Sen feb2016

Security Managers ◆ Integrators ◆ IT Managers ◆ Installers

& Networks February 2016 Issue 373

Cloud Snapshot

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l News Report: 2016 - The Year Ahead l Monitoring: Home Automation Trending l Special Report: Suretek’s Sure Thing l SecTech: Zoom, Tilt, Pantechnicon!

l New Technology: Sony STARVIS l Uniview 1080p IPC542E-DUG Starlight l Dahua’s DH-IPC-EBW81200P 12MP Fisheye l Exacq Video, Access, Intrusion for NEO

Juniper Networks and FOX Sports.

FOX SPORTS is Australia’s leading sports producer and broadcaster, broadcasting an average of 23 hours of LIVE sport per day into 2.3 million homes around Australia with over seven million potential viewers through FOXTEL, AUSTAR and OPTUS TV. FOX SPORTS also provides the FOX SPORTS NEWS channel via IPTV through FetchTV, produces a dedicated FOX SPORTS NEWS TV mobile phone channel and provides mobile content to all three major Australian telcos.

Challenges

Solution

In moving from SD to HD production, the impact on capacity and performance of contribution and production networks is significant. Increasing the amount of native HD content for FOX SPORTS subscribers meant the existing FOX SPORTS delivery and contribution solutions needed a major review and critical assessment. For program contribution, FOX SPORTS typically used a combination of one-way-satellite and telco digital video network (DVN) services. However, these solutions are generally bandwidth restricted, requiring heavy video compression and encoding, which can severely impact the overall broadcast quality delivered to subscribers.

The FOX SPORTS solution comprised two elements—portable outside broadcast (OB) equipment and a fixed-service router deployment. FOX SPORTS deployed two Juniper EX4200 Ethernet switches in a Virtual Chassis configuration to each of its 12 OB units. The OB units travel with the main broadcast production vehicles, allowing interconnection of the venue media and data services to the FOX SPORTS TV center.

FOX SPORTS’ desire was to secure high-capacity services in key sporting locations, removing costly satellite capacity and eliminating the need for heavy video compression.

In addition, FOX SPORTS also wished to deploy a converged video, data and communications solution to enable full two-way communications between the various venues and the TV station. The net result would be a huge increase in its HD capability and quality, while streamlining back-end HD broadcasting production processes. To achieve this, FOX SPORTS decided to deploy its own private network infrastructure over fiber carrier services and upgrade its existing network environment. This solution enables FOX SPORTS to transmit multiple streams of HD and SD video, and voice and data content from multiple locations over a single, homogenous network. It is a huge amount of data with a requirement for very high levels of quality of service (QoS) and reliability. To build its new virtual private network, FOX SPORTS required a new Ethernet switching and routing layer on the existing fiber network.

The OB units remain parked in the sports venue for the duration of the match with the Juniper EX4200 switches connecting to the FOX SPORTS network using especially rugged optical interface cable and connectors. FOX SPORTS deployed two MX240 routers in its Sydney TV center as well as the Juniper Networks Network and Security Manager solution.

According to Tomkins, the EX4200 switches were the ideal solution for FOX SPORTS, offering the high availability and carrier-class reliability of modular systems with the economics and flexibility of stackable platforms.

“Unlike most deployments, our switches are installed in cases that move around the country, so we needed a solution that’s very reliable—bomb proof,” said Tomkins. “When you’re in the business of live broadcasting, the availability of your network and the reliability of your network infrastructure is critical.”

“The EX4200 is robust and very fault-tolerant hardware,” Tomkins continued. “It offers a redundant power supply to ensure we remain operational even during a power outage.

Its scalability was also a draw card. It comes with 24 ports, so it can support our future requirements as we grow.”

To see how Juniper and Hills can help with your requirements, call 1300 HILLS1 or visit hills.com.au/branches to find your nearest branch.

T RU ST E D T EC H N O LO GY

editorial s ec u ri ty e l e ct ro n i c s & netwo r ks fe b r ua ry 20 16 issue 373

More Anything? More Everything!

ECHNOLOGICAL development of security electronics and networks has become tectonic, with everything in a state of motion. It’s a paradigm that demands more from everyone – more development, more education, more technical training, more standards. And behind it we’re seeing more investment in infrastructure, facilitating expansion of the capabilities of solutions demanding a living and breathing comprehension of multiple layers of networking.

Everywhere in the market there’s change. You see it in management software, in control panels, in devices – whether cameras or intrusion alarm sensors, or access control readers and expanders. And much of this change swirls around the governing imperative of networkability.

From a business and an operational perspective, there are some challenges ahead and the commoditisation of surveillance cameras is just one area to watch. Just as CCTV manufacturers have developed the capacity to give users brilliant video solutions, price has become the overriding factor in decision making. If there’s a benefit to the price pinch in the surveillance market, it’s the likelihood manufacturers will be pushed to deliver higher resolutions with comparable bit rates and low light performance to current 1080p cameras.

The optical solution to more resolution and better low light performance is not rocket science – it demands larger BSI sensors and

T

By John Adams

Just as CCTV manufacturers have developed the capacity to give users brilliant video solutions, price has become the overriding factor in decision making. appropriately well-designed lenses. In CCTV, compression is another area of interest – Vivotek has just announced full H.265 integration with Genetec – and we should see additional developments there.

Access control has been largely insulated from the commodisation we’ve seen in CCTV. Incumbent manufacturers have worked hard on development and backwardscompatibility with their existing installed bases, while services like cloud-based access control have been slow to take off. Something to consider is the likelihood huge IT infrastructure providers might start looking at access control as an entry to IP-based global automation solutions. Another possibility is the filtering down of controller functionality to devices.

Instinct suggests, however, that the nature of access control is not going to be overturned any time soon.

When it comes to intrusion detection systems, it’s impossible to ignore the tilt towards wireless in residential and small business applications. Some of this shift is good, some less so. Many home automation systems from outside the industry are decidedly weak in terms of detector technology but these devices drag down overall quality and R&D as prices fall. For larger applications, the best intrusion detection technology is probably thermal cameras and while prices are falling in this area, market penetration remains relatively shallow. Battery powered wireless CCTV cameras for video verification in domestic applications will continue to grow – though quality really needs some work.

A challenge to be faced is the

diffusion of comms technologies and standards in security and home automation. It’s an area that needs addressing before more widespread penetration of smart home technology can take place. One of the worries about generic comms tech is that it opens up the market. One of the worries about proprietary comms tech is that it creates an opportunity for one dominant proprietary technology to become a de facto standard and crack the market wide open – something like Z-Wave.

Remote management of electronic security solutions is something else we’re going to see expanding at all levels of the market – residential, small commercial and at the enterprise level. Users are comfortable with remote access now and they expect it. But a fundamental that needs work from suppliers in this area is latency, which can make real time operation of systems using mobile devices more laborious than just using an old school keypad or wireless remote. An expansion of remote access will come hand in hand with the need for paying attention to the security levels of mobile devices and data networks – that means more talking with IT people and a willingness to stay on top of threats and solutions.

One thing that is certain about 2016 – the elevated threat profile faced by many commercial and government organisations, the need for sales and useful RMR, the demand for solutions that offer superior operational performance – all these imperatives make staying on top of fast-changing technology more compelling than it’s ever been. n

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D BI ON’ T SH G C MIS OO AM S ou TO ER r UT A www.sectechroadshow.com.au short, sharp and perfectly focused!

SEE LATEST TECHNOLOGY FROM our roadies

r e t u r n i n g to yo u r c i t y

ions t a r t s i g re open !

1 m a rc h

perth 4th May 2016 Adelaide 9th May 2016 Melbourne 11th May 2016 sydney 16th May 2016 brisbane 18th May 2016

Enquiries please contact Monique Keatinge +612 9280 4425

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feb 16 24: 2016: The Year Ahead We asked some of the industry’s leading manufacturers to give us an idea of what they planned to release over the next 12 months in order to see if there are any surprises in store.

Feedback suggests integration, diffusion, hardware price falls and serious camera makers dropping in on the enterprise market in a much bigger way.

32: Starlight, Star Bright

sensors for video surveillance cameras, improving low light performance and consequently reducing motion blur, noise and digital smoothing.

48: Round, round, get around Dahua’s DH-IPC-EBW81200P 12MP ultra HD vandal-proof IR network fisheye camera is a real piece of work that offers end users extraordinary situational awareness, including face recognition through 360 degrees at ranges up to 4.5m from the lens in good light.

52: Zoom, Tilt, Pantechnicon!

SECTECH Roadshow gets into gear early May and gives end users and installers in Australia’s state capitals a chance to get their mitts on all the latest electronic security solutions.

We took a look at Uniview’s 1080p IPC542EDUG Starlight full body camera recently and came away impressed with the camera’s overall capabilities. This is an affordable camera that does very well with WDR, extremely well in low light between 2-10 lux in colour. And between sub-1 and 2 lux in night mode this camera really blew us away.

54: Sure Thing

42: Sony STARVIS

There’s been a lot of talk about cloud over the past couple of years but it’s hard to get an accurate sense of exactly where end users, installers and

Sony’s STARVIS sensor technology increases the sensitivity of back-illuminated CMOS image

Alarm monitoring software and hardware manufacturer Suretek’s re-imagining of itself highlights the huge changes sweeping through the alarm monitoring industry, as well as clearly setting out real opportunities.

60: Cloud Snap Shot

48

68 54

10

suppliers are with cloud – we try to get a sense of this technology’s true market penetration.

Security Managers ◆ Integrators ◆ IT Managers ◆ Installers

& Networks FEBRUARY 2016 ISSUE 373

CLOUD SNAPSHOT

66: Exacq Video, Access, Intrusion for NEO Exacq Technologies, distributed locally by Hills, has introduced a native integration with the capable DSC PowerSeries Neo intrusion and home automation solution.

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regulars 10 news Latest business, product and technical news from Australia and around the world.

44: monitoring Home automation is continuing to trend, with overseas takeup suggesting it’s likely local monitoring providers who are doubling down on home automation capability are on the right track.

68: editor’s choice What’s new from our manufacturers.

72: helpdesk Our team of electronic security experts answers your tough technical questions.

l News Report: 2016 - The Year Ahead l New Technology: Sony STARVIS l Monitoring: Home Automation Trending l Uniview 1080p IPC542E-DUG Starlight l Special Report: Suretek’s Sure Thing l Dahua’s DH-IPC-EBW81200P 12MP Fisheye l SecTech: Zoom, Tilt, Pantechnicon! l Exacq Video, Access, Intrusion for NEO

SEM216_1cover.indd 1

28/01/2016 3:44 pm

Editor John Adams Advertising Manager Monique Keatinge Customer Service Annette Mathews tel 61 2 9280 4425 annette@bridge publishing.com.au Design Tania Simanowsky e: taniasdesign@ optusnet.com.au Subscriptions 11 issues per annum One year (11 issues)

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Canon ME20F-SH 1080p Light Sabre p.12 ABS Seeks Data On Access Control Solution p.16 Bosch Creates Robert Bosch Smart Homep.18 ICT Opens New Facility in Auckland p.20 BGWT Takes On Auriga PAVA Distribution p.22

news in brief febr u ar y 2 0 1 6

ingram Micro Appoints Gavin McSherry

compiled b y j ohn adams

David

David Charlton, Ingram Micro

NSW Roads and Maritime Services Enhances CCTV Solution

■

NSW Roads and Maritime Services is replacing PTZ, thermal, dual PTZ/thermal and fixed CCTV cameras at 15 critical infrastructure sites across New South Wales as part of Stage 2 of a major CCTV upgrade.

According to Roads and Maritime Services, the CCTV systems installed across a number of its critical and strategic RMS infrastructure assets are vital for their protection – Stage 2 of the upgrade will enhance the ability for RMS to monitor and protect these key assets.

In Stage 1 of the upgrade, the system’s video management system was recently replaced with

a system that can provide transport cluster-wide interoperability and advanced functionality. The CCTV system was also given expanded storage capability and VPN network functionality, providing storage for the higher quality images without reducing the period of storage across the network. Stage 1 of the CCTV upgrade also replaced 160 analogue fixed cameras on the Sydney Harbour Bridge with IP cameras.

Stage 2 will replace the remaining cameras across the 15 sites currently monitored by the RMS control room with IP cameras that allow the application of analytics and further automation of monitoring systems.

IN a clear sign of a serious commitment to the electronic security business, Ingram Micro has appointed Gavin McSherry to drive its Queensland and Northern Territory security business.

“We are pleased to welcome Gavin to the team,” says David Charlton, general manager ANZ for Ingram Micro’s Physical Security Division.

“Gavin brings a wealth of knowledge and industry experience with him, which we believe will greatly assist in delivering a very high level of customer satisfaction.”

According to Charlton, McSherry has more than 18 years’ electronic security experience, mostly in distribution having previously worked for Hills Limited and most recently, Video Security Products.

Dahua At QSS Launch Party Goes Starlight n DAHUA At QSS Launch Party at Watsons Bay in Sydney gave integrators and consultants a prime opportunity to check out just how well Dahua’s Star Light cameras perform in challenging applications.

Guests were welcomed by Dahua’s Damien White and QSS NSW branch manager Bob Jason and the setting sun over Sydney’s skyline to the West gave everyone the opportunity to check out the cameras’ WDR capabilities. A rack held a group of Dahua’s best cameras and a video wall and server/workstation

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allowed everyone to take a look at performance between dinner courses as the night wore on.

Needless to say, performance of the big 30x optical Star Light PTZ was strong, even at 10.30pm. Good in backlight, exceptionally good over dark water and with a zoom powerful enough to view climbers on the Sydney Harbour Bridge at a distance of about 6 nautical miles during daylight hours and clouds of wheeling seagulls at 10.30pm.

There were also some

great demos of Melbourne intersections being monitored by Dahua 4K cameras - they made for compelling viewing.

Many integrators took the opportunity to jump onboard with Dahua’s partnership program.

Needless to say, performance of the big 30x optical Star Light PTZ was strong, even at 10.30pm.

news

FLIR Systems Acquires DVTEL for $US92 million

f e b rua ry 2 0 1 6

Canon ME20F-SH 1080p Light Sabre n CANON has released its new ME20F-SH full frame 1080p multipurpose camera which features a massive maximum ISO of 4,560,000 and indicates the future of low light cameras looks bright.

The ME20F-SH sensor is slathered in 2.26 million titanic 19-micron pixels – bigger pixels mean less noise - leaving no doubts about what its strengths will be.

Before we go on with this, no one is going to install this camera on the wall of a building any time soon – it’s expensive – but the point is that unassisted low light performance remains in the sights of high end manufacturers. Minimum subject illumination is claimed to be less than 0.0005 lux at 75dB gain setting., Images from Canon’s

ME20F-SH still look clean at 102,000 ISO in testing, which is really something.

Another recent release is Sony’s a7S II, which offers more than 400K ISO. Tests show noise beginning to impact on quality at around 25,000 ISO, which is still amazing performance, considering the pinnacle of ISO was just 1600 not many years ago.

Usually there’s a point with ISO elevation where noise and noise suppression start to win the war on gain and the image stream blows out. The way ISO works in digital cameras, including CMOS CCTV cameras, is that amplification is applied to the pixel signal at the pixel and reapplied to the entire sensor signal before it hits the analogueto-digital converter.

There are digital amplifications possible

after this point in the signal delivery but all add noise and latency to a low light image. And as we know, to enhance signal to avoid noise, you slow down the shutter speed, increasing

motion blur. A camera capable of a clean signal at over 100,000 ISO, allowing faster shutter speeds and better overall image acuity, would be a wonderful thing indeed.

Nortek Releases New 2GIG GC3 Security & Home Automation Panel n NORTEK Security & Control, distributed locally by QSS, says its next generation 2GIG GC3 all-in-one home security and automation panel will reach distributors and installers in Q1 2016.

The 2GIG GC3 is a highly intuitive all-inone security and home control panel with 7-inch touchscreen that offers home security, manages up to 232 smart home devices, features zone and user customization

options, provides mobile security and safety alerts, and brings update capabilities allowing installers to better support customers remotely.

“2GIG changed the alarm industry model by making it dramatically easier to add home automation and control features to security systems,” said Duane Paulson, senior vice president, Nortek Security & Control at CES 2016 where the release was announced.

Port of Albany Upgrading CCTV and Access Control n SOUTHERN Ports Authority, a department of Western Australia Government, has issued an RFP for a CCTV and access control upgrade at the Port of Albany.

The tender calls for supply, installation, commissioning and provision of training in the use of a new CCTV

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and access control system at Port of Albany. The job includes cabling, wiring and terminations (including fibre optics), connection to an approved electrical supply for all CCTV and access control equipment, shop drawings; O&M documentation; and operator training.

FLIR has acquired privately held video surveillance hardware and software company DvteL Inc. for $US92 million in cash.

“FLIR’s strong position in thermal imaging together with DVTel’s extensive video analytics and VMS capability will position us well to offer differentiated and highly accurate perimeter security solutions for the upper corner of our Security segment’s product value ladder,” says Andy Teich, president and CEO of FLIR. “DVTel adds a suite of professional-grade security software and hardware that is very complementary to our current solutions and fits very well with our strategy to offer end-to-end solutions in the enterprise and infrastructure segments of the security market.”

