Selling CCTV? How to Convert Your Clients from Analog to IP

Are you a CCTV dealer or retailer?  If so, you must have noticed that the demand for IP cameras is growing exponentially.  Many industries have already adopted IP video as a standard, some of which include universities, K-12 schools, health care, transportation and government.  The retail market hasn’t fully adopted IP, but will soon begin to, considering marketing purposes such as counting people coming and going from a store, checking the gender and age of customers, and monitoring peak times for business.  Below, you will see 4 points that can help you prepare to offer your customers IP video solutions.

1) Should dealers install coax for current and future analog projects?

The simple answer, no.  You can install Cat-5e or Cat-6 cable and future-proof the cabling at your customer’s location.  You will need to use video baluns for this cable to work with analog cameras.  When you begin the switch to IP cameras, you will simply replace the video baluns with an RJ45 connector (if not already on the cable), so that it can connect to the IP camera, switch, etc.

2) Are all dealers that don’t offer IP the same?

Yes!  The most common fear from dealers is the networking component.  The best way to overcome this is to invest in your staff and offer them basic network training.  This will help when discussing what you are trying to do with your customers IT department.  Getting a “green light” from the IT department of your (potential) customer will make the purchase much easier and offer far fewer headaches.

3) HD cameras vs. Megapixel cameras

All HD cameras are megapixel cameras.  A 720p camera is 0.9 megapixels and a 1080p camera is 2.1 megapixels.  The main difference between an HD and megapixel camera is that HD cameras use a widescreen format (16 x 9).  As an example, a 3 megapixel camera will only provide a 4 x 3 format, but it will have a higher resolution than a 1080p camera.  One advantage of the HD cameras, is that most end users understand “720p” and “1080p” terminology, when dealing with the type of TV they buy for their home.

4) Which IP cameras should dealers offer?

The two biggest variables for choosing a distributor or manufacturer of IP cameras are great support and training.  Another big variable is to determine what the application is.  A large scale university will need a completely different solution than a person who wants a couple of megapixel cameras for their home.

The reality is, IP camera solutions are here to stay. If you are already offering IP camera options to your customers, then you are ahead of the bandwagon.  Analog solutions still have a strong place in the market, but it is best to offer both types, especially as IP gains more acceptance.

Assessing Your Access Control Needs Pt. 1: Getting Your Foot in the Door

Looking into an Access Control project?  Be sure to keep the following valuable information handy. Whether you’re looking at tackling a DIY project, or hiring a professional company take care of everything, the few guidelines below will certainly help all parties involved.

For now, we are going to talk about the doors themselves.  There are several styles and types you may find in your building, and each one is going to have different characteristics that result in different methods of installing hardware.

Common Door Styles:

• Single swinging door
• Double swing door
• Double swing door with a center beam
• Electric motorized doors

Single Swing Doors:

This style of door will be the most common you’ll encounter when dealing with interior doors. Most often you will find them with metal frames, and they’re generally made of wood. Depending on the frame, you would usually want to go with an electric strike. This will be the simplest solution, and also the most cost-effective. In some cases, depending on the frame, a mag-lock (magnetic lock) may be needed, which will require you to have an emergency form of egress to exit the building.

Double Swing Doors:

Double doors can be tricky, and are commonly found in glass, wood or steel types. If the doors are interior and havethe ability to swing freely, you will have few options available, and may find yourself leaning towards the mag-lock option. Again, keep in mind that if this is the case, then you must find a way to have egress on the exiting side of the door. Some double doors may not be free swinging, and instead have locking mechanisms that require you to perform some type of action as you exit the door, such as the pushing a button or a crash bar. A crash bar is a large button that is the width of the door that you have to walk directly up to the door and push on to release the door before you can push it open. If this is the case, we may still be looking at a mag-lock solution.

Double-Swing Doors with a Center Beam:

Same concept as above, but when you have a center beam that acts as a stopper for the door, in some cases this can give you the ability to go with an electric strike. In the event you had to go with a mag-lock, you would basically treat the doors as if the center beam did not exist and follow the preceding guidelines.

Electric Motorized Doors:

Motorized doors can actually be very simple when you look past all the existing cable and components of the door itself. Special hardware will be needed, like a device called a “pin lock” that is used to secure the door in the locked position (most automatic doors already will have the device pre-installed in the door). Also, the doors have the ability to recognize when to open or close when someone is close enough to the door thanks to motion detectors usually located on the door or above the ceiling; this will act as the egress method for this door.

Keep in mind when looking at types of doors such as metal, glass or wood we can insinuate that certain models will restrict us to use a certain type of lock such as a strike or mag, but more importantly we need to be looking at the frame. Most commercial doors and frames are pre-fitted for hardware – this may require you to disassemble a piece or two of the door, but a little homework go a long ways.

Benefits of Progressive Scan vs Interlaced

As camera technology evolves, and better & greater features are accrued, the term Progressive Scan seems to pop up more and more. While some features are easy to identify by name, Progressive Scan remains a mystery to many.

As modern consumers with much experience purchasing TVs, I think most people understand the basic way that pictures are displayed on a TV or monitor screen. There are a certain number of lines that are displayed on the screen, and the order that the lines are tossed onto the screen is how Progressive Scan can be described. There are really only two ways this is done: Interlaced and Non-Interlaced (aka Progressive Scan).

Interlaced Scanning has become the old way of transmitting video. Let’s assume that there are 700 TV lines that are displayed on the screen. With this sort of scanning, all the odd lines are drawn and then the even lines are drawn, then all the odd lines are refreshed, then the even lines refreshed, and back and forth alternately. Can you imagine watching the ball thrown in a football game on TV with this sort of display going on? Although the lines are refreshed very quickly, you can tell by the truck in the picture below that the picture displays very fuzzy.

With Progressive Scan (or Non-Interlaced Scanning), the TV lines are drawn and refreshed in sequence. When the lines are drawn on sequence, whether 1 to 700 or 700 to 1, it not only displays moving objects better, but also decreases the bandwidth used.

By the picture below, it seems that seeing the term Progressive Scan is definitely a perk worth looking for.