Security Electronics & Networks Magazine by Security Electronics & Networks Magazine

March 2013 Issue 341

Integrating Intelligence

l Panasonic WV-SP509 1080p HD l Case Study: Champions IGA l Planning access control l UXC’s $4.1m WA IP CCTV win l Honeywell’s Tuxedo Touch l Choosing quality HD cameras l Interview: Magnus Ekerot l Sony Generation 6 SCCVB600

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editorial sec ur ity e l e ct ro n i cs & netwo r ks

march 201 3 issue 3 41

Now is the future

When individual lights are accessible online for management and diagnosis it must be obvious to everyone that we are witnessing the beginning of something new, something that will change the way our systems are managed, something that’s going to be profoundly

empowering.

HERE’S something delightful about the way so many of this year’s new products are so communicative. The pervasive nature of smart devices ensured that before long we’d be chatting with security systems in real time but the speed this is happening, given the plodding pace of technological shifts in the networked electronic security industry is more than a little surprising. In fact, so significant is this change that some companies – I’m talking about the Mobotix mobile iOS here – are suggesting that in a couple of years the primary method of managing its cameras will be via powerful pieces of mobile software. And Mobotix is talking about getting into alarms and access control, with these elements of its solutions also set to be managed using iOS. And it’s not just Mobotix. Honeywell’s Tuxedo Touch, which we review in this issue, not only converts Honeywell Vista panels into automation and surveillance solutions, it’s a mobile gateway for all the functionality of Vista and Tuxedo. Individual cameras are also increasingly accessible via web browser with no need for a software management system. Sure, there are limitations to this sort of viewing but there are possibilities, too. So much so that I can’t help feeling there’s something vibrant about this new chapter in the industry’s life, something wonderful. The ability to make use of every piece of a security system’s functionality anywhere in the world empowers end users, technicians and sales teams. It’s the realisation of the idea behind that DSC alarm panel from the 1990s that let users speak to visitors through an intercom

By John Adams and unlock a door using a remote touchpad. Yet thanks to IP it’s so much more. Today, alarm panels and cameras can be accessed via browser, smart devices can be integrated as inputs into video surveillance solutions, affordable network area storage devices like the iOmega StorCenter ix2 can set themselves up as cloud servers in support of IP cameras. But what I find most intriguing and most instructive is the increasing pervasiveness of online accessibility in our industry. Consider Raytec’s Vario IP. It’s a lighting solution available in white light or IR that can be accessed and controlled through a web interface from anywhere with a network connection - a smart phone, tablet or workstation. Vario’s web interface allows authorised users to activate a light or groups of lights, to select types of illumination and to diagnose device status. My point is this. When individual lights are accessible online for management and diagnosis it must be obvious to everyone that we are witnessing the beginning of something new, something that will change the way our systems are managed, something that’s going to be profoundly empowering. To my mind, what that new thing is going to be is a concept that might be called cloud. But when I say cloud I’m not talking about a storage solution like Google Drive, or RackSpace. Instead I’m talking about something that’s razor sharp and conceptually hazy, a quantum shift leading to fingertip control of all possible functionality. The birth of globally connected meta-solutions we can sense are taking shape but that we can’t yet quite see. zzz

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se&n 03

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mar 13 Panasonic’s WV-SP509 H.264 Full HD Super Dynamic network camera builds on the sensational low light performance of the WV-SP306, delivering vastly improved performance in strong backlight. 28: Turkish delight

44: Honeywell’s Tuxedo best dressed

Turkish Petroleum Corporation is a long time user of Dallmeier video recorders and when its CCTV system was expanded, a decision was made to again use servers from the German CCTV IP specialists.

One of the nicest developments of the past 12 months has been the reawakening of R&D in the alarms segment, where technology had fallen far behind the best consumer products. One of the neatest developments to come from this latest wave of clever product is Honeywell’s Tuxedo Touch.

30: Champion performance

36: Planning access control For security managers and integrators planning single site and stand alone access

40: UXC wins $4.1 million IP CCTV job in WA ICT infrastructure solutions and services provider UXC Connect has won a massive $A4.1 million contract to install an IP CCTV solution comprising a Geutebruck management system and Panasonic IP cameras at a huge LNG facility currently being built in Western Australia.

18: Panasonic WV-SP509

Integrator Top Performance has installed 35 Axis cameras and a Milestone XProtect management solution at Champions IGA store in Whittlesea as well as using Milestone XProtect to integrate and manage a hybrid solution at Champions IGA in Kangaroo Flat.

control solutions there’s plenty to think about. But most important of all are the fundamentals of functionality and scalability.

52: Sony Generation 6 The folks at Sony are convinced their new Generation 6 IP camera range, with its combination of the Ipela Engine Ex and the Exmor CMOS sensor is now the benchmark camera in the video surveillance market, offering Full HD and 60 frames per second in low light and extreme backlight.

76 60

+regulars

62: The Futurist

08: news

In the Interview this month, John Adams speaks with Mobotix CSO Magnus Ekerot about the company’s direction and plans for the future, as well finding success in the current challenging market.

Latest business, product and technical news from Australia and around the world. 58: monitoring Just lately as I’ve sat down to write the monitoring segment I’m repeatedly struck by the changes and opportunities that are climbing over the horizon. To my mind they all revolve around integrating intelligence into alarm systems.

66: Choosing HD cameras: Part One If you’re thinking HD cameras are all the same, you’re wrong. Even within a single manufacturers product line-up there are fundamental variations in resolution as well as differences in image processing, to say nothing of the variations in compression.

March 2013 Issue 341

INTEGRATING INTELLIGENCE

Publisher Bridge Publishing Aust. Pty Ltd ABN 11 083 704 858 PO Box 237 Darlinghurst NSW 1300 tel 61 2 9280 4425 fax 61 2 9280 4428 email info@bridge publishing.com.au

76: editor’s choice What’s new from our manufacturers. 80: helpdesk

Editor John Adams Advertising Manager Monique Keatinge Customer Service Annette Mathews tel 61 2 9280 4425 annette@bridge publishing.com.au

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

Design Tania Simanowsky e: taniasdesign@ optusnet.com.au Subscriptions 11 issues per annum One year (11 issues) Australia 12 months $A104.50 (incl GST) 24 months $A188.00 (incl GST)

Overseas 12 months $A155.00 (incl GST) 24 months $A270.00 (incl GST) WEBSITE www.securityelectronicsandnetworks. com.au No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form in whole or part without prior written permission of Bridge Publishing.

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i nd u stry d eve lo pme nts // business p rofiles // industry develop ments // busin ess p rof i l es //

Mark Pratley Award winners with the Mobotix team

Mobotix celebrates another successful year l MOBOTIX brought together over 160 partners at its annual National Partner Conference. This year’s conference featured a keynote speech by the company’s CSO, Dr. Magnus Ekerot, outlining the new mobile iOS software coming on March 8th and the benefits of new product developments coming in 2013. Intriguingly, Ekerot also talked about plans Mobotix has for expanding the company’s product range to include alarm sensors and smoke sensors, potentially turning the Mobotix P3 platform into a complete security solution for smaller applications, all accessible over the mobile iOS which Ekerot believes will be the

management solution of choice in the future. According to Ekerot, the company is delighted with the performance of its channels in Australia. Ekerot also officially introduced the MOBOTIX Global Partner Network now active in Australia and the company rewarded its top performing partners at the gala dinner. Awards for the 2012 calendar year went to Partner of the Year: ELK Security Group, Project of the Year: Broadway Shopping Centre (installed by Retrolec), Newcomer of the Year: Vectron Australia and Growth Strategy of the Year: Innertelligence.

Exacq’s global sales and marketing agreement with Anixter l EXACQ Technologies, a leading manufacturer of video management system (VMS) software and servers used for video surveillance, has entered into a sales and marketing global agreement with international distributor, Anixter Inc. The new partnership solidifies the existing relationship between the 2 companies which have already built a solid foundation in North America and will help to accelerate Exacq’s targeted growth worldwide. “We’ve experienced tremendous success in the United States and we’ve added several sales and marketing people to handle and further accelerate our growth,” said

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Dave Underwood, president, Exacq Technologies. “In just the past year we’ve made great strides and healthy investments as a company toward our international expansion. Our bolstered relationship with Anixter will allow our sales and marketing teams to work together more strategically here in the United States and internationally.” In 2012 Exacq opened Exacq Technologies UK to head up growth in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). The European-based subsidiary now has a full force of sales and sales engineering professionals operating in the United

Kingdom, The Netherlands, Belgium and Dubai. Exacq also placed full-time sales people in Canada, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region.

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Security 2013 Exhibition & Conference l SECURITY 2013 Exhibition & Conference will be held from 24-26 July, at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre. Now in its 28th year, the event is expected to attract 4,500 visitors from government and private enterprises and more than 150 leading local and international suppliers will be showcasing the latest business security solutions for the Australasian market. The exhibition will be complemented by an extensive conference and seminar program which will focus on the security trends and strategies shaping the industry in the year ahead. “We are constantly looking at ways to evolve the exhibition to ensure it stays at the forefront of this dynamic and growing industry,” Kylie McRorie, exhibition manager, Security 2013 Exhibition, said. “Through some exciting new features and partnerships, Security 2013 will look ahead to the next generation of security and will offer the industry even greater value in 2013.” Hosted by the Australian Security Industry Association Limited (ASIAL), the industry¹s peak body in Australia, the Security 2013 Conference will be held in conjunction with the exhibition. In another bold move by the organisers, the conference will come to the show floor in 2013 providing delegates with a complete exhibition and conference experience and greater opportunities to connect with the industry.

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“As security needs rapidly evolve to meet the ever changing requirements of society, Security 2013 Conference will provide a unique platform for visitors to hear about the most pressing issues facing the industry today,” commented John Fleming, general manager, ASIAL. “With an impressive line-up of acclaimed security experts from Australia, Security Conference 2013 is a must-attend event for security professionals, government officials and technology leaders who are eager to understand what lies ahead for the future of security.” A new product showcase will be sponsored by Verint and there’s to be a focus in the seminar program on practical and educational seminars, including a series of panel discussions featuring real-life case studies. The event organisers are calling for expressions of interest from industry experts in a range of topics and trends, including but not limited to the Cold Cyberwar, sub-system integration for business intelligence and other lateral applications and strategies for a safer Sydney. Speaker submissions close on 5 April. Please contact Kylie McRorie for more details or to express interest on (+61) 3 9261 4504 or email kmcrorie [at] divexhibitions.com.au. Security 2013 is free to attend for industry professionals. Registration opens in March at www. securityexpo.com.au

Mobotix signs up with AVAD l MOBOTIX has entered into a distribution agreement with custom electronics distributor AVAD LLC, an Ingram Micro subsidiary. The pairing allows AVAD to deliver the complete Mobotix line to the security and home automation markets. Under the agreement, AVAD will market, sell and support Mobotix’s Q24 Hemispheric camera, S14 Double Hemispheric camera and D14 DualDome camera. AVAD will also help drive new business opportunities within the home automation market as an authorized distributor of the Mobotix T24 IP video door station, which is equipped with a highresolution camera that utilizes Mobotix hemispheric technology to achieve a 180-degree field of view, 2-way communication and integrated keyless access. Additionally, Mobotix will now have access to AVAD’s robust network of more than 15,000 professional integrators and its 24 North American branches. “Our advanced security products, together with AVAD’s security, home automation and IT expertise, will fuel new opportunities for resellers and integrators across North America,” Mobotix general manager Steve Gorski says. “By aligning with AVAD, we are able tap into their extensive market reach while building upon our goal to ensure that customers can benefit from our cost effective and industry-leading IP-based innovations.”

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Vietnam fastest growing CCTV market in SEA

U.S. needs school security not gun policy change: SIA l THE Security Industry Association in the U.S. recently sent a letter to President Obama to let him know that steps can be taken now to make schools safer without major changes in policy. SIA Chairman Jay Hauhn wrote Obama about an holistic approach to school safety that includes funding for school security assessments; investments in technology such as digital video cameras and access control systems; and emergency preparedness training for education and law enforcement personnel. Marcus Dunn, director of government relations for SIA, said these steps can be taken at the state and local levels, avoiding the rancor in Congress about Second Amendment rights. “We understand that there is a gun component to this discussion and there’s a mental health component,” Dunn told SSN. “But don’t lose track of the fact that a ‘shovel-ready’ partial solution is to have a security system that can report to the first responders quicker to either deter or prevent a future event.” Dunn said the premise goes back to home protection: A security company’s sign in the front yard is likely to make an intruder think twice about his potential target.

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“If you’re a criminal and you’ve got a choice of houses to go to, you’re probably not going to go to the house with the ADT sign and you’re not going to go to the house with the dog,” he said. “You’re going to go to the house that’s a soft target. And schools, as we know, for a long time have been soft targets. They clearly need to be hardened.” Dunn said SIA members have expressed interest in offering free security assessments to school districts and state organizations. SIA is also putting together a committee of experts to share their technical expertise with the Obama administration and Congress as they work on new school security initiatives. “The industry can help with this situation,” Dunn said. “It’s clearly not the definitive answer—to have a robust security system—and there are a lot of other issues that need to be addressed. But as far as making it better than it is now, quickly and inexpensively, we’re ready.” Obama signed 23 executive orders in January related to gun violence and school safety. Among them were provisions to provide incentives for schools to develop emergency preparedness plans and training to handle “active shooter” scenarios on campuses.

l IMS Research says that Vietnam will be the fastest growing market between 2010 and 2015, at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 22.3 per cent. However, it should be noted that the market in Vietnam was estimated to account for less than 10 per cent market share in this region in 2010. South East Asia is comprised not only of developed markets like Singapore, but also new emerging markets like Vietnam and Indonesia. In these emerging markets, the government is continuing its investment in infrastructure and industry development. For example, Vietnam recorded a year-on-year GDP growth rate of 7.7 per cent for the industry and construction sector in 2010. Its aim is to become an industrialized and modernized country by 2020. “The highest priorities for Vietnam are transportation, energy, irrigation and urban development projects,” says report author Cheryl Li. “For example, about 600 kilometers of roadway construction is planned by 2015; the existing railway will be upgraded; and several international airports and electrical plants will be developed. All these projects create huge demand for security products and systems.”

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Global IP camera performance standards coming l UNDERWRITERS Laboratories will launch UL 2802, the first digital CCTV camera standard in February and IP cameras graded by UL 2802 will be on the market by mid-April. The UL 2802 standard has been in the works for about 12 months and is in its final review phase. Future standards – there will be 5 in total - will cover other digital video surveillance system components including analytics and video transmission. UL 2802 will be used to grade digital cameras on a scale of 1 to 5 for key performance characteristics including image sharpness, field-of-view confirmation, signal-to-noise ratio, TV distortion, relative illumination, color fidelity, dynamic range, maximum frame rate, gray level, sensitivity, bad pixels, veiling glare and housing tamper protection. This is the first time there’s been a set of CCTV camera standards and even though they are being promoted by manufacturers, rather than by an independent body such as ISO, the lab testing undertaken by UL sounds like it will be extremely thorough. If the standards are objectively supported at the R&D stage of product development, it’s going to make things easier for end users and installers and ramp up the competition between the major manufacturers in the quest for improved performance. According to UL, the top 6 digital CCTV camera manufacturers globally were

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involved with the creation of the UL 2802 standard. “We’ve had a lot of discussions with manufacturers,” Jamieson told SSN recently, “and for the most part they’ve been very enthusiastic … [the standard] will help prevent false claims.” UL’s in-house experts worked with “industry, government [and other stakeholders] quantifying performance characteristics of digital cameras,” Jamieson said. “The lab test is very consistent from camera to camera,” Jamieson said. This is the first of 5 related standards that will evaluate an entire digital video system. The testing organization is also in the process of creating standards for transmission, storage, video analytics and displays. However, the new standard “will look [solely] at performance, not operability,” Jamieson said. “What UL has done is created a way to [look at digital cameras] using some independent performance measurements,” said Steve Surfaro, industry liaison for Axis Communications, who is working with UL on the project. Surfaro said designers and specifiers “will be the first group to benefit from this standard.” He predicted that government entities would be among the first end users to employ the standard. For integrators, the standard “will be an

excellent tool to understand a particular product line,” he said. Initially all testing will take place at UL’s facility here, with testing likely at other facilities in the future. “Several products will be certified [before] ISC West,” Jamieson said. The process will be quick for manufacturers. “Turnaround will be about half a week for certification,” he said. A way to think of UL 2802, Jamieson says, is that each camera will be tested to a category classification and a performance level, which offers a cumulative performance score as a result of the test score. “It looks at the performance characteristics of digital video cameras — in this case just the capture of information at the source,” Jamieson said. “You could have a fixed focus, variable focus, and zoom lens classification. Then a performance level is based on a scoring matrix. You could have a 5, 4, 3, 2 or 1. Your camera would fall into a category and then a performance level. The combination of the category classification and the performance level will indicate that the cameras meet a certain requirement.” UL is a global independent safety science company with more than a century of expertise innovating safety solutions from the public adoption of electricity to new breakthroughs in sustainability, renewable energy and nanotechnology.