DVTel develops and distributes integrated video management system (VMS) software, advanced video analytics software, visible and thermal security cameras, and related servers and encoders. The addition of DVTel’s portfolio to existing FLIR-branded thermal and visible cameras as well as its Lorex-branded security systems, allows FLIR to be a full-spectrum end-to-end security system provider, serving the consumer, small and medium business, enterprise, and infrastructure-level markets, according to a press release.

FLIR said it anticipates the transaction will be neutral to 2015 net earnings and accretive thereafter.

Andy Teich

news f e b rua ry 2 0 1 6

Video Analytics Market Predicted to Grow at 20.9 Per Cent n RESEARCHER Marketsandmarkets has valued the global video analytics market at $US1.53 billion in 2015 and predicts serious growth over the next 5 years.

“We estimate that in 2020 the total video analytics market size, globally, would be $3.9 billion,” Marketsandmarkets research analyst Dheeraj Katkar told SSN. Marketsandmarkets examined 2 types of video analytics; edge-based, which has analytics built into the camera, and server-based; where video is uploaded to a server.

“The most common approach is a hybrid model, in which server-based as well as edge-based combinations are being used in different scenarios,” Katkar said.

According to Katkar, “Cloudbased subscription services leveraging analytics to

Amy Kothari

Cloud-based subscription services leveraging analytics to extract information from videos and images is a key growth area in the market.

extract information from videos and images is a key growth area in the market.”

“Threat to civil infrastructure and urban security” is one of the drivers for this market, Katkar said, especially with a “prevention-

focused approach.”

According to Katkar, false alarms remain an issue and “each false alert necessitates human assessment increasing additional stress on operational and system management.”

Vivotek Reports 9 Per Cent Sales Growth For 2015, Talks H.265, New Products

n VIVOTEK, distributed locally by Hills, has reported total sales revenue of $US111 million between January and November 2015, an 8.93 percent increase over the same period in 2014, and has announced plans to continue growing in 2016.

Gross profit margins for

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U.S. Alarm Monitoring Centre Goes Direct with DIY Security Solution

the first, second, and third quarters of 2015 were 44 per cent, 43 per cent, and 44 per cent, respectively.

In 2016 Vivotek plans to continue growing through a strategy stressing product diversification, service localization, and global partnership. In terms of product diversification,

VIVOTEK plans to offer more cutting-edge products for customers from different markets. With compression technology gaining further importance in the era of high-definition video, VIVOTEK will widen its H.265 line by adding an IR speed dome camera, a panoramic fisheye

camera, and new H.265compatible NVRs. VIVOTEK will continue to optimize its Smart Stream II technology, which, when combined with H.265 products, enables bandwidth and storage space reduction by as much as 80 per cent compared to H.264.

Further, VIVOTEK’s mobile app enables monitoring and control from anywhere with any device.

Meanwhile, for the retail and transportation verticals, VIVOTEK plans to roll out intelligent IP cameras that can, when combined with software on the backend, provide detailed analysis of data to help users achieve better security and business optimization.

For small and medium businesses, VIVOTEK will also launch cameras that are high-quality and competitively priced.

U.S. alarm monitoring centre, My Alarm Center, has launched LivSecure, a security provider focused on DIY-installed equipment along with a professional monitoring service.

My Alarm Center’s president and CEO Amy Kothari told Security Systems News “There is a growing segment of the market that does not want to wait for a professional install, does not want to pay for a professional install, and are comfortable doing it themselves.

“This is a new venture for us, we haven’t sold self-install systems directly to consumers before,” Kothari, said.

LivSecure uses Qolsys equipment and Alarm.com for home connectivity, and Rapid Response for its monitoring. LivSecure offers 3 packages, starting at $34.99 per month for monitoring with a $99 equipment fee, all of which come with fire and CO monitoring devices.

“I’m really a believer in the life safety aspect of home security and home automation,” Kothari told SSN. “The beauty of a self-install product is that it ends up being a self-service product because the customer is more comfortable with their system, so with alternative customer support, we avoid a truck roll and are able to troubleshoot and fix over the phone with the customer.”

news f e b rua ry 2 0 1 6

Senate Inquiry Hears Smoke Alarm Practise Inadequate n A SENATE inquiry into smoke alarms has heard from fire services around Australia, who say current smoke alarm practice is inadequate and residents have a false sense of security, particularly when it comes to use of ionisation smoke sensors.

Recommendations from fire services include that photoelectric smoke alarms be hardwired to power and connected to alarm systems. Other recommendations were that a regulated position be established on the most effective type of smoke alarms and their optimal location. There were also calls for industry advice to be developed so factors such as cost did not solely determine what type of smoke alarm was chosen.

Fire and Rescue NSW told the inquiry that ionisation devices are more prone to false alarms from cooking,

which prompted many people to disable them.

“Research has highlighted the inadequacy” of national construction requirements that a smoke alarm be installed on each habitable level, meaning one alarm can serve a whole single-storey house, FRNSW told the inquiry.

According to Fire and Rescue NSW said modern, quick-burning furnishings mean fires can progress to a fatal “flashover” in as little as two minutes, compared with the 1970s, when it took up to 20 minutes. Meanwhile, the CSIRO said open-plan homes can exacerbate the effect.

It meant early warning was insufficient, especially when a bedroom door was closed. This was exacerbated by “modern furnishings [that] contribute to faster fire development … the quick

Johnson Controls, Tyco In $US36.2 Billion Merger

onset of flashover makes escape almost impossible”.

Flashover occurs when an entire area ignites simultaneously due to extreme temperatures.

Meanwhile, Melbourne’s Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board told the inquiry there was a “clear need” for regulatory reform of smoke alarms, which

should extend to the use of sprinklers.

It said disadvantaged people were the most at risk from fires and the least likely to be able to install and maintain a working smoke alarm.

These people included the elderly, those with a disability and international students and workers.

FLIR Thermal Drones Available Commercially in 2016 n FLIR Systems is collaborating with drone manufacturer DJI Innovations and will release their first joint product, the DJI Zenmuse XT stabilized camera early 2016. The unit will feature FLIR’s thermal imaging technology for DJI’s Inspire 1 and Matrice aerial platforms.

Using FLIR thermal imaging on small drones brings new capabilities to dozens of commercial applications, including

search and rescue, firefighting, agriculture, wildlife protection and the inspection of energy infrastructure, bridges and buildings.

Combining DJI’s Zenmuse stabilized micro-gimbal technology with FLIR’s Tau 2 thermal imaging camera core, developers say the Zenmuse XT will expand the possibilities for commercial drone operators and infrastructure inspectors, according to FLIR.

ABS Seeks Data On Access Control Solution n THE Australian Bureau of Statistics, which has offices in ACT, NSW, VIC, SA, WA, QLD, NT and Tasmania, is seeking a replacement electronic access control system to handle its access management needs.

ABS joins multiple state and national government agencies currently engaged in

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target hardening of administrative facilities.

Tenderers took a mandatory site inspection at ABS House on Friday 22 January 2015 at 2:00pm.

According to the ABS, the initial contract will be for a period of 12 months and this may be extended for additional periods of up to 12 months, to a maximum term of 5 years.

Alex Molinaroli

JOHNSON Controls will merge with Tyco, giving the combined entity a market capitalisation of $US36.2 billion in a deal that will close by year’s end, 2016.

The board of directors of the combined company is expected to have 11 directors, six directors from Johnson Controls and five from Tyco.

The combined company will be renamed Johnson Controls - Alex Molinaroli will be the chairman and CEO of the combined company, with George Oliver serving as president and COO and as a director on the new board, with responsibility for the operating businesses and leading the integration.

After 18 months, Oliver will become CEO and Molinaroli will become executive chair for one year, after which Oliver will become chairman and CEO. In a prepared statement, Alex Molinaroli, Johnson Controls chairman and CEO, Johnson Controls said that “Tyco aligns with and enhances the Johnson Controls buildings platform and further positions all of our businesses for global growth.”

The deal will allow JCI to “further invest globally, develop new innovative solutions for customers and return capital to shareholders,” he said.

Johnson Controls has an enterprise value of $14.6 billion; Tyco has an enterprise value of $29.07 billion. JCI’s market capitalization is $13.9 billion and Tyco’s is $22.3 billion.

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news f e b rua ry 2 0 1 6

Bosch Creates Robert Bosch Smart Home

n NEWLY-founded subsidiary Robert Bosch Smart Home will bring together all Bosch’s smarthome activities, including related software and sensor-system expertise.

The new company will offer products and services

for connected homes from a single source, including solutions that can report break-ins and control heating to save energy. From January 2016, customers will be able to order the first Bosch products in this field online.

These include the Bosch smart home controller, a smart thermostat, and a contact for doors or windows. Bosch’s smart-home solutions are aimed at a giant market: according to experts, by 2020 some 230 million

homes worldwide – almost 15 per cent of all households – will feature smart-home technologies.

“Setting up the Bosch smart-home subsidiary is an important strategic step toward pooling and expanding on our range of solutions for the smart home. Smart homes facilitate new services that make their occupants’ lives easier, and they offer major business potential,” said Dr. Stefan Hartung, the member of the board of management of Robert Bosch responsible for the Energy and Building Technology business sector.

“The Bosch smarthome system is easy to

install and operate: one system, one app, one user experience. Our solutions relieve users of tiresome routine tasks while offering them more convenience and safety,” said Dr. Peter Schnäbele, the future managing director of the Stuttgart-based Robert Bosch Smart Home.

When it comes to connectivity, Bosch believes open standards and open platforms will make the technology as user-friendly as possible.

For this reason, the Bosch smart-home system is modular and expandable, and it is easy to connect compatible devices made by other manufacturers.

Gold Coast City Council Seeks Transport CCTV Solutions n GOLD Coast City Council has just closed a tender for a contractor to provide design and installation services its intelligent transport system infrastructure, including CCTV.

The selected provider will be required to appoint a suitably experienced, qualified and equipped electronic security contractor to undertake the supply and installation of a number of CCTV ‘packages

of work’ across the Gold Coast’s ITS. Queensland’s Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) is described as a “whole-ofgovernment approach to innovation and industry” that will transform the way transport systems operate. ITS applications and strategies aim to improve safety, reduce traffic congestion reduce environmental impacts.

The motorway and arterial ITS applications incorporate traffic management centres in Brisbane and at the Gold and Sunshine Coasts, compiling relevant data and information via closedcircuit television cameras.

This information is then broadcast through a traffic hotline (13 19 40).

Queensland’s Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) is described as a “wholeof-government approach to innovation and industry” that will transform the way transport systems operate.

18 se&n

CCTV Surveillance System Upgrade for Kalgoorlie Police Complex n WA Government has gone to tender for a CCTV upgrade to the Kalgoorlie Police Complex in the WA goldfields.

The enhanced system capabilities at the police complex are certain to complement the existing Kalgoorlie-Boulder public surveillance solution.

Kalgoorlie-Boulder currently has 42 CCTV cameras placed around town, which are operated by the local council.

Acting Inspector Danny Vincent said recently: “We know that CCTV is a very effective evidence gathering tool, still images and video footage are considered one of the best ways to identify offenders

and tell us what they did and what time they did it,” he said.

The new system capabilities are likely to fold into the state’s overarching State CCTV Strategy, launched in November 2015 by Minister for Police, the Hon Liza Harvey MLA, which aims to deliver more effective use of CCTV in WA to enhance community safety and security. This will be achieved by establishing a coordinated State CCTV network, and by providing grants to local government authorities to install additional CCTV cameras and other infrastructure in crime hotspots.

news f e b rua ry 2 0 1 6

ICT Opens New Facility in Auckland n NEW Zealand-based electronic security manufacturer, ICT celebrated the grand opening of a new purposebuilt premises in Rosedale recently, with more than 150 guests, including many of the customers, integrators, suppliers and staff that have been instrumental in the phenomenal growth behind this latest expansion.

“Innovation doesn’t stand still, and with an unwavering commitment to research and development, ICT will continue to grow, said ICT CEO, Hayden Burr. “The new facilities include a 2-level 720sqm office, 495sqm of manufacturing space and more than 450sqm of warehouse and canopy coverage. With an additional 1425sqm

of the site earmarked for future office and warehouse development, we are already talking about further expansion.

Given the way things are currently growing, that may not be so far in the future.”

According to Burr, ICT’s success has always been about people, so it came as no surprise that the event kicked off with a range of fun-filled games and activities – including a bouncy castle, face painting, and foosball – to cater for even the youngest guests, or that a number of guests didn’t hesitate in travelling a considerable distance (some coming from Australia and Canada) to join the celebrations and demonstrate their support.

The official festivities and ribbon cutting ceremony

were introduced by business mentor and MC, Peter White, with speeches from CEO Hayden Burr and special guests Chris Lock (strategic advisor for ATEED’s Operational Strategy and Planning department) and Chris

Darby (councillor for Auckland’s North Shore Ward and Auckland Council’s Urban Design Champion).

ICT is headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand, with a global presence and an international

reach. A network of distributors and certified integrators provides full local sales, support and service to clients and partners around the world, including a significant presence in the United States.

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news f e b rua ry 2 0 1 6

BGWT Takes On Auriga PAVA Distribution n BGW Technologies will distribute Auriga IP-based public address and voice alarm (PAVA) system from Inform Technology Solutions BGW Technologies will distribute Inform’s full range of public address and voice alert software as well as its locally produced Aries 100v and low

impedance amplifiers, and the new Dynatá range of plane wave speakers.

Auriga, enables a tailored response to any event or required action and provides intelligible alert communication over local or wide area networks.

To complement Auriga, Inform also manufactures and supplies a range of

Unfortunately, with the increased threat from global terrorism and natural disasters, there has never been a greater requirement for intelligent wide area alerts.

peripheral products for wide area alert and public address including the Dynatá range of high performance flat panel ‘planar’ speakers.

“This is an exciting time for both our companies” said Robert Meachem, general manager, BGW Technologies. “Beyond our focus on core business in electronic security, our strategy is to find emerging technologies and products that both complimented our existing product offering and take us into new, rapidly expanding market segments.”

“BGW Technologies is a great fit for our product range and we’re delighted to be able to partner with them,” says Inform’s sales and marketing manager, Paul Thompson.

“Unfortunately, with the increased threat from global terrorism and natural disasters, there has never been a greater requirement for intelligent wide area alerts.

“The PAVA market is a rapidly growing market segment, not just in Australia but across the world. Having BGW as our distribution partner will ensure that we will be able to supply and support these critical infrastructure products on a national level.”

NSW Parliament Eyes Integrated Alarm and Access Control System NSW Parliament has released an RFT for the replacement or upgrade of its intrusion detection and access control systems.

The project will involve either the design and construction of a fully integrated security alarm and access control system, or an upgrade of the existing security alarm and access control system. Works are projected to take place between April 2016 and June 2016. A briefing session was held at NSW Parliament House midDecember and the RFT closes in January.

Australia-wide state and federal government agencies have been working hard on improving their electronic security capabilities, with a considerable flow of new projects reaching the market over the past 6 months.

Hikvision Announces Integration With Control4 Home Automation Solution n HIKVISION USA has partnered with Control4, a provider of home automation and control systems, to bring video surveillance technology to the smart home market.

Hikvision cameras are integrated with the Control4 smart home operating system, adding to a suite of features by which users can control and automate lighting, music, security and energy throughout the home.

Control4 unites networked home devices such as window shades, entertainment systems, door locks, thermostats

22 se&n

and security cameras.

They are controlled by a common operating system that can be accessed via a touch screen on the wall, a remote control or a smartphone app. Remote monitoring is an added feature.

“Remote monitoring is a huge motivator for our customers,” said Noel Gouff, senior director of business development for Control4.

More than 40 Hikvision IP cameras are supported by drivers available in the Control4 Online Driver Database, including the 3 MP outdoor dome (DS2CD2132-I) and the pinhole

camera (DS-2CD6412FWD).

Having a wide variety of available security camera devices for a broad range of home security needs is another important aspect that makes Hikvision cameras an attractive part of any customer’s Smart Home, the company said.

“Working with partners such as Hikvision is incredibly important to us because we are committed to interoperability: Control4 is an open ecosystem.

Working with a variety of partners means our customers have a broader selection of products to choose from,” Gouff said.

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● News report

2016

2016: The Year Ahead We asked some of the industry’s leading manufacturers to give us an idea of what they planned to release over the next 12 months in order to see if there are any surprises in store. Feedback suggests integration, diffusion, hardware price falls and serious camera makers dropping in on the enterprise market in a much bigger way.

24 se&n

T’S been an entertaining 12 months in the electronic security industry and the next year is likely to offer us more of the same.

In alarm monitoring we’re going through the 2G sunset and waving PSTN goodbye. Apps for alarm systems are going to continue along the path to ubiquity. All alarm panels will eventually include Z-Wave. Cameras – quality is increasing, prices are falling. Perhaps best of all, the ease of driving cameras through proprietary and third party VMS solutions, as well as camera browsers, is improving all the time.

