Examining Avigilon's First H.264 Camera Offerings

JH
John Honovich
•Published Sep 30, 2010 00:00 AM
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Avigilon has announced an HD H.264 camera line. Previous Avigilon cameras only supported JPEG200.

Another significant addition for this line is ONVIF support. Previous Avigilon cameras only worked with Avigilon's own VMS.

The HD H.264 line consists of dome (indoor and outdoor options) and box form factors, all of which have a 1/3" CMOS sensor with 1MP and 2MP variations. The cameras will ship commercially starting October 25, 2010. 

In contrast to Avigilon's current HD IP (JPEG2000) cameras (refer to our report on the 2MP & 5MP HD IP cameras), the HD H.264 camera line introduces a number of new features:

  • H.264 and MJPEG codec support
  • ONVIF support
  • Opitcal Zoom and Lens included- The box cameras have an integrated 5-85mm, 18x optical lens, while dome includes a 3-9mm, 3x optical lens
  • Motorized zoom and auto focus in setup
  • Web interface for configuration
  • Analog video out
  • Microphone line (Audio in)

The MSRP of the H.264 720p box camera with a 4.7-84.6 built-in optical zoom lens is $645 USD. The MSRP of the same camera with 1080p resolution is $795 USD.

The simultaneous addition of H.264 and third party VMS support (via ONVIF) will significantly increase the appeal of Avigilon to the broader market. H.264 rectifies the bandwidth and storage tax of JPEG2000 only. ONVIF support now allows existing systems and new non-Avigilon deployments to consider mixing in Avigilon cameras with cameras from other manufacturers.

Finally, the price point is competitively solid, includes a premium features (built in optical zoom) and allows users to buy Avigilon cameras without the relatively expensive license fees of their NVR software ($290 per camera - Note Avigilon has released a lower cost 'standard edition' but the licensing fees are still $174 per camera).