New surveillance camera

SWEDISH network camera company, Axis Communications, has just added a new model in the line-up which it claims is currently the market’s most light-sensitive surveillance camera.

Called the Q1602 and Q1602-E (which is the same camera but with environmental sealing), the network camera features the company’s Lightfinder technology which is a combination of hardware and proprietary image processing which results in a camera that is usable in very low-light conditions.

In fact, the camera produces usable footage in light as low as 1 lux, which is equivalent to the brightness of the environment on a moonlit night, making the camera particularly suitable for use in outdoor car parks, construction sites, and perimeter surveillance.

Being a cabled network camera, the Q1602 and Q1602-E are very easy to install using a single cable — the cameras operate using Power over Ethernet (POE) which means that the same Ethernet cable used to transmit the videos to the server also provides power to run the cameras.

The Lightfinder cameras deliver a progressive scan quality of 720 x 576-pixels and are individually configurable to use H.264 or Motionjpeg compression for relatively small file sizes.

According to Nafis Jasmani, Asean regional sales manager and country manager of

Malaysia for Axis Communications, the company already has educational institutions, government departments and health-care organisations as customers for its previous network camera models, although it is still in talks to install the relatively new Q1602/-E models.

Nafis also adds that network cameras arare increasingly becoming more popular ththan older analogue cameras simply bebecause of the ease of installation and ththe ability to compress and transmit aand store the video feeds off site.

Prices range from US$200 (RM600) tto US$3,500 (RM10,500), with the ccost largely depending on model and whethewhether network connectivity in the area is already set up or not.

The Q1602/-E models will be available from July 2012 onwards. — TAN KIT HOONG ++++ www.axis.com