Access control is a somewhat different animal.

There, the tectonic move towards network-based solutions has been going on for a long time, though there are new players, product and stronger imperatives. IP based solutions including ISONAS and Net2 are taking on incumbent manufacturers

I

BY J O H N A D A M S

whose product lineups are rapidly expanding to cover niches in the IP space. Access control in the cloud is something we’ve seen from a number of players over the past 18 months and it remains to be seen whether or not this operational model can break into the mainstream.

According to Jeffrey Huang, APAC surveillance sales manager, Synology, of the top 3 trends in 2016 the first one is going to be even higher resolution cameras.

“IP camera vendors from China have started pushing 3 Megapixel and 5 Megapixel cameras to the market at an extremely competitive price,” says Huang. “I believe that in 2016, more and more countries will see a significant increase in the market share of high-resolution cameras. Along with this will come the rising importance of the new H.265 compression standard. Utilizing much less bandwidth, it will be able to improve the transmission efficiency of high-definition video feeds generated by such cameras.

According to Huang, another trend not to be overlooked is Intelligent Video Analysis (IVA).

“Nowadays most video management software is already equipped with basic recording and viewing functionality, so IVA will become a key differentiator, and more and more vendors will invest in video processing and analytics features that can gain more insight from the original surveillance footage,” he says.

“Finally, the success of Dahua and Hikvision has led mid-to-high-end camera vendors to move beyond one type of product. We will be seeing many concentrating their efforts on providing a ‘total solution’ in which all essential elements come from one single vendor.”

According to Huang, 2016 is likely to see more video in the cloud as solutions like Dropcam and others, make an impact on the market “We are seeing an interesting new business model: video surveillance services in public clouds,” he says. “Users subscribe to Dropcam’s cloud recording service and store their videos on a third-party server, downloading a clip only when they need it. This new model may bring about a shift in the home surveillance market, although we should bear in mind that such cloud recording service has to be renewed on a monthly or yearly basis.

“That means, unlike owning a network video recorder on your premises, the costs you need to pay for keeping your recordings will continue to rise in the long run. Besides, surveillance videos are probably one of the most sensitive types of data you can think of, so storing them in public clouds will also lead to concerns about data privacy.”

Where are the best opportunities for growth over the next 12 months?

“Driven by companies like XM, Sunell, Dahua, and Hikvision, the price of IP cameras will continue to go down,” argues Huang. “High-resolution

High-resolution cameras will become more affordable to the general public, which in turn should lead to growth in the IP camera market. cameras will become more affordable to the general public, which in turn should lead to growth in the IP camera market.

“Additionally, in a move to transform itself into a total solution provider, Axis released its own PC and video server in 2015. The only missing piece of the puzzle is a scalable, reliable, and secure storage solution. We expect Synology to play a significant role in this with our comprehensive NAS lineup, and hope to create more strategic alliances with these leading video surveillance companies.”

Can you give readers a teaser, a hint of something extra special you’ll be releasing or developing this year?

“The Internet of Things has been one of the hottest topics in recent years,” Huang says. “By integrating I/O modules into Surveillance Station, our video management software; we have turned a Synology NVR into a central hub that can control peripherals such as LED lights, electromagnetic locks, speakers, and even smoke or infrared detectors. Surveillance Station’s Action Rules can further link these devices with each other, and make home automation even more flexible.

“In 2016, we will release the next version of Surveillance Station, which aims at enhancing its capability for large-scale surveillance projects, bringing its performance to the next level, and providing a new way to connect to and manage our application. We are also looking at the possibility to work with intelligent video analysis providers in order to bring more value-added features to our users in the coming year.”

Rob Rosa

se&n 25

● News report

2016

Steve Charles

Sony also plans on further additions to the Generation 7 4K line with a full body camera incorporating some very interesting features and technologieS According to Rob Rosa at QSS, CCTV will continue to grow in 2016.

“We are seeing newer technology such as the 4MP and 4K range overtaking traditional 1080p cameras and thanks to some great low light IP camera capability, IR is becoming less necessary,” he says.

“If you look at some of the FLIR, DVTEL, Bosch and Dahua cameras for example, these stay in colour all night in very low lighting conditions, while giving great colour reproduction.

“Home automation should continue to produce some interest, with products like the 2GIG and Alarm.

Com platforms with Z wave devices becoming more and more affordable. These solutions can do some amazing stuff on the back of 3rd party platforms or even standalone through apps and we expect the

26 se&n

market to continue moving in this direction as the NBN rolls out.”

Rosa sees opportunities in thermal thanks to its phenomenal ability to confirm intrusion events over vast areas with extreme accuracy.

“With the cost of thermal coming down and the multitude of uses that it can be applied to, I am surprised there are not more thermals utilised for roof space detection and virtual fencing,” he explains. “I think that you will start to see thermal applications increase in 2016, especially in nontraditional projects.”

Rosa says that on the CCTV front, installers and end users should be looking out for the new 4MP H.265 cameras utilising better compression and delivering a higher resolution image such as 2688 x 1520, with more analytics on board and smarter functionality at the NVR. “Also be on the lookout for the cost-effective FLIR thermals that can be used for many domestic and small retail applications (i.e. roof space protection in place of the heavy duty roof PIRs) and many other applications like detecting heat temps in factories that may have highly combustible or dangerous materials. These send an alarm to a control room or client warning them that the temperature has become unstable in certain parts of the factory, etc.

When it comes to what the best opportunities are for growth over the next 12 months he says that the QSS team is looking at growth and expansion in intrusion detection, access control and CCTV. “In light of world unrest and terrorism hitting our own soil, private and particularly government organisations, need to start taking security and preventative measures more seriously,” Rosa says. “End users need to continually review and upgrade security requirements, starting from SOPs all the way through to the technology used in the protection of assets, staff and the general public.”

Can you give readers a teaser, a hint of something extra special you’ll be releasing or developing this year?

“We will continue to release new products from the top global manufacturers such as FLIR/DVTEL and others but at this stage we have just released DVTEL V7 with some very nice features and enhancements over V6.4 which is still a great and stable VMS platform,” Rosa says.

At Sony, Steve Charles has some big news.

“Sony in 2016 will be moving into the enterprise VMS and NVR markets, offering systems and recording solutions to enhance the current Generation 6 line of cameras,” he explains. “Sony also plans on further additions to the Generation 7 4K line, with a full body camera incorporating some very interesting features and technologies, as well as further enhancements to Generation 7, which will include a line of full HD cameras.”

At Bosch Security. Steve Malesevic, state manager for video, said the key trends in 2016 were likely to include video analytics, which he

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● News report

2016

Steve Malasevic

Bosch’s impressive starlight technology will be rolled out into a wide selection of our high performance 1080p60 cameras... Also, flame and smoke detection using video. says is becoming more popular.

“H.265 video is kicking off and will probably be more widespread by the end of the year, while cloud-based services provide business analysis and of course, there’s 4K imaging,” Malasevic says.

“Bullet and dome cameras with AVF, a new range of cost competitive entry level IP cameras and NVR’s and a new IP thermal camera range are the things to look out for from Bosch this year, when it comes to video surveillance. And when it comes to opportunities, we are thinking about multi-site installs, transport and loss prevention” Can you give SEN’s readers a hint of something extra special you’ll be releasing or developing this year?

“Bosch’s impressive starlight technology will be rolled out into a wide selection of our high performance 1080p60 cameras,” Malasevic says.

“Also, flame and smoke detection using video.”

28 se&n

James Layton

Also at Bosch Security on the intrusion and access control side of the business, James Layton says that along with the recently-featured G Series integrated access panels, the intrusion side of Bosch’s business is investing heavily in the residential space.

“This will include major updates to our existing panel range adding features like video integration and home automation; the release of our Zigbee wireless sensors; and Bosch’s revolutionary MEMs sensors, which should decimate the biased reed switch,” he says. “Additionally, although it won’t see full release until early 2017, keep an eye out this year for news about our upcoming self-contained wireless residential panel.

“Infrastructure improvements and better understanding are going to be big drivers in promoting cloud technologies this year. This will see a big rise in people accessing their data through the cloud, but it’s also going to mean we will start seeing solutions that push computed analytics into to the cloud as well. Automation is going to keep growing, as security technology moves from being something that just sits on your wall, to something you actively utilise daily.

“Just like it did in the IT industry, open-source is becoming the path forward for security. Why should end-users tie themselves to a particular product line when more and more systems are supporting a mix of off-the-shelf products?”

Layton asks. “The real trick will be showing endusers the value proposition of professionally installed systems as more and more hardware can be bought from eBay or JB HiFi. “The middle range of the security market is going to boom this year with new players entering from Asia, and prices of technology consistently dropping over time. This is a great time to be targeting security projects in retail, light commercial, education, and any other mid-price vertical.”

● News report

2016

Mobile devices for administration and operational efficiency have been well established in 2015 and we expect many vendors to extend their offering.

Gallagher’s CTO Security Steve Bell argues the top 3 trends in security electronics in 2016 are headed up by mobility and mobile devices, which he says will continue to be demanded by the user community.

“The early entrants for mobile device use for physical access control came into the market seriously in 2015 and more companies will launch their offerings in 2016,” he explains. “We expect to see a corresponding trend towards use of open standards for mobile device access control, backed by the SIA, which has launched a standards process focussed on the mobile device to reader standardisation for Bluetooth LE (Bluetooth Smart).

“Mobile devices for administration and operational efficiency have been well established in 2015 and we expect many vendors to extend their offering. And system consolidation into one top level overarching platform will continue to be a significant trend. We also believe device vendors will align with ‘Internet of things’ terminology.”

When it comes to the sorts of new product releases installers and end users need to be looking out for, Bell says overall cost needs to be taken into account.

“End users need to be looking at total cost of ownership and new procurements need to have the ability for all device firmware to be upgraded,” he says. “This will lower the ongoing cost of maintenance and also give the system a longer lifespan.

“Cyber security is becoming one of the biggest issues and when procuring a new system the security manager needs to make sure all communications links are encrypted and authenticated. Security managers should also be looking to transition to the still-secure smartcard solutions, such as Mifare Plus and Mifare Desfire.

Access cards have historically had little protection against cloning and the protection they did have was based on the inaccessibility of the card cloning

30 se&n

Steve Bell

tools. Today, any 125Khz proximity cards and some older smart card families can be cloned from tools able to be purchased or downloaded easily.

“Meanwhile, mobile credentials are now being implemented into enterprise installations.

Here, security managers need to be sure that the cryptographic strength of the credential is appropriate for their security needs and backed up with evidence that is more than the vendor saying ‘trust me’.”

Where are the best opportunities are for growth over the next 12 months?

“The Australian economy has slowed significantly and enterprise system owners will be looking for upgrades and additions to their security systems that can improve efficiency of operations and maintenance,” Bell argues.

“Cyber security is one of the most discussed topics and many in government and large enterprises will be assessing their risks and this may lead to budget allocation for security improvements.”

Can you give SEN readers a hint of something extra special you’ll be releasing or developing this year?

“Gallagher has implemented a 6-monthly release schedule for the Gallagher Command Centre system,” Bell says. “These more frequent releases allow us to get our new functionality into the market more quickly. Gallagher will introduce new features to our mobile client application that extend the card reading ability to a full access control decision, also logging people into the correct access zones. This will be available in Q2 2016. Also on the mobile device front, towards the end of the year Gallagher will release its mobile credential, which communicates securely to readers using Bluetooth Smart technology.” n

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● Product review

Uniview

Starlight, star bright

We took a look at Uniview’s 1080p IPC542E-DUG Starlight full body camera recently and came away impressed with the camera’s overall capabilities. This is an affordable camera that does very well with WDR, extremely well in low light between 2-10 lux in colour. And between sub-1 and 2 lux in night mode this camera really blew us away.

32 se&n

BY J O H N A D A M S

8m, 5mm, 25,000 lux

12m

16m

NIVIEW’S IPC542E-DUG Starlight full body day/night camera, distributed locally by C.R. Kennedy, is the first Uniview camera we’ve tested. Uniview is the third of China’s big CCTV camera manufacturers and the company makes a full suite of CCTV gear. Quality is good, judging by the build of this metal-bodied camera and others we saw at Security 2015 in Melbourne. There’s nothing rough here – Uniview’s Starlight is a handsome and well-made piece of hardware.

The Starlight’s specifications look strong, kicking off with a chunky 1/1.9-inch progressive scan CMOS sensor.

Low light performance in colour is claimed to be 0.002 lux (starlight on a clear night) and an optimistic 0.0002 lux in monochrome – both at very wide apertures of F1.2,

U

22m

se&n 33

● Product review

Uniview The zoom and focus rings of this lens have metal drag screws so you can lock in a setting tightly once you’re dialled in

the smoothness of the internal components of the lens feel like quality polycarbonate. It’s a somewhat longer lens than you’d expect, with zoom and focus tucked up inside the barrel.

Day/Night lane test 5m at 25,000 lux

5m, 9 lux at Norman’s face

50IRE and probably the slowest shutter setting of 1/6th of a second. We never get too much under 1 lux at the lens and Starlight has to be pushed into black and white in our lane test.

Other interesting specifications include WDR numbers of 120dB, signal-to-noise ratio of around 52dB, a strong temperature range of -20 to 60C, resolution of 1920 x 1080p at 30ips, H.264 and MJPEG video compression options, triple streaming, privacy masking of 4 areas, region of interest, a 9:16 corridor mode, duplex audio with G.711 compression, ONVIF compliance, SD edge storage up to 64GB and a weight of 480 grams.

There are plenty of ports on the rear plate, in fact there’s everything on the rear of this camera – RJ-45 with PoE, 100Base FX for multimode fibre direct to the camera, an antenna port, BNC, alarm in and out and RS485 for data. There’s also audio in and out, as well as 12 and 24V DC for power. The reset button is on the bottom of the plate underneath a thoughtfully covered SD port.

All this is good, sensible stuff that will assist installers and end users who need more than just the PoE to the network we see so often with compact bullets and domes.

The lens of this camera is a Uniview-branded f1.4 3.811mm varifocal with a Magnesium-Fluoride coating on at least the front element. The zoom and focus rings of this lens have metal drag screws so you can lock in a setting tightly once you’re dialled it. The finger feel when zooming and focusing is very nice. The build quality and

34 se&n

It’s a bright summer day – ideal conditions for pushing the limits of a CCTV camera’s capabilities - as I head out the back to set up. I start off with a wide district view at 3.8mm and f1.4 with the sun in the top left of the frame and later on I wind in to 5mm for the rest of the test. I measure light out here at 80,000 lux, which is about as demanding as a scene is ever likely to get. When adjusting the lens a second time, I note a hyperfocal distance of about 1.2m at a focal length of 5mm – it’s easier to set this standing beside my workstation than trundling through the office 10 times, tweaking. It’s way too bright out back to properly see the screen of a handheld test monitor.

At the widest settings of 3.8mm on the Uniview f1.4 3.8-11mm varifocal I get scattered flare and ghosts with the sun in the edge of the frame. At this wide setting the lens itself is out of the barrel and fully exposed but we’ve seen others do better when similarly challenged.

At longer settings the lens barrel forms a recessed hood, which adds an element of protection from direct sunlight. Typically, this camera would be housed and Lovely build quality

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● Product review

Uniview

I’m waiting for 2.5 lux before I play with noise reduction – at 8.42 pm it’s 3 lux – flare is interesting but situational awareness is profound.

shaded if installed externally but flare in the day usually means flare at night and you can’t shade for that. I also notice that at the widest settings there are longitudinal chromatic aberrations around high contrast points but zooming in to around 5mm eliminates most these.

While I’m moving the camera around outside I keep playing with settings and quickly find that with WDR on auto or turned off, shaded parts of the scene are too dark for my liking. I activate WDR and after mucking around for ten minutes at higher settings turning the scenery pink, I set the WDR slider to +1 and leave it there. The tendency of the camera to darken shaded parts of the scene when exposed to intense WDR may have something to do with that big 1/1.9inch CMOS sensor and it’s certainly a characteristic of many IP cameras we test.

At default settings and WDR +1 this is a very colourful camera, with strong greens, reds, blues and browns. I look for but can’t see any vignetting, even wide open. At 5mm barrel distortion is around 8 per cent. As the light falls a little from its eyeball-frying afternoon peaks to around 20,000 lux at 6.19 pm, the depth of field opens up and those CAs all but vanish.

There’s quite a lot of tree movement in this scene that relates to a strong wind. This is leading to some DNR smoothing.

Motion blur is at good levels, the image stream is relatively clean at default settings – there’s a small amount of latency – around 350th of a second in my estimation. At 6.57pm it’s 2600 lux and the scene acuity is still improving. There’s a little rendering swim here and there, and some signs of digital smoothing but overall quality is high. The image goes on improving for the next 15 minutes or so and once the sun is lost from the canyon of the lane, the image darkens a little but remains notably brighter when compared to other 1080p cameras in this application.

