Axis Multi-Imager Panoramic / PTZ Q6000-E
Axis has launched its first multi-imager panoramic, entering in to a promising market with limited suppliers, most notably Arecont.
However, Axis has taken a unique approach to this camera.
In this note, we examine the features, pricing, strengths and weaknesses of it.
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This is certainly a unique approach. I'm curious to see how this product does, my experience is that the 180 degree panoramics tend to get far more use than the 360's and a big draw of both approaches is to limit the overall visibility of cameras installed. This does address the other major selling point of multi-imagers, which is reduced cabling and install time.
Also, I'm guessing to make this work as intended you need some specific VMS integrations? I wonder how licensing is done, especially when very few PTZs have a true 360 degree coverage requirement (eg: they're mounted to a building corner and typically need 270 degree or less coverage.) Is this 1, 2, or 5 channels of video?
I believe it's 5 channels of video - 4 from the panoramic, 1 from the PTZ.
It's one IP address, so under Milestone's rules, perhaps it's just 1 camera license. I am sure this will become clearer as this rolls out.
Not to totally sidetrack this, but...
I'm not super familiar with Milestones licensing, but if it's 1 license per IP address, could you put all your IP cameras behind an internal firewall using port-forwarding and write a custom driver to break them out by channel to appear like a multi-channel encoder or multi-sensor camera? Or it seems like you could "easily" write some iptables rules and a little bit of nginx coding on a cheap linux box to mimic the API of a 32 channel Axis encoder? At some point that would quickly add up to huge savings in license costs.
Its one license per Mac Address in Milestone. In this scenerio the router would present the Mac's. :) But I get what your saying yes you could "pretend" to be a 32 Way Encoder and have 16 HD IP cameras.. I think alot of the axis encoder use an IP / Mac per 4 channels.
No, given that the router is a router, the Milestone server would only be aware of the MAC address of the router itself, not of any cameras behind it.
I meant "wouldn't present" so you might add one but you can't have duplicate Mac's in M/S :)
One Mac per device, You license the MAC to create a DLK the DLK is registered against the SLC. In the old days different devices create a different channel requirement on the MAC. I've seen a twin channel ip camera ( one built in channel and one analogue input) let you have 2 but a 4 way encoder have 4 channels :madness: Of course now the analogue channel has been removed, but you need to be careful on the IP/MAC the device actaully has like the 16 axis units, which have a 4x macs - IP's so 4 license requirement :)
4,000$ isn't that too high for a saving in cable and a network port VS a standard PTZ with a multi-imager ex:arecont ( incase the above VMS licensing doesn’t work).
Nidal, agreed.... if you want both. If you want just a panoramic multi-imager, that's the issue.
So far given poll results, comments and the fact this does not provide a direct competitive product to Arecont's multi-imager product except in maybe a very small percentage of cases, I'd say except for Axis fans and dealers, this is pretty insignificant offering.
It would be interesting to get Axis's input on the intended markets and expected market share for it.
Maybe they could shed some light on an angle we are missing.
We talked to Axis. It is marketed towards larger PTZ users, which they clearly have a lot of. It will help them differentiate against bigger PTZ rivals like Pelco, Sony, etc.
I was equally perplexed on what the target market was. However they did say they believe it would be used for traffic cameras over an intersection as an example of a use case.
Maybe there is a use in casinos or along the front lines in retail?
Seems like Axis got the idea from Scanzone to have a PTZ and multiple cameras in a single enclosure on a pole www.sanzone.ie. I think the Axis product looks a little more refined(cheaper)
Such combinations have been around for a decade or more. The first one I remeber is DyanPel - combo with analytics.
Most recent i've seen is Vivotek's panormaic PTZ.
Are the 4 (360) imagers Day / Night?
Update: Axis has released a demo video showing how the cameras work together. Video below:
Interesting. Have they mentioned anything about how many they are selling?
Axis rarely gives commentary on what individual products they are selling, so I didn't see any on this one and we have not asked.