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DVTel Quasar HD Another standout product at the show was with IR Videofied’s XTIP710, a hybrid alarm system with video verification that now reports alarm events Josh Simmons and status using GPRS and IP. We’ve like Videofied’s products for a while now and think they offer you installers a great up-sell or panel replacement option. Using reliable spread spectrum wireless devices, the company has a real track record of visible success. l the HONEYWELL’S LYNX Touch number of employees that5100 tend alarm to massive Texas school district recently due to Sending alarm events along with video ONE footage from gives campus to campus in such large upgraded its video surveillance system in an movepanel local installers a hintaabout is pretty much Rolls Royce performance and system. Russell says prior by to the Video effort to keep up with advancements in Web school key elements of the future combining Videofied has 450-odd arrests under its beltmanagement thanks implementation his VMS administrator platforms. Austin Independent Insight Wi-Fi alarm communications with a to its ability to identify burglars. When you consider a considerable timeautomation with user School District – the America’s 38th largest spentmobile app for amount securityofand most alarm systems are blind and cannot assist “With this number of users a school system – has replaced its existing maintenance. management. Webit’sclient is more economical video management system with Video Insight reliable operators by doing more than reporting multiple While not going to be availablethan (and uninstalling) thick VMS clients on software. Encompassing 230-square miles, installing adjacent alarm events, Videofied’s capabilities in Australia for some yet, There was plenty moretime to see atthe the show and in PC, which also overburdens our for already Austin ISD has 86,000 students, 11,000 eachcombination reflects demands stick out even more. this and subsequent issues we’ll be reviewing many VMS administrators,” he says. employees, 124 campuses and more than 3,000 taxedeasier, faster installs and the increasingly ofThe the switch stand-out solutions. forresulted the editor’s to Video InsightAs has in pick for video surveillance cameras. sophisticated expectations of end users an improved video management “We were unhappy with the platform that we SE&N’s Best Product at Securitysystem 2012 –for I chose the who drive their lives through smart Austinsolution ISD in many respects, including: Little had invested in and we needed a more practical Snap from Network Video Surveillance wireless devices and multiple personal to no trainingbyforPacific employees; increased video For its solution – something that was easy to use,” says distributed Communications. computers. image quality; more efficient storage; Austin ISD Police Department Representative camera ability to reduces automatically wrangle the power of installation times and system performance; variety in camera Wayne Russell. “We needed something that fasterWi-Fi existing cameras in challenging real upfront equipment costsThe compared to choice and of LDAP integration. 3,000-plus didn’t require an incredible amount of CPU thousands similarly equipped GSM systems while world environments, it has to be my pick for SE&N’s applications for government, transportation, l FIRETIDE Inc. has announced a processor power that could also serve as a fully- camera system is monitored by the AISD police Lynx 5100a mobile appdays is a secondary public safetyWeb andclient.” industrial customers. distribution agreement with BGW Best inthe Show. dispatch 24-hours day, seven a week, functioning thatattention use to 144 alarm These are used to buildRussell indoorfound and paying Technologies. This strategic alliance enables particular duringcan peak times After products an exhaustive bid process, Up keypad there with ithomeowners is the Bosch Solution control other home such as to camera feeds in the bus systems drop off and pick up the solution in Video Insight. outdoor private wireless infrastructures and and BGW Technologies to deliver Firetide’s access control panel with neat features like thermostats, lighting and door and areas, cafeterias during breakfast andlocks “Videonetworks Insight was the software solution access that areonly highly reliable and pre-built wireless mesh products to its Australian garage door control and a lunch succession of playgrounds andsave in hallways class that worked seamlessly with our existing time,which can help moneyduring on energy secure. and South Pacific customers, addressing a readers and expanders. The Solution 144 is just Administrators monitor cameras camerasinfrastructure and it offered amesh very dependable Web changes. bills and increase peace of mind andat Firetide’s networks can growing need for reliable, high-performing We’ve spent a bit of time looking at Videofied that – personal a solution. Thought through from beginning each school campus, but they report incident to client,” Russel says. security. operate in the 900MHz, 2.4 GHz, 4.9 GHz indoor and outdoor wireless infrastructures alarm event footage. Image streams are currently end, I think will resonate with Bosch AISD policeitwho have the sole authority to installers A fully functional Weband client application was tothe According to Honeywell, these advanced and 5 GHz spectrums enable multiple for video surveillance, industrial, utility and black andnetworks. white for low light performance clip and export video. very and important Austin ISD, Ethernet says Russell, looking to giveare their more capability in services lesscustomers expensive on a monthly network servicestoand standard transportation optioned forexplosion low bandwidth but they’re still large domestic and small commercial applications. basis when using the Internet as a devices to operate virtually anywhere over “WeACCESS are seeing an in the demand control solutions provider ASSA excellent for what they are.of Greensteel path, versusnetwork a standardcomms Twin communications SIMs and an NBN-proof a high-speed wireless infrastructure. The for scalable wireless mesh solutions among ABLOY has purchased assets GSM installation. Now the word is product under entire Firetide product line is currently municipalities, public safety, and industrial port built into a medium-sized alarm panel with Industries Ltd., a metal commercial door anddevelopment markets,” said Joshua Simmons – BGW will maker. incorporate the latest advances available in videoto BGW Technologies customers frame 16 doors of biometric, prox and keypad access and includes HotPort wireless mesh nodes, control? Yes, please. Technologies general manager NSW/ACT/ The Greensteel products willeven now be better marketedidentification compression giving manufactured under Baron and Fleming HotPoint access points, the HotViewTM SA. and ability day and night. Special mentions go to the Axis 5544 for ABLOY Vice “Thebrands, collaboration with Firetide is ofPresident As ASSA far as I’mExecutive concerned all alarm Network systemsManagement Software, Mobility conceptual awesomeness, the Axis 1604 WDR for Thanasis Molokotosto says. and WLAN Controllers, as well as a wide strategic importance us as we address should work the way Videofied’s does and I can’t its total obliteration of backlight, the Takex PXB“This acquisition will enhance variety of antennas, cables, and mounting customer needs for reliable, high- our ability work out non-residential why more alarm manufacturers have 100ATC which takes affordable perimeter security to provide door opening accessories. performance wireless technology that can not seized on this customers,” combination to a new level, FSH FEW3800 for being greenest, solutions to our Canadian he says. “BGW’s selection of Firetide’s technology be quickly and cost-effectively deployed inof technologies Established inenvironments.” 1932, Greensteel Industries for their own solutions. Giving the same great the superiority of our wireless and C.R. Kennedy’s Dallmeier Panomera, which underscores extremely harsh operates in Winnipeg, Canada. catch performance with the combinationinfrastructure of GPRS mesh solutions against other looked the furthest and saw the mostest. Finally, Firetide provides high-performance It’s an interesting lateral move from ASSA IP connectivity in its latestalternative XTIP710 solutions in the South Pacific fixedand and onboard mobile wireless IP network the most improved product range honours are ABLOY, which is a significant player in the marketplace,” said Duane Zitzner, CEO of infrastructure products thaton enable solution is just icing what was already a very shared by Vivotek and Merit LiLin. Nice work, folks. Australia domestic locking and commercial Firetide. concurrent video, voice and data tempting Videofied zzz access control markets. cake.

Honeywell’s Lynx 5100 3000-camera school system Wi-Fi, combines deploys web-basedmobile solution app

Special mentions go to the Axis 5544 for conceptualbgwt awesomeness, the Axis 1604 WDR firetide, sign deal for its total obliteration of backlight, the Takex PXB-100ATC which takes affordable perimeter security to a new level...

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Competence in Video Security w w w. g e u t e b r u c k . c o m . a u | P h o n e 1 3 0 0 8 5 5 2 9 1 14 se&n 34 se&n 16 se&n

p ro d u ct rev i ew WV- SP509

Panasonic WV-SP509 Panasonic’s WV-SP509 H.264 Full HD Super Dynamic network camera builds on the sensational low light performance of the WV-SP306, delivering vastly improved performance in strong backlight. 18 se&n

ANASONIC’S WV-SP509 is not a brand new camera – it’s been out for 8 months or so and some of you will have seen it at Security 2012. And while I’ve had a chance to poke around the camera at expos this is the first time I’ve sat down with the WV-SP509 and paid serious attention to its performance, something I’ve been looking forward to for quite some time. It’s my opinion that the last generation Panasonic WV-SP306 was probably the best all round performer of the past 3 years, with a particular strength in low light. What I’m keen to discover in this test drive is whether or not the WV-SP509 improves that strong performance in low light while adding the ability to handle strong backlight. It’s important to point out here that the last

by john adam s

Sitting in the well-sorted Pacific Communications control room looking at the monitor my immediate comment is that the WV-SP509 is doing brilliantly with the backlight.

specifications. The Panasonic WV-SP509 has a 3.1MP high sensitivity progressive scan MOS sensor and drives at up to 30ips at a full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080. Panasonic’s UniPhier LSI chip allows the camera to stream multiple H.264 videos and JPEG images for simultaneous real-time monitoring, while Adaptive Black Stretch improves the visibility of dark parts of a scene without impacting on the brighter parts. Panasonic claims high-sensitivity in low light conditions - 0.5 lux colour and 0.06 lux in black and white at F1.4. While low light claims from many manufacturers are ambitious, Panasonic has long played with a straight bat. The lux figure for the

generation of HD cameras from all manufacturers was limited by processing power to being very good at only one thing. But these current generation cameras are different and they offer more balanced performance in extreme conditions along with excellent 1080p image quality.

Specifications and functionality

So - what’s the difference between the WV-SP509 and its forebear, the highly respected WV-SP306? Resolution is the obvious thing. The WV-SP306 was 720p HD and this new WV-SPP509 is 1080p. There are also a number of neat features like lens distortion correction, auto back focus, Face WDR and VQIS to play with. Before we sit down in front of the monitors, it’s worth running through the camera’s general

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p ro d u ct rev i ew WV- SP509

colour images was accurate for the WV-SP306 and the WV-SP509 maintains the same high standard. A feature of interest is 2-area VIQS (variable image quality on specified area) technology which allows selection of an area of lower interest – the sky for example – to be recorded in lower resolution, slashing network bandwidth demand. The camera also has Auto Back Focus to adjust the position of the MOS sensor so as to offer stable focus in both color and B&W modes. There’s also a face detection function to ensure blur-free images of the human face in a scene and a cropping function that enables simultaneous broadcast of full images (1920 x 1080) along with the cropped images (640x 360). And you get 2-way audio, a video motion detection feature that triggers an alarm when activity is detected in the 4 programmable zones and a privacy masking feature that allows concealment of up to 2 private areas, such as windows, entrances and exits. Meanwhile, the distinctive LDC (Lens Distortion Compensation) function provides a natural image without distortion using a wide angle lens, while an electronic sensitivity enhancement function increases the amount of light stored on the sensor, making images brighter. A stream control allows a video stream to be prioritized when multiple recorders or client PCs are accessing the camera so the prioritized recorder

To challenge the WDR we trawl through recordings for WDR witching hour – the moment the mid-morning sun floods directly into the foyer. But the WV-SP509’s care factor for gigantic hydrogen fusion reactors is zero. or client PC can maintain the highest frame rate. And the camera’s integrated digital noise reduction ensures clear image reproduction by filtering signals that could result in grainy images.

Performance in the field.

I get a look at the Panasonic WV-SP509 at Pacific Communications’ office in Rydalmere. I’m with Scott Myles, state manager, NSW, and Jennifer Cozma, operations coordinator. Cozma drives the system while Myles and I peer at the images in the company’s darkened control room. We view and drive the cameras using onboard browsers and the DVTel management solution and view image streams on generic Pacom 1080p HD monitors. The cameras we view are both installed indoors, which is not ideal for longer range performance but it gives us a very good idea of performance in a typical installation and it’s perfect

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p ro d u ct rev i ew WV- SP509

SP509 in top left handling backlight while giving face recognition close up.

for testing backlight. For the purposes of our test there are 2 viewing scenes. The first is the foyer which faces generally to the east then through the glass into the carpark to buildings on the other side – perhaps 75m and more. The second is the warehouse - looking across the warehouse floor with racks in view to the right, through the roller door, over the carpark to wall of the next building – about 25m from lens to wall. The day is bright, mostly sunny, so conditions for both cameras are backlit as it’s 11 am to 12 noon. The areas we’re looking at include indoor, outdoor and entry point in low light and with strong backlight. As I run my eye over the images I’m focusing on things like image clarity, light and colour reproduction accuracy and scene representation – stretch and distortion. Because there are trees outside and cars going past I also get the chance to check for horizontal smearing. The first camera we look at is the full body camera installed in the foyer on a camera tree looking towards the glass door and then through the plate glass windows to the cark park and across. While the camera I’m reviewing is the full body camera WV-SP509, there’s also the WV-SF538 dome camera with the same chipset installed in the foyer and I take a look at images from that camera as well.

22 se&n

Bear in mind, at all times images to the outside of the building are being attenuated by a thick layer of plate glass. Sitting in the well-sorted Pacific Communications control room looking at the monitor my immediate comment is that the WV-SP509 is doing brilliantly with the backlight. That’s an important first impression because as mentioned earlier, the great

Screen grab at HD

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p ro d u ct rev i ew WV- SP509

In daylight scenes with shadows, strong backlight and low foreground light, there’s excellent depth of field across the carpark, clean movement of leaves in mid-ground, excellent colour, clarity and contrast throughout and brilliant face recognition in the foreground.

strength of the WV-SP306 was low light. It’s clear to see that the WV-SP509 is excellent in a number of areas across the entire scene. In daylight scenes with shadows, strong backlight and low foreground light there’s excellent depth of field across the carpark, clean movement of leaves in mid-ground, excellent colour, clarity and contrast throughout and brilliant face recognition in the foreground. There’s no question I think, looking carefully at the monitor, that purity of colour rendition throughout the scene is spot on. The WV-SP509 is sharp and the colour rendition works well and the carpets and the lounge in the foyer look real. I walk a few steps to the door to check. Yes. The colours are more real. Side by side with the WV-SP509

24 se&n

Backlight is no problem

the WV-SP306 is softer around the edges and that translates to less detail, especially deeper into scenes. The difference is readily noticeable to my eye. The WV-SP509 also does well with leaf movement in the trees outside the window at 30ips – there’s no blur with this screen-wide movement nor any sign of the processor being overwhelmed at any time. No latency or image fragmentation or horizontal smearing as a white car drives by. The scene is tight. To challenge the WDR we trawl through recordings for WDR witching hour – the moment the mid-morning sun floods directly into the foyer. But the WV-SP509’s care factor for gigantic hydrogen fusion reactors is zero. It handles the worst sort of backlight extremely well. To further test WDR performance Cozma calls up the warehouse on screen. The camera on the rear camera tree is looking across the warehouse and out through the roller door into bright sunlight. While the warehouse is well lit, the carpark is very bright. Again, the WV-SP509 is oblivious to the challenge. When I tested a WV-SP306 last year I found it could be bested by very strong backlight. You’d get a face at an office door at 5-6m but you could lose the background to glare in direct sunlight. But this WV-SP509 is a massive improvement. You get the foreground, you get the background and you get face recognition at the margin of the backlight. It’s great work from the new camera. As we watch I notice that along with excellent performance and colour rendition inside the warehouse and a recognisable human figure in the doorway of the warehouse at 10m the camera is still peering out into the sunlight and picking up license plates at 20m. The plates are not crystal clear at that distance but they are decipherable and the make, model, colour and distinguishing features of the cars are clear to see. I can even see the texture of the back wall at 25m. And what’s most impressive is that the camera

p ro d u ct rev i ew WV- SP509

“Our high profile H.264 is the kind used for DVDs and broadcast – it’s got very good compression. And on top of that you have the actual camera features – it’s a Super Dynamic camera so it’s designed for difficult lighting conditions without undue noise. continues to do well in the foreground – you can see all the detail in the warehouse and the colour work and depth of field inside are great. Next, we look at recordings of night scenes. To start with we’re viewing scenes from the camera in the foyer which seems to me to be lit only by a green exit sign. There is no other ambient light inside and absolutely no ambient light outside, which is unfair on the WV-SP 509. It’s 9.43pm and we can see dimly in the 3 x 4m foyer. Next we look at evening shots to give the camera a tiny amount of light to work with. The camera is changing to black and white at about 8.22pm and at that time we’re still getting visible cars 50m away. We’re not getting license plates but I judge if the camera was pointing towards them directly we’d be able to see the vehicle types. We can also clearly see everything in the foyer at this time. It’s a shame not to have been able to use a light meter to get a reading inside at that time but given we’re still in monochrome there’s arguably less than half a lux in the foyer. Next we look at dawn images. As we go through this process we notice cars arriving for work – it’s early – 5am and still pitch dark given it’s daylight saving time in Sydney. In the headlights we’re able to make out great swathes of detail in the carpark all the way to the margins of the space. We can see people walking past at 5.30am in the lights. At one point there are a couple of cars moving and the whole scene brightens up. At 6am drivers still need their headlights on but we can now see what’s happening outside clearly all the way to the edge of the camera’s depth of field. The camera has not switched to colour yet so the foyer is still at less than half a lux. At 6.15am the camera is doing really well in monochrome. It’s amazing the depth of field you get from these cameras, I observe. The contrast is excellent and it’s almost a more detailed image than colour mode. One of the neat features of the camera is Lens Distortion Compensation, which allows you to straighten lines in the scene. Myles takes a moment to adjust the scene in the foyer. It’s a neat feature that maintains proportion in a tight space really well. We play with this feature using the WV-SF538 26 se&n

indoor dome (it’s the same chipset) which covers the entire foyer, the foot of the stairs, outside the door, outside the windows and off into the distance against strong backlight. Despite the wide angle view we are getting the camera is actually installed quite close to the door and when Myles tells me the 538 is ideal for cells, lifts and smaller spaces, I find myself agreeing with him. The same camera also comes as a vandal dome making it even more capable of handling this sort of application. After I’ve had a run through with the camera I get a chance to chat with Pacific Communications’ product manager for Panasonic Kieron McDonough who says that compared to other 1080p HD cameras the WV-SP509 has a range of features that make it really stand out. “Key features to my mind are that the WV-SP 509 is 1080p and high profile H.264 at 30ips,” McDonough explains. “Our high profile H.264 is the kind used for DVDs and broadcast – it’s got very good compression. And on top of that you have the actual camera features – it’s a Super Dynamic camera so it’s designed for difficult lighting conditions without undue noise. “It also has automatic backfocus and it’ll detect a face and enhance that face using a feature called face WDR. There’s also VQIS which means you can specify an area and reduce the bit rate for that area so you are reducing the overall bandwidth of the camera.” The last generation WV-SP 306’s low light performance was its benchmark but the WV-SP 509 handles low light and then eats backlight for breakfast, doesn’t it? I ask. “Yeah, you’re spot on there,” McDonough says. “The WV-SP306 was good in low light but the WVSP509 does both low light and backlight extremely well. The backlight is where there has been a huge improvement – it’s balanced out the performance and made this camera the class leader.” zzz

Features of the S14 include: l 3.1 MP MOS Sensor/UniPhier LSI Chip l Full HD Resolution of 1920 x 1080 l Super Dynamic Technology / 2-Way Audio l Cropping Function / Auto Back Focus l 2 Areas VIQS l Super Dynamic and Adaptive Black Stretch l Face WDR l H.264 High Profile l Electronic Sensitivity Enhancement l 3D Digital Noise Reduction l Minimum Illumination of 0.06 Lux (B&W) l Privacy Masking (Up to 2 Zones) l Video Motion Detection (4 Areas) l SDXC/SDHC/SD memory card slot l ONVIF compliance l Auto back focus l POE, Onvif compliance.

