Arecont Vision Introduces Industry's First Full Line of H.264 IP Megapixel Cameras

Proprietary H.264 Implementation Supports 1.3, 2.0, 3.0, 5.0 Megapixels
With Up to 25X Greater Compression Than MJPEG.

Glendale, CA (January 7, 2008) - Arecont Vision, the industry leader in IP megapixel
camera technology, is debuting the industry's first full line of H.264 IP cameras at INTERSEC Middle East which opens on January 14th in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Comprised of four models offering 1.3, 2, 3 and 5 megapixels, the new line features
Arecont Vision’s proprietary H.264 compression technology to provide security professionals with the broad range of video formats and resolutions required for various applications. The new H.264 megapixel cameras support multi-streaming capabilities for the transmission of several H.264 video streams at different video formats, frame rates, and/or resolutions.

Arecont Vision’s new H.264 megapixel camera line was developed by applying the company’s world-class expertise in the field of FPGA-based hardware image processing. The resulting proprietary H.264 encoder implemented on a single FPGA delivers 80 billion operations per second, a feat that would require 25 Pentium computers. The compression improvement (stream size reduction) with high video resolution is up to 25 times greater than conventional MJPEG compression when capturing a typical street surveillance scene with moving vehicles and people. As a result, a high-quality 3 megapixel video stream at 20fps can be as low as 2 Mbps.

“Arecont offers the industry’s first and only full line of H.264 megapixel video surveillance cameras,” said Dr. Vladimir Berezin, President, Arecont Vision. "With up to 25 times higher compression than MJPEG, our new H.264 line of megapixel cameras offers the perfect combination of high resolution and bandwidth efficiency at a very competitive price point.”

Images from Arecont's H.264 megapixel cameras can be scaled to 1920 x 1080, or 1280 x 720 resolution with a 16 x 9 aspect ratio for a true High Definition format. Up to four virtual cameras can be streamed by selecting regions of interest within the image and acquiring them independently. Resolution is fully controllable making it possible to stream full resolution or less in order to conserve bandwidth. It is also possible to stream the full field of view at a lower resolution while streaming regions of interest at full megapixel density.

With support for compliant Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) and auto-iris control functionality, Arecont's H.264 megapixel surveillance solutions deliver full motion progressive scan resolution along with a host of features including Ultra Forensic Zooming to zoom in on recorded video with simultaneous viewing of zoomed and full field of view images. The new cameras will also support RTP protocol for direct streaming of H.264 video into thirdparty software players, such as Apple’s QuickTime, as well as custom TFTP protocol for streaming into Arecont Vision’s own AV100 software, and other custom software applications developed using Arecont’s SDK (Software Development Kit).

Arecont Vision's new H.264 1.3, 2, 3 and 5 megapixel cameras are available for evaluation with full-scale production of the single- and dual-sensor camera models slated for the second quarter of 2008. Arecont will release quad-sensor panoramic cameras with their proprietary H.264 compression technology later in 2008.

About Arecont Vision

Arecont Vision is the leading manufacturer of high-performance megapixel IP cameras and associated software. Arecont Vision products are made in the USA and feature proprietary low-cost massively parallel image processing architectures MegaVideo® and SurroundVideo® that represent a drastic departure from traditional analog and network camera designs. These innovative technologies enable Arecont Vision to deliver multi-megapixel digital video at standard IP camera price points.

www.arecontvision.com

Megapixel Security Camera Market Poised for Rapid Growth

IMS Research - 04 February 2008

In its latest report on the world video surveillance market, IMS Research predicts that over the next three years, the market for megapixel cameras will grow at a compound annual growth rate in excess of 100%. By 2009 it is forecast that over half a million units will be shipped a year. The market has overcome a number of hurdles to get to this position.

Perhaps the biggest issue that megapixel cameras have faced to date is how to cope with the volume of data produced, which demands more bandwidth and storage volume. However, improved compression algorithms, more widespread gigabit Ethernet deployments and reductions in storage prices mean that these issues are being addressed.
Megapixel cameras have also suffered from low-light performance issues which have limited their deployment and end-user appeal. This issue is being addressed by the sensor manufacturers and the low light performance of megapixel cameras is gradually improving, such that they can now compete in environments where previously lower resolution cameras with better light sensitivity were used.

Many end-users have shied away from megapixel cameras because of the high cost compared with standard resolution cameras. However, it should be noted that often this extra cost is offset because a single megapixel camera provides the same coverage as several standard resolution cameras. The price of megapixel cameras is also falling and this will likely attract more end-users to ‘spec’ these cameras for their projects.

The market has been held back to some extent by the low number of companies supplying megapixel cameras. Over the next two years the industry can expect to see a number of new companies enter the market, particularly some of the larger video surveillance camera manufacturers. This will likely benefit the end-user as improved feature sets will be offered at lower costs as the competition heats-up.

Report analyst Alastair Hayfield comments, "This market has been held back while a range of technical problems have been overcome. However, the market is now poised for a period of rapid growth."

If you would like an interview with an expert in this area, please contact Simon Harris at simon.harris@imsresearch.com or +44 1933 40 22 55.


About IMS Research

IMS Research is a supplier of market research and consultancy services on a wide range of global electronics markets. The company is supported by headquarters in Wellingborough, UK and offices in Austin, Texas and Shanghai, China. IMS Research regularly publishes detailed research on security electronics markets such as CCTV & Video Surveillance, Access Control, Fire Detection & Suppression and Intruder Alarms.

Megapixel Surveillance Cameras

Hi,

In this blog, I will give information on megapixel trend in video and megapixel ip surveillance cameras used in the video surveillance camera systems, machine vision and industrial applications.

IP network cameras have been widely used in the security camera applications during last two years. Early IP cameras have had low resolution such as 320x240 pixels, poor image quality and low frame per second such as 10 frame per second. JPEG image resolution of VGA (640x480 pixels) at 25 or 30 frame per second has become the standard customer demand during last two years. Many IP camera installations has been made using mostly VGA resolution IP cameras.

But, recently there is a growing demand on megapixel IP cameras. Megapixel IP cameras have a lot of advantages against 640x480 pixels resoulution IP cameras, though megapixel cameras have some technical difficulties such as large bandwith need and huge storage hardware consumption.

The world video surveillance market for megapixel cameras will grow at a compound annual growth rate in excess of 100 percent over the next three years, according to a study by IMS Research. By 2009 it is forecast that over half a million units will be shipped a year. The market has overcome a number of hurdles to get to this position, according to the industry analysts.