlight is one of video surveillance's toughest problems. Avoiding the sun i..."
"When thinking about maximizing image quality, resolution is usually the first thing that comes to..."
"Getting quality surveillance images at night can be quite a challenge. A number of techniques, wi..."
"Gain control is a critical, though often overlooked, factor in low light surveillance video. It i..."
"One of the most hotly debated topics is the size and growth of IP cameras - both because of futur..."
"If you optimize a camera's settings, how much can you improve its performance? An interesting and..."
"Indoors, surveillance cameras are used all over. Given the generally small areas monitored and th..."
"Capturing license plates is one of the best ways to identify suspects and intruders. As such, it ..."
"Headlights are a painful problem for video surveillance. Figuring out how to overcome headli..."
"The response to our camera shootout series has been phenomenal with more than 10,000 reads in the..."
"With surveillance cameras, deciding what lenses to use for testing can be a difficult decision. W..."
"Parking garages are a key area for using surveillance cameras. Thefts, assaults, vandalism and ac..."
"Intersections are an important area for using surveillance cameras. Accidents, thefts and traffic..."
"As megapixel surveillance cameras become mainstream, many have begun questioning the value of PTZ..."
"Most people prefer color over black and white but when it gets dark out, almost all surveillance ..."
"The whole point of megapixel is better image quality but what if megapixel was actually worse tha..."
"In this note, we examine the DM81xx, a new chipset and camera reference design from Texas Instrum..."
"Ensuring high quality surveillance video can be difficult. The challenge starts with specifying w..."
"The rise of megapixel cameras is literally making Standard Definition cameras look bad. We see th..."
"Video quality at night can be very poor. Even cameras that rate their minimum illumination as .1 ..."
"This report provides in-depth recommendations and a template for optimally specifying surveillanc..."
"One of surveillance's biggest challenges is bright sunlight, especially when that sunlight shines..."
"A new form of iris control, called P-Iris, is emerging as a challenger to manual and auto iris le..."
"In this note, we contrast the cost of powering cameras via Power over Ethernet vs a non-powered s..."
"For home surveillance, you can get really fancy and expensive but how simple and cheap can you ge..."
"While everyone knows that PTZs are the right tool when you want to see far away, how far can a PT..."
"When selecting a camera, you can choose from a number of different form factors and options. Each..."
"On Dec 21st, we held a live 'IP vs Analog' Debate webinar. The full 60 minute webinar is embedded..."
"TRENDnet offers one of the most well known and least expensive IP cameras in the budget/home mark..."
"We disagree with Axis's claim that IP is lower cost than analog for 14 camera installations. We b..."
"In this report, we analyze trends, features and pricing for IP cameras. We achieved this by using..."
"Broken cameras are some of the most common and, ironically, solvable problems in video surve..."
"2010 has been a landmark year for IP camera adoption, with surging sales and widespread mainstrea..."
"We have completed a broad testing program of budget IP cameras for use in the home or SMB markets..."
"Simplifying remote viewing is a key element in choosing and using IP cameras for home and small b..."
"This report provides an extensive comparison of budget, home and SMB IP cameras. Inside the premi..."
"Encoding video optimally is critical for IP video surveillance systems. Should you choose H.264 o..."
"D-Link is one of the most commonly selected IP cameras in the budget/home market. In this report,..."
"Selecting the 'right' frame rate is one of the most frequently discussed and debated aspects of v..."
"Increases in camera resolution are the most significant force improving the quality and usability..."
"PTZ surveillance cameras remain a key tool for surveillance operators, routinely the cornerstone ..."
"Megapixel cameras foster hope for much higher quality surveillance video but how much more and in..."
"Driven by Hollywood sensationalism, public interest and expectations for miraclous video surveill..."
"As cameras offer more options (storage, analytics, etc.), their power needs will certainly rise. ..."
"A blog post from Genetec offers an interesting example of lower level IP camera optimizations tha..."
"While IP has many advantages over analog, ease of installation is not one of them. IP cameras are..."
"Equipment distributor Anixter's deeply flawed H.264 study reveals key issue in the use and market..."
"We recommend all surveillance camera comparisons be performed with normalized exposure settings t..."
"Exposure, and the tricks manufacturers play with exposure, are key to accurately and fairly asses..."
"In our ongoing camera testing, many of the megapixel cameras get really hot, really fast. So hot,..."
"One of the most misleading and common problems in evaluating IP cameras is drawing comparisons to..."
"Encoders, often called streams in Europe or Digital Video Servers (DVS) in Asia, are an increasin..."
"Fears are rising that IP cameras can and willl be hacked. At Defcon, a demonstration showed an IP..."
"In a July 2009 report about calculating video surveillance bandwidth, I mentioned that calcu..."
"Megapixel was the most dominant trend in IP cameras over the first half of 2009. So dominant was ..."
"In the last year, IP cameras have made great strides and while there are still important barriers..."
"A few people asked about the difficulties for adding VMS support for IP cameras. A key difficulty..."
"Buying video surveillance cameras on-line is a relatively new but growing trend. Traditionally, e..."
"One of the most frequent complaints by both industry outsiders and megapixel camera vendors is ho..."
"Though popular, PTZ cameras often create a false sense of security. They make for great demonstra..."
"IP cameras have a bad reputation of working poorly in low light conditions. It's part of a greate..."
"What is the best way to test an IP cameras? We have established guidelines for our tests. These g..."
"SVC, or Scalable Video Codec, can dynamically change the resolution and bit-rate of video streams..."
"With hundreds of manufacturers to choose from and little comparative information available, choos..."
"This directory collects and presents webcasts from leading IP and Megapixel surveillance cameras...."
"Integrators often cite bandwidth as a key concern for deploying IP cameras. Let's examine what th..."
"Why are 4 out of 5 of you still not choosing IP cameras? The IP video vendors keep trying to educ..."
"Getting high quality surveillance video can be challenging. Indeed, many reports or surveys indic..."
"SVC will solve a key problem of H.264: While H.264 generates a fixed quality and sized video stre..."
"Though available for many years, Auto-Tracking PTZs are generating renewed interest with Axis' re..."
"Migrating from analog to IP can be tricky, mainly because most everyone has existing infrastructu..."
"An in-depth Q&A with industry leaders on IP vs CCTV has been published by Security Technology..."
"The overwhelming majority of people buying cameras today do not choose IP cameras. While most pe..."
"While Bruce Schneier is a brilliant security thinker, I find his recent arguments against CCTV to..."
"CODECs are a critical element of choosing, designing and using video surveillance systems. CODEC..."
"IP cameras have become accepted by the security industry. Yet most cameras are still analog and ..."