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CAS E ST U DY

Turkish P etroleu m Corporation

Turkish delight Turkish Petroleum Corporation is a long time user of Dallmeier video recorders and when its CCTV system was expanded, a decision was made to again use servers from the German IP video specialists.

STABLISHED in 1954, the TPAO has a staff of over 1,600 employees in Ankara alone and more than 4,700 throughout Turkey. Its primary activities include exploring oil and natural gas reserves, drilling, executing pipeline projects, storing natural gas as well as trading in oil, including distribution and transportation. Dallmeier recorders have been in use in the headquarters in Ankara for many years, for reliable surveillance of entrances and exits, the individual floors of the building and the lifts. But the existing system was in need of modernisation and expansion. “What we wanted were high-quality recording devices,” explains Tahir Can, security manager of TPAO. “We have been working with Dallmeier recorders for many years and have never had any problems.” So, when the time came for new devices, Dallmeier’s DMS 2400 was selected, a high performance server hardware with Multi-Core CPU and 2x 3.5” HDDs. The operating system of the 3HU appliance is on flash memory for highest system stability. A sophisticated hardware concept and perfectly coordinated components allow for a high recording speed. Due to the “EasyChange“ functionality, hard disk drives can easily and conveniently be changed from the front of the device in case of an HDD failure. The SMAVIA Recording Server Software is already preloaded and supports standard resolutions as well as Full-HD (up to 1080p) and up to 8 megapixels. The local partner Ni-Ti Elektronik Güvenlik Sistemleri was contracted to install the new system. Tahir Can is more than satisfied with them as well. “The technical service provided by Ni-Ti Elektronik has always been excellent and we have always kept in touch. That is why we wanted to work together with Dallmeier and Ni-Ti again when we upgraded our video system.” The evaluation of live and recorded images is done with the SMAVIA Viewing Client, a VideoIP

28 se&n

client software for the independent and convenient evaluation of SMAVIA Recording Server recordings via Ethernet. One of the special features is the SmartFinder, a system designed for the intelligent search of movements within any given area of an image. Searching for images with captured motion is easy and uncomplicated. The operator uses the mouse to drag a rectangle within the image, thereby marking the relevant area. Even with respect to extended time intervals, SmartFinder is able to find and list the sequences with captured motion within seconds. The initial results may be immediately viewed and examined, even while the system is still searching. zzz

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cas e st u dy Champ ions IGA

Champion performance S

URVEILLANCE is a staple of retailers who struggle to rationalise the paradox of securing large retail outlets holding huge quantities of stock that must always be accessible to the hands of thousands of shoppers every day. The nature of the retail business is such that CCTV, as well as acting as a deterrent, must be a capable investigative tool for security and safety purposes and it must be easy to manage and agnostic to future developments in surveillance and IP technology.

30 se&n

There are other unique characteristics of many retail stores that pose a challenge and these may include legacy cabling or a store fitout designed to maximise product display, not to allow clear lines of sight. Stock picking times are another nightmare for any surveillance system with narrow aisles filled with towers of cartons as stock pickers reload shelves periodically obscuring the views of poorly placed cameras. A defining aspect of the installation Top

by john adam s

Performance undertook for Champions IGA in Victoria wasn’t just that it covered 2 stores in different locations, there are also hybrid considerations. The new store at Whittlesea is full IP, while the store at Kangaroo Flat combines existing analogue cameras with encoders, networked storage and an IP-based video management system so as to leverage existing investment while enhancing system functionality.

without the expense of replacing the entire system. We can also start natively adding IP cameras immediately or replace the analogue ones with IP as they fail.” In terms of the selection process, Munday says the solution and camera chosen was suggested by Lan1 and this was then investigated by the Champions IGA IT team and sample footage viewed to ensure the solution was right for the job. The final signoff was made by Champions IGA’s CEO. Meanwhile, Lan1’s Basil Delimitros says the system design was a joint effort between Champions IGA, Top Performance and Lan1. “Champions IGA and Top Performance worked on camera placement and business requirement, while the Lan1 team designed the network infrastructure, recording server and user access system,” Delimitros explains. “Camera positioning was selected on the original drawings for the site and final positions and

The application

According to Champion IGA’s Jai Munday, the purpose of the solution was multifarious. The system needed to offer better performance, greater reliability and to be future proof. “At Whittlesea we needed a solution that was expandable without replacing the central DVR every time we added a camera or 2,” explains Munday. “We also needed better image clarity than the normal systems we use not just for theft prevention but also for customer and staff safety. The clarity of the HD IP cameras also allows us to reduce the number of cameras we would have needed based on the analogue systems we have used in the past. “Meanwhile, at Kangaroo Flat our analogue DVR had failed and we wanted a solution, like Whittlesea, that ensured we weren’t locked into a proprietary system we would also be replacing when we needed to upgrade the cameras there. “By replacing the DVR with an IP-based server and analogue-to-IP encoders we are half way there

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cas e st u dy Champ ions IGA The IGA solution

Bear in mind at this juncture, that all network components of this solution are installed on subnets on Cat-6 cable that can be accessed by authorised workstations located on the general data network. But before we start on the network aspects of this solution, let’s pick through the front end of the system, starting with the hybrid solution at Kangaroo Flat. At the beginning of the Champions IGA project the Kangaroo Flat site was not being considered for an upgrade to Milestone and server-based recording. But a sudden failure of the original DVR meant that the mixture of analogue cameras from multiple manufacturers was no longer being recorded and could not be managed. “The Milestone and Axis system was introduced because the original DVR had failed and a replacement system was needed urgently,” says Delimitros. “The plan in the future is to upgrade these to IP and high resolution cameras and the new IP system allows us to do this at a moment’s notice.” In terms of system layout, the 32 analogue cameras jump onto the network via Axis M7010 16 channel encoders. These cameras are recording to a Dell server with 4TB of storage running the Milestone XProtect Express platform. Cameras can be viewed either directly on the server, or from a workstation within the LAN environment. Things are different over at Whittlesea, which was a green field site with 35 Axis cameras covering a range of applications in the store, at entry points and in the more challenging environment of the underground carpark. Handling aisles and internal areas are Axis M3004 cameras, while Axis P3354 cameras take care of the entry points. Parking duties are supported by the vandal proof Axis P3364. All the Axis cameras were supplied to Top Performance through Lan1 and there was a selection process that involved some objective testing to ensure the best cameras were chosen for the job. camera selection were settled after site inspection by Champions IGA and Top Performance, then cabling was installed. “Once the initial system introduction and demonstration was done and a review of previous customer experience was completed, the Champions IGA team was happy for Top Performance/Lan1 to lead the system development and implementation.” Importantly, pre-configuration for both sites was conducted at the Lan1 premises. This is another key element of this installation and it was clever work from Lan1. “The systems were built, documented and tested prior to going on site,” says Delimitros. “This was done to minimise the amount of time required onsite.

32 se&n

From the Bendigo head office, the same client software, XProtect SmartClient allows the user to dial into any of the locations to view image streams live or to review and extract footage. This is a real timesaver compared to the antiquated analogue systems of the past.

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cas e st u dy Champ ions IGA

Vince Beriman (l) and Jim Giantsios of Top Performance Communications

systems of the past,” he explains. Important, too, the system design implemented at these 2 stores means it can be implemented across the group in the future.

The installation

No problems were encountered with the installation because we followed a methodical plan...Systems were tested at Lan1 prior to being delivered on site so that it became a plug and play affair once we were in the stores. “The Axis cameras were selected by Champions IGA after reviewing the market and conducting some testing,” Delimitros explains. “They are very happy with the end result, particularly with the internal M3004 cameras. These are producing fantastic images and don’t suffer the ‘white out’ effect a lot of entry level cameras display when faced with intense reflections off the white floors of supermarkets.” Taking care of Ethernet at Whittlesea is an Alcatel Lucent PoE switch. There’s a 6TB Dell server at Whittlesea handling storage and management duties via Milestone XProtect and again images can be viewed on a monitor at the server or across the LAN on an authorised workstation. There are also display monitors located at entrances of the store. While image streams from both sites are recorded locally, they can also be viewed at the Champions IGA head office in Bendigo using Milestone XProtect. According to Delimitros, Milestone XProtect platform was selected because it is an IT friendly system in that there is no extraordinary network settings to factor into the design, and there’s simplicity of licensing and ease of use. “From the Bendigo head office, the same client software, XProtect SmartClient, allows the user to dial into any of the locations to view image streams live or to review and extract footage. This is a real timesaver compared to the antiquated analogue

34 se&n

Despite the complexity of the sites, which includes their large size and the challenges of installing hardware in a busy retail environment, Jim Giantsios, communications consultant for Top Performance says there were no standout difficulties. “No problems were encountered with the installation because we followed a methodical plan,” Giantsios explains. “Systems were tested at Lan1 prior to being delivered on site so that it became a plug and play affair once we were in the stores. “Although the IP CCTV system is independent of the company network, the IT team provided the network interconnect to allow remote site access

and we worked with the IT manager of Champions IGA throughout the installation process.” Excluding the cablers who also did the camera fit-off, Giantsios says only 2 techs were involved in installing this solution. These included Lan1’s technical team member who handled the preconfiguration work and a Top Performance tech who handled on-site installation. Both sites were relatively simple installations, according to Giantsios. He says that excluding fit off and cabling works, each system took approximately 8 working hours in the office with a further 3 hours on-site to commission the system. “The Kangaroo Flat site had no cameras to add as we were using the existing analogues while Whittlesea was a fresh installation with new IP cameras. In fact, pre-site installation of the Milestone system on the servers combined with camera licensing and set up of the video recording properties took the majority of the time required during commissioning.” Surveillance is a complex logistical operation with a busy retail environment to deal with. As a rule some careful planning is involved in getting systems installed. But Giantsios says the installation team was very fortunate at both sites. “Whittlesea was a new site so we were able to commission the site with no created downtime,” he says. “At Kangaroo Flat on the other hand, we planned to cut over early in the morning and the new system simply worked.” Meanwhile, Delimitros says there was never any doubt that the system could be finished in time. “We had no doubts,” he says. “This was well planned from beginning to end and follow up visits are scheduled only to review the system performance and maintain the ‘high touch’ support that Champions IGA has enjoyed in the past.” One of the great things about an IP system is that it’s virtually future-proof and this means that camera upgrades can be made at any time to existing network infrastructure. It’s clear that for Champions IGA this open architecture was a key consideration and that Lan 1 and Total Performance have delivered in spades. “Adding cameras to the system is now done by a factor of one rather than a factor of 16,” Delimitros says, referring to the former need to replace an entire DVR in the event of failure. “These IP systems we’ve deployed have an allowance for growth, but the software platform through the Software Upgrade Plan (SUP) also allow for the latest updates, features and cameras to be added to the system.” The system will be maintained by the Champions IGA IT team, however, software updates and additional camera requirements will be managed by Top Performance.

Conclusion

It’s clear that this installation was simplified by pre-commissioning work handled by Lan1, with commissioning and installation being relatively simple processes that show the growing maturity of IP video surveillance solutions. Final say on a system like this should always go to the end user and it’s clear the new system benefits Champions IGA most in its operational capability. For many in the electronic security industry it’s been so long since we drove an analogue-based CCTV solution managed by a VCR-style DVR we’ve forgotten how labour intensive the process can be. According to Champions IGA’s Jai Munday the biggest difference in the system, aside from much improved camera performance, is that staff managing the system no longer have to trek to the network room and sit in front of the DVR to view footage. Instead store managers handle the system using a smart client on their own workstations. It sounds like a small thing but this ability to access a system’s full functionality on a network connected workstation is the heart and soul of IP video surveillance. zzz

Product installed by Total Performance for Champions IGA includes: l 35 Axis M3004, P3354 and P3364 cameras (Whittlesea) l Milestone XProtect Express l Dell servers l Alcatel Lucent PoE switch l Axis M7010 16 channel encoders (Kangaroo Flat)

se&n 35

acce s s co n t ro l

Planning access control For security managers and integrators planning single site and stand alone access control solutions thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s plenty to think about. But most important of all are the fundamentals of functionality and scalability. 36 se&n

HAT are some of the key features an end user should consider when purchasing an access control system for a single location? The biggest thing is to work out what they need their access control system to do, not just in the present but in the future as the business grows. Questions the end user must ask include whether the system will reach a point where it needs to be ripped out and replaced if the business grows beyond a certain size. Also important to consider is

by john adam s

It’s not just end users who must choose carefully when it comes to access control solutions. Integrators and installers who must recommend and support these vital electronic security systems also need to make sure they’re on a winner.

whether or not the access control system will work if the business expands to multiple buildings in multiple locations. End users also need to know whether the system they have chosen is being upgraded and kept relevant with current core technologies. If not, the investment may age quickly and require replacement sooner than anticipated. It’s not just end users who must choose carefully when it comes to access control solutions. Integrators and installers who must recommend and support these vital electronic security systems also need to make sure they’re on a winner. A key focus for integrators, beyond offering an access control system that meets their customers’ functional needs, is to be safe in the knowledge that

the system is quick and easy to install, and will result in minimal support issues for the customer once installed. Both of these elements allow an integrator to offer better packages to their customers, gaining an advantage over their competitors. The need for delivery of efficient and user friendly solution designs demands that integrators utilise the most flexible and scalable systems. And an integration platform with open system architecture is the cornerstone of access control solution design. So, what are some of the major challenges associated with building an access control system from the point of view of end user and integrator? Perhaps the most crucial challenge for both the end user and integrator is to ensure that the end user system requirements are fully understood and documented prior to selecting and installing a chosen system. The better this process, the less chance there is of encountering technical or commercial roadblocks that may stop the end user from receiving all of the system benefits they expected. The basic layout of a single site access solution has not changed much over the past 5 years and the traditional central controller to door controller powering locks and readers-layout still prevails. But what has changed is different end user and site needs. Think about physical site layout, existing wiring infrastructure and total system cost. These have driven the need for access control systems to cater for both the traditional distributed model, and for a star-wired semi-centralised model (several doors wired back to a LAN-connected controller), depending on the situation. Certainly the largest change in the past 5 years is the need for access control systems to be flexible enough to meet these customer and site specific needs in the one product. One of the big questions security managers and integrators will have to consider is the level of IP capability they build into their systems. We are

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acce s s co n t ro lt

seeing CCTV jumping onto the IP bandwagon – the question is will access readers go the same way or will power demands always see a need for remote door controllers? Certainly IP-based access readers are available, often powered via Power over Ethernet (PoE). End users should consider several security implications before considering readers such as these, however. Such issues include whether or not a company’s IT department would feel comfortable exposing a network Ethernet port to the non-secure side of a door – leaving open a potential route for network attacks. You’d also want to ask if the security department feels comfortable having secure door operation dependent on power from a network switch for PoE Readers. The issue with this is that if the IT department disables a switch for maintenance will multiple door readers/locks lose power? Other issues relating to driving access readers over data LANs includes network latency impacting on access control read times. And something else to think about is the fact that if door lock control is built into the reader, are you concerned that an unauthorised person could open the reader cover, put power on the lock relay, and open the door? It seems likely IP-based controllers situated on the secure side of the door, controlling multiple or single doors, will continue to play a major role in access control solutions going forward.

