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The Great Megapixel Debate
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By Tom Galvin
Your personal digital camera gives you a six megapixel image. Your teenage daughter’s cell phone captures two megapixel photos. Why are you satisfied that the camera in your surveillance system is limited to 0.3 megapixels (at 4CIF)? Chances are that your DVR is programmed to capture only a quarter (CIF) of the camera’s maximum resolution (4CIF) to provide a paltry .075 megapixels?
It doesn’t have to be that way. With megapixel camera sales doubling year after year, more manufacturers are providing a broad set of products for both indoor and outdoor applications. As IP cameras are becoming more commonplace for security applications, end-users are taking advantage of the megapixel resolutions to improve image quality, reduce the number of cameras and to provide better overall situational awareness.
Manufacturers
IQinvision, San Juan Capistrano, Calif., and Arecont Vision, Glendale, Calif., have established themselves as leaders in megapixel camera products for security. Until recently, megapixel cameras were considered a niche product in the growing IP camera market. As IP camera solutions have become more commonplace, upstarts like Avigilon, Vancouver, B.C., have entered the market as well as established camera providers such as Axis, Bosch and Sony. The cost of a 1.3 megapixel camera starts as low as $500 suggested retail. Several manufacturers state a strategy to aggressively price their cameras to compare favorably with name brand analog cameras.
Most megapixel products use Motion JPEG (MJPEG) compression. Like standard resolution IP cameras, MPEG-4 and H.264 products are beginning to surface on the market.
Management software
Like any network camera, megapixel units are typically managed with video management software (VMS). Most camera manufacturers provide a basic video management and recording solution. Many manufacturers also partner with open software solutions such as Genetec and Milestone.
To date, many VMS systems have typically treated megapixel cameras like most standard resolutions network cameras and have not integrated key features that are unique to megapixel cameras:
Image cropping modifies the aspect ratio from the traditional 4:3 to 16:9. This offers better viewing for security video which often has more interest in the horizontal direction. Image cropping optimizes each scene by clipping the image to eliminate unwanted, wasted video to save bandwidth and storage.