At this point I notice the return of CAs in some of the vertical lines in the scene, particularly towards the edges but they are mild and have no real impact on situational awareness. At extreme distances trees and buildings look rendered/reconstructed with reduced levels of detail but closer in – say up to 40-50m, detail is good. As light levels fall, the reconstructed look of the scene creeps closer to the lens. At all times I note colour rendition is well above average. A car goes down the lane and I note again that this camera does pretty well with motion blur.

Consistency of performance as light falls is very impressive. Most cameras register quite noticeable

36 se&n

5mm, 5m, 7 lux

12m

16m

22m

26m

30m

losses of brightness as light levels fall away from very strong to moderate levels but not this Uniview – light loss is linear. Situational awareness is good and detail out to about 25m continues to improve as light levels drop to 900 lux at 7.53 pm. It’s at this point in the test that the image on the monitor starts to seem disconnected from the light levels that can be discerned with the naked eye as Starlight fires up its ISO functions. At this time, I first see the light in the neighbour’s window.

At 112 lux the Uniview IPC542E-DU G Starlight expands its disconnect from the reality of encroaching nightfall. I can see some slight green haze of blooming around the low pressure sodium

streetlights in the lane and there are associated CAs nearby. Ghosting and CAs aren’t unusual with wide angle lenses – it’s not so much whether or not they are present – it’s how widespread they are. At 80 lux depth of field is the strongest it has been in the test. I can still see the rhythmic pulse of digital rendering in the scene. There’s plenty of movement from trees and shrubs out back but generally, performance remains solid.

At 8.27 pm its 10 lux and from here the image starts to soften – there’s blooming around lights and for the first time noise starts appearing as ISO leans in and smoothing as DNR works to compensate. Remember, my settings are default for noise reduction so it will be interesting to see what I can do with some tweaking. At 8.32 pm it’s 5 lux – the image is softer all over now, with more noise in dark spots but it remains silly bright.

Starlight reminds me of the S1080 1-inch GBO camera but it’s making do with far less ambient light. The next 10 minutes will be interesting…instinct suggests situational awareness is going to remain strong.

I notice that blooming is increasing along with flare, ghosting, motion blur and noise (it’s down to 3.5 lux at 8.37 pm), as we lose the rest of the light and the auto shutter slows towards its minimum setting. There’s probably more flare and ghosting than I’ve seen out here before thanks to the vagaries of the lens but there’s also a surprising amount of detail deep into the scene. The unassisted low light performance of the IPC542E-DU G Starlight in colour is better than some much vaunted opposition – that’s something I did not expect to see.

I’m waiting for 2.5 lux before I play with noise reduction – at 8.42 pm it’s 3 lux – flare is interesting but situational awareness is profound. We’d have to trundle Norman out to ascertain face recognition but I think I’d probably have it out here to around 10m in colour – maybe more in monochrome. At 8.46 pm we are finally under 2 lux and the scene is still colour with a green-ish cast. There’s a point in the space of a couple of minutes where the colour image loses quite a bit of brightness as the scene drops under 2 lux. I have a play with the noise reduction sliders but in this application (very dark holes with bright points of streetlight), I feel I’m losing detail to digital smoothing without gaining much in the way of situational awareness and I revert back to default.

The night time test in the office and out the front in 5-7 lux is the most revealing of all. In fact, the results there force me to re-test in the lane so as to give a better sense of this camera’s capabilities in night mode. I start off in the office by switching off some lights to provoke auto night mode. Performance in colour in low light is

At all times I note colour rendition is well above average.

A car goes down the lane and I note again that this camera does pretty well with motion blur.

se&n 37

● Product review

Uniview Going out the front at night is a revelation, too. Depth of field is superior at night to anything I saw in the daytime and so are contrast and sharpness.

5mm, 5m and 81,000 lux

3m

1.5m

solid but when I start covering my workstation screens to push the camera into night mode, it’s better still – the scene is well under 1 lux and I have good situational awareness. Throwing a small amount of infrared light onto the scene shows how responsive the camera is to IR – it’s really, really good. Very little infrared gives complete situational awareness throughout the 4m x 12m office and out into the kitchen. When I turn all the lights off, including IR, and check for motion blur, it’s clear the shutter speed has slowed down but motion blur remains well controlled.

Going out the front at night is a revelation, too. Depth of field is superior at night to anything I saw in the daytime and so are contrast and sharpness. Why? All

38 se&n

I can suggest is that this camera’s overall function is stronger on night work.

In short, Uniview’s Starlight is a photon monster between 2-10 lux in colour. I’m shocked to get the face recognition at 12m and 16m that I could not get during the day in colour. But it’s when I trundle Norman out to 22m that things get seriously weird. Performance at 22m is probably the best I’ve seen from a 1080p camera this far out and contrast is so good I can’t help doing something I’ve never done before – I push Norman back to 26m and then further still to 30m, trying to find the point at which Starlight’s useful levels of detail end.

That point is further than 30m from the lens with 7 lux measured vertically at the target.

Performance down the hill towards Foveaux St is very strong at 5m with easy face recognition and I can see in the deeper detail that I’d get court admissible face recognition out past 16 metres here, too. This camera does well with situational awareness at long ranges in low light – at 50 metres I can identify car types, groups of people and make out some aspects of dress and gait. It’s not as detailed as some other cameras deeper into the scene but it makes up for it with powerful performance at closer ranges – out to 30m. How would it go using another lens? Better still, I think.

At this point I decide to force Starlight into night mode.

The image out the front is already good in colour and night mode’s monochrome doesn’t add much in the way of detail, so I drag the Manfrotto back through the office for another look at the lane. Monochrome performance out here is excellent – situational awareness is complete with less than 2 lux at the lens. That beautiful feeling lens shows it has a few more tricks up its sleeve with entertaining ghosting and flare from the low pressure sodium street lights in the lane but the camera itself is a real gem in these conditions.

Seeking the borders of performance, I turn the camera away from lit areas of the lane to view the rooftops and trees towards Elizabeth St about 250 metres away down the hill. The levels of detail are exceptional. To the naked eye this scene is generally dark but Uniview’s Starlight is sucking up reflected light like a vacuum cleaner. I keep turning the camera further and further down the lane towards the darkest patch of trees but performance stays uniformly excellent.

Next, I pull the camera off the tripod and put it on a chair in the darkest corner of the courtyard pointing at the fence. I can see almost nothing in this corner with the naked eye. When I get back to the monitor, lo and behold Starlight can see with sub-1 lux at the target. It’s not a crystal clear image stream but there’s loads of detail. I slot an A4 test chart into the scene to get a sense

● Product review

Uniview This camera offers good depth of field to 30m or so but digital zooming asks questions of sharpness when you go hunting into the scene.

of contrast – it’s soft but there’s face recognition at close ranges in very low light. What’s really interesting is the balance of amplified ISO and low levels of noise in a scene so starved of light. It really is excellent work from Uniview’s engineers.

District at 3.8mm, 80,000 lux

5mm, 40,000 lux

10 lux

3.5 lux

40 se&n

Daytime street test When I trundle Norman out the front in the afternoon of the following day it’s about 14EV with some afternoon sun. I try the camera at an auto exposure setting but I’m still not happy with the dark and light parts of the image, so I go back to that WDR setting of +1 and everything is very rosy again. At WDR +1, colours are strong, rich greens, blues and reds. There’s a lot of leaf and branch movement on this breezy afternoon and I can see the effort the camera is making in gusts when Norman’s face loses some contrast. This might be partly due to my WDR setting - or not.

Looking at the image out here on the busy street and playing with the digital zoom gives me a good sense of the camera’s capabilities. This camera offers good depth of field to 30m or so but digital zooming asks questions of sharpness when you go hunting into the scene.

I get good face recognition of Norman and every test parameter at 8m. At 12m, in gusts of wind I get some blocking on Norman’s face that impacts on identification and I have contrast on the bars from the C line down. At 16m, I lose face recognition, though the primary bars on the target retain useful detail. At 22m I have situational awareness, and some identifying details and digital zoom isn’t helping me much. In fairness to Starlight, levels of movement out here today are extreme, with a 20-knot Southerly wind blowing that’s stronger in the gusts.

When it comes to lens performance in the street application, there’s no visible flare or ghosting in this part of the test. However, I do notice some chromatic aberrations in high contrast areas throughout the scene.

These CAs will subtly reduce detail and impact on depth of field. Barrel distortion at 5mm is very well controlled on the sides and top and bottom of the scene. I again confirm that resistance to motion blur is quite good, too.

My last test is a WDR test in the morning with 81,900 lux measured in the vertical plane at the side of Norman’s face. I measure at 5, 3 and 1.5 metres – a little closer than usual – and I’m at the front door instead of the rear door of the office to catch the easterly sun. For a camera that offers such good performance at night, Starlight puts in an unexpectedly excellent turn with extreme WDR, too. I have the office lights on (I usually have the kitchen light on at the rear and it cause a little yellow shift in the images that relates to my still advanced WDR +1 setting.

Conclusion

sub -2 lux colour

This is a well-made camera with particular strengths in colour in street scenes between 2-10 lux and very strong colour rendition. The camera has excellent performance against backlight and delivers its performance at reasonably economical bit rates and a comparatively economical price. Even after it has been running for days on end there’s no particular warmth detectable in the body at all – this is a nice quality that suggests the potential for longevity.

I’d like to test Starlight with a different lens. There were some things about Uniview’s 3.8-11mm f1.4 lens I appreciated – its build and finger feel - Uniview makes quality gear, no doubt. But there were a number of things I felt could be improved upon with more careful design – a tendency towards flare, ghosting and to a lesser extent, longitudinal chromatic aberrations. It’s not that the image streams weren’t perfectly useable, it’s that Uniview’s Starlight is a better camera than this lens.

After dark is Starlight’s metier. The camera retained contrast in low light better than it did during the day, pushing our test target out to 30 metres from the lens the furthest we’ve ever seen. Also of note is the camera’s epic performance in monochrome when pushed into night mode in sub-2 lux, where situational awareness is useful up to 40 metres from the lens. In lower light levels still, Starlight is an absolute cracker. Best unassisted low light performance in monochrome we’ve ever seen with sub-1 lux at the target? Uniview, take a bow. n

sub -2 lux night mode

Features of the Uniview IPC542E-DUG Starlight:

sub -2 lux district

l

Auto day/night functionality

l

Up to 120 dB WDR

l

D DNR (Digital Noise Reduction) 3 Compression

l

Triple streams

l

ROI (Region of Interest)

l

9:16 corridor format

l

Wide temperature range: -20C to 60C

l

Ethernet RJ45 and optical SFP ports

l

ONVIF compliance.

sub -1 lux

se&n 41

● New technology

Sony

Sony STARVIS

STARVIS does not have a wiring layer that blocks incident light above the photodiode, dramatically increasing the light utilization efficiency.

Sony’s STARVIS sensor technology increases the sensitivity of backilluminated CMOS image sensors for video surveillance cameras, improving low light performance and consequently reducing motion blur, noise and digital smoothing.

ONY’S new STARVIS back-illuminated CMOS sensor increases light utilization efficiency over a wide range of wavelengths, enhancing sensitivity not only in the visible light region but also near infrared light region that is often used by security cameras. As a result, STARVIS achieves a sensitivity of 2,000 mV or more than 1 um per pixel size, and realizes 2 or more times the sensitivity of the existing CCD image sensor (EXview HAD CCD II).

The IMX290LQR, which commenced mass production from June 2015, realizes 2 or more times the sensitivity in the visible light region and 3 or more times the sensitivity in the near infrared light region (850nm) compared to the existing same-pixel-size product with enhanced near infrared light sensitivity that use a front-illuminated structure. The overall result is superior visibility. (See Fig. 2)

S

Low light sensitivity Security cameras are often used to image dark scenes, so they are used with the lens aperture fully open in many cases. When the lens aperture is fully open, the angle of incident light increases. Therefore, when using a front-illuminated structure, the wiring layer between the on-chip lens on the front surface of the CMOS image sensor and the photodiode that performs photoelectric conversion blocks part of the incident light, which is a factor lowering the sensitivity. In contrast, the back-illuminated structure adopted by STARVIS does not have a wiring layer that blocks incident light above the photodiode, dramatically increasing the light utilization efficiency.

In Fig. 3, the sensitivity relative to the theoretical value at each F-number (actual sensitivity/theoretical value) is normalized so that the relative sensitivity is 1 at F5.6. Values closer to 1 indicate better light utilization efficiency.

Fig. 3 shows an example of the relationship between the lens aperture value (F-number) and the relative sensitivity for back-illuminated and front-

42 se&n

illuminated structures. The incident light quantity doubles each time the F-number is reduced by one step and the lens aperture is widened.

When using a front-illuminated structure, the effect of the wiring layer means that a sufficient increase in sensitivity cannot be obtained even by reducing the F-number. Fig. 3, however, shows that the backilluminated structure used by STARVIS increases the sensitivity to near the theoretical value, even at low F-numbers. n

Color product, when imaging with a 706 cd/㎡ light source, F5.6 in 1 s accumulation equivalent.

● Regulars

Monitoring

Home Automation Trending

Home automation is continuing to trend, with overseas takeup suggesting it’s likely local monitoring providers who are doubling down on home automation are on the right track.

44 se&n

LECTRONIC security systems, home and office automation solutions and broadband internet and cloud continue to enhance and complement one another – so much so it seems that automation solutions are beginning to look as if they may attain ubiquity. Is it likely the homes and SMEs of the future will expect automation capability that combines intrusion detection, access control and video surveillance as a matter of course – that all well-designed secure and energy efficient homes will include considerable levels of automation?

E

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BY J O H N A D A M S

Your Monitoring Specialists

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In our opinion, yes. And for multiple reasons, including better internet services. Improvements in bandwidth performance and reductions in the cost of underlying services, coupled with the cost reductions in hardware, are really having an impact. Trends towards services like naked DSL, which don’t require phone line rental, are taking affordable internet to the place useful management of security and automation systems, including video surveillance, are becoming far more realistic. If there’s one thing that is required, it’s improvements in upload speed – 1Mbps speeds simply

For a home to be considered smart, 63 per cent said it needed to incorporate security including alarm systems and electronic access control

don’t cut it when you’re carting video surveillance around.

Of particular note is that independent polls are beginning to chart the trend towards smart homes – which include electronic security solutions. Late last year, Harris Poll surveyed 4065 American adults about their interest in smart home technology. The poll defined such technology as including solutions that managed lighting, temperature, security, safety and entertainment and were managed by a local controller or remote by phone, tablet or workstation.

Of the 4065 surveryed, 1009 of the responders, to the Smart Home Marketplace Survey already owned a smart home solution and another 27 per cent planned to invest in such a solution in 2016. The drivers of smart home uptake, according to the responders were security (58 per cent) and temperature control (56 per cent).

The survey found that of the people who don’t have smart home technology or plan to buy it this year, 36 per cent don’t consider themselves to be tech early adopters. Interesting too, 70 per cent of people with smart home solutions said that purchasing their first smart home solution had made them more likely to buy another.

Another interesting finding of the survey was the perception of added value to a home. According to the survey, 54 per cent of homeowners would purchase or install smart home products if they were selling their home and knew that doing so would make it sell faster. Meanwhile, of the homeowners who said they’d purchase or install smart home products, 65 per cent would pay $US1,500 or more and 40 per cent would pay $3,000 or more to make their home smarter. For homeowners aged 18-34 who would purchase or install smart home products, 72 per cent would pay $1,500 or more and 44 per cent would pay $3,000 or more to

make their home smart.

For a home to be considered smart, 63 per cent said it needed to incorporate security including alarm systems and electronic access control, 63 per cent said thermostats and fans, lighting was key for 58 per cent, while safety components including night lighting, fire and carbon monoxide detection were the top choices for 56 per cent of responders.

Furthermore, 76 per cent of responders felt it was not sufficient to include a single category of smart home solutions in a home for it to be considered smart, while 60 per cent felt that at least 3 categories of smart products needed to be included for a home to be smart.

Of all the smart home technologies, the most widespread are smart entertainment solutions – including smart TVs and audio systems, which are owned by 44 per cent of people who own smart technology. However, while these components are widely owned, they are less widely appreciated by users.

Security solutions came in as next mostly widely owned at 31 per cent, (and topped out responses in terms of importance), while smart temperature control was right behind on 30 per cent.

Important for installers and suppliers, it’s not the young and technically educated who dominate the smart home market – 40 per cent of responders over the age of 65 had smart home technology in their home compared with 25 per cent of those under 34. And relative income is not a predictor either, suggesting smart home technology and the networking technology that supports it, have become affordable and efficient enough to be worth having and to generate cost savings and enhancements to living standards now considered vital by many home owners.

Responders with household income of $50K-$75K and those with a household income of $75K-100K are adopting smart

se&n 45

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● Regulars

Monitoring

Your Monitoring Specialists

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www.bensecurity.com.au

Interestingly, users want more smarts in their homes, not less, and have a much clearer sense of what constitutes a smart home than they did in the past.

46 se&n

home technology at nearly identical rates, with 25 per cent adoption for those in the lower range and 26 per cent adoption for those in the upper income range. Nor is education a predictor – the same findings were revealed for those with some college education, compared with people who graduated from college – 26 per cent vs. 27 per cent.