Readers and management solutions

Something that will need plenty of thought is reader technology. There are many variables relating to readers and credentials including things like security level, read time, cost of card replacement and ease of use. Security managers and integrators need to decide

38 se&n

whether prox with or without a PIN code is likely to remain the dominant reader technology for many years to come or whether higher security biometrics perhaps operating in concert with smart prox will become more prevalent. There are also NFC devices shouldering into the market. While card technology will remain the dominant identification technology for access control readers for some time; biometric reader use is growing at a rapid pace in markets like mining, while educational facilities and tech houses like NFC. The change to biometrics is being driven by improvements in accuracy and price and use is being driven not just by higher security demands, but also by the ease of use. Consider that users no longer have to carry or remember their cards and there’s an elimination of the cost of card management – these need to be purchased and encoded. Without doubt the most important decision the security manager will have to make relates to choice of access management solutions. Things end users will have to consider include the ease of cardholder management and integration with shared databases. Single site end users should ensure that they demand a security management system that can scale with their business as it grows. While a simple keypad management system may suffice for an end user at present, they may have to completely replace such a system if the business grows beyond its capabilities. The end user should also ensure that the security management system can be integrated with other databases and systems, to ensure that future business needs can be accommodated by the product. In this regard, the end user should look for a security management system manufacturer providing open APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to interface with other databases/systems, and seek a manufacturer that provides product integration and customisation services. zzz

While card technology will remain the dominant identification technology for access control readers for some time; biometric reader use is growing at a rapid pace in markets like mining while educational facilities and tech houses like NFC.

n ews re p o rt

uxc connect

UXC wins $4.1 million IP CCTV job in WA

ICT infrastructure solutions and services provider UXC Connect has won a massive $A4.1 million contract to install an IP CCTV solution comprising a Geutebruck management system and Panasonic IP cameras at a huge LNG facility currently being built in Western Australia.

CT infrastructure solutions and services UXC Connect has begun the delivery and roll-out of the solution at a remote site which will house up to 4,300 construction workers. The solution consists of IP CCTV, Public Address & General Alarm and Access Control infrastructure being installed in external and internal areas throughout the campsite including cafeterias, laundries, communal areas and 14 other facilities. While no specific details about this site have been forthcoming from UXC Connect, we speculate that given the numbers and build time-frame this 40 se&n

contract could only be for the security and safety system at Chevronâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s $A29 billion Wheatstone LNG project near Onslow on Western Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Pilbara coast. The Wheatstone onshore foundation project is a joint venture between the Australian subsidiaries of Chevron (73.6 per cent), Apache (13 per cent), KUFPEC (7 per cent), and Shell (6.4 per cent). The high tech, environmentally responsible Wheatstone complex is taking 5 years to build and will be completed in 2016. The accommodation complex will be one of the first facilities to be built at the site. The foundation project comprises 2 LNG Trains with a combined capacity of 8.9 million tonnes per annum and a domestic gas plant. It is forecast to create more than 6,500 direct and indirect jobs at peak construction and result in more than $A17 billion being spent on Australian goods and services. The initial IP video contract for this huge enterprise is valued at $4.1 million and, according to UXC Connect, the win supports its entry into the IP video surveillance sector, as well as its decision to grow its West Australian team considerably over the last 12 months. The full IP video surveillance solution will use a Geutebruck management system and Panasonic IP PTZ cameras to manage and improve the safety and security of the workers on the remote work

Richard Ellison UXC Connect

site, with a view to protecting staff and property from unauthorised access and other OH&S issues. The solution will also enable greater emergency response and ensure that site managers will be able to identify historical events of interest and provide indisputable evidence of activities. “UXC Connect has invested significantly in its IP video surveillance solution, developing strong alternatives to the current options in the resources market, particularly for enterprise organisations looking for a converged surveillance and security system,” said Richard Ellison, solution manager, IP Video Surveillance. “UXC Connect is the first IT solutions provider in APAC to partner with world class technology vendors to bring a converged solution to market. UXC Connect’s offering exceeds many other IP video surveillance offerings available, both in terms of the technology and support services.” “Our investment in the IP video surveillance space, together with our extensive IT infrastructure skills, strong technical expertise,

Our investment in the IP video surveillance space, together with our extensive IT infrastructure skills, strong technical expertise, and a proven track record for delivering high-quality solutions for remote regional communities enabled us to create a robust and secure end-to-end solution.

and a proven track record for delivering high-quality solutions for remote regional communities enabled us to create a robust and secure endto-end solution that includes multiple delivery options,” Ellison said. According to Ian Poole, CEO of UXC Connect, the contract highlights the benefits of further investment in the West Australian office and the company’s ability to develop world class solutions for some of the most challenging environments. “UXC Connect is thrilled to secure this contract; it is further evidence of our successful go-tomarket strategy where we continue to invest in the people and partnerships that enable us to create market leading solutions.” “The growth we have seen in Western Australia and particularly in the mining oil, and gas sector has meant that we have been able to invest extensively in our WA team,” said Poole. UXC Connect is the largest Australian-owned ICT infrastructure solutions and services company in Australia with a focus on innovative service models and solutions. UXC Connect is a wholly owned business of UXC Limited and employs more than 600 staff across the country. Its head office is based in Sydney, and it has 6 state offices and staff located on-site at customer premises. It was recently included in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Australia 2012, featuring in the Top 10 Leadership Awards category, as well as recognised in the CRN Fast50 2012 awards. zzz

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s p e ci al f eat u r e

alarms

Checking zone loops When things go wrong with an alarm system after checking system components it’s time to scope out zone loops hunting for goblins like grounds, shorts, opens and foreign potentials.

EPENDING on the protective loop configuration, work your way across the zone inputs, Z1 and shared C (zone 1 and shared common), then on the right of the common, Z2 and C (zone 2 and shared common). You’ll be using the same single 2.2k EOL resistance on each set of inputs. Take into account that the procedure varies depending on the sort of protective loops that are built into system. A single closed loop will require you to disconnect both loop wires, to add jumpers (or an EOL) across the terminals and to trip the system by lifting the jumper or EOL wire. But a double closed loop with no ground will require both +In and +out be removed and replaced by +In

42 se&n

to +out and -In to -out. All will depend on the sort of protective loops the system contains - yes you’ll need those manuals, alright. Have your multimeter/VOM switched to voltmeter for this one. Let’s say that as you worked your way across the zone inputs no fault was found with the controller, but Zone 2, to which loop were attached 1 PIR and 2 Reed switches protecting a rumpus room and 2 french doors was unusual. The controller behaved perfectly when tested with the EOL and the permanent trouble went away. The next step is to establish what kind of fault it is you’re facing. Is it a foreign potential, a ground, a short, or an open? Probably the strangest and most damaging to the system is the presence of a foreign potential (voltage) on the loop but it’s also the least common. When you use the voltmeter to check a loop what you’re measuring is current on a wire so it’s important to establish whether the system has a voltage on its zone loops when disarmed. Some old systems won’t have power when disarmed and in these instances you can either use an ohmmeter or continuity tester (both have built-in power), or disconnect the siren and strobe outputs and test the system when it’s armed. At this point, check for power across battery terminals and for power across loop terminals. Remove the connecting wires to each zone and replace them with the voltmeter’s connections. If the right voltage is present, assume that the trouble lies with the loop. Again, complexity is introduced to troubleshooting on the basis of the loop’s nature. In simple closed loop systems things are easier because anything in the loop causing an alarm must be an open contact. But if it’s a double closed loop then an alarm could be the result of an open in one wire, an open in a second wire, or a short between two wires. It could even be the result of a ground on the hot wire if the loop has one side grounded permanently. For the sake of this discussion let’s assume that the loop containing the PIR and two reeds is closed and the 3 devices are connected to a cable run about 21m long with the devices spread out at 7m intervals. Go to the middle of the cable run between the first PIR and the first reed. If there’s appropriate voltage at that point then the system is good to that point. Now go past the first reed. If the system remains good then you know the failure lies on the other side of the first reed and is caused by either the second reed switch or cabling or terminations. Another technique when testing loops is to place the voltmeter leads over the terminals of each device. What you’re looking for here is voltage and if you find it then you’ve found your open contact. This is a simpler method but it has weaknesses. For a start this method won’t indicate broken wires and nor will it be useful if there’s more than just 1 open contact in the loop. zzz

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p ro d u ct rev i ew tuxedo touch

Honeywell’s Tuxedo best dressed One of the nicest developments of the past 12 months has been the reawakening of R&D in the alarms segment where technology had fallen far behind the best consumer products. One of the neatest developments to come from this latest wave of clever product is Honeywell’s Tuxedo Touch.

ONEYWELL’S Tuxedo Touch is a child of the digital age, a web-connected touch screen portal that liberates the functionality of Honeywell’s Vista alarm panels and adds automation and multimedia functionality manageable locally or anywhere in the world. Best of all, Tuxedo Touch empowers clever installation companies, giving them a powerful integrated security and automation product on the one hand and a huge up-sell for every Honeywell Vista system they’ve installed for a decade on the other. Put simply, Tuxedo transforms alarm systems into automation solutions. Physically, Tuxedo is an 18cm diameter touch screen with an 800 x 480 pixel TFT display offering 16 million colours. Driven by an onboard OS, Tuxedo can operate as an alarm panel keypad, a home automation controller, a surveillance monitor, a video player and a photo frame, as well as an audio message board. And while these facts might sound a bit bland on paper but don’t be fooled. Tuxedo’s real power is as a manager and an enabler. This unit is capable of managing all the functions of the entire Vista range, retrofitting all the way back to 2002. That includes the big 128-zone panels as well as a monster 250-zoner with access control that’s due out in March 2013. Tuxedo’s automation capabilities are no less compelling. Along with security via Vista, Tuxedo brings together up to 4 IP-based video surveillance cameras and up to 232 Z-Wave-enabled thermostats, lights, air conditioners, electric locks and automated window shades. And importantly, cost is competitive. The woven-in consumer tech I alluded to earlier relates to Tuxedo’s networking ability and I think

44 se&n

Along with security via Vista, Tuxedo brings together up to 4 IP-based video surveillance cameras and up to 232 Z-Wave-enabled thermostats, lights, air conditioners, electric locks and automated window shades. And importantly, cost is competitive.

by john adam s

it’s the defining aspect of Honeywell’s youngest prodigy. Rather than being a dumb terminal, Tuxedo incorporates a built-in web server and an RJ45 port which allows authorised users to manage the system via WiFi or Ethernet from anywhere in their home or office, or from anywhere in the world, using the Tuxedo interface. Authorised users can link with the system via mobile devices like iPads, iPhones, Android phones or tablets, or any network-connected workstation, laptop, netbook or internet TV. What about network security, you ask? Well, there are multiple layers of security. When you access the system remotely you use a user name and a password just as you would when accessing a secure banking server. There are

choices of WEP or WPA for password hardening (I’d recommend WPA2 with AES encryption, not TKIP). At this level you can manage automation and if you want to go into the security system, then the alarm code must be entered as well. Showing me round Tuxedo are Honeywell Security Group’s product manager Keith Potter and general manager, John Gellel. Both are excited about the system’s capabilities and while Potter has Tuxedo installed at home and is living with the system day to day, Gellel has a more strategic view. According to Gellel, Honeywell initially released Tuxedo at Security 2012 and he says the solution’s development was in response to the voice of the customer and a need to give the market more of what it wants. “The response at the time of release was very positive and installers were impressed with the system’s ability to handle retrofits and automation,” Gellel says. “For installers looking for something different, Tuxedo is great. They can install an alarm system or, for a minimal additional cost, they can install a scalable home automation solution that can do energy management, surveillance, lighting and air conditioning control. It gets people away from the model of selling 2 or 3-sensor alarm systems.” Gellel points out that one of the nicest things about Tuxedo is that it’s integrated with Vista as a single system, so sales routines don’t involve the confusion of 2 completely different systems. Instead Tuxedo simply expands Vista. “Installers can show Tuxedo as part of Vista – they are not showing 2 completely different products, one handling security, the other handling automation,” Gellel explains. “That means there are not 2 completely separate systems that installers have to sell separately with 2 different sales stories. “If a customer does not want Tuxedo they can have Vista installed and if they want Tuxedo later it can be added as an upgrade. And if the client decides to go with Tuxedo they might initially only want networked control of security and air conditioning along with 1 or 2 light circuits to start with. Then later on they might decide to put in additional automation.”

Driving the system

Now the boys start driving the system. In this application, which is set up at the Honeywell office in Parramatta, there’s a battery-powered Tuxedo we are using as a remote device which is communicating via Wi-Fi with a Tuxedo unit installed in the showroom of the office which is driving lights and air conditioning in the board room. While Gellel and Potter are talking I can’t help but start playing with the touch screen on the table in front of me. Physically, Tuxedo Touch comprises a large-ish touch screen with an 18cm diameter,

se&n 45

p ro d u ct rev i ew tuxedo touch

Tuxedo and smart mobile device interfaces

the screen is surrounded by a white or silver frame that’s another 3cm wide on average. The feel of the unit is relatively heavy in the hand but that’s in large part because the unit I’m holding has a battery pack attached. Everything about Tuxedo has a sense of quality about it. Tuxedo’s home screen is simple. It’s a deep blue at the top, lightening towards the bottom of the screen. In the centre there are 3 large touch keys arranged as 3 segments of a circle, each of these 3 segments being a touch key. On the left it’s security, on the right, automation, while the bottom key is multimedia. Underneath are 3 small keys on the left of the screen, tools, images and tutorials. At the bottom right there are 2 keys, surveillance and alerts. As you drill into the system functionality, the modular iconic layout of the management process remains the same. It’s super simple. Neat too, at the bottom left of the home screen is Tuxedo’s IP address in case you forget it. Importantly the Tuxedo interface for networked computers, tablets or smart phones, mirrors the

46 se&n

Tuxedo touch screen interface and there’s an iPad set up in the board room to show me the Tuxedo interface. It’s identical to the touch screen in appearance and function. Management and control are carried out via Wi-Fi or Ethernet allowing users to connect to the Tuxedo via the built-in web server that allows local control of the system using any WiFi enabled smart device. By now I’m playing with the touch screen, going through the process of arming, disarming, staying, calling up video and checking out automation. It’s very simple to find your way through the functions. The touch pad likes a press-and-hold technique – a definite press of the button is required for perhaps a quarter of a second to activate a touch button. The unit’s underlying management system is Linux-based and allows complete control of Vista security systems back to 2002, as well as Honeywell WiFi cameras and up to 232 compatible Z-Wave-enabled devices. There’s an extensive list of these devices and according to Gellel, most Z-Wave devices are compatible. Something I think is especially cool is the ability to manage energy costs with customized timebased, interlocking ‘scenes’ that can control Z-Waveenabled thermostats and lights based on system events or time and day. The system can hold up to 10 such scenes at a time. Operations are simple but there are inbuilt video tutorials that run users through the processes if installers or end users need help. You have a Tuxedo system at home, Keith do you find it capable and easy to manage and expand? I ask. “Yes, absolutely. I’m having plenty of fun with it,” says Potter, turning on a light in the board room and then dimming it. “We have a lot of things linked to the system at home including air conditioning and cameras. These allow us to check the front door when the doorbell rings using authorised mobile devices from anywhere in the house. “It doesn’t matter what device we integrate into the system, it can be managed using an iPhone

Importantly the Tuxedo interface for networked computers, tablets or smart phones, mirrors the Tuxedo touch screen interface and there’s an iPad set up in the board room to show me the Tuxedo interface. It’s identical to the touch screen in appearance and function.

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p ro d u ct rev i ew tuxedo touch

or iPad, or a Blackberry or an Android – the user interface is identical to the Tuxedo keypad. Using the management system we can also unlock doors remotely after confirming identity using cameras.” According to Potter, the management system inside Tuxedo currently supports 128 zones and this will expand to 250 zones with the release of a big new alarm and access control panel at the end of March. “Tuxedo works with all our Vista panels, including the big ones,” Potter says. “The system handles arming and disarming of multiple areas, various user codes and authority levels, event logs, the whole lot.”

