Testing Avigilon's 2MP and 5MP JPEG2000 Cameras

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• ****displaying **** *****, ******** *** ************* ****** the resolution and size of the stream displayed on the user's monitor based on the size of the pane and the preference of the user. In our VMS test, this reduced a 15 Mb/s native stream to 3-4Mb/s displayed in a 2 x 2 matrix. When the pane was was expanded to full screen, the system automatically increased the resolution for the larger pane. This can reduce demands on client workstations, especially in monitoring large numbers of multi-megapixel cameras.
• ******** ***reduce ******* **** **** **** by eliminating frames periodically. Their data aging segments video into 3 segments, halfing the video as it moves between segments (e.g., segment A is newly recorded at full frame rate, segment B is older video with the frame rate cut in half and segment C is the oldest video with frame rate quartered compared to original recording). Data aging settings can be set per camera.

Physical ********

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Configuration *** ************

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Bandwidth ****

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Image *******

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**** *** *** *** *************** ******* (positive *** ********) **** ****** ****** your ************* ** *** *******:

• Image ******* (********): Image quality was solid to strong all the way around including WDR and night. Night performance was on the high end. WDR was above average, only clearly behind the Sony CH140 in cameras we have tested. Their dynamic display adjustments contributed to the image quality improvements (even for third party cameras as we mentioned in the quality analysis review above).
• Bandwidth *********** (********): Bandwidth consumption was not only far higher than H.264, it was considerably higher than the tests we performed with MJPEG cameras including IQ's 2MP camera and Stardot's 5MP camera (in the range of 50% higher bit rate for comparable resolution and ips). H.264 HD cameras are increasingly commonplace. Avigilon's cameras consume dramatically higher bandwidth levels (e.g., 15 Mb/s more for a 1080p 15fps) than H.264 cameras. This can result in additional networking and storage costs.
• High ********** ****** ********** (******** *** ********* ********* ** *********): Their remote viewing optimization can allow for large number of HD cameras to be viewed remotely (by dynamically scaling video). However, this may also be accomplished in other systems by frame dropping or by dynamically switching amongst multiple streams as the video pane size changes. Their data aging can offset the higher bandwidth. The percentage reduction depends on the duration of each segment bucket. Assuming 1 week at full, 3 weeks at half and 4 weeks at quarter, this would reduce storage by 57% relative to full recording of JPEG2000. However, given how much lower the bit rate of H.264 is, Avigilon's storage consumption is still likely to be significantly higher than H.264 cameras recorded for the same time period at the full frame rate for the entire time.
• Value *** *****: While the cameras are relatively inexpensive, buyers should factor in the relatively high cost for Avigilon VMS software licenses (at $290 USD per camera) and the additional storage (and potentially networking costs) for Avigilon's higher bit rate.