When it came time to buy a home, 58 per cent of responders said they’d most want home security technology, 56 per cent wanted smart temperature control – around 34 per cent wanted smart fridges, washers and dryers, while smart entertainment systems were valued by only 29 per cent of responders.

Owners of smart home products are 57 per cent male and 43 per cent female – 43 per cent of responders with some smart home solutions were aged 18-34, while 33 per cent were 35-54 and 24 per cent are 55

or older. The technology appeals almost equally to parents with children under 18 (44 per cent), as well as to those with no children or whose children are older than 18.

The underlying fundamentals of the survey from the point of view of electronic security people, are that security is considered the most important aspect of home automation by end users – including video verification of alarms and access control - and that users are prepared to spend real money for systems that offer them a genuinely smarter home. Interestingly, users want more smarts in their homes, not less, and have a much clearer sense of what constitutes a smart home than they did in the past. Also important, users see smart home technology not as a sunk cost but an investment in their home’s value. n

CAMS 9 is now compatible with over 90 major IP CCTV brands.

SONY SPARKLAN STARDOT SUNELL TOSHIBA TP-LINK TRENDNET TRUEN UBIQUITI VIVOTEK WISION Y-CAM ZAVIO 3S A-MTK ABUS ACTI ACUMEN AFIDUS AIRLIVE APEXIS ARECONT AVER AVIGILON AVTECH AXIS AZTECH BASLER BEWARD BOSCH BRICKCOM CANON CISCO COMPRO D-LINK DAHUA DERICAM DLINK DYNACOLOR EDIMAX EMINENT ENEO ETROVISION EVERFOCUS FLEXWATCH FOSCAM GEOVISION GRANDSTREAM GRANDTEC HEDEN HIKVISION HITRON HUNT INSTAR INTELLINET IPUX IQINVISION JVC LEVELONE LILIN LINKSYS LUPUS MESSOA MICROVIEW MOBOTIX NEXCOM OPTICA PANASONIC PIXORD ROBIN SAMSUNG SANYO SECUFIRST SHANY SIEMENS SMC SONY SPARKLAN STARDOT SUNELL TOSHIBA TP-LINK TRENDNET TRUEN UBIQUITI VIVOTEK WISION Y-CAM ZAVIO 3S A-MTK ABUS ACTI ACUMEN AFIDUS AIRLIVE APEXIS ARECONT AVER AVIGILON AVTECH AXIS AZTECH BASLER BEWARD BOSCH BRICKCOM CANON CISCO COMPRO D-LINK DAHUA DERICAM DLINK DYNACOLOR EDIMAX EMINENT ENEO ETROVISION EVERFOCUS FLEXWATCH FOSCAM GEOVISION GRANDSTREAM GRANDTEC HEDEN HIKVISION HITRON HUNT INSTAR INTELLINET IPUX IQINVISION JVC LEVELONE LILIN LINKSYS LUPUS MESSOA MICROVIEW MOBOTIX NEXCOM OPTICA PANASONIC PIXORD ROBIN SAMSUNG SANYO SECUFIRST SHANY SIEMENS SMC SONY SPARKLAN STARDOT SUNELL TOSHIBA TP-LINK TRENDNET TRUEN UBIQUITI VIVOTEK WISION Y-CAM ZAVIO WISION Y-CAM ZAVIO SONY SPARKLAN STARDOT SUNELL TOSHIBA TP-LINK TRENDNET TRUEN UBIQUITI VIVOTEK WISION Y-CAM ZAVIO 3S A-MTK ABUS ACTI ACUMEN AFIDUS AIRLIVE APEXIS ARECONT AVER AVIGILON AVTECH AXIS AZTECH BASLER BEWARD BOSCH BRICKCOM CANON CISCO COMPRO D-LINK DAHUA DERICAM DLINK DYNACOLOR EDIMAX EMINENT ENEO ETROVISION EVERFOCUS FLEXWATCH FOSCAM GEOVISION GRANDSTREAM GRANDTEC HEDEN HIKVISION HITRON HUNT INSTAR INTELLINET IPUX IQINVISION JVC LEVELONE LILIN LINKSYS LUPUS MESSOA MICROVIEW MOBOTIX NEXCOM OPTICA PANASONIC PIXORD ROBIN SAMSUNG SANYO SECUFIRST SHANY SIEMENS SMC SONY SPARKLAN STARDOT SUNELL TOSHIBA TP-LINK TRENDNET TRUEN UBIQUITI VIVOTEK WISION Y-CAM ZAVIO 3S A-MTK ABUS ACTI ACUMEN AFIDUS AIRLIVE APEXIS ARECONT AVER AVIGILON AVTECH AXIS AZTECH BASLER BEWARD BOSCH BRICKCOM CANON CISCO COMPRO D-LINK DAHUA DERICAM DLINK DYNACOLOR EDIMAX EMINENT ENEO ETROVISION EVERFOCUS FLEXWATCH FOSCAM GEOVISION GRANDSTREAM GRANDTEC HEDEN HIKVISION HITRON HUNT INSTAR INTELLINET IPUX IQINVISION JVC LEVELONE LILIN LINKSYS LUPUS MESSOA MICROVIEW MOBOTIX NEXCOM OPTICA PANASONIC PIXORD ROBIN SAMSUNG SANYO SECUFIRST SHANY SIEMENS SMC SONY SPARKLAN STARDOT SUNELL TOSHIBA TP-LINK TRENDNET TRUEN UBIQUITI VIVOTEK WISION Y-CAM ZAVIO WISION Y-CAM ZAVIO SONY SPARKLAN STARDOT SUNELL TOSHIBA TP-LINK TRENDNET TRUEN UBIQUITI VIVOTEK WISION Y-CAM ZAVIO 3S A-MTK ABUS ACTI ACUMEN AFIDUS AIRLIVE APEXIS ARECONT AVER AVIGILON AVTECH AXIS AZTECH BASLER BEWARD BOSCH BRICKCOM CANON CISCO COMPRO D-LINK DAHUA DERICAM DLINK DYNACOLOR EDIMAX EMINENT ENEO ETROVISION EVERFOCUS FLEXWATCH FOSCAM GEOVISION GRANDSTREAM GRANDTEC HEDEN HIKVISION HITRON HUNT INSTAR INTELLINET IPUX IQINVISION JVC LEVELONE LILIN LINKSYS LUPUS MESSOA MICROVIEW MOBOTIX NEXCOM OPTICA PANASONIC PIXORD ROBIN SAMSUNG SANYO SECUFIRST SHANY SIEMENS SMC SONY SPARKLAN STARDOT SUNELL TOSHIBA TP-LINK TRENDNET TRUEN UBIQUITI VIVOTEK WISION Y-CAM ZAVIO 3S A-MTK ABUS ACTI ACUMEN AFIDUS AIRLIVE APEXIS ARECONT

Action alarms faster and improve every facet of your monitoring station operations.

CAMS is used by more Australian monitoring centres than any other monitoring platform.

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Security Innovations Sooner

CAMS 9 is a registered trademark of Suretrak Global Pty Ltd. All other trademarks, servicemarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

● Product review

Dahua

Round, round, get around Dahua’s DH-IPCEBW81200P 12MP ultra HD vandal-proof IR network fisheye camera is a real piece of work that offers end users extraordinary situational awareness, including face recognition through 360 degrees at ranges up to 4.5m from the lens in good light.

48 se&n

HEN I pick up Dahua’s DH-IPC-EBW81200P 12MP fisheye from my desk to install it on the ceiling of the office it’s with a feeling of mild ambivalence. Hemispheric cameras, with their excessive levels of distortion and enormous angles of view engendered by miniscule focal lengths, are bound by the laws of physics to do highly creative things to a scene.

But by the time I finish messing about with this husky Dahua fisheye, I’ve changed my mind completely. There are loads of applications that would be perfect for cameras like the DH-IPCEBW81200P, from retail, to foyers, meeting rooms, open plan homes – anything with a diameter of around 6-8 metres (court admissible face

W

BY J O H N A D A M S

The IR LEDs offer a range out to 10 metres, which it getting towards the limits of the camera’s useful viewing range in good light. recognition up to 4.5m) is right up this camera’s alley.

Before we test the camera, it’s well worth running through the specifications, which are surprisingly comprehensive. From the get-go, build quality is excellent. Dahua’s fisheye is a metal lump of cast aluminium designed to meet demanding IK10 standards of vandal resistance, as well as IP67 ingress ratings. Properly installed at height, no one is going to be able to do this camera much harm.

When it comes to size, the camera is 74.1mm x 65.5mm x 135.4mm, and weighs 580 grams. The weight is all in the monocoque housing, which is a real tough nut. There are 3 IR integrated LEDs and taken as a whole, this is an attractive and very discreet camera. The IR LEDs offer a range out to 10 metres, which it getting towards the limits of the camera’s useful viewing range in good light. Power draw is under 13W with the LEDs on.

A flying lead emerging from the rear of the housing incorporates PoE, V DC power, audio in and out and alarm inputs and outputs. Resolution options include 12MP (4000 x 3000 pixels), 8MP (2880 x 2880 pixels), 6MP (2880 x 2160 pixels) and 3MP (2048 x 1536 pixels) – for the purposes of my test I keep the camera at 12MP and I’m very impressed by the low bit rate. Typically, it’s around 1250Kbps and will only spike up to about 8Mbps if subjected to movement through its entire 360-degree angle of view – that’s impressive, considering.

Additional specifications include ½.3-inch progressive scan CMOS sensor, electronic shutter from 1/3 sec to 1/10,000 sec, minimum illumination of 0.01 Lux at F2.2 in colour and 0Lux at F2.2 in monochrome with the IR on. Our test is around 350 lux during the day and sub 1 lux at night. Signal to noise ratio is solid at 50dB, there’s privacy masking of areas and bit rate varies between 40-8192Kbps.

You get audio in and out with G.711a/G.711u/PCM compression and this camera supports connection of up to 20 users at a time using iPhone, iPad, Android or Windows phones. There’s SD card memory, 2 alarm inputs and 1 output, and an excellent temperature range between -30 and 60C. The lens is a fixed focal length of 1.57mm with a maximum aperture of F2.2 and the camera incorporates digital zoom capabilities that are combined with de-warping software and driven by Dahua’s excellent camera browser. The browser is simple and super functional and I have no trouble finding the unit on the network and doing everything I want to do – the only thing I can’t work out instantly is how to sync the clock to my workstation.

There are multiple streaming options – mainstream at 12MP can be selected from 1-15ips

(I left mine at 15) or up to 30ips in 3MP. There’s also a substream – either D1 or CIF up to 30ips. Same as other Dahua cameras, this hemispheric camera incorporates digital wide dynamic range (DWDR), backlight compensation (BLC), and highlight compensation (HLC).

Driving the camera You can drive this camera with Dahua’s SmartPSS but I found the browser a pleasure to use, offering profound control and great management of video, playback, recording, setup and alarm events. Given the capability of the browser and the power of the camera in applications that suit it, this interface alone is going to be more than enough for some users. My settings are close to default, though I play around when I switch to night mode trying to get improvements in performance.

The camera is set at H.264 in 4000 x 3000 pixel mode, 15ips and a variable bitrate of 8192 maximum – the bit rate remains around 1250Kbps through my static office test. Throughout most of the test I have the settings at an image quality of 4 but later on I switch them up to 6 – there’s a definite improvement – especially with zooming and face recognition but bitrate goes up to 2350Mbps. If this was your only camera you’d stick with a setting of 6. I have a sub-stream at D1 and I take a look at that – it’s ideal for transmission over WANs for remote situational awareness. Resolution is unquestionably low but you can see what’s going on and bit rate is under 200Kbps – pretty good stuff. You could use this stream remotely and set the camera to record in maximum resolution and quality on alarm events.

When you’re driving the system there are 10 different groups of scene configurations pulled from the 360-degree image stream, de-warped and displayed in different ways. But these configurations don’t really explain the ingenuity of the display’s functionality. In all these screen configurations there’s a 360-degree image with a series of line diagrams of the field of view in each tile that contains pan and tilt control. You get your pointer inside that field and view then click and wheel the scenes

se&n 49

● Product review

Dahua

6-way split

There’s a heatmap that’s ideal for retailers needing help with marketing or promotions and clearly shows where shoppers gathered throughout the day.

around. You can pan in all the tiles directly but this control tile allows you to pan and tilt the image in the display tiles very intuitively.

There are comprehensive event settings with email alerts for loss of video signal, simple but functional IVA that generates an alarm, a recording and an email in the event that a drawn rule – I draw a line - is broken. There are IVA options for tripwire and intrusion. There’s a heatmap that’s ideal for retailers needing help with marketing or promotions and clearly shows where shoppers gathered throughout the day. There’s audio detection with adjustable sensitivity and threshold – this also sends records, drives a relay and sends an email. There are also alarm events and abnormality events relating to loss of SD card, network or unauthorised access.

Storage settings are comprehensive and you can tweak daily scheduling, destination of recording, including local SD, FTP and NAS. All you do is check boxes to lock in what sort of recording you want – scheduled, motion detection or alarm events. There’s also recording control where you set up pre-event recording, overwrite of full disk, and select the stream

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Flying leads

you want to record. Next I get into the System General folder and there it is – date and time – having taken all my snapshots, I finally sync the camera with my PC. With everything set up, I turn to Live View. The different views include the original 360-degree fisheye view, a pair of 180-degree views, one above the other, showing 360 degrees, a pair of corridorstyle views, a fisheye view and a pair of corridorstyle views, a fisheye and 3 horizontal views, a small central fisheye control and 4 horizontal tiles (this is a good standard quad view with integrated control), a bigger fisheye and 4 tighter horizontal views, 6 smaller horizontal views and a large 360 degree control view, and 9 small rectangular views with a central fisheye control. If you can’t find something suitable among this lot, you’re not trying.

Driving the system – because it really is a system in a single camera – is very easy. You just click and pull to pan and tilt the camera view. Digital zoom is another single click affair – left click and roll the mouse wheel to zoom. This is a camera that really highlights the flexibility of hemispherics.

What about performance? Within the constraints of the hemispheric format, which means considerable pixel spread even with a 12MP sensor, performance is very good. Colour rendition is strong, WDR performance is surprisingly good. The camera works best when it’s offering situational awareness – you can certainly use digital zoom but the further in you go, the more pixellation and waves of digital rendering you are going to see.

IR performance

This camera is not about extremely fine detail but getting 360-degree situational awareness presented in a profoundly flexible and digestible form from a single low-cost camera. Face recognition in good light is about 4.5 metres – once you get out to 6 metres fine details get a little blocky. But within that distance – which is ideal for the entry ways of retail stores or service stations – detail is reasonably good, especially at a quality setting of 6.

Night time performance in monochrome under IR is softer than performance during the day, making this camera suited to situational awareness, confirmation of alarm events and face recognition at closer ranges – around 2 metres. We’re testing inside in a 4m x 12m space and externally or in larger internal spaces you’d certainly get useful situational awareness on an intrusion event to a diameter of about 7-8m, though things get soft past this point.

This is compact sensor with a large number of pixels, which impacts on low light performance.

Something worth noting at night is that when you add small amounts of ambient light to the scene, the image improves markedly, which is perfect for retail stores that might leave on 1-2 lights in their array after hours. In such conditions you’ll get colour performance that’s a little darker than it would be with full illumination but is otherwise extremely good. I found in night mode that even adding a monitor screen had a big impact on low light performance and given the low cost of running modern LED downlights or fluorescent tubes – a few

cents a day – sufficient light for colour performance is not going to be an issue for most typical applications.

Dahua’s DH-IPC-EBW81200P 12MP camera is an excellent camera. It has a big job to do and manages with aplomb. The tough thing with hemispheric cameras is creating an interface that leverages the enormous flexibility of the panamorph lens. Image mapping function is a key part of all this, as is efficient algorithms allowing dewarping and correction, all while retaining sufficient pixel count in the region of interest. Getting all these variables right is no small thing and with this extremely capable and robust DH-IPC-EBW81200P, Dahua has certainly done so.. n Features of Dahua’s H-IPCEBW81200P 12MP camera include: l

1/2.3-inch progressive scan CMOS

l

H.264 and MJPEG dual-stream encoding

l

Max 15fps@12MP (4000 x 3000 pixels)

l

riginal, Panoramic, Double Panoramic, O 1+3, Eptz, etc

l

WDR, Day/Night(ICR), 3DNR, ROI, AWB, D AGC, BLC

l

ultiple network monitoring: Web viewer, M CMS(DSS/PSS) & DMSS

l

Max.IR LEDs Length 10m

l

IP67, IK10, PoE

l

ONVIF compliance.

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● On the road

Sectech

Zoom, Tilt, Pantechnicon!

Take 5 state capitals, 1500 installers, consultants and end users, 20 manufacturers and distributors, and hundreds of cutting edge products.

Mix thoroughly and serve hot.

ECTECH Roadshow gets into gear early May and gives end users and installers in Australia’s state capitals a chance to get their mitts on all the latest electronic security solutions. You won’t go wading through hundreds of stands and thousands of products at SecTech – instead we’re trucking 20 of the industry’s leading manufacturers and distributors, and all their newest products to your home town in our big pantechnicon.

