Subscriber Discussion

Dvtel Announces 4K Camera Line

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Ari Erenthal
Sep 29, 2014
Chesapeake & Midlantic

Here we go, ladies and gentlemen.

Bold tagline, too. "Your new evidentiary standard. 4K evidence you need at a price you can afford."

Thoughts?

JH
John Honovich
Sep 29, 2014
IPVM

Bold maybe but poor track record of delivering on such claims, e.g. Testing Lowest Bandwidth Camera? (DVTel Quasar)

And with so many 4K cameras being announced by so many open manufacurers who are not oeming dynacolor, what's interesting?

I think dvtel's analytic cameras are interesting becuase there are few options and ioimage has a good track record, but i don't get the 4K ones

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Ari Erenthal
Sep 29, 2014
Chesapeake & Midlantic

Well, the offering that gets to the market first will have an advantage, assuming it doesn't suck. They also are careful to highlight how 'affordable' it is, which isn't a claim you'd see in, say, the average Axis ad.

JH
John Honovich
Sep 29, 2014
IPVM

The Axis 4K camera is $999 MSRP, which is fairly affordable. I believe the Axis P1284e is now shipping so what advantage will DVTel have with far more limited distribution?

Ultimately, though, if one wants affordable, there are many inexpensive 10MP models already from Arecont and ACTi, to name two of the big ones.

JH
John Honovich
Sep 30, 2014
IPVM

DVTel answered a few questions:

  • Low light performance: "The low light is better than most 1080p’s and 45% more sensitive than the other 4K’s being introduced to the market. Also, our lens is F1.2 vs. the other 4K’s we’ve seen are F1.6 and F2.0. We are in the process of finalizing our LUX rating but attached are the datasheets for now.
  • Price: "MSRP is $1680. Another key affordability factor is bandwidth/storage and our preliminary testing shows that our 4K’s with its enhancement to our advanced motion processing implementations allows it to achieve lower bit rate at 4K 30FPS then the common competitors 1080p’s at 30FPS. Another example is that our 4K’s support four simultaneous streams of 4K+1080P+720P+D1 and the VMS will choose the most optimal stream to match the client viewing surface so that it most efficiently utilizes the processing resources and doesn’t require costly PC’s.
  • ONVIF S immediately and G (on board storage) later this year.

Low light and bandwidth needs to be tested. That said, We are generally sketpical of super bandwidth claims, especially because of the previous DVTel camera having the same claim that we refuted in our testing.

The camera pricing looks to be about average, but certainly not on the low end.

U
Undisclosed #1
Oct 23, 2014

John,

They are bashing 'legacy megapixel' cameras but... doesn't DVTel offer megapixel cameras too? I was almost expecting to hear them state, "and just one 4K DVTel camera can replace 29 analog cameras!"

By the way, is there any possibility you'll be testing the Quasar cameras again in 2015? Your 2012 report was really helpful. It would be nice to know if they have improved over the last couple years. The local DVTel reps claim, "Quasar cameras are best in class and offer tremendous bandwidth/storage savings while delivering arguably the best picture in the industry." Arguably? I'm not sure they're prepared to win that argument.

JH
John Honovich
Oct 23, 2014
IPVM

Arguably!

Our plan is to test their 4K cameras as part of a group shootout sometime later this year or early next when there are enough production ready / available cameras. First up is the Axis 4K, test results will be released next Wednesday on that.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
Oct 24, 2014

Although others have come out with 4K offers (Axis, Bosch, IQEye, etc.) have you come across any in dome form factor?

JH
John Honovich
Oct 24, 2014
IPVM

Sentry360 is marketing 4K domes. I believe you are already aware that DVTel is too.

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