In the current market where HD Analog (be it AHD, HD-CVI, HD-TVI or else) beats IP Megapixel on price and many features, what benefits are still left for choosing an IP Megapixel solution ??
- Cat.5e/6 Cheaper Cabling: one can use $7 - $10 bucks pretty-good quality video baluns with RJ-45 jacks built-in to transmit Analog HD over network cabling without any problem (forgoing coaxial RG59/6 completely). For short distances (200 ft./60 Meters) one can just buy a $22 bucks siamese cable for video + power and forget about the Cat.5 entirely. No need for PoE using siamese cables.
- CPU and OS Licenses: Genuine Intel processors and Microsoft Windows licenses take a huge chunk of the cost of an IP NVR. SD Analog had managed to work since forever with Linux and Embedded processors. Of course HD Analog has followed the same course without needing Intel or Microsoft.
- Software features: honestly in my years of experience, operators in their daily duties don't use much more than: looking at Live Video and Search for recorded events. The FREE VMS
available to manage standalone HD Analog DVRs do this perfectly of course. Video analytics on IP Megapixel VMSes, I still haven't seen users exploiting this. Some users are even scared of them. A half-baked video analytic software is worst than having none I think.
- Special features like FishEye panoramic cameras dewarping: even though it gives users a real panorama view with a single camera replacing 3 or 4 HD Analog fixed cameras, many customers when they crunch the numbers, find that even putting 6 HD Analog fixed ones is even cheaper than a single FishEye.
- And let's not even talk about IP technology's unavoidable TCP/IP latency even on a local LAN without any routing to the outer Internet. Analog clearly wins on this one with less latency and real time video.
Maybe the only 2 things that comes to mind where IP Megapixel wins is MORE STORAGE space available under "one roof so to speak" and catering to the IT crowd:
A customer could still argue that stacking 4 standalone Analog HD DVRs on their server rack with 4x SATA HDD drive bays inside each one; and still get it way cheaper than a SINGLE 4U Rackmount NVR with 16 SATA HDD Drive Bays. If analog HD DVRs include hot-swappable features in the future, that would be the final nail in the coffin for IP Megapixel.
Catering to the IT crowd (which many of these guys see the standalone DVRs as cheap un-sexy boxes) may be favorable, but is not really an advantage when they have to justify with numbers to their upper management the extra cost of IP Megapixel. I've yet to see an executive approve a budget on "subjective feelings" from the IT crowd rather than hard numbers. In my experience, management only see the objective numbers and if the system can do what it does, specially in tough economic times with budget cuts here and there.