SecTech Roadshow has no airs and no graces – it’s about new electronic security products and solutions, what they offer and how they work - period.

And after you’ve seen the new stuff, it’s also the perfect chance for security people to catch up with friends and do some valuable networking with other suppliers, installers, integrators and end users. Last

S

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year, SecTech’s free happy hour continued for hours – even when our roadies were helping exhibitors pull down their stands no one wanted to leave. It’ll be more of the same this time around.

SecTech’s camera shootout will be another big highlight and this year’s going to be different. We’re going to take a look at 3 groups of cameras, including compact domes, bullet cameras and last but not least, a group of 4K UHD photon buckets. We’ll be testing each camera group for colour rendition, sharpness, contrast, WDR performance, low light performance and motion blur, and this year we’re going to cap bitrates to make your assessment of what’s best much easier.

SecTech Roadshow is short, sharp and perfectly focused. If you have new product to show, or there’s new product you need to see, be there. n

We’ll be testing each camera group for colour rendition, sharpness, contrast, WDR performance, low light performance and motion blur, and this year we’re going to cap bitrates to make your assessment of what’s best much easier.

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Quality. Reliability. Integrity. The Security Professionals’ First Choice.

● Feature

Suretek

sure thing Alarm monitoring software and hardware manufacturer, Suretek’s reimagining of itself highlights the huge changes sweeping through the alarm monitoring industry, as well as clearly setting out real opportunities.

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URETEK’S multi-level co-location facility and data centre in Sydney’s western suburbs is unquestionably the single most impressive facility of its type in Australia. Due to open in the first quarter of 2016, the facility is the centrepiece of Suretek’s business model, as well as a statement of belief about where the market is going.

The overall facility, built inside Suretek’s head office, incorporates a Grade 1A co-location centre, along with an integrated data centre housing Suretek’s cloud array. When you think co-location centre, think monitoring centre for control rooms – a facility with more than 18 hot workstations that’s designed to offer Suretek’s 200 plus monitoring station clients, and their estimated 1,000,000 customers, the pinnacle of failover support.

S

BY J O H N A D A M S

These days many companies offer an app but there are a number of things about Suretek’s AlarmLink app that make it quite different.

and automation solutions via the monitoring centre or bureau. There’s also considerable scope for the development of new revenue streams, major cost savings in infrastructure and considerable enhancement of the efficiency of monitoring centre operations.

From an industry commentator’s point of view, what’s interesting here is that Suretek has created an end-to-end solution that brings in any and every existing alarm panel, as well as new security and automation panels. But while the holistic nature of Suretek’s offering is the central takeaway, it’s a hard thing to get down in a linear exposition of words. The interlocking elements of this solution move forward on a broad front. Suretek’s co-location facility, its monitoring software, its app, its redundant security network and its cloud solution are conjoined.

“With Suretek it’s beyond the software, it’s a whole solution,” explains Glenn Smith. “You get the infrastructure as well as the software, the global networking capability, the IP technology for automation and the co-location facility. As well as expanding the range of services monitoring stations can offer customers with their existing alarm panels, we are building new revenue models and at the same time helping monitoring stations

Glenn Smith, Suretek’s proprietor and managing director, is a man of considerable commitment and uncommon focus. When Smith first began building the Suretek co-location facility and data centre some years ago, his idea was that it would act as a hot support centre for the 70 plus monitoring stations which were using Suretek’s CAMS software. But the market has changed since then, and Suretek is now responsible for more than 400 monitoring stations worldwide, with more than 150 of these in Australia running CAMS. In response to these changes, Suretek has created a security ecosystem through which its monitoring station clients can drive and expand their businesses, as well as empowering the businesses of bureau clients.

What does Suretek’s network offer? The short version is remote management of a client’s security

Colocation workstations

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● Feature

Suretek

Glenn Smith

lower communication costs. Typically, monitoring stations are stripping profit margins to compete – if we can improve their efficiency, customer service levels and lower their communications costs, then half the battle is won. CAMS monitoring stations are enjoying the start of this today.”

Making monitoring stations more efficient is critical and that comes down to the software.

Monitoring alarms is no longer a matter of just bringing alarm events to a screen. Good monitoring software needs to be intelligent, intuitive and service oriented. It needs to help a monitoring station run more efficiently, reducing the demand on operators to make mundane phone calls through the use of automation and technology.

“Traditionally, for a monitoring station, calling a client is the cost of a phone call from a landline, and even more from a mobile phone. This hurts if you are only getting one dollar a day in revenue, and even less when you’re making a call on behalf of a bureau.” Smith says. “With technologically advanced communication mediums becoming more acceptable, we can give monitoring centres the option to reduce their costs by communicating directly from the monitoring centre operator to the customer’s smart-device, which gives the user, depending on the event type, a number of selectable options: to acknowledge the event, request patrol or police, and in all cases an option to call the operator, which in this case, puts the costs back onto the consumer, not the monitoring centre. The monitoring station is directly communicating for a micro-cent, and they are making the customer part of their existing security system, without compromising their communication standards.”

The efficiencies go deep. There are serious savings to be made on underlying communications costs, too. Suretek’s network allows monitoring

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Co-location entry

stations to take their comms to IP and that means a big reduction in copper line costs – not just when contacting customers, but organising patrols with other control rooms. Soon all CAMS monitoring centres will be interconnected. One monitoring station calling another monitoring station to dispatch patrols is a slow, costly and disruptive process. This will be alleviated soon when Suretek releases PODSnet, connecting any control room to any patrol company instantly, at the click of a button.

According to Smith, Suretek’s monitoring centre communication solutions are focused on reducing 70 per cent of existing monitoring centre communication costs, while giving the control room the ability to up-sell customers excellent remote management app features and automated messaging, using their existing and new up-andcoming alarm systems.

Of course, none of this process can be secure, redundant and entirely dependable unless the monitoring software has a robust back end. It is in this space that Suretek excels.

“Importantly, we have the infrastructure to manage the back end of the process – no one else has built this infrastructure in the holistic way we have done,” says Smith. “We have invested heavily in our own carrier-grade cloud system that allows us to push millions of event and poll signals across the cloud successfully without any losses and more importantly, without latency. When planning our solution, we knew where we wanted to be and we realised a Cisco cloud-based solution was what we needed in order to get there. Everyone who does cloud properly needs to have that infrastructure, but we are the only provider who offers it as part of a whole solution.”

A key part of this has been a long period of time working with telcos at the APN level to allow secure alarm signals, as well as these attached services. All devices talk to the CAMS secure central nucleous – the Suretek cloud. According to Smith, Suretek focuses heavily on securing information within a secure data pipe in a secure network.

“A control room cannot be exposed to the Internet – how can we offer these services without there being a security risk?” That’s something we work hard on,” he says.

Smith points out that while the CAMS software is a key part of Suretek’s solution, it goes way beyond the software.

“Today, it’s about the whole service you provide - software, hardware and a big network that forms a secure ecosystem, with everything connected end-to-end, ensuring a smooth integration at the monitoring centre, and the ability for the control room to communicate with the user,” he explains.

“The really powerful part here is that the customer has one interface connecting them directly to their monitoring station, directly to their home security system and home automation system, and any other user of their system.”

We’re also just about to release a full panic app and we think this will be another growth area for the monitoring industry CAMS AlarmLink App These days many companies offer an app, but there are a number of things about Suretek’s AlarmLink app that make it quite different. For a start, it’s part of the monitoring station software, not a third party platform and that means not only does the monitoring station push event notifications directly to clients, the app works with existing alarm panels – there’s no need for re-installation of systems.

“With CAMS, as a panel gathers signals, details are sent to the user – who opened or closed the system, test reports, events, etc - but the alarm events are going down the control room path, they are not a self-monitored solution being directed from the alarm panel to the user,” explains Smith. “That means they can be picked up by the operator or the automation software, and responded to in the way the control room’s procedures require – that might be a traditional phone call or using the new smartdevice integration.

“In either case, the important thing is that we are

AlarmLink app

not sending signals in 2 directions at once, like some overseas players trying to enter the Australian market, all signals go via the control room and arrive at the user as a communication from the control room. This is important because sending signals directly can highlight instances of latency in the control room process at particular times of the day.

“By bringing everything through the nucleus of the software, giving the user more service oriented solutions and proper value, the security solution is not a grudge purchase,” Smith explains. “The security system becomes a thing users can’t do without when it to comes managing their security and home automation system.”

“And one of the great things about AlarmLink is the bureau customer can put their logo onto the app and brand it as their own.”

According to Suretek’s Luke Kavanagh, the underlying truth in all this is that monitoring solutions are no longer defined by their communications path, but about the services you attach to them and about the client experience.

“With the AlarmLink app, customers have choices that they never had before,” Kavanagh says. “They are looking at the app every day, arming, disarming, checking event history, checking real time events.

Customers don’t have to have a particular panel or

Co-location centre

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● Feature

Suretek

Co-location server room

We represent 200 control rooms in Australia, so it’s all about being able to support any of them through any emergency. device, they can have alarm diallers or any type of panel reporting via IP, to receive the service, they simply select their CAMS monitoring centre of choice, and their alarm signals are pushed to the app, so the user can interact with their system and monitoring station via the app interface.”

IP allows lateral projection of monitoring and takes things to another level. With AlarmLink, monitoring is not just of the premises, but of every person attached to an account who carries a smart device loaded with the app. Another cool feature is a geo-fence – you can use it to keep an eye on kids who are at home by themselves.

“AlarmLink come standard with a panic feature, but we are also about to release a stand-alone panic app, and we think this will be another growth area for the monitoring industry – it’s ideal for lone workers or mobile fleets,” Kavanagh explains. “The panic app has neat features such as ‘Follow me’.

This involves a user pressing a pre-alert when they are about to go to the car park at night, or undertake an action that may carry an element of risk and requires real time monitoring.

“Once the pre-alert is set, all the user has to do is shake the phone and the monitoring station will be alerted with a precise GPS location,” Kavanagh says. “We’ve also built in a man-down system, with

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the user required to check-in at pre-determined intervals, or an alert with coordinates will be sent to the monitoring station.”

Increasing efficiency further are installer apps for customer sites, designed so that new customers are automatically updated into a CAMS monitoring station as they are programmed on the site, without the need for time consuming data entry.

When you talk security and cloud in residential applications, it’s inevitable the conversation will turn to home automation.

“Home automation is a key area of growth in the future with plenty of competition for who will provide and manage the central hub that will govern such systems,” says Smith. “We believe the security control panel will win out here for a number of reasons. For a start, the security functions are the most important of home automation functions.

“Then there’s the fact people generally trust their security company and installers, who provide an existing duty of care for their customers. It’s in this area that there will be a lot of rewards and new opportunities for security companies - this trust relationship is a base from which to add home automation and IP communications to existing security systems. They might add VoIP phones and intercoms too, all of which Suretek is building the platforms for.”

The Co-location centre Central to all these other capabilities is Suretek’s colocation centre, which will soon be completed, with only final commissioning in the new server room, and some components of internal communications systems yet to be installed. I’ve been here a number of times during the construction process, including at the very beginning, so I can see how close it is to being finished. Frankly, this facility is amazing.

There’s really nothing else like it in Australia.

The server room is not fully operational as we take a look at the cloud servers which are all about to be commissioned. The UPS solution is all in - 2 full racks which handle power needs until the big diesel generator powers up.

“In the future, instead of a control room spending 25 grand on a fully-loaded receiver it will all be cloud based,” explains Smith. “With CAMS and ADSW, we represent over 200 control rooms in Australia, so this facility is all about being able to support any of them through any emergency. To that end, our co-location facility will be up and running live – perhaps the only one in the world to operate this way,” he explains.

“The idea behind the co-location centre was to allow smaller monitoring centres to compete with larger ones – that was back when we had around 40 control rooms on board with CAMS,” says Smith.

“The co-location facility means the little guys who spend $A500,000 building a control room can have full redundancy and the highest security levels, even if they can’t afford to build a second

control room to support their first. This makes their services seamless in the event of any unforeseen incident, and today it’s become more relevant to have co-location, with industry bodies introducing co-location certification to maintain their existing standards.

“We now have 155 monitoring stations running CAMS, which is about 62 per cent of all control rooms in Australia - and we bought ADSW a couple of years ago, which represents another 29 per cent of Australian central stations. We estimate we provide around 90 per cent of all the monitoring station software in Australia, and these big numbers have made the redundancy provided by the co-location facility much more important.

“Suretek has a strong reputation for unrivaled support and redundancy, with most of our services being patented. CAMS users are able to enjoy these services, which allows them to generally maintain operations at their facility during most outages or failures,” Smith says. “But when their core systems or facility is compromised, the manned Suretek co-location site enables them to instantly and seamlessly maintain their operations, with hot workstations ready to go. This seamless monitoring service is critical for every monitoring station, and we believe simply none of our competitors globally can offer this level of support.”

Conclusion A fully networked control room offers considerable efficiencies for the future. There will be no need for expensive PSTN lines, no need for expensive analogue receivers, no need for the complexity and expense of voice recording – all the control room needs is a data connection to Suretek’s secure and fully redundant network, which will completely future-proof their business. It’s a thrilling prospect.

“Half the control rooms are worried about the new

These days many companies offer an app but there are a number of things about Suretek’s AlarmLink app that make it quite different.

technology and the other half are excited about the opportunities, but we feel we have all our customers covered, thanks to features that improve user experience, and at the same time enhance control room efficiency and revenue streams,” says Smith.

“This combination of CAMS, our Suretek network and cloud, and our co-location centre, makes perfect sense - monitoring is changing shape and we are excited by it, and excited to be pioneering it.”

“How do you feel about the future of alarm monitoring – there are challenges as technology changes. Can the business model survive?” I ask.

“Monitoring stations are here to stay and they now have the opportunity to grow their businesses in multiple directions with considerable reductions in communications and hardware costs,” says Smith.

“The service they provide can’t be underestimated.

Alarm monitoring will never go away for the person who cares about their family, business or assets.”

“You’ve obviously invested Suretek’s profits back into the business,” I suggest, gesturing around me.

“Yes, everything has gone back in – it’s been exciting to do that,” says Smith. “Given the speed the market is changing I would not want to have done it any other way. We now find ourselves in a very strong position. When we started working on this secure ecosystem and co-location centre, it wasn’t clear where we were going to ultimately end up, we just knew we had to head in a certain direction. We were ahead of our time in some respects, because when we started the industry wasn’t ready for this, but now everyone is ready for us to turn it on.” n

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● Special report

Cloud

Cloud Snap Shot There’s been a lot of talk about cloud over the past couple of years but it’s hard to get an accurate sense of exactly where end users, installers and suppliers are with cloud – to get a sense of this technology’s true market penetration.

60 se&n

by j o h n a d a m s

E’VE been writing about cloud for some years now but exactly how successful the technology is becoming in parts of the electronic security industry remains uncertain.

One thing is sure, cloud is becoming more and more prevalent in business environments, becoming ubiquitous through platforms like Office 365 (One Drive) in homes and small offices, and increasingly central to extracting the greatest possible functionality from many electronic security solutions.

It’s tough to talk about cloud without talking about networking – not local networking, but broadband networks. Unquestionably, the biggest stumbling block to widespread uptake of cloud in Australia is miserable bandwidth – that means upload as well as download. For almost any electronic security application you want power in your upload – that means synchronous links – 20/20Mbps for business applications is ideal. Security integrators and suppliers should be constantly talking about enhancing Internet speeds and should make sure they are across the best providers in their stomping grounds. End users making do with ADSL and asynchronous links with sub-1Mbps uploads need vigorous educating.

Key to cloud is an eagerness among installers to learn about cloud solutions and sell them to end users on their unquestionable merits. According

W

Unquestionably, the biggest stumbling block to widespread uptake of cloud in Australia is miserable bandwidth...

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● Special report

Cloud

to Anurag Mitra, product manager – CCTV & IP networking at Honeywell Security Group, that interest does exist in some quarters but many installers have been slow to embrace cloud.

“Installers with an IT background are certainly keen to learn and progress to cloud offerings as they see the benefits of RMR, however, traditional security installers at this moment are unsure and prefer to wait and watch where the industry is moving,” Mitra says. “Early movers will certainly benefit, however, with new players entering the market, installers who decide to join the cloud bandwagon will also have options available.

More competition and options will drive industry education and will be beneficial for the industry and customers.”

When it comes to the number systems Honeywell sells that have a cloud component, Mitra explains that a number of video surveillance systems have a cloud option, and there’s cloud support with some access control solutions, with intrusion alarms soon to be on the cloud as well.

“Are end users talking to you about cloud and if so, what size companies are most interested?” I ask.

“It is hard to quantify at this moment but in general all the large corporate end users we are dealing with have some cloud element in their IT network or have plans to roll out,” says Mitra. “All data centre and IT customers have cloud as part of their networks. Customers showing interest in this technology at the moment are IT, telecom, industrial and SME segment end users.”