Installing Tuxedo

So, from the point of view of installers, how hard is it to install and program Tuxedo? Not hard at all, according to Potter. “If you are doing a new installation you run your normal 4-core cabling for the keypad (between panel and keypad) plus your Cat 5 cable for the LAN,” he explains. “The keypad recognises all the programmed security zones from an existing Vista system or you can program new systems directly using Tuxedo. “When it comes to retrofit installation, techs can use the existing cabling in the home to install Tuxedo, which is powered by the panel and supported by the panel’s backup battery.” There can be apprehension over IP connectivity but in the case of Tuxedo, things are very straightforward. Set up of Tuxedo is via Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and the system operates in a client-server environment, no different to a router on a home network. “While doing the DHCP setup, installers create a local fixed IP address which is displayed on the front of the touch screen,” Potter explains. “You put that IP address into your smart phone or tablet via Safari or Internet Explorer and it takes you to the Tuxedo interface. “Next, you save that link as a short cut on your desktop or in favourites and you can monitor and manage the system, including arming and disarming the security system remotely. Once the system is setup, all security functions are available remotely. “Alternatively, if you decide not to use a fixed IP address you can use a DNS web server. That means to get remote access you just match your IP address to the IP address of the web page you apply for so you can have remote access at any time.” Handling automation is facilitated by that huge suite of compatible Z-Wave devices which lets installers get seriously creative about their solutions. When Z-Wave devices are connected to the system they appear in the menu as switches that can be identified by icons including switches and bulbs. “The Z-Wave range includes in-wall switches with

48 se&n

Tuxedo really is flexible, adaptable and very easy to install and manage... There’s a whole range of universal remotes available and it’s just a matter of selecting the universal remote to suit the brand.

the capacity to handle 10 Amp loads, and there are on/off and dimming modules,” says Potter. “There’s also an on/off switch that can be in-wall or plug – this makes it easy to get a few lamps running. “Meantime, we are in the process of developing lock solutions – currently we have the batteryoperated Schlage lock. Then there’s a range of current cameras – indoor and outdoor and a pan/tilt unit. And we are working on integrated recording. All in all it’s a totally scalable solution from an automation point of view, while from a basic security standpoint, it’s very simple to install and very easy to manage.” According to Potter, the system can be expanded to handle remote control operations like raising and lowering curtains or blinds through outputs. “To action the automation involves the integration of 1 extra Z-Wave module,” he says. “It’s very simple. And automation can be programmed as part of a suite so curtains can be lowered at the same time lights go on or air conditioning turns off.” Once Z-Wave devices are connected, installers can tweak their parameters to suit. “Remote control of lighting or automated control is ideal for holidays and saves the hassle of using timers,” Potter explains. “You can set up a scene that decrees when the system is armed then particular lights switch on at 7pm and then turn off at 10.30pm. “This means when the system is disarmed and the family is home the automated lights will not come on or turn off. But, if you’re out at a party or on holiday or late home from work and the system is still armed, then the lights will be activated.” And this applies to air conditioning, too. “In winter it can turn on air conditioning half an hour before you wake up and then turn it off after an hour or so,” Potter says. “That programmed scene is good for 3 months a year in winter and you can have another scene for summer, which activates the air conditioning half an hour before you arrive home at night and turns it off later in the evening when the temperature has dropped. Then, when the seasons change you can just enable the summer scene and disable the winter scene, you don’t have to reprogram Tuxedo – it’s very simple.” Gellel agrees. “Tuxedo really is flexible, adaptable and very easy to install and manage,” he says. “There’s a whole range of universal remotes available and it’s just a matter of selecting the universal remote to suit the brand. For instance, with air conditioning, you program that remote to your local reverse-cycle air conditioning controller and let it into Tuxedo via Z-Wave wireless. “And from Tuxedo to the lamp Keith turned on earlier the link is Z-Wave wireless. These are simple devices that any installer can plug in and manage via Tuxedo. Those Z-wave devices could be modules plugged into a power point, or hardwired modules installed in wall cavities, with each managing a light, a coffee machine, a TV.”

Honeywell Security Group’s GM, John Gellel

According to Gellel, on the alarm sensors side there are also neat things like wireless reeds and wireless asset protection sensors that you stick on the back of a boat, painting or motorcycle. These sensors incorporate an accelerometer and optical sensor technology. “The wireless asset protector is a great little device for domestic or commercial use,” Potter explains. “It’s very compact – it becomes a zone and attaches with double-sided tape. You can set the alarm on the basis of sensitivity, length of movement time and degree of tilt.” Tuxedo also allows installers to set up additional 3-action trigger events that can be set up based on parameters like time, an arming event, or if a thermostat reaches a threshold. These mean lights can activate at a certain time, air conditioning can activate at a certain temperature or time, and curtains can raise and lower at a certain time. All this programming during setup is modular and easy to do. It’s certainly good to see alarm panels evolving – there’s been a period of stagnation but the latest systems are beginning to integrate some of the best and most flexible features we see in the fast-moving consumer market. To my mind Tuxedo represents the perfect expression of the latest generation of security high tech. It’s a solution that offers remote access, remote management, automation that’s scalable and affordable, and it integrates surveillance. Fundamentally, Tuxedo brings any functionality you like into a security and automation system and then it allows you to access that functionality from anywhere on Earth. It’s hard not to love that. zzz

se&n 49

n ew t e ch n o lo gy

visual systems

Bug-eyed sprites Scientists from the University of Lincoln and Newcastle University have created a computerised system which allows for autonomous navigation of mobile robots based on the locust’s unique visual system.

OCUST visual systems could provide the blueprint for the development of highly accurate surveillance technology, according to research. Locusts have a distinctive way of processing information through electrical and chemical signals, giving them an extremely fast and accurate warning system for impending collisions. The insect has incredibly powerful data processing systems built into its biology, which can in theory be recreated in robotics. Inspired by the visual processing power built into these insects’ biology, Professor Shigang Yue from the University of Lincoln’s School of Computer Science and Dr Claire Rind from Newcastle University’s Institute of Neuroscience created a computerised visual system. The research started by understanding the anatomy, responses and development of the circuits in the locust brain that allow it to detect approaching objects and avoid them when in flight or on the ground. A visually stimulated motor control (VSMC) system was then created which consists of 2 movement detector types and a simple motor command generator. Each detector processes images and extracts relevant visual clues which are then converted into motor commands. “We were inspired by the way the locusts’ visual system works when interacting with the outside world and the potential to simulate such complex systems in software and hardware for various applications,” Prof Yue said. “We created a system inspired by the locusts’ motion sensitive interneuron – the lobula giant movement detector. This system was then used in a robot to enable it to explore paths or interact with objects, effectively using visual input only.” Funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), the research was carried out as part of a collaborative project with the University of Hamburg in Germany and Tsinghua University and Xi’an Jiaotong University, China.

50 se&n

The primary objective of the project, which started in 2011 and runs for 4 years, is to build international capacity and cooperation in the field of biologically-nspired visual neural systems. “Effective computer vision is a major research challenge,” explains Professor Yue. “Vision plays a critical role in the interaction of most animal species, and even relatively low order animals have remarkable visual processing capabilities. “For example, insects can respond to approaching predators with remarkable speed. This research demonstrates that modelling biologically plausible artificial visual neural systems can provide new solutions for computer vision in dynamic environments.” According to Dr Claire Rind, who has been working on the locust’s visual system for several years developing robot neural network programmes, based on the locust brain, has allowed researchers to create a programme allowing a mobile robot to detect approaching objects and avoid them. “It’s not the conventional approach as it avoids using radar or infrared detectors which require very heavy-duty computer processing. Instead it is modelled on the locust’s eyes and neurones. zzz

This research demonstrates that modelling biologically plausible artificial visual neural systems can provide new solutions for computer vision in dynamic environments.

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6 p ro d u ct rev i ew sony generation 6

No blur finger movement

Sony Generation

The folks at Sony are convinced their new Generation 6 IP camera range, with its combination of the Ipela Engine Ex and the Exmor CMOS sensor is now the benchmark camera in the video surveillance market, offering Full HD and 60 frames per second in low light and extreme backlight. 52 se&n

EFORE we conduct test drives in SE&N it’s usual practise to run through the specifications of the device but that’s a little difficult here because we’re looking at Sony’s whole new Generation 6, which includes 9 cameras with differences in frame rate and resolution. Given this, we’re going to focus mostly on Sony’s flagship camera, the 60fps 1080p VB630, while also discussing the 60fps 720p VB600 and referencing the other cameras in the range. The specs of the flagship VB630 camera and the 60fps 720p VB600 really do warrant some attention so before we get into the fun part, let’s get a handle on these cameras and find out what makes them go. For a start, the VB630 is Full HD day/night camera giving a maximum resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels from its 1/3-inch progressive scan 2.1MP Exmor CMOS sensor. Then there’s that high frame rate of 60 frames per second. Dynamic range equivalent to 90dB is achieved with ViewDR technology in the 1080p VB630, while this reaches 130dB in the 1280 x 720p VB600. When it comes to compression you get H.264 (High/Main/Baseline Profile)/JPEG video codecs and AAC (16 kHz/48 kHz)/G.726/G.711 audio codecs. Scene analytics include face detection, intelligent motion detection, rule-based filter (DEPA Advanced). There’s also exposure control, exposure compensation, auto white balance, AGC, shutter speed, iris control and there’s image stabilisation and visibility enhancer. Minimum scene illumination at 50 IRE in colour (that’s at about half normal contrast) is claimed to be 0.1 lux at (F1.2). Other general optical specifications include a horizontal viewing angle of 114.2 to 40 degrees and a vertical viewing angle of 60.6 degrees to 22.5 degrees. The unit has a C-mount lens, an analogue CCTV output giving 700TVL, Wide-D through

by john adam s

Ignoring backlight

View-DR, optical zoom of 2.9x and a digital zoom 2x. There’s power focus, a signal-to-noise-ratio of 50dB, an SD card slot, PoE, 12V/DC and 24/AC power options, support for 20 clients, ONVIF compliance, a microphone input, an audio line jack, and audio line input, and multiple network protocol support. There’s also Sony toolbox, a network sniffer you can use it to find Sony cameras singly or in batches, and to change macros across groups of cameras so as to save installation time. There’s also a smart phone viewer with pinch zoom. It’s not an app, either. Instead when a smart phone talks to a camera, the camera reformats its viewing page to suit a mobile device. To access this functionality you just browse for the camera’s IP address. As mentioned earlier, there are 3 different body types – a fixed box camera, a mini-dome and a vandal mini-dome. There’s full HD at 60 frames per second in box, mini dome and vandal, 720p HD at 60 frames per second in box, mini and vandal and 720p HD at 30 frames per second in box, mini and vandal. Taking into account all these variations, that’s a total of 9 cameras. According to Sony’s product manager security solutions, Mark Franklin, these Generation 6 cameras are the first 60 frame cameras at both 1080 and 720p. “They really are groundbreaking,” Franklin says. “There’s 3 dimensional noise reduction to improve low light performance and the end result is that we can maintain colour, saturation and image clarity right down to half a lux at 60 frames in full HD. “Backlight is another strong suit. The 1080p VB630 has 90dB and the 720p VB630 has 130dB of dynamic range. This is the second generation of Exmor chips and the sensitivity is actually double the CH current range. “Something else to bear in mind is that while other manufacturers talk about low light performance,

Colour and full HD at .05 lux

They really are groundbreaking. There’s 3 dimensional noise reduction to improve low light performance and the end result is that we can maintain colour, saturation and image clarity right down to half a lux at 60 frames in full HD. you’ll find they are talking about performance at D1 – that’s 720 x 576 pixels. But we are doing 720p and 1080p in colour in 0.5 lux at 60 frames per second. No one can compete with that. “With the change of codec we now offer 3 ranges of main profile H.264 compression which allows more flexibility in terms of efficiency of encoding and all the cameras come with SD-based head end recording which interfaces with all the major software solutions.”

Sony’s Ipela Engine Ex

Something that’s important to bear in mind here is that Generation 6 has key processors working to enhance images. First, there’s the 1/3-inch Exmor CMOS sensor chip. Second there’s Sony’s Ipela Engine Ex, which is really a collection of processing modules rather than a single processor, with each module responsible for a key area of performance. What the engineers have done is to standardise all the processing after the Exmor image sensor into a single Ipela engine that is consistent across the entire Generation 6 range, regardless of frame

se&n 53

p ro d u ct rev i ew sony generation 6

high shutter, mid shutter and low shutter speeds. “We are maintaining that capability in the Generation 6 range of cameras but we are also able to deliver 60 frames per second because the processing is now faster still. At the same time we are not compromising the wide dynamic range and the low light performance is exceptional. “For a while now we have offered video analytics at the head end and we have now expanded the range of metadata to include unattended objects.”

rate and resolution. Simply, Ipela Engine Ex is an integrated signal processing system that combines Sony’s various signal processing and analytics technologies. Once signals pass through the image sensor they come to the first module in the Ipela Engine Ex, the XDNR noise reduction processor which works to create clear images in low light conditions without the white noise that plagues other cameras. XDNR achieves this by detecting and removing noise on a frame by frame basis, as well as by reducing differential signal noise in consecutive frames. Next processor in line is View-DR which works to enhance light and dark areas of a scene, while expressing them in higher resolution. Ipela Engine Ex does this by tuning the contrast and correcting tone for light and dark areas through a combination of images taken at varying shutter speeds within a single frame. This process allows Sony to offer a variation of Generation 6 with full HD and wide dynamic range. The next module in Ipela Engine Ex is Sony’s Colour Adjustment and once the signal gets past colour reproduction it comes to high frame rate Encoding and Packetizing modules which combine to deliver 60 frames per second performance. Encoding and Packetising is delivered with simultaneous DEPA Advanced Video analytics which handles detection of moving objects, human faces and masking objects enhanced through image processing alarm detection functions. “With the 5th generation cameras something we were able to do was run it natively much faster than 30 frames per second and this meant that we had time to do additional processing,” Franklin explains. “We could take multiple exposures using

Test driving the Gen 6

Factory backlight test. VB600 is in the centre

I get a look at the latest Sony Generation 6 cameras at Sony’s HQ in North Ryde. We do the viewing in the belly of the beast, a room without windows, so as far as low light performance is concerned our ‘test bed’ is perfect. The demo room is compact, probably 4 x 5m. For the record, bit rate on all cameras is set at a constant 4M/bits per second. For backlight we’re looking at recordings on monitors, as well as face recognition and clothing colour in front of a light screen in the demo room. This is a good field test, showing actual camera performance. Franklin has his light meter at the ready and takes periodic measurements to objectify performance claims. “It’s hard in this room to show the benefits of 60 frames per second but I have recordings that I’ll show you that give a good idea of the improved performance we’re getting,” Franklin explains. On screen he pulls up images of a Sony box camera running at 60 frames and a Sony box camera running at 30 frames. The 2 cameras are driven by the same Ipela Engine processing, the difference is frame rate only. Franklin says that any fast moving object is best viewed at a higher frame rate – a truck, a train, a casino table, a fast moving crowd. To prove the point he plays a video of the train moving along the track. Clearly, even with a shutter speed of 150 frames per second, a camera operating at 30 frames per second is still missing large amounts of high speed information. When Franklin freezes the image stream as you would in a screen grab there’s no high quality detail in the scene. The writing on the sides of the carriages is illegible. Now we view the same scene at 60 frames per second and it’s totally different. We can see the text on the carriages of the moving train in real time and when Franklin freezes the images, bingo, the lettering is crystal clear. This is the main benefit of

Importantly, we are maintaining 1080p and 720p resolutions in low light at full 60fps frame rate. And if someone ran through our darkened scene, stopped and turned, their face would be clearly visible. 54 se&n

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p ro d u ct rev i ew sony generation 6

Low light performance

60fps over 30fps. High speed images mean more data will be captured, whereas in 30 fps this data may be missed. As a result, playback footage can be stepped through frame by frame without missing any action. You can definitely see that fine detail, I say. It’s certainly an impressive display. I think anyone wanting detail of rapidly changing scenes would be well advised to take a look at Sony’s Gen 6 cameras for this reason alone. “For maintaining clarity of number plates and moving traffic, there’s nothing like 60fps for getting frame-by-frame grabs and every time getting a perfectly clear still image,” Franklin explains. “That’s H.264 running at a constant bit rate of 4M/ bit per second, by the way. “Sony Gen 6 cameras now include Variable Bit Rate along with Constant Bit rate as standard in these models.” As Franklin runs through the rest of the presentation, which includes variable light levels, he periodically waves his hands with fingers spread in front in the camera view and looking at the monitors the difference between 30 and 60 frames per second is very clear indeed. All other things being equal, you’d choose 60 frames a second if you needed clear images of moving objects with no metadata missing. The difference in clarity is profound.

56 se&n

Franklin with the new SNC VB630

Next Franklin demonstrates the Sony Gen 6’s low light performance. I’m keen to see how the camera looks on the monitor. My personal opinion is that the Sony CH140 was better with backlight than it was with low light so a big jump forward in low light performance is going to be a significant development. As if reading my mind, Franklin’s first comparison is of a large intersection at night, with the usual glare of headlights, streetlights beading away into the distance, traffic lights and city lights. The 2 cameras viewing the scene are the Gen 5 CH140 and the Gen 6 720p HD VB600. We look at the scene. The difference is significant. The images show the Gen 6 low light performance is vastly improved over the Gen 5 camera. The VB600 is getting plenty of colour, there’s no loss of resolution and the scene is being recorded at 60 frames per second in HD. “In terms of low light performance, the Gen 6 camera is at the same level of the best monochrome ExWave CCD cameras Sony used to make without having to take the IR cut filter away and you really want that colour for identification of colours of clothing and vehicles,” Franklin says. “And we are doing this in HD.” Now Franklin starts pulling up cameras in the room so we can see the low light performance in real time. The camera group we are viewing includes the VB630 1080p running at 60 frames, the VB600 720p running at 60 frames and a Sony Gen 5 CH camera deliberately locked into colour because the Gen 6 cameras switch to monochrome at much lower lux levels than the 5s.

