Networks Telecom: Video on IP products take on analogue

Closed circuit TV systems are ready to move onto the LAN thanks to advances in Video over IP, according to network video specialist Sirrus. The company had three new products on show at Networks Telecom, and a preview of a solid-state, 360-degree surveillance camera. The VMS2000 is a "matrix switch", the equivalent of the systems that display a large number of analogue CCTV images on one screen for a security guard. Sirrus showed a set of CCTV cameras in Washington, US, being monitored and controlled from the stand in Birmingham, across the public Internet. The system also has simultaneous playback and recording. The company also showed an IP video recorder, the IPVR-100, designed to handle video codecs and steering commands for a large number of video cameras, storing information as JPEG stills, for CCTV surveillance. As with Voice over IP, the Video over IP world is big on migration, knowing that most users who have invested in camera systems will not want to replace them just to go to IP. Sirrus' IPTX-500 is an adapter unit intended to connect legacy analogue CCTV cameras into an IP-based system, applying video compression to feed their images into a system like the VMS2000. "This will prolong the life of analogue systems," said Janet Goddard, marketing manager. So far so solid and useful. But the "cool" item on Sirrus' stand was the Dove 360-degree, solid-state camera. Looking like a small lamp, it has no moving parts, and provides a continuous 360-degree image, which can be shown on a screen as a fish-eye view or as two 180-degree strips. The product records megapixel images, and will be "low-cost" when it reaches users in September, said Goddard. Dove, stands for Digital Omnidirectional, Videosurveillance Eye.

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