Something it’s easy to imagine is a future that will be devoid of local storage in the medium and longer term, or that will comprise a more balanced hybrid storage ecosystem, with some things stored locally but all important storage requirements handled by huge and fully redundant professional data centres.

“Local storage will continue to exist for the medium term and even in long run, however, the component of cloud or remote storage will gradually take over,” Mitra explains. “The IT and data centre customer segment may completely shift to the cloud model but other market segments will have both local and remote storage technologies in the medium to long run.”

Over at cloud pioneer Risco, Peter O’Callaghan says that the key cloud application is the iRISCO smartphone app.

“This has revolutionised the industry with a ‘unified’ app that allows push notifications on alarm events, visual verification of those events, remote arming/disarming, access control, multiple panel monitoring and live viewing of Risco’s VU-Point IP cameras.

O’Callaghan says there is eagerness from installers once they see the simplicity and capability of the app.

“The biggest selling point has been the iRISCO app, and when installers and customers see for

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themselves how easy it is to use – seeing is believing – it’s not hard for them to decide,” he says.

When it comes to the percentage of systems Risco sells that have a cloud component, there’s no hangover of old technology.

“All of Risco’s current range of systems have the ability to be cloud-connected, ranging from the AGILITY 3, LightSYS 2, and the soon to be released ProSYS Plus,” O’Callaghan explains.

“In terms of installers, around 98 per cent of these are using Risco cloud for all kinds of applications, and more and more end users are finding out about Risco cloud from the internet, friends and installers. Of course, Risco deals with the trade only, and will direct any first level support calls and sales enquiries to installers and distributors.”

Does O’Callaghan see a future that will be devoid of local storage in the medium and longer term?

The biggest selling point has been the iRISCO app, and when installers and customers see for themselves how easy it is to use...

“Cloud-based storage is growing in demand, especially as costs go down and network bandwidth increases, and the advantages of a secure method of storing that information are becoming more apparent,” he explains. “However, in the short to medium term, customers will want to be able to integrate a local NVR to provide 24-hour recording for specific applications, because Australia’s current network infrastructure would not be able to deliver the kind of cost-effective performance that CCTV requires for satisfactory results.”

At Axis Communications, Wai King Wong says the key cloud application is built around Axis Camera Companion, which is the company’s well-developed and intuitive video management solution.

“We have started to enhance the Axis Camera Companion (ACC) using a cloud-based mediator

server that enables secure communication with client and the camera,” Wong explains. “To do so, the end-user does not need to configure their router for port forwarding and know the IP addresses of each individual cameras. Instead, the mediator server establishes communication between the client and cameras seamlessly.”

Do you see an eagerness among installers to learn about cloud solutions and sell them to end users? Do you see interest from end users?

“I think it will be a step-by-step approach in terms of installer and end-users,” Wong says. “Endusers need to be confident in using cloud-based applications. It is as easy as starting to use a hybrid cloud-based solution such as ACC. Once they have overcome the security needs of the network, the next requirement is usability over their network.”

When it comes to the percentage of systems Axis sells that have a cloud component, potential uptake is influenced by the fact Axis provides ACC with every camera free of charge.

“We have a high intake of users starting deploying the ACC solution,” Wong says. “We estimate about 5-10 per cent of cameras used are on our ACC solution - most ACC users are small install bases of 1-10 cameras. But we have yet establish a market for AVHS, as we are seeking the potential partners to deliver the full cloud-based surveillance solution.”

Wong believes cloud storage will be more prevalent in the future, supported by increasingly more affordable storage at the edge.

“At the moment, edge storage in ACC is the key for recording, as the utilisation of bandwidth is much lower,” Wong explains. “In the future, when bandwidth become more cost effective and efficient it will be vital to have the storage in the cloud and edge storage as a backup.”

Bosch Security’s James Layton has an holistic view of the electronic security and home automation industries, making his observations particularly valuable.

When it comes to the key cloud applications of electronic security solutions right now, Layton argues cloud is primarily being used for domestic applications – remote control of the home alarm and video verification of alarm events.

“Bandwidth restrictions in Australia are hampering any real move to mass offsite storage, and for some there is still a perception that the cloud itself is inherently unsecure,” Layton says. “It’s human nature to fear what we don’t understand, and for many security professionals,

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● Special report

Cloud

the cloud is still largely an unknown commodity.

I would say that for the foreseeable future, high security applications such as management of enterprise systems is going to remain in the realm of security VPNs for remote access.”

Layton does see interest from installers and end users.

“There is definitely interest from system integrators, mainly because cloud services offer the potential of recurring revenue,” he explains.

“With fewer intrusion panels going onto PSTN lines, we are seeing integrators losing access to telecommunications rebates; and even the opportunities for video verification in the cloud are seeing less end-users opt for having their system monitored by a central station. With traditional revenue streams drying up, integrators will jump at the opportunity to deliver a product with a monthly return.

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“Right now, it would appear that most of the promotion is push based – that is the integrators are keen to sell the benefits of cloud services, and are marketing them to potential end users. As the benefits of cloud become better known to the enduser market, I expect that the amount of pull from those end-users will increase substantially. You only have to look at the fact that Alarm.com was included in the Apple Watch unveiling to see this is so.”

What percentage of systems does Bosch Security sell of all types that have a cloud component?

“All Bosch Security Systems’ products, including camera systems, intrusion products, and access control solutions that utilise IP technology, have the ability to communicate with and report to offsite servers or other communications platforms.

Presently, any form of off-site installation such as a data centre would need to be provided by the

The cloud concept for electronic security is still really in its infancy, at least in Australia – we aren’t fielding a large number of enquiries...

system integrator or end user, but Bosch Security Systems will soon be launching its own cloud centre in Australia.”

When it comes to the percentage of end users with network services in the cloud who are talking about cloud, Layton says things are just starting to get moving.

“The cloud concept for electronic security is still really in its infancy, at least in Australia – we aren’t fielding a large number of enquiries, but we do see enough for it to be noticeable,” he says. “The majority of interest right now is being driven by the domestic market when it comes to self-monitoring and home control.

“But we do see some of our system integrators starting to dabble in to cloud-based options for video – though we sometimes get questions that are way out of scope – for instance ‘how can I store 60ips 4K video from 30 cameras in the cloud?’ We

see the big thing today as being to help educate our system integrators and the market about the benefits, limitations, and future directions offered by the cloud.”

When it comes to whether or not cloud storage will dominate in the future, or we’ll see a hybrid storage ecosystem, Layton has definite opinions.

“Cloud offers clear benefits when it comes to redundant storage and additional processing power, but at the end of the day, the safest and easiest place to store and manage data is at the source,” he explains. “While I can certainly see more and more systems looking to use cloud-based services going forward, I don’t see the outright removal of local storage to be any time in the near to medium future.

“No matter how much redundancy is in place, no remote system can truly promise 100 per cent uptime, and thus for security purposes and the contemporaneous requirements of data for evidence, there will likely be an ongoing need for local storage of security data.”

Meanwhile, at security software developer Genetec, Pierre Racz says the company has a hybrid cloud, cloud first strategy.

“Genetec has embraced cloud and is moving many of its services into the cloud, believing that if data is properly protected and encrypted, cloud is far more secure than local storage models,” Racz argues. “Our partnership with Microsoft basically gives us a footprint in many data centres in many countries in the world. In the US we have 4 regions plus the government cloud, we have Brazil, Ireland, the Netherlands, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan, with Mainland China and India coming online soon.

“We leverage this partnership on behalf of our clients through multiple Genetec products.

Stratocast is a totally cloud-based CCTV solution with cameras linked directly to the cloud and can also be federated back into Genetec Security Center.

We have cloud archives, which is our tiered storage within the cloud which enables any Genetec VMS system to have cloud storage. There’s also our new automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) managed service, AutoVu, which can be hosted and managed in the cloud.

“We have created a solution that allows companies to start testing the cloud – we call it hybrid cloud because our system can have as much or as little cloud as customers want out of the box,” Racz explains. “You can have zero cloud or all cloud, and unlike others in the industry, we offer anywhere in the middle, which is very useful.” n

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â—? New product

Exacq

Exacq Video, Access, Intrusion for NEO Exacq Technologies, distributed locally by Hills, has introduced a native integration with the capable DSC PowerSeries Neo intrusion and home automation solution.

HIS new exacqVision version 7.4 video management system (VMS) software also includes new health setup indicators, filtering, CameraLinks in Exacq mobile and enhanced server management in Enterprise System Manager (ESM), along with a health monitoring program for use with exacqVision Enterprise network video recorders (NVRs).

The new DSC PowerSeries Neo integration combines intrusion into the exacqVision VMS software for seamless operation and simplified security management. With the existing Kantech access control integration introduced in exacqVision 7.2, exacqVision users can manage and control their complete security system including video surveillance, intrusion and access control from a single, easy-to-use client interface. Combining live and recorded video with access and intrusion detection events unifies security functions as an all-in-one solution, reducing duplicate efforts.

CameraLinks puts exacqVision users most needed commands at their fingertips and vastly improves their response time to critical alarms and events.

A new text filter box appears at the top of the live, search and configuration navigation trees to find camera and server faster in the exacqVision client.

In enterprise installations, the new tree filtering allows a security operator to quickly locate their desired specific server.

T

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To simplify installation, exacqVision 7.2 introduced setup indicators to guide installers through common configuration options to optimize their exacqVision configuration for ideal performance. Now in exacqVision 7.4, the setup indicators include notification for health events of the exacqVision system. Users will receive real-time notifications in the client when camera or video recorder health needs to be addressed such as storage, video throttling, system voltage, system temperature, IP camera connection lost, or video loss. The new health setup indicators ensure maximum uptime and increased reliability of exacqVision recorders and IP cameras.

The latest Exacq Mobile app for iOS, Android and

BY J O H N A D A M S

PowerSeries NEO offers a full range of optional cellular and/or IP communication methods in support of the industry’s transition away from traditional phone lines.

30x PTZ and Samsung Techwin America’s new WiseNet Lite line of cameras.

The exacqVision VMS is accessed with the freely distributed exacqVision client software (Windows/ Linux/Mac), the exacqVision free web browser client available for all leading web browsers (Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera), as well as the free Exacq mobile app for iOS, Android and Windows Phone 8 devices. The VMS software is included with pre-configured exacqVIsion NVR servers or it can be installed on third-party Windows or Linux-based systems.

DSC NEO

Windows Phone 8 devices supports CameraLinks.

Through the Exacq Mobile app, users can receive push notifications and review video footage when the security system goes into an alarm state. This feature provides Exacq mobile app users with the ability to manage and control access control and intrusion events from one place for a unified video surveillance system.

Enterprise System Manager (ESM) automatically coordinates multiple ESM user instances to ensure only one user actively makes changes to the server.

With this new functionality, ESM synchronizes actions being performed across multiple servers exacqVision VMS now supports nearly 3000 IP camera models including the new Illustra Pro 2MP

The addition of exacqVision 7.4 empowers what was already a flexible solution, which leverages PowerG wireless intrusion technology. At its heart, PowerSeries NEO is a customizable system with a range of control panels supported by PowerGenabled, easy to install wireless devices. At the core of the system are 4 control panels, ranging in capacity from 16 to 128 zones and 2 to 8 partitions. Each panel starts with 6 or 8 hardwired inputs, 2-4 hardwired outputs and PTSN communication onboard, with the capability for expansion, additional features and services.

PowerSeries NEO offers a full range of optional cellular and/or IP communication methods in support of the industry’s transition away from traditional phone lines. Because it incorporates PowerG 2-way wireless communication, the system is able to hop between wireless frequency channels so that if one is jammed, it will move to a free frequency.

Supporting PowerSeries NEO are more than a dozen new PowerG detectors, keys, sirens and related devices. Included in this group are the PG9904P wireless PowerG PIR motion detector, the PG9905 wireless PowerG temperature detector, the PG9916 wireless PowerG smoke and heat detector, the PG9924 wireless PowerG curtain PIR motion detector, the PG9926 wireless PowerG smoke detector, and the PG9934P wireless PowerG motion detector with integrated camera. All these detectors offer 128-bit AES encryption, high transmission ranges for reliable communication within up to a 2000 metres line-of-sight and TDMA synchronized communication technology to prevent message collision. n

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● Regulars

Products

Editor’s choice

What’s new in the industry.

Interlogix Releases Powerful NVR70. l SECURITY Merchants has released the TruVision NVR70 by Interlogix with features including network redundancy, dual redundant PSUs, recorder failover and camera configuration export/import. Real-time Full HD recordings can be accessed via the license-free TruVision Navigator software, TVRmobile app allows full browser-based access for live, recording and configuration. The NVR70 supports up to 400Mbps of incoming camera bandwidth, or up to 128 IP camera channels. Designed to accommodate large amounts of data, the NVR 70 is equipped with up to 64TB of embedded storage in a RAID configuration, or up to 96TB in a non-RAID configuration.

Distributor: Security Merchants Australia Contact: 1300 663 904

Hikvision Recessed Mini Dome l HIKVISION’S 2MP indoor recessed mini dome, the HIK-2CD2E20F28, offers 1080p resolution, on-board SD storage up to 128GB and an ultracompact design, making it ideal as an unobtrusive solution for any small business or office space. The camera is easy to install while the downlight clamps adjust to fit any ceiling thickness. This camera sports a 2.8mm lens, as well as digital WDR and 3D-DNR.

Panasonic Wireless Video From EOS l PANASONIC has introduced the VL-SVN511AZ wireless video intercom system, which comes with a variety of advanced and intelligent features to ensure that keeping property secure is simpler than ever before. Its innovative features include the ability to monitor the system through a smartphone - all that is needed is the dedicated app and Wi-Fi connection.

In addition to the smartphone integration, users receive email notifications with an image of a visitor while away from their property. The system provides users with full control and peace of mind, regardless of location. To further ensure the safety of property, this wireless video intercom system also uses an extremely wide angle view camera (170-degree horizontal and 130-degree vertical), dramatically increasing the coverage area.

Distributor: EOS Australia Pty Ltd Contact: +61 2 9749 5888

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Distributor: Central Security Distribution Contact: 1300 319 499

Bosch IP 4000 & IP 5000 cameras l BOSCH IP 4000 and IP 5000 cameras are designed for 24/7 operation, inside and outside. There are dome, panoramic and bullet cameras in the range suited to every facility – indoor or outdoor, day or night, discreet or obtrusive surveillance.

Essentials like mounting adapters and surface mount boxes, are included in the packaging, making installation and cabling significantly easier. FLEXIDOME IP 5000 and the DINION IP bullet models also come with automatic varifocal (AVF) to save time when focusing individual cameras. Micro dome models feature a 3-axis lens for easy guidance, enabling installers to precisely set the field of view from a wall or ceiling. GUIs are identical and upgrades and new features can be added via a single firmware for all products.

IP 5000 cameras offer resolutions of up to 5MP, while lower cost IP 4000 cameras provide great performance at up to 1080p. All have Content Based Imaging Technology, Dynamic Transcoding, the latest sensors, integrated SD cards and can be viewed via Bosch’s Video Security app for iOS or Android devices, or using Video Security Client software.

Distributor: Bosch Security Systems Contact: 1300 1 BOSCH (26724)

VIVOTEK’s Network Cameras supported by Genetec l VIVOTEK says its H.265 3-Megapixel network cameras now are seamlessly integrated with the unified security platform, Genetec Security Center 5.4. Through this strategic partnership, users of Genetec Security Center 5.4 are now able to enjoy the most efficient bandwidth and storage-saving solutions available by adopting VIVOTEK’s selfdeveloped Smart Stream II technology and the H.265 video compression standard.

The latest release of Genetec Security Center 5.4 offers multiple advanced features, including logical security and video encryption mechanisms, support for the H.265 video compression standard, as well as the next-generation of the Plan Manager mapping module. Security Center 5.4 is one of the first video management platforms that offers support for H.265 video compression, and can be fully integrated with VIVOTEK’s H.265 3-megapixel network cameras.

Equipped with WDR Pro, SNV (Supreme Night Visibility), and Smart Stream II technology, these cameras are available in 6 versatile models* which offer top notch video quality under any lighting conditions while maximizing bandwidth usage efficiency by up to 80 per cent more than systems employing H.264. VIVOTEK’s H.265 3-megapixel network cameras include FD9371-HTV, FD9371-EHTV, FD9171-HT, IB9371-HT, IB9371-EHT, and IP9171-HP.

Hikvision 128 & 256 BLAZER PRO l HIKVISION, distributed locally by CSD, has released a powerful all-in-one server that combines the stability of a traditional embedded Linux NVR with the usability and flexibility of a Windows-based VMS (iVMS-5200).

Blazer Pro is Hikvision’s entry into the coveted enterprise video solutions market and provides its only video wall technology. The Blazer Pro’s design provides both powerful storage and advanced centralised video management capabilities.

These units support 128 or 256 IP cameras with a maximum bandwidth of 400Mbps. The fully featured VMS features sophisticated alarm management, license plate recognition, POS integration, business intelligence, and GIS maps as standard options.