We’re pretty excited by the performance of the Generation 6 family. The performance is brilliant. We certainly think that Generation 6 with the Exmor sensor and the Ipela Engine Ex is the benchmark IP surveillance camera on the market today. Mark turns the lights out. The room is now lit by only an exit sign and a small amount of spill from mostly-covered monitors and the winking LEDs of switches. Most cameras would have gone to black and white in these conditions but the Gen 6 cameras have stayed in colour. Even without competitor cameras in the mix it’s clear that the colour rendition, clarity, contrast and depth of field is excellent. Mark pulls out his light meter – it’s .5 of a lux in the middle of room. The colours are very true, I say. It’s doing really well, that’s cracking performance at these light levels. Both the VB630 and the VB600 are performing extremely well at this level, clearly seeing shadows at .5 lux. My impression is that the 720p camera is doing a bit better in low light than the 1080p. Even the locked colour performance of the CH140 is surprising me. It’s nowhere near as good as the Gen 6 but it’s better than most the competition. “Importantly, we are maintaining 1080p and 720p resolutions in low light at full 60fps frame rate,” Franklin points out. “And if someone ran through our darkened scene, stopped and turned, their face would be clearly visible. That’s because at 30fps information is being missed, but not at 60fps.” Next Franklin tries to force the Gen 6 cameras into black and white but the cameras want to stay in colour. He reduces the amount of light in the room further still. Now we’re looking at 1080p in black and white and as Franklin points out, it’s not easy to notice a marked improvement – the colour works that well that when the cut filter goes across you’re not really seeing an appreciable difference. I expected to see an improvement in contrast and depth of field with monochrome but performance was consistently high in colour and in black and white.

Backlight performance

All the while we’re running through the frame rate and low light tests, Franklin undertakes a series

of flying WDR tests. He turns on a large door-sized light screen and keeps darting over from the demo workstation to stand in front of it. The Gen 6 handles this abuse without fuss and what’s interesting to me is that it does so at a full spectrum of light levels. The WDR is as effective in the darkened room as it is when the room is light. At all times Franklin is visible and identifiable. I’d have liked to see the performance at greater distances but at close quarters the Gen 6 ignores backlight and it’s certain the long range performance is better than the current camera range. I’ve seen the Sony Generation 5 CH140 tested against backlight in extreme conditions looking through a window facing the sun and gazing out over a scene of perhaps 300m. In that test the CH140 was far and away the best against backlight. Another WDR test we view was conducted at the Sony factory. Here there are a number of cameras set up in a controlled environment facing a test scene that incorporates an extremely bright panel. The competitor cameras are very good quality and include the camera currently considered by many to be the best WDR unit on the market. All the cameras in the test handle the backlight. The best of these better than the others - but the Sony Gen 6 is noticeably superior. Part of the test incorporates the zoom and focus capability in these conditions and it’s here that I get a real sense of what Franklin is talking about with the Generation 6 holding its resolution in all conditions. Same as in our demo room test, the resolution stays at full HD and the primary difference I can see subjectively is greater clarity. “We’re pretty excited by the performance of the Generation 6 family,” says Franklin. “The performance is brilliant. We certainly think that Generation 6 with the Exmor sensor and the Ipela Engine Ex is the benchmark IP surveillance camera on the market today.” From the viewpoint of a reviewer, it’s clear this Sony Generation 6 is a more than usually capable camera. It’s a Sony and it does the all main things very well while displaying an excellent balance of performance. What I mean by this is that it’s not robbing Peter to pay Paul – trading backlight performance for low light performance. It’s better than it used to be against backlight and it was very good before. In low light conditions it’s much better than it was in large open spaces like the big intersection we saw earlier, as well as in the compact demo room at .5 lux. It may not occur to readers but doing good colour at 1080p and 720p in .5 of a lux is a seriously big deal. Then there’s frame rate. My subjective impression of 60fps, and this is the first time I’ve ever seen it, is that in the future every camera is going to have it. For high levels of detail in fast moving scenes I’ve not seen anything to compare with it. zzz

se&n 57

58 se&n

alarm m oni tori ng / segm ent

Proudly brought to you by

BY JOHN ADAMS Your Monitoring Specialists

1300 130 515

www.bensecurity.com.au

Integrating intelligence Just lately as I’ve sat down to write the monitoring segment I’m repeatedly struck by the changes and opportunities that are climbing over the horizon. To my mind they all revolve around integrating intelligence into alarm systems.

P has found the alarms industry at long last and rather than being a dreadful bogeyman heralding the beginning of the end, it actually ushers in a 5-year opportunity for installers to upgrade hundreds of thousands of existing alarm panels and to grow their businesses exponentially as the IP transition turbo-charges sales. I have much love and respect for the original key-drive Solution panels, the ground-breaking Ness 5000s and all the rest of those pioneers of the 1980s and 1990s. They were great systems, reliable and for their time, very capable. But there’s no longer any real excuse for continuing to sell customers what amounts to all-analogue intrusion detection technology. The next generation of systems can and must offer significantly more. What typical IT-literate users want (and surely that’s most of us these days) is the ability to see their system status,

drive some automation and view video surveillance cameras from their smart devices, at the same time as having 24x7 monitoring of alarm events managed by a professional monitoring station. Importantly, the technologies to achieve all these things exists right now. It’s just a matter of bringing them together into a single solution. As regular readers would know, I’ve been talking about AT&T’s Digital Life solution for a while now. And I’m doing this because when one of the world’s largest telcos starts selling networked security and home automation solutions, it’s important to pay serious attention. If AT&T was the only company heading down this path I think it might be fair to suggest I was just banging away. But last month, there was this. An announcement that Canadian telco giants Bell Aliant and Rogers Communications are going to be offering professionally-installed security/ home automation solutions driven by OpenHome management software from respected U.S. tech house, iControl. According to Paul Dawes, executive VP and general manager for iControl’s Security & Telecommunications Division, Bell Aliant is using the Connect solution from iControl which is based on Z-Wave and Wi-Fi technology. Meanwhile Rogers Communciations will be using the Converge division software which is focused on the cable operators - that’s a ZigBee-based solution. “iControl is super-excited about

If some other company talked this way you might think it mere bravura but Mobotix has 160 dedicated installation channels in Australia that know and love its products. se&n 59

alarm m oni tori ng / segm ent

Proudly brought to you by

Your Monitoring Specialists

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partnering with Bell Aliant in the home security/home automation market,” says Dawes. “I think it’s going to be very successful. They’re looking forward to a very aggressive launch and a lot of success.” There’s no word on Asia Pacific but Dawes said that in addition to Canada, other international home security/home automation markets that iControl is now targeting through alliances with major telcos include Europe and South America. Not surprisingly, these Bell Aliant and Rogers Communications aren’t just offering simple NO/NC based security systems driving through basic tactile keypads of the type we’ve been using for 20 years. Both are rolling out real-time video monitoring options, control of door locks, thermostats and lighting through smart devices and internet-connected computers. And before you scoff about ‘self monitoring’, get this. Both these telcos are also offering simultaneous 24/7 UL-certified monitoring. According to a Bell Aliant spokeswoman Katherine VanBuskirk NextGen Home Security is Bell Aliant’s first venture into home security, monitoring and control. Bell Aliant said it will be rolling out its offering in all major city centres. VanBuskirk said Bell Aliant has considered offering home security in the past, “but the emergence of new technologies and next-generation service offerings makes this the right time and a great fit for Bell Aliant.” Importantly, it’s not just telcos paying attention to the home automation and intrusion alarm space. IP Video pioneer Mobotix has recently announced an alliance with Ingram Micro subsidiary AVAD to supply the security and home automation markets in the U.S. with the complete Mobotix line. And that’s not all. The Germans have intrusion, smoke detection and access control firmly in mind. It’s not going to be just IP video for Mobotix. At the Mobotix conference in Sydney last month, company CSO, Magnus Ekerot, spoke about the integration of alarm sensors and access control functionality into the Mobotix solution, with the system to be managed by its new iOS mobile software. If some other company talked this way you might think it mere bravura but Mobotix has 160 dedicated installation 60 se&n

I don’t think there’s any doubt that we stand on the cusp of significant change in the alarms market and that change will bring major opportunity at multiple levels. channels in Australia that know and love its products. Given half a chance to take IPbased alarms and access control systems onto networks in retail, small commercial and quality domestic applications, they’ll do it and do it well. And that’s just the beginning. Our own alarm manufacturers are not sitting idle. Honeywell’s Tuxedo Touch is a case in point. One of the nice things about Tuxedo Touch is that it frees up automation and CCTV, while leveraging existing Vista alarm panels and making it all manageable locally over Wi-Fi, or anywhere in the world via management app. Depending on the ingenuity of installers, Tuxedo can operate as an alarm panel keypad, a home automation controller, a surveillance monitor, a video player and a photo frame, as well as an

audio message board. The system offers 4 IP-based video surveillance cameras and up to 232 Z-Wave-enabled thermostats, lights, air conditioners, electric locks and automated window shades. And Risco has now released its Agility 3 solution, which features wireless video verification and a smartphone application with support from Risco cloud services that allows users to control their alarm system remotely. You get visual verification of events with a Smartphone app, in addition to providing advanced wireless security and safety features. I don’t think there’s any doubt that we stand on the cusp of significant change in the alarms market and that change will bring major opportunity at multiple levels. We have seen over the past decade that analogue-to-digital transitions offer enterprising manufacturers and installers serious opportunities for growth. There are also risks. CCTV manufacturers that failed to react to the changing IP Video market found themselves isolated from the new business model and watched helpless as new players grew at 20-30 per cent, year on year on year. It’s a mistake to think that the power of new IP-based alarm and automation systems won’t leech into the alarm monitoring market. I think it’s inevitable we’ll see a level of self control and self management from new systems but this will not constitute self monitoring of alarm events. The ability to view the kids arriving home from school, grant access to tradespeople, turn on air conditioning and lights, and turn on an alarm system left unarmed are all excellent examples of user management that security monitoring stations are not in the position to handle for reasons of privacy, among other things. Now is the time for the monitoring industry and for industry associations to sit down and seriously think about the ramifications of the changes that will come. To consider the impact on insurance, licensing and certification levels. And to plan for accommodation. Ignoring the future is a mistake, especially when that future is a golden opportunity. zzz

That’s the number of premises where construction had commenced or completed for the National Broadband Network (NBN) in January 2013.*

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Inteliswitch is Patent Pending. iPhone and iPad are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Android is a trademark of Google Inc. * Statistic taken from NBN Co Website http://www.nbnco.com.au/news-and-events/news/achieved-year-end-target.html

t h e i n t e rv i ew

Mag nu s Ek e r ot w ith John Adams

The futurist In the Interview this month, John Adams speaks with Mobotix CSO Magnus Ekerot about the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s direction and plans for the future, as well finding success in the current challenging market.

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Q: What’s been the standout trend in the surveillance market over the past 12 months – in any area - what do you see as the key to the next 12-18 months? A: What I see is a lot of vendors releasing hemispheric products – we released the first - and we see that as a sign people are recognising the advantages of hemispheric cameras. Then there’s decentralised solutions. Vendors are now releasing products that are decentralised – not as intelligent as the Mobotix system - but they are heading in that direction. One of the reasons is that it’s very difficult to make good money from your solution because you are so squeezed on margins, they try to make solutions that they own. The third thing I think is the whole discussion about MP – resolution – is there a race? Is the market going to go on and develop 7, 10, 15, 20MP cameras? We’ve seen that people have thought that more pixels means better images and a better solution but it’s not the case, it’s about balance. The other interesting thing is how to incorporate other components into a solution – not just cameras but access control, smoke sensors, intrusion sensors – combining them into one system. These are the things that have interested me over the past 12 months and I think they’ll continue to be of interest over the next 12-24 months. Q: H.265 – do you think that will have any immediate impact on the market or not for a couple more years. A: Yes, H.265 is interesting and we are monitoring that closely. From what I’ve seen so far, I think H.265 is a better code than H.264 – it saves you a lot of bandwidth. It’s going to be very interesting to see which of the hardware and software manufacturers actually pursue. Important to consider, H.265 is not recognised by ONVIF – the common denominator for ONVIF – a code that will work for hardware and software manufacturers – is H.264. There are many different versions of H.264 or course and hardware and software

The P3 platform is now in the Q24, it’s going to be in the M15 and all products we release from now on. It’s also optimised for the next generation processors. We are looking forward up to 3 years in advance so as to see what we will need for the future – where is the industry going to move and what sort of processors will be used in the future.

must be compatible. H.265 is interesting but it’s in its infancy. It sounds more interesting than H.264. Again there is a misconception that more megapixels translates to a better image. We are standardising our cameras to 5MP but the end user will not see a difference in the quality between the 3MP and the 5MP because what’s happening is that the software in the camera is utilising so much of that MP functionality. What you have instead is light sensitivity because you use more pixels to give up to 3x better performance at night. Also your pixel layout will be different, giving a different view of the image. More pixels does not give better quality image – it’s more complicated than that. Q: P3 – the S14 is out now – what other cameras can we expect to see with the new chipset in the next 12 months? A: The P3 platform is now in the Q24, it’s going to be in the M15 and all products we release from now on. It’s also optimised for the next generation processors. We are looking forward up to 3 years in advance so as to see what we will need for the future – where is the industry going to move and what sort of processors will be used in the future. The P3 platform enables us to be platform independent for the next 5-10 years, which is a long time. It took some time for us to develop P3 but now we will save a lot of time upgrading. Q: Will all Mobotix cameras be shipped with video analytics – people counting – heat mapping? Having seen these capabilities in action, I think they are certainly very useful – especially for retailers. A: All the cameras will be ready to download the free video analytics but not every application needs that capability. We started with the Q24 because it’s easy to deal with one lens but we are now working on the M15 and it will be all cameras on the P3 platform.

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t h e i n t e rv i ew

Mag nu s Ek e r ot w ith John Adams

Q: Now that P3 is being shipped, what are the Mobotix R&D people working on – what’s the next generation? A: Our R&D team is looking 3 years down the track and trying to figure what the market will be doing. But there are bug fixes and features needed for particular applications so you have a long term road map, a medium term and a short term. Q: Mobotix MXControlCenter. What’s the latest on the software side? I recently sat down in front of this software and thought it was a very complete management system. Are there plans for new developments here or will there be ongoing enhancements as there have been up till now? A: MXControlCenter – we are running towards a saturation point of what we can do with it so that’s why we are talking about a mobile application – not a simple app – but a powerful mobile application, a powerful piece of software. This is software we are currently developing for the iPhone and the iPad. It’s one of 3 products that I believe will be the next generation of video management software. It’s a piece of software that will allow users to steer their cameras, retrieve recordings – it’s a free standing piece of software. While we will continue with MXControlCenter I believe in 3 years time everyone will use this new piece of software. We will also be developing installation software and there will be other things. We are also thinking about integrating with access control so authorised users can gain access for homes and for corporate applications. What I think we will be doing is incorporating other products and I think it likely that in the future Mobotix will also provide sensors and smoke detection, that could be connected into this software suite. They will all revolve around the Mobotix hub – we will truly be the company that is doing what a lot of people have been speaking about for years. The vision was that in the future everything will communicate over the network – this is what we will do. Q: The global economy. We’re in our 5th year of dampened building, weak credit and low confidence. I see signs of an improved mood,

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We believe standardisation is important but we don’t believe in ONVIF, we believe it’s the end users not the manufacturers and vendors who should be dictating what the market is to have.

in Australia at least. What’s the sense in Europe? And from a global perspective how do you feel about the potential for growth in the immediate future. Do we still have a way to go to recovery – given ongoing global government debt overhangs? A: I tell you what, I’m very happy with what Graham (Wheeler) and his team have done here in Australia. We have a very loyal channel. We and a lot of other manufacturers are hurting in some parts of Europe – Italy and Spain, where 50 per cent of people under 28 are unemployed. Then there’s Portugal, Greece, the UK is not doing well. The Euro is under fire, too. We also operate in an economy that is bolstered by

rates of change from analogue to digital. But in a tough economy if a business has a working analogue system they are going to keep using it. A lot of projects come from governments and governments are not spending. It’s personal opinion but I think the economic performance of a country comes back to the willingness of its citizens to pay tax. Countries with more robust tax systems are doing better from a macroeconomic perspective. You can do business in economies that are struggling but you have to be prepared to carry lengthy credit terms – 280 days. Q: We’ve seen perhaps 10 years of unprecedented growth for IP surveillance companies – even through

the GFC. Is that extraordinary growth sustainable, will we see a return to more typical growth levels or do you see big opportunities in lateral markets that have really not been opened up yet? A: IMS Research predicted in 2011 the IP video market would have a constant annual growth of 27 per cent but no company shows this sort of growth. I don’t believe people see above 20 per cent growth in the overall world market but it will still be healthy – we are cautious and we think 5 per cent growth – and that’s a maintained ebit margin. Q: Mobotix was a pioneer and invented a market. Is that sort of quantum differentiation still the key to success now the market is more mature? Given the tendency to simplify and standardise product in the face of lower margins, is it harder to reinvent a business model, to reinvent product, and to surprise the market with something completely new? A: To bring out product no one has ever seen before in the video market now would be difficult but not impossible. I have ideas we are working on that I think are a good twist but will it be the product that solves everything and is able to make a good cup of coffee at the same time? I would never say never, but it would be very difficult. We believe standardisation is important but we don’t believe in ONVIF, we believe it’s the end users not the manufacturers and vendors who should be dictating what the market is to have. We see there is an acceptance of our solutions. I believe we will see more standardisation moving forward but perhaps not from a product point of view. Perhaps energy consumption, or standards relating to resolution, perhaps, rather than insisting a camera be H.264. That’s too shallow. We could make all our products H.264 but it would not be to the benefit of the users – they will not have better images. Q:Cloud – will you be moving towards the cloud and do you see alliances with cloud providers in the near future? A: We are looking into that and we are developing things for the

cloud. When you think about it, our technology actually lends itself to the cloud perfectly. We are one vendor, we have software and hardware, we have a decentralised solution that can operate in a cloud environment. We are not sending video streams across the local network to software applications. That’s important. Cloud is a buzzword but there’s very little definition of what constitutes a cloud-based system, how it should work. We are looking into that. Q: There’s a proprietary element to providers of cloud, too. You have Amazon and Google, and Apple is now paying attention. There’s Microsoft. And they have different hardware platforms. There’s also talk of performance throttling of competitors’ hardware by some cloud providers. It’s no longer an open system. A: What you say is true. There are also ISPs to consider. And we have to think about what we can provide as a vendor. This is a complicated area and we are looking into it. Q: I have to ask about the recent distribution arrangement with Ingram Micro in the US. This seems a great way to reach the sprawling IT market and a very clever way to maintain central control of price. Is it likely Mobotix will reach the IT market in the same way in other countries – in Australia? A: You’re right in your question and you’re wrong in your question. We have not given Ingram Micro the distribution rights over the whole of the Ingram Micro business. In fact, Ingram Micro has a physical security division and we have a contract with this division. As a separate entity to Ingram Micro we can steer pricing and steer training. Ingram

Micro’s physical security division is not a box mover that will simply ship lots of units out the door. There is value being added. I am very surprised by the knowledge and expertise they have in the company. They are headquartered in Buffalo in New York State and recently bought one of the largest building automation companies in the U.S. called Avad. in order to broaden their perspective on the market. So no, we are not just appointing Ingram Micro all over the world. Nothing like that. It’s a local decision that affects the U.S. only. The Ingram Micro team is very keen on being trained, they have their own training facilities, and they are a real security business. Here in Australia it’s up to Graham (Wheeler) to make decisions about the sort of distribution needed for the market here. Q: When I read about the deal a few weeks ago what I liked most about it was that there’s control over price – it’s not going to be a dog fight between 10 big distributors that drives price down. It’s centralised, stable and manageable in what’s a very competitive market. A: I’m glad you said that because price competition was something we were really trying to avoid. Ingram Micro does have great logistics capability but they also have a physical security capability and they see this as an opportunity to bring in a suite of physical security products that is stable in price and margin. We certainly don’t want to dilute our business. But we do want access to a nation-wide distributor in the U.S. so as to have a single point of control on price. And because we can control price, we can give them a far better margin than any other manufacturer and they love us for that. zzz

Our R&D team is looking 3 years down the track and trying to figure what the market will be doing. But there are bug fixes and features needed for particular applications so you have a long term road map, a medium term and a short term.

