EZ Thoughts

The new generation of CCTV Technology, IP Cameras, are beginning to flex their ‘megapixel muscles’ and many of us are gasping in amazement at the new image quality and the fact that these cameras can produce many millions of pixels (compared to say 400,000 pixels an analogue camera might produce).

But what about the analogue cctv technology?
Will the battle to provide more and more pixels on a camera stop the enhancements still possible in analogue technology and what about the millions of legacy cctv installs that are currently running on Coaxial Cable?

IP Cameras offer Megapixel Resolution

RG59 or CAT5 Installations

An installer asked me the other day, what cable would I use if I was doing a new CCTV install; Coax or CAT5?

I explained about the various advantages and disadvantages between the two in terms of cable costs, distance of video/power, baluns, external installation etc with the most obvious point being if you install CAT5 & Baluns today with analogue cameras, you are ‘future proofing’ the installation as you can go for analogue cameras today but should you want to upgrade in the future, you can simply remove the Baluns and the analogue cameras and replace them with IP Cameras & a Network PoE Switch, with no need to change the cabling! Another major factor is also the type of installation and the customer. Not everyone needs to future proof their installation if it’s a home or small business perhaps.

CAT5 Balun

Ok, so what about all the sites with Coaxial Cable installed? Are these sites now locked into the abyss of ‘old technology’? Is there an upgrade path for these sites for the future? Or will they need to rip out and replace all the cabling with CAT5/6 in order to take advantage of the latest megapixel video resolutions and no doubt other enhancements IP Camera manufacturers will produce in the years to come?

Megapixel Analogue Cameras

It could happen!

Resolution is not the only reason to buy an IP Camera but it is for a lot of people! So if there is a way to provide a megapixel resolution to analogue cameras that can still utilize the coax cable, it would avoid the need to re-cable everything.

Perhaps we will see manufacturers producing analogue cameras capable of megapixel resolution images by changing the DSP or some other method.

Could we one day see Megapixel Analogue Cameras?

Ethernet over Coax

Another option would be to use a tranceiver or Balun device that can send a TCP/IP stream over the coax cable.  So you can keep your cabling and simply change your camera to an IP Camera.

Other important factors to consider are whether the device would support Power over Ethernet (PoE) and the maximum Voltage / Amps as this is a key advantage of CAT5 and IP CCTV.   Likewise, the maximum achievable speed might be limited to 100 Mbps and then of course there’s the price.

Analogue & IP Cameras

IP Cameras are definitely here to stay and it’s predicted sales of this new technology will overtake analogue in the years to come. At the present time, analogue cameras at least are holding their own with competitive pricing, advanced DSP processing and a cabling infrastructure that has existing (at least in the UK) for over two decades.

Time will no doubt tell, as to whether manufacturers will see the need to invest time and money in a camera technology that can transmit megapixel resolutions over Coaxial cable or whether the real winners are going to be the manufacturers of high quality Ethernet to Coax converters.

Choosing The Right Technology

As for those new CCTV Installs going on around the world today. The decision of which cable, cameras and recording device will probably be determined on the usual factors including; Customer Requirements, Budget & Existing Infrastructure.

So it seems today, if anything, the customer is spoilt for choice in terms of the security solution and underlying technology it uses.

One thing is certain, the analogue cctv camera started the whole CCTV evolution, and with IP cctv cameras now taking us further forward, how long will it be until a new form of camera or CCTV tranmission (e.g over Electricity) appears?