Distributor: Central Security Distribution Contact: 1300 319 499

Distributor: Hills Contact: 1800 685 487

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● Regulars

Products

Editor’s choice

What’s new in the industry.

Avigilon Releases New H4 Security Cameras, ACC 5.8 VMS l AVIGILON has released a new H4 line of innovative security cameras and Avigilon Control Center (ACC) 5.8 video management software. The new Avigilon H4 camera line delivers exceptional image quality while minimizing bandwidth and storage requirements. The entire line features advanced installation and configuration capabilities as well as self-learning video analytics.

“Avigilon is continually developing new security solutions designed to help protect our customers and their most valuable assets,” said Dr. Mahesh Saptharishi, chief technology officer at Avigilon.

“The new H4 camera line with self-learning video analytics is our most comprehensive camera line to date, which, along with Avigilon Control Center 5.8, enables powerful and proactive security solutions.”

Distributor: Central Security Distribution Contact: 1300 319 499

CEM Systems New AC2000 Management System l CEM AC2000 v.7.1 offers an enhanced API and Outlook or emerald-based room booking capabilities. The solution comes with a series of performance-enhancing additions to this access control and security management software suite, including an improved application programming interface (API) for easier third-party integrations, new room booking solution, multi-card support capabilities, and additional integrations.

AC2000 offers an updated API that allows for full bi-directional communication, making it possible to send and receive information from the access control system to other platforms, such as a physical security management system (PSIM). And the enhanced API also better supports third-party integrations from selected systems interfacing with AC2000.

Also new to AC2000 v.7.1 is the room booking feature using Microsoft Outlook in conjunction with CEM’s emerald intelligent access touch screen reader and controller.

Using either Outlook or the emerald terminal at the meeting room door, users now can streamline the meeting process by creating, editing and displaying room booking information for ongoing or new meetings.

Systems administrators will now find it possible under v.7.1 to enrol and differentiate multiple active cards per individual.

Distributor: Hills Contact: 1800 685 487

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Honeywell Expands Performance Series IP Family l HONEYWELL has expanded its Performance Series IP Family to include a new lineup of affordable, high-quality IP cameras that are easy to install, use and maintain.

The lineup introduces 7 new IP cameras in dome, ball, and bullet design, perfect for commercial settings such as office buildings, retail stores, and warehouses. Cameras from the new range use motorized focal zoom technology, which auto-focuses the lens after zoom operation.

This allows the installer to fine-tune camera focus and field-of-view off the ladder, making install easy and saving labour costs. Additionally, each camera captures images with high-resolution pixel detail and offers correct object-aspect ratio to avoid on-screen distortion.

The cameras can be used immediately with Honeywell’s Performance Series embedded NVRs upon installation, and are backed by Honeywell’s customer support and 365 SWAP warranty program.

Distributor: Honeywell Security Contact: 1300 234234

Illustra Advances Pro Series PTZ to 30x l TYCO Security Products has introduced the new Illustra Pro 2 megapixel 30x PTZ camera, distributed locally by Hills, offering powerful 30x optical zoom delivering better forensic detail over greater distances.

The Illustra Pro PTZ camera offers 30x optical zoom and 12x digital zoom, compared with the 20x zoom of the previous Illustra PTZ model. The combination of the PTZ’s advanced optical capability and high quality HD resolution video allows users to identify critical details such as reading license plate characters at distances of more than 300m from the lens.

Illustra PTZ uses zoom-adjusted program (ZAP) technology to automatically control the pan and tilt speed in proportion to the amount of zoom used. Sensor monitored direct drive motors and innovative drive design combined with exceptional gearing and braking, gives the camera its highly accurate return-to-position performance at a category leading speed of 512 degrees-per-second delivering 835 pixels-per-degree.

Available in indoor and outdoor models, the Illustra Pro 2MP 30x PTZ also delivers improved low light video performance and true wide dynamic range, ensuring premium quality surveillance is maintained in the most challenging of conditions. The 30x PTZ also supports electronic image stabilization for lower effects of vibrations from wind and other sources when using long range optical magnification. This Illustra Pro 30x PTZ introduces a new intelligent guard tour feature using embedded intelligence to autonomously track, zoom in and record events or suspicious activities.

Axis Q61 PTZ Network Dome

Distributor: QSS Contact: +61 3 9646 9016

l AXIS Communications has announced the latest addition to its AXIS Q61 series of pan, tilt, zoom (PTZ) dome network cameras. With outstanding video quality in 4K resolution, high-speed pan/tilt and powerful zoom functions, the new AXIS Q6128-E is suitable for both indoor and outdoor installations, in low light and challenging environmental conditions. This makes it ideal for a range of applications such as shopping malls, open parking areas and sports stadiums as well as city and perimeter surveillance.

Axis PTZ dome cameras with Axis Sharpdome technology enable exceptional coverage of large areas – above as well as below the horizon – and great detail when zooming in.

Like all cameras in the Q61 Series, the AXIS Q6128-E has electronic image stabilization.

With quick and reliable installation features, AXIS Q6128-E will function reliably in temperatures ranging from -50C to 50C, has a built-in Speed Dry feature for sharp images even in rainy conditions, and automatic defog. Its built-in video analytics functionality includes motion detection and Advanced Gatekeeper, allowing the camera to detect an object in a specified area and zoom in on it. With its open Application Programming Interface, the camera also has substantial capacity for third-party intelligent video applications.

Distributor: Seadan Security & Electronics Contact: +61 3 9263 0111

Distributor: Axis Communications Contact: +61 3 9982 1111

Distributor: Hills Contact: 1800 685 487

Dahua Smart Thermal Network Camera Series l DAHUA Technology has released a new smart thermal network camera family which includes thermal hybrid PTZ camera, hybrid speed dome camera, thermal bullet camera and thermal dome camera, all equipped with a variety of smart functions. The smart thermal cameras use a sensor capable of detecting tiny differences in temperature. This allows them to achieve higher detection accuracy and function in complete darkness and adverse weather conditions. Furthermore, the cameras combine intelligence, efficiency and high performance such as smart detection, smart analysis, smart perception, smart tracking and smart control.

As part of the range, Dahua’s thermal hybrid network PTZ camera is a professional combination of a visual camera with integrated max 40x optical zoom lens and a thermal camera synchronized to pan and tilt movements. The network camera can capture images in full scale without the need to step back or frame the shot. The thermal camera can be used for night-vision missions. The special lens focuses the infrared light emitted by all of the objects in view. It can deliver several independent H.264 streams for different quality needs and bandwidth constraints simultaneously.

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● Regulars

Help desk ■ Below are the approximate recommendations for rest times (complete rest, that is) between sets according to your goal, per the National Streng th and Conditioning Association (NSCA). *Note that since fat loss depends primarily on diet, there is no official rest-period prescription for it, although we feel that both short and long rests work, depending on the program.

Q: We have a camera and lens combination that produces considerable purple fringing in the street scene it covers at certain times of the day, on the edges of buildings and the tops of light coloured cars. Can we swap the lens we are using for an apochromatic version? What would SEN recommend as a solution? The lens is an f1.4 2.8-11mm varifocal at the wide end.

A: Chromatic aberration evident as green or purple fringing in areas of high contrast is quite common and indicates the lens you are using is focusing wavelengths of light at different distances – it’s a design flaw. There are layers of complexity, too. Your lens may show longitudinal chromatic aberration (fringing throughout the image) or lateral chromatic aberration (fringing at the edges of the image), or both types at once. Generally speaking, most CCTV lenses are wide and most wide lenses are very fast and very wide, very fast lenses have a tendency towards chromatic aberration.

Good lenses are typically achromatic and bring red and blue wavelengths together in the same plane. When it comes to high end apochromatic lenses, which bring red, green and blue into focus in the same focal plane, these require additional corrective glass elements that add to weight and cost.

An APO lens will certainly considerably

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Our panel of experts answers your questions.

reduce secondary spectrum produced.

There’s more than a little woo involved here, taking into account design as well as sample variation. We agree that widespread CA is a bad thing – it reduces contrast, sharpness and depth of field.

And all lenses are different in their ability to handle CA, including lenses at the same price point. We’ve seen $200 cameras that were devoid of CAs and $1000 cameras that performed poorly in this regard.

For typical CCTV applications, APO lenses are likely to be overkill. The best way to reduce CAs of all kinds is to reduce your aperture and in the case of many CCTV camera/lens combinations, that means stopping down by zooming in. Take a look at the scene and see if there’s redundancy in the image – this might include sky, the sides of buildings, as well as road furniture that’s not accessible to people. You might also try reframing or tilting the camera to lose or soften high contrast areas through altering the field of view. If none of this works, then you may need to employ a quality optic from a higher end manufacturer like Fujinon. Lenses are a tough call and it’s well worth conducting your own tests on the camera brands you favour. You can get exemplary performance from a simple, low cost optic, no question about that.

Q: When it comes to thermal cameras as opposed to optical, what are the parameters for detection and

identification of intruders in a field of view?

A: This is an interesting question which highlights the differences between optical and thermal cameras. With an optical camera, detection is going to be at around 10 per cent of the height of the monitor – it might be smaller, depending on how strong your glasses are. To recognise an individual, meanwhile, you want them to be 50 per cent of the height of the monitor.

Obviously, 4K cameras with higher pixel density require less height, depending on the resolution they are running.

Thermal, meanwhile, is another thing altogether. You can detect intrusion with thermal at the miniscule height of 2 pixels – that’s thermal’s great strength – the clearcut confirmation of intrusion at distance.

John Johnson’s criteria for observer task completion with image intensifier technology indicates thermal recognition of an intruder demands 8 pixels of height, while you need only 13 pixels of height to identify an intruder.

However, thermal recognition is not optical recognition, it’s the ability to recognise the kind of intruder – for instance, an animal or a vehicle. Meanwhile, identification allows you to establish whether an intruder is a kangaroo or a human, a car or a van. Certainly, at close distances it’s possible to score considerable detail of objects using thermal cameras, but the underlying capabilities are different

If you’re using a varifocal zoom, then the hyperfocal distance is going to increase at the long end but it’s still going to be less than 4m.

and you would not want the ambiguity of language disappointing a client with regard to the highly exceptional yet highly specific capabilities of thermal imaging technology.

Q: When installing a ½-inch CCTV camera in which a large scene is being viewed at 5mm and f1.4, what’s the best distance to focus on manually prior to install in order to bring as much of the scene as possible into focus? Our target area for facial ID is around 12m but better performance throughout the rest of the scene, including much closer to the camera than 12m, would be a welcome bonus.

A: This is a good question and a pertinent one. What we are talking about here is the hyperfocal distance, the focal point past which the rest of a scene is more or less in focus. In the days before autofocus cameras and lenses the hyperfocal distance of a camera/ lens was vitally important and it remains important for CCTV installers when they are manually tweaking lenses they can’t access remotely. There are plenty of applications in which cameras perform below expectation thanks to poor focusing technique.

Consider that for a 1/2-inch sensor with a 5mm f1.4 lens and a target distance of 12m, the hyperfocal distance is just 1.01m.

If you’re using a varifocal zoom, then the hyperfocal distance is going to increase at the long end but it’s still going to be less than 4m. Furthermore, if the sensor is smaller, say it’s 1/2-inch, the hyperfocal distance will also be longer. From the point of view of commissioning, you can point the camera at a target past a couple of metres and adjust camera focus accordingly prior to installation. When the target face is in focus, you’ll have more or less reached the hyperfocal point of the lens. Focus the lens carefully. Poor focus will rob a scene of clarity, particularly at night.

Something vital to bear in mind here is that wide angle lenses rob faces of pixels – there’s simply not enough resolution to allow accurate court admissible identification. Make sure you give priority to pixel height over all other factors if you want face ID. A height of 550 pixels is enough for good identification with

Someth mind angle le pixels – eno allo admiss

1080p cameras. A half-inch sensor at 5mm will be ok at a distance of 12m but you’re getting to the edge of performance and may need to zoom in. With 4K cameras and their monster pixel numbers you can get 550 pixels or better at much wider zoom settings.

Q: We’ve had a camera installed that is afflicted with significant motion blur.

Our installer says it’s just the nature of the camera, that all digital cameras have blur because of network latency.

Is this correct or is there something we can adjust to improve performance?

We are currently unable to identify the faces of pedestrians in good light!

A: All IP-based digital cameras suffer latency – good cameras will show less than a couple of hundredths of a second, poor cameras might show closer to 1 second.

Latency usually relates to network lag and signal processing in-camera and if the overall performance is very good, the price of latency might be worth paying,

depending on the application. For recorded video streams, latency is obviously not going to be an issue. It’s a pain with live streams in a control room, however.

Thankfully, signal latency has nothing to do with the sharpness of the image stream its ability to resolve moving objects – that’s all about the speed of the shutter. What’s happened here is that your installer has ‘commissioned’ this camera at a default shutter speed – probably 1/30th sec or lower. The reason for this is that slower shutter settings give better low light performance, which many falsely believe to be the holy grail of every single CCTV application. But it’s no benefit for your camera’s low light specification to defy the laws of physics if the face of every moving person in a well-lit scene looks painted by Claude Monet.

If you want to jag faces close to the lens as well as further away, and identify the license plates of slow moving vehicles, then you should look at minimum shutter speeds around 1/125 sec. Should you want a balance of low motion blur and good low light performance, then 1/50th of a second will be a better choice. In low light, use 1/30th of a second shutter speeds by all means but be aware of the compromises. Much depends on the quality of your camera, the size of your sensor and the nature of the application.

Always remember though, motion blur renders a camera incapable of delivering court admissible face and number plate recognition. zzz

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events Security Managers ◆ Integrators ◆ IT Managers ◆ Installers

& Networks FEBRUARY 2016 ISSUE 373

CLOUD SNAPSHOT

ISC West Date: April 6-8, 2016 Venue: Sands Expo & Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV Contact: 1-203-840-5602 With more than 26,000 industry professionals and more than 1000 exhibits, ISC West is the largest security technology event in the Americas. ISC West’s attendees represent more than $US50 billion in buying power.

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SEM216_1cover.indd 1

l News Report: 2016 - The Year Ahead l New Technology: Sony STARVIS l Monitoring: Home Automation Trending l Uniview 1080p IPC542E-DUG Starlight l Special Report: Suretek’s Sure Thing l Dahua’s DH-IPC-EBW81200P 12MP Fisheye l SecTech: Zoom, Tilt, Pantechnicon! l Exacq Video, Access, Intrusion for NEO

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28/01/2016 3:44 pm

SecTech Roadshow 2016 Date: May 4-18, 2016 Contact: Monique Keatinge on 612 9280 4425 SecTech Roadshow takes up to 20 of Australia’s leading distributors and manufacturers on a national tour – a simple and highly targeted touring tradeshow covering 5 state capitals over 2 weeks during the month of May. In 2016, SecTech Roadshow will visit Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

IFSEC 2016

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Date: June 21-23, 2016 Venue: Excel Centre, London Docklands Contact: www.ifsec.co.uk IFSEC International which took place in London in June 2015, is one of Europe’s largest security expos. The event was a huge success and we're looking forward to 2016, when we’ll be back at Docklands once again.

2016 Security Conference and Exhibition Date: July 20-22, 2016 Venue: Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre Contact: +61 3 9261 4500 Put it in your diary now: 20-22 July 2016. Australasia’s premier security industry event, to be held at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre.

China International Exhibition on Public Safety and Security

= DAILY, WEEKLY, MONTHLY.

Date: October 25–28, 2016 Venue: China Internation Exhibition Center Contact: 8610-68731710 The 13th China International Exhibition on Public Safety and Security 2016 is the biggest security distribution and procurement event in China, and focuses mostly on the big market in North area of China.

sen is everywhere Print Digital Website eNews

!

W O H S D ROA INTRODUCING HIKVISION’S LATEST PRODUCT RELEASES! Technology Update - New HIKVISION VMS & Analytics!

You’re Invited to a CCTV Surveillance technology

New Video Wall from HIKVISION

update where you will be presented with the latest innovations from the worlds largest manufacturer of IP surveillance solutions – HIKVISION. Their latest releases for large scale surveillance deployments needs to be seen to be fully appreciated.

Discussion points: • • •

IVMS5200 Video Management Solution Smart IPC Video Analytics Blazer Pro Video Servers & peripherals

Event Details: QLD: Wednesday 3

rd

February 2016, Victoria Park Golf Club - Herston

NSW: Thursday 11

th

February 2016, Novotel Darling Harbour - Pyrmont

VIC: Thursday 18

th

ACT: Friday 26

February 2016, Waterfront Venues - Docklands

February 2016, The Federal Golf Club - Red Hill

th

WA: Thursday 10

th

To register call CSD or email your RSVP to: registrations@csd. com.au

March 2016, Wembley Golf Course - Wembley Downs

Pre event registrations are required to attend, If you have not pre-registered, you may be turned away at the door. For any questions regarding the HIKVISION Technology Roadshow please contact your CSD representative or your local CSD branch.

1300 319 499 csd.com.au VIC: Mulgrave, Tullamarine NSW: Northmead, Alexandria ACT: Fyshwick QLD: Loganholme SA: Marleston WA: Balcatta