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Choosing HD cameras: part one If you’re thinking HD cameras are all the same, you’re wrong. Even within a single manufacturer’s product line-up there are fundamental variations in resolution, to say nothing of variations in compression and image processing.

T would be nice to think that HD cameras were all identical – that they conformed to a cast iron specification and we could depend on their performance to be true in all applications. But that’s simply not the case. There’s plenty to think about when it comes to choosing the best HD cameras and in this issue we spoke to a number of different manufacturers and commentators about the sorts of things integrators, installers and end users should be looking for in their HD camera solutions. First cab off the rank is Vlado Damjanovski of C.R. Kennedy and ViDi Labs. Damjanovski’s credentials go pretty much without saying and he has no doubt the area of importance when it comes to HD camera selection – it’s image quality. “Image quality is the key and this depends first and foremost on the sensor used,” Damjanovski says. “I refer here to resolution, dynamic range, noise and speed of read-out. There are only a handful of HD sensor manufacturers in the world, and as such there wouldn’t be a big difference when the raw image coming from an HD image sensor is concerned. “Instead the big difference may come from the intelligent processing of the raw video and its interface to the external world. And, if the signal is compressed, how good the compression is, what level of compression is used and what default settings are used. “Another very important feature is how many concurrent encoders can be used (if more than

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one) for the purposes of dual or triple streaming, one for recording, display and another perhaps for remote streaming with lower bandwidth. Also, for larger projects how multicasting is handled might be the next most important thing. “Of course, the standard installer demands are still relevant,” Damjanovski says. “These include ease of installation (preview), PoE, mounting, etc. This depends on the camera manufacturer, not the sensor manufacturer. Additional factors of course are the lens quality. We all know that if a lens is of an inferior quality (compared to the sensor resolution), it is impossible to make the HD video any better.” Given the multiplicity of qualities we’ve touched on here, what specific features should installers look for when choosing a quality HD camera? “In CCTV, most often it is the low light performance that might be decisive for a lot of projects,” explains

Damjanovski. “But, as many would appreciate, the pixel size in most HD sensors is even smaller than the analog resolution sensor, so it will be a tough ask to get an HD camera to outperform a good SD analog in low light. “So my advice to installers is to be aware of where the HD camera needs to be installed first. HD cameras will produce better pictures, there is no doubt, but if low light performance is the most important requirement, installers should consider additional illumination (normal or IR) to produce better signal of HD at low light. “Next thing to consider is having power-overEthernet (PoE) to simplify cabling, but also the HD camera sensor capability. Some manufacturers, like Dallmeier, offers cameras with multi-formats (SD, 720, 1080, 3 MP, 4MP or 5 MP) switchable through the software. “Certainly, the most important of all might be the image quality, so before you decide to invest in HD cameras, get a sample footage and check the video quality for yourself. Even better, get various cameras and test them on your site at the light levels typical for that site.” 720p or 1080p, which is best? Does improved compression mean there’s no longer a need for 720p? “Theoretically, more resolution is always better, but, some will argue that a 720p sensor may have larger pixels, hence better low light performance, and it makes a smaller stream, as it has half the amount of pixels (1280 x 720) compared to the 1080p (1920 x 1080),” Damjanovksi says. “But be aware that some cameras, like the Dallmeier DF4910 range, offer a choice of resolution in the same camera, because the sensor they use in this camera is a 5MP sensor and it allows you to choose whatever suits the application. “Even better, such a camera uses pixel-binning when in 720p mode to produce better low light performance, so it all depends on the camera design. The most obvious benefit of such multi-format sensor cameras is the angle of view switching without changing the lens - when a sensor mode is changed, the angle of view changes.” There are lingering questions over the weaknesses of HD cameras – for instance, how are they in low light compared to the best analogue

Top: HD Bottom: VGA

cameras? How are they in very strong backlight? What about white noise in low light scenes impacting on storage volumes? “The low light performance is very much dependant on the sensor type and pixel size,” Damjanovski says. “A typical HD sensor pixel size would be around 2 microns (4 square microns), and on some sensors even smaller. As a comparison, analog sensor typical pixel size is 6 microns (36 square microns). “In surface area this is 9 times bigger in the SD cameras compared to the HD. This is the most important factor defining low light performance under the same conditions (temperature and camera processing) and applies to the majority of

Image quality is the key and this depends firstly and foremost on the sensor used. I refer here to resolution, dynamic range, noise and speed of read-out.

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cameras in our industry today. But, the technology development doesn’t stop, and we will soon see some new inventions, like back-illuminated CMOS sensors. “These are used in iPhones, and other smart phones and they will increase low light performance without increasing the pixel size. The dynamic range, and back-light processing is directly dependant on the pixels size, but here too, there are some developments where double exposure is used to simulate high dynamic range. “As for the storage of noisy signals, yes, it is true that noise affects the storage requirements. But, a good compression means not only a good encoder in the HD camera, but also noise reduction before compressing, thus achieving reasonably low streams with very high picture quality.” According to Damjanovski, an example from Dallmeier again, is the DF4910 that he says can produce an excellent true 1080p HD signal with as low as 4 Mb/s using H.264 (at 25 fps). “With this camera model, we can switch to a 5MP signal using the same 4 Mb/s H.264 encoding (with slightly reduced frame rate of 10 fps). As I said earlier, if for a particular job the very low light performance is the most important thing, then perhaps good quality analogue should still be considered.” How important is lens selection with HD

In the past, HD cameras would not be recommended for low light applications. However, with the continuous improvements in technology, HD cameras are now available for these conditions. cameras? Is digital or optical zoom preferable, or both? “The lens is the most important thing after sensor quality,” says Damjanovski. “Whether I prefer digital or optical zoom, it all depends in what context. With the Dallmeier’s Panomera design for example, digital zooming looks quite different. I would usually argue that optical zoom offers better magnification of details. “But in the case of Panomera the Panomera digital zooming far outperforms optical zooming simply because of the different approach in designing this multi-sensor, multi-focal camera. With Panomera’s digital zooming you can see the whole picture without losing the details where you have not zoomed in, and this is done for both live and playback video. “With a normal optical zoom once you point the camera to a specific area that is it - you can’t see

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c ctv hd cameras

anything else,” Damjanovski says. “And of course, if you have recorded such a zoomed in video signal and recorded it, it is not possible to retrieve what the zoomed camera has not seen. Certainly if you know where and when the incident will occur, and zoom in that direction, the optical zooming will be more beneficial.” What about the new H.265 standard? Is it likely to reduce the bandwidth demands of MP video streams and/or lead to higher resolution cameras being adopted – bigger 5MP cameras? Or do you argue for many installations, particularly indoors, 1080p is going to be more than enough? “The upcoming H.265 will further improve network capacity and design, and it will encourage development in resolution,” Damjanovski says. “It is only going to be as useful as the H.265 encoder chips get introduced into our CCTV products. This might be very soon, or it may take another 5 years. “Yes, it is said that it will offer at least 50 per cent bandwidth saving over H.264 for the same visual quality, and this would certainly be welcomed in CCTV. But this bandwidth saving will be paid for by the higher processing power that will be required from the PC machines decoding such compression in the software. So, once again, with H.265, we will come to yet another demand for new and faster computers, better network switchers and better network designs. “The fact is, the good old MPEG-2 is still available and in many cases (like your cable television) still used, without stopping HD technology development. In my opinion the biggest benefit our industry could have is the development of new sensor technologies with better low light performances (one of which is back-illuminated sensors) higher dynamic range and smaller sensor size, with the very important - lens quality improvements.” Meanwhile, Pacific Communications Mark Shannon says that from the end-user’s perspective, the key features of a quality HD camera, as a

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Dallmeir’s selectable resolution IP camera

1080p in strong backlight

minimum, are brilliant images, the ability to show near real life images (picture and colour rendition accuracy), sharp focus, low light capabilities including Day/Night operation, good wide dynamic range, and low bandwidth requirement. Shannon says that installers should also look for cameras that provide ease of set up, configuration, and installation. These features are provided by cameras with attributes including a local monitor output for lens setup, Auto Back Focus, convenient location of Ethernet connection at the back of the camera and a variety of mounting options and accessories. And when it comes to 720p or 1080p Shannon says it’s all about the application and the budget of the customer. “Camera selection is still as balanced a consideration today as it has ever been with analogue,” he explains. “However, at present the network bandwidth and storage are additional considerations. System design and camera application is a skill, not a one size fits all and this will never change.” Shannon says that in recent years, HD cameras have come a long way in overcoming inadequacies such as performance degradation in low light and strong backlight. “In saying this, all cameras need lighting to provide good images and accurate rendition – whether it be overt (white light) or covert (IR light) depends on the applications,” he explains. “In the past, HD cameras would not be recommended for low light applications. However, with the continuous improvements in technology, HD cameras are now available for these conditions. “Lens selection is also critical with HD cameras. In most applications, optical zoom is generally used because it gives an accurate magnification of the image (does not introduce artefacts).” According to Shannon, H.265 should be seen in the light of the ongoing improvements taking place in the video surveillance market. “Ten years ago, no one imagined that HD

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1080p wide angle

1080p cameras will easily achieve a full 25/30 frames per second. At 3 Megapixel this drops to around 21 fps, and at 5 Megapixel, 12 fps. Will moving into higher resolution ranges start to result in unusable frame rates? would be in the IP video surveillance market,” he explains. “Today, HD cameras are the norm in the IP video surveillance market. In the future, the advancement of technology will go hand in hand with the improvement of IP surveillance cameras; therefore, there will be a migration to higher resolution with better compression and storage on offer.” Over at Axis Communications’ Chris Tangsilsat says key features of a quality HD camera for end users include things such as pixel count, frame rate and colour representation but he points out they are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what end users should look for in a quality HDTV IP camera. “We also need to consider versatility, as the objective of having surveillance for most end users is to obtain ‘usable’ video at all times regardless of lighting and other environmental conditions,” he explains. “For example an HDTV camera located in a building lobby may provide usable quality

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1080p zoomed in

images for the majority of the day but is subjected to intense backlight in the late afternoon and inadequate lighting after hours.” When it comes to installers, Tangsilsat says that apart from quality images he thinks the majority of systems integrators out there would place an equally high value on the reliability and ease of installation of these units. “Whether the installer spends 20 minutes or 1 hour installing and configuring a camera will make a sizable impact on labour cost, especially when you consider that some installations could potentially consist of hundreds or thousands of cameras either at a single site or spread across multiple locations,” Tangsilsat says. “Post installation, the reliability of the product will determine how much time the installer keeps investing resources in returning to the same site for maintenance and repair.” Interestingly, Tangsilsat says he doesn’t believe there is what could be considered to be a better resolution format – either 720p or 1080p – when it comes to HD. “It’s more important to identify the customer’s requirement in terms of level of detail vs. coverage area,” he says. “For example identifying customers entering a store may require a 720p HDTV camera focused on an area that’s 2 metres wide, while keeping track of whether a meeting room is occupied may only require an SVGA (800x600) camera covering an area 5 metres wide. “Alternatively, capturing license plates of trucks moving into a loading dock could warrant the use of

a 1080p HDTV camera. There will always be a need for a large variation in resolutions. Additionally, implementing an effective surveillance solution could be as simple as using a pair of 720p HDTV cameras in a small retail environment. “In such a case, a camera is placed at the entry point using a high focal length lens to capture of the faces of anyone entering in detail, while another camera of the same type would use a wide angle lens to provide a general overview of the store. It’s all about strategic placement and identifying where the customer requires that extra level of detail.” And what are the weaknesses of HD cameras in low light and in backlight? “If you were to have asked me this same question 5 years ago I would have said that in extreme low light conditions there are some quality analogue cameras which will outperform the IP offerings,” Tangsilasat says. “However, due to the continued development of IP surveillance technology, I can say that the latest generation of HDTV IP cameras offers superior image sensors and encoding chipsets and will have better low light performance compared to their current model analogue counterparts. “Low light performance through features such as Axis’ Light Finder, however, have not been the only development. Features such as Wide Dynamic Capture are also available in order to cope with strong backlight scenarios. All of this leads to a usable quality image containing less artefacts/ white noise resulting in lower storage.”

When it comes to optical or digital lens selection, Tangsilsat says he thinks lens selection is highly critical. “A good quality lens will truly demonstrate what the camera is capable of, while a poor quality or incompatible lens will degrade and misrepresent the quality of the camera,” he explains. “Installers will notice that each Axis IP camera will always include a lens as part of the same product code. This is because all lenses which are included with the cameras along with optional types listed on our website have undergone testing within our R&D to confirm they are compatible with the intended model and provide the optimum image quality.” According to Tangsilsat, optical vs. digital lenses has been a topic of discussion ever since megapixel cameras were first introduced and he says it will continue to be so as higher megapixel cameras evolve alongside higher optical zoom types. “There really isn’t a right or wrong here - in most cases the choice comes down to the end user’s requirements and resources in place,” he explains. “Digital zoom will allow the user to retain a wide general overview of a scene with limited ability to zoom into certain areas, while optical zoom sacrifices the general overview in place of superior detail on areas of interest. “Again, this comes down to the end user requirement as one customer may just want a static high resolution, wide angle camera to record with the ability to digitally zoom after an incident. Another customer may have a control room with operators actively manning the PTZ cameras with optical zoom.” Tangsilsat says the new H.265 standard is definitely interesting news and he believes that once adopted it will ensure a reduction in both bandwidth and storage requirements. “However, whether we will see a push within the market for higher resolution cameras as a direct result remains to be seen as there are other factors to consider when it comes to usable quality images in surveillance. “These factors include low light performance. Due to the way current image sensors convert light into images, a 720p HDTV camera will outperform a 5 Megapixel or higher resolution model in low light scenarios regardless of post capture compression method. “Also important is frame rate. IP cameras up to 1080p HDTV resolution will easily achieve a full 25/30 frames per second. At 3 Megapixel this typically drops to around 21 fps, and at 5 Megapixel, 12 fps. Will moving into higher resolution ranges regardless of compression method start to result in unusable frame rates? That’s something to think about.” zzz l Part 2 of Choosing HD cameras next month.

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n etwo rk i n g

Subnet considerations Speaking to integrators it’s clear many networked security systems are being deliberately isolated from data LANs on high performance subnets.

