HD SDI cameras for the future

Much has been said about HD SDI and how it is going to compete with IP HD CCTV solutions. This is a bit  of a red herring really as the two technologies really are not competing for the same market place at all. IP tends to be installed in new buildings and larger installations where there is a requirement to expand in the future. HD SDI CCTV is much more suited to upgrade smaller analogue systems where there are no plans for expansion but picture quality is an important factor.

Each situation needs to be judged on its merits and things of course may change in time as each technology develops further especially if  HDcctv is able to work at some point over CAT5. HD SDI cameras are now slowly beginning to reduce in price as well. This has opened many doors over the last year as HD slowly but surely is becoming the choice of end users keen to try to improve their CCTV. systems.

What is the best way to decide which route to take for your upgrade? There are many choices out there. We have mentioned above how every site is different and each company will have their own specific requirements. Start with a simple question.

Is the site a single building and unlikely to change or is the system going to be deployed in several sites across multiple locations?

If the answer is just one site then look to HD SDI also see if you can use any existing coax on site. If you wish to view the CCTV from anywhere and across several different sites you must consider designing the CCTV system with IP as your first consideration.

If we have have a site that has good existing analogue cameras in place the route to explore could well be a Hybrid HD SDI DVR.  This means we can put HD SDI cameras on existing coax and leave any existing analogue cameras that we wish to maintain in place. Our other alternative is to put  IP encoders in place that will convert existing analogue cameras to IP. Fit some VMS software and then add HD IP cameras in any new positions.

There are many different ways to achieve the same goal. ie an HD upgrade. It takes lots of consideration and plenty of questions to the end user to decide exactly the best way to go.

 

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