ANY IP video solutions are running on subnets dedicated solely to the surveillance function and specifically designed to handle higher bandwidth loads. In most cases they’re kept separate to ensure that security images are kept away from online connections like the Internet, as well as being tucked away from ordinary network users. In many cases authorised workstations and all DVRs/NVR/video servers will share the same network subnet. Such a design means high bandwidth transfers on the surveillance subnet will have less impact on general

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network performance. The nature of legacy systems also plays a part in defining the nature of networked installs. Security teams might only be building a small network – perhaps a subnet with a single switch connecting the DVR/NVR to one or 2 authorised workstations. While these machines may be used for other purposes, chances are that in many cases they’ll be dedicated to the security function. While it’s important that video surveillance systems be accessible across networks, in many cases only a handful of workstations need that

access – this means a level of physical isolation not a compromise where accessibility and overall system performance are concerned. One of the key strategic considerations of a subnet cable plant is working out how much bandwidth is needed in the system and where. If there are large numbers of remote cameras then it may be more effective to bring all those cameras to a single remote node before streaming video to a control room. A particular issue for security managers is deciding whether or not real time video on all inputs is going to be available at the control room for viewing and storage. This means that a control room will struggle to get optimum performance if it’s being required to use images that might be coming across a Fast Ethernet network at low resolutions and low frame rates. The concept of a duplicate control room operating on the other side of a LAN is feasible but it’s most likely that the duplicating LAN will be a multiplexed fibre link carrying every split video stream at high resolution and in real time to the second location. Duplicating control may mean making some sacrifices somewhere else in terms of the number of cameras it’s possible to view simultaneously, the frame rate, or the image quality. It goes without saying that while the lowest quality images may be fine for general monitoring work, they’ll let management down when it comes to serious investigation work. A better alternative is going to be getting storage out onto the network edge. Systems designers will also need to decide whether or not the video surveillance function should be supported by a subnet using Cat-5/5e/6 or fibre optic cable. For a start it’s unlikely an entire CCTV system will be cabled in fibre. Instead the subnet will comprise a combination of technologies each designed to leverage existing cable plants and provide best performance at the least cost. Regardless of the supporting LAN structure, the key issue of fibre vs Cat-5/5e/6 is going to relate to longer hauls and/or serious bandwidth demands. In these cases, the Cat-5/5e/6/fibre decision will be influenced by the streaming/compression technology used. Other related issues will include things like the required image quality of each video stream – including whether or not megapixel cameras are employed. Some installations will be able to get what they need from 2-4 frames per second but in higher security applications end users are increasingly demanding real time or close at 4Mbps, per channel. These needs are fuelled by a changing threat environment in which live monitoring and supporting technologies like video analysis will become increasingly important. If you’re going to think about fibre it’s important to first consider Gigabit Ethernet or 10G Ethernet as an option. It’s possible to build a Gigabit subnet within a Fast Ethernet application. Importantly, Gigabit

It may seem odd to claim that fibre is almost always cheaper in the long run for long haul subnets but it’s true. Security installers are making a mistake if they just compare typical short haul copper links with fibre on a per-metre basis. Ethernet runs on Cat-5/5e/6 so an existing cable plant and off-the-shelf hardware can be used. There are a number of key things to remember when comparing Cat-5/5e/6 Ethernet/Gigabit Ethernet links with fibre links. For a start fibre still costs more but instead of being distance limited to 100m as Cat-5/5e and to a lesser extent Cat-6 is, you can get hundreds of kilometers out of fibre with no expensive signal repeaters. Fibre also has a wider operating temperature range and is unaffected by electromagnetic interference. If you’re thinking about building a Cat-5/5e/6 LAN for a longer cable run outside, you really need to think hard. Regardless of whether you hang the LAN from posts or trench it, costs will mount fast. For a start the cable will need to be waterproof and/ or be installed in waterproof conduits. It will also need to have repeaters attached to it – that means more work. Along with the weatherproofing issues, having to ensure the Cat-5/5e/6 goes nowhere near power cable or sources of EMI like motors or industrial plants can be a serious pain. Threading your way through a minefield of power cables will quickly chew up your 100m allocation of Cat-5/5e/6 and once repeaters are needed you might as well have gone for fibre in the first place. While it may seem a dreadful challenge converting signals from Cat5/5e/6 to fibre, using media converters makes the task easy and these converters aren’t expensive. It may seem odd to claim that fibre is almost always cheaper in the long run for long haul subnets but it’s true. Security installers are making a mistake if they just compare typical short haul copper links with fibre on a per-metre basis. Consider that a centralized fibre network allows the installation team to put the all electronics in the control room closet – with power, UPS, ground and air conditioning already installed. With copper you’d need to duplicate these ancilliary services with every Cat-5/5e/6 hub at 100m intervals across an entire site. Something else to bear in mind is wireless from companies like Fluidmesh or FireTide. A well designed wireless subnet is an extremely flexible solution for a larger site and it’s certainly the most affordable possible solution for complicated sites. zzz

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s p e ci al re p o rt

new pr o d u ct s h owcase / new p roduct showcase / new p roduct showcase /

editor’s choice

What’s new in the industry

Dahua 2MP 1080p vandal dome

Transmission can be a breeze

DAHUA Technology has launched a 2MP full HD vandalproof network dome cameras with varifocal motorized lens. The varifocal motorized lens is 3~9mm/F1.2 with an angle of view of 105 degrees giving an adjustable, wider viewing angle. Adopting 1/3-inch 2MP Exmor CMOS image sensor and advanced DSP technology, the cameras render superb image quality with great colour production, even in low light environments. With real time recording capacity at 1080p resolution, the IP cameras also support dual-stream encoding. The built-in SD card design removes the inconvenience incurred by internet interruption. Customized functions as dual power supply and PoE are also available. Dahua network cameras all conform to Onvif.

GO cableless and manage your transmission requirements in an uninterrupted (license-free) 5Ghz band capable of 100Mbs speeds. The new WESII Series point-to-point wireless Ethernet system from KBC Networks is IEEE 802.11 a/n compliant, and supports high speeds due to its MIMO (multiple in multiple out) technology. Features include IEEE802.11a/n compliance, a range of antenna options, up to 20dBm adjustable power, antenna alignment and site signal survey tools, secure encryption using WPA2 - AES or TKIP and a highly integrated IP66-rated rugged outdoor pole & wall mount unit. n Distributor: Pacific Communications n Contact: +61 3 9676 0222

n Distributor: Dahua Technology n Contact: overseas@ dahuatech.com

Risco shows Agility 3

New INTREPID MicroWave 330

RISCO Group has launched its Agility security system, which features wireless video verification and a smartphone application with support from Risco cloud services that allows users to control their alarm system remotely. Designed for residential and small commercial installations Agility 3, the new offering from RISCO’s flagship wireless Agility system elegantly combines state-of-the-art visual verification with a Smartphone app, in addition to providing advanced wireless security and safety features. Agility 3 is powered by eyeWave, a wireless PIR detector with integrated camera. Agility 3 communicates with the RISCO Cloud server and enables users to seamlessly selfmonitor their premises as well as providing an invaluable service to central monitoring stations. In the event of an alarm, the PIR camera is automatically activated and captures a sequence of images which it sends to users via RISCO’s Smartphone/web Application.

Next-generation volumetric perimeter security system for fence lines, open areas, gates, entryways or rooftop applications featuring advanced programming, detection and remote management capabilities. Powerful digital signal processing continuously monitors alarm and tamper status, signal strength and detection parameters, and successfully discriminates between intrusion attempts and environmental disturbances, mitigating risk to critical infrastructure while preventing nuisance alarms. Built-in synchronization facilitates simultaneous operation of multiple sensors, even when stacked. Superior K-band performance identifies slow-moving intruders and prevents interference from external radar or other microwave systems. Advanced networking capabilities enable high-level integration with INTREPID fence and buried cable detection systems or surveillance applications on a unified communications platform.

n Distributor: Risco Australia n Contact: 1800 991 542

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n Distributor: Perimeter Systems Australia n Contact: +61 2 9150 0651

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s p e ci al re p o rt

new pr o d u ct s h owcase / new p roduct showcase / new p roduct showcase /

editor’s choice ProHD Real-Time DVR has arrived NEW PROHD161T-RT state-of-the-art analogue recorder is now available from CSD. Coming complete with real-time monitoring, a recording rate of 400fps@D1 and HDMI video output supporting 1920x1080, this sleek new DVR suits any type of modern project. With its user interface and software already popular with both integrators and users alike, the ProHD has become a benchmark in analogue DVRs. Other features include remote live view, playback of other units on the DVR without the need for additional software, Independent Dual Display, Triple Streaming for mobile apps and remote connections and much, much more. n Distributor: Central Security Distribution n Contact: +61 2 8014 2600

What’s new in the industry

Compact Geutebruck G-Scope/1000 series THE Geutebruck G-Scope/1000 series of high performance NVRs is designed for compact spaces with enhanced temperature stability and compact 302 x 250mm x 2HU cases. Equipped with a 1TB database and ideal for building into ATMs or fitting in confined spaces, these also provide an attractively priced option for retail outlets and other monitoring operations with just a few video cameras. The G-Scope/1044 processes up to 4 analog and 2 IP video sources at once, while its pure IP equivalent, the G-Scope/1006 supports up to 6 IP inputs. Despite diminutive dimensions, G-Scope/1000 models boast the traditional Geutebruck performance and functionality. n Distributor: Geutebruck Australia n Contact: 1300 855 291

Hikvision DS-7200HFI/HVI-SH standalone DVR HIKVISION’S DS-7200HFI/HVI-SH features high quality 4CIF recording in real-time across up to 16 channels. It allows up to 128-channel streaming of remote live viewing (within 60M bandwidth), allowing users to access their videos at any time over the Internet. These DVR models further support alarm functionality with motion and tampering detection. When critical events (such as theft) occur within an owners’ premises, the DVR’s alarm event recording is triggered, generating instant notification via e-mail and allowing owners to take whatever proactive response they deem necessary. The DS-7200HFI/HVI-SH DVR Series models also incorporate a highly intuitive user interface with friendly apps and widgets. One time-saving feature is the customisation of tags in the operation interface for video information which allows users further control n Distributor: Security Merchants n Contact: 1800 635 122

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Axis 3D camera visualisation NEW from Axis Communications are free tools for security system designers. The camera models in Axis Camera Families include detailed metadata required for building information modeling (BIM). The 3D models will also let security system designers interactively visualize camera coverage to help them select the right camera model and optimize the system layout. With the new 3D models in Axis Camera Families, security system designers can place Axis Network Cameras directly into CAD building plans and visualize the areas the cameras will cover. The software allows them to see exactly how the cameras fit into the building layout and to easily detect if views are obstructed by columns or walls, to help reduce unexpected blind spots. n Distributor: Axis Communications n Contact: +61 3 9982 1111

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re g u lars help desk

helpdesk

Q: We’re having trouble with a wireless alarm system in a large apartment that’s been built in a renovated office building of pretty heavy construction. The system is capable of working out the best location for sensors on its own but can only find a handful of locations with adequate communications. We’re starting to think about surface mount conduit. Any advice? A: It sounds like you are in the presence of steel-reinforced concrete. Obviously you need to get the polar axis of the transmitter’s antenna nearly identical to the polar axis of the receiver. Getting polarization right means greater numbers of electromagnetic lines are getting from the transmitters to the antenna of the receiver – and that means improved reception. Sometimes repositioning is not enough. What can happen is that transmitter signals are messed up by conflicting RF signals or scattered by metal objects – in this case the steel reinforcing grids in the building – and/or the polar pattern of the signal shifts. Signal shift means that the receiver is grabbing a signal reflected from a surface in the system’s environment instead of the clean signal you’re trying to get through. If the polarization pattern is altered, the transmitter’s physical axis will look different – in such cases the transmitter won’t be recognized by the receiver. Another possible problem can be caused by nulls in the transmitter’s

80 se&n

Our panel of experts answers your questions.

signal. These nulls are spots in the environment where the transmitter’s signal is at its weakest. The nulls are located at points where the signal crosses and recrosses the x-axis of its waveform. Any sensor with dual antennas is pretty much assured of having one of its antennas located at a point on either side of an x-axis null. If your problem sensor has a single antenna then you’re going to need to move it either towards or away from the receiver. What you’re doing is moving the antenna of the transmitter out of the signal’s null point, to a spot either higher or lower on the waveform. Rather than surrendering to the ugliness of surface mount, we’d suggest purchasing 1 or 2 transmitter/receivers in order to create bridges between groups of local devices and the alarm panel. Carry local groups of signals line-of-sight from say, the sleeping area via the hall, then into the living area where panel is located. Q: Would you recommend variable or constant bit rate for an IP surveillance camera? A: It depends on a number of factors. If the threat you are monitoring is going to be

slow to develop and there’s no need for close ups, if recording space is limited and there’s not a great deal of movement around, then a variable bit rate will mean lower bandwidth and storage demands. Of course, there’s a trade-off and that is the camera will have to ramp up its bit rate when there’s an intrusion event. This might be fine if a truck slowly drives into a scene and someone gets out and starts messing about. Then the camera has plenty of time to power up its bit rate. But if a camera is idling along and an intruder dashes through a scene there’s no chance the camera will improve its bit rate quickly enough to capture crucial detail, even if the intruder turns to face the camera not enough data is going to be getting through to flesh out the recorded images. So, we’d say that for wider angle shots at greater distances a slower bit rate will work better than it will for tighter fields of view. In a perfect world, cameras and network components would support the demands of a constant bit-rate, even in low light scenes, through the reduction of white noise. Q: I’ve just retrofitted a panic button into

an older alarm panel on a standard zone. Trouble is there’s no 24-hour zone facility on the panel, so there’s no way for the store owner to know if the panic button is working or has developed a fault. A: All you need do here is install supervised end-of-line resistor to greatly improve circuit integrity. Using a supervised circuit will strengthen the electrical circuit’s integrity. Using a supervised EOL will enable the panel to report zone trouble to a monitoring station. Q: When it comes to installing door hardware correctly, are there little variations that ensure ease of commissioning? We’ve used a number of different contractors on a system with mixed results. A: Installing the door hardware is where particular attention must be taken. Ensure that strike plates have a slight forward and back play when the mortise is held by the strike. This ensures that an overload of the coils won’t result from lock friction. It’s also vital that lock and strike plate are compatible and there must be proper mortise penetration. Be sure that electric strike plates are heavy duty with continuous operation-rated coils. Finally, take care to read the installation instructions of the locks you’re using. The 2 biggest sellers in the Australian market build quality product and when installed to specification they should give years of trouble free service. Q: In the opinion of Help Desk, is there any point buying HD cameras for low light applications when they will only switch over to lower resolutions in the dark? Isn’t

it better to buy lower resolution cameras in such applications? A: It’s an interesting question. You’d need to do some objective testing to see whether or not the lower resolution cameras really did perform better than say, 720p cameras that dropped back to D1 in night mode. I’d suggest the higher quality cameras will still perform better at night. But it’s true that sacrificing HD for low light performance does seem to defeat the purpose of the original choice of HD. You do have to take into account the value of having HD quality during daylight hours, of course. Interestingly, we have seen installations in which quality full HD cameras are being recorded at 6 frames per second in VGA so there’s no question that end users often buy camera performance their network infrastructure cannot support. I’d argue that we are very much in an

I’d argue that we are very much in an embryonic developmental stage when it comes to digital video. But things are changing. Sony’s Gen 6 cameras record HD in day and night mode and their compression levels are sufficient to handle neat things like full 60 frameper-second frame rates recorded in real time. embryonic developmental stage when it comes to digital video. But things are changing. Sony’s Gen 6 cameras record HD in day and night mode and their compression levels are sufficient to handle neat things like full 60 frame-per-second frame rates recorded in real time. zzz

se&n 81

events march 2013 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; august 2013

December 2012 Issue 339

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l Case study: IGA Willagee l Road test: FLIR thermal l Key product releases of 2012 l The Interview: Joe McCann l DVTel Quasar shines bright l Full mesh wireless networks l 2013 - The year ahead

Date: 10-12 April 2013 Venue: Sands Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV, U.S. Contact: 203-840-5602 Website: http://www.iscwest.com Product categories include access control, alarms and monitoring, biometrics, fire control, networked security products, public security and safety, remote monitoring, systems integration, video surveillance, wireless applications and more.

Secutech Taipei, Taiwan Date: April 24-26, 2013 Location: Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, Taiwan Contact: http://www.secutech.com/13/en/ SecuTech Expo offers an organized presence and underlines dynamic fields of the Asian security industry. The show represents not only the Asian manufacturer powerbase, but its multinational participation makes it a true international exhibition in Asia.

Global Security Asia 2013

Date: Apr 2 - 4, 2013 Location:Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Singapore Contact: http://www.globalsecasia.com/default.asp?pid=207 Global Security Asia focuses on counter terrorism and law enforcement in the Asia Pacific Region. Like previous shows in the Series, GSA 2013 will retain its format as a 3-day event showcasing the latest technology solutions in the defense and security environments.

Security Exhibition & Conference Date: July 24 - 26 2013 Location: Sydney, Australia Venue: TBA Contact: 03 9261 4504, kmcrorie@divexhibitions.com.au Security Conference & Exhibition will showcase products such as access control, alarms, barrier protection, biometrics, CCTV, clothing and accessories, computer and communication security, critical infrastructure, detection and control devices, entry/exit systems, fencing/ perimeter security/ grills, fire/safety, home automation, ID systems/supplies, IP technology and IT security.

= DAILY, WEEKLY, MONTHLY.

Security in Government Conference 2013 Date: August 12-14, 2013 Contact: Fallon Smith 61 2 9254 5000 The SIG Conference targets senior executives responsible for managing security in agencies, officers from all levels of government who contribute to the development of security capability and response and security practitioners from the public and private sectors who provide services to government and critical infrastructure providers.

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Advertising enquiries call Monique Keatinge on 02 9280 4425 or email info@bridgepublishing.com.au

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