What are the hidden costs of the panoramic camera?

In terms of products, the price of the panoramic camera is a problem that users are particularly concerned about. According to the manufacturer, the price of the same megapixel panoramic camera is 1.5 to 3 times that of an ordinary megapixel camera in the domestic market. . Is it really the case that users pay for the panoramic camera? Zhang Yueqing of MOBOTIX believes that to measure the effectiveness of a product's application in a project or what benefits it brings to the user, it should not only focus on the differences in the cost of the front-end surveillance camera, but can the images captured by the panoramic camera be fully and in real time. Clearly presented on the back-end screen, a series of links such as compression method, network bandwidth, storage, and platform compatibility are all very important.

In terms of the entire system, the application of the panoramic camera also faces the pressure and cost of the high-definition monitoring system. For example, how the back-end storage meets the massive data of a megapixel panoramic camera, how to deploy a panoramic camera within a limited bandwidth, and a platform standard Whether or not it is compatible means that compared to the traditional analog system, the user may need to add extra costs on these links in order to achieve panoramic monitoring of the panoramic camera.

Reducing the pressure on bandwidth, vendors have new ideas. As we all know, the image information of panoramic cameras is much larger than that of ordinary cameras because of the need for image correction or image stitching and virtual PTZ, which consumes several times the resources of ordinary cameras. This is bound to be The transmission part will occupy a large amount of network resources, and at the same time it needs to store huge amount of data information. This is the factor that users should consider in selecting the panoramic camera as part of the system for the current bandwidth and storage system.

In terms of reducing bandwidth and storage pressure, there are two approaches for the panoramic camera industry. One is a front-end distributed processing method. That is, the internal processing of the panoramic image camera is first compressed and transmitted to the back-end platform. The other is First, the panoramic image is compressed and transmitted to the back-end PC server, and then it is corrected by the platform software.

Ai Ruikant's Gao Moxuan believes that by adding more algorithms or built-in software processing methods to the front-end camera's internal hardware chip, it will be more advantageous than processing the increased software processing load on the back-end platform. We propose to embed the processing of image information into the camera. For example, our multi-camera camera uses the camera hardware to adjust the grayscale, contrast, and sharpness of the image, forming a video stream from multiple shots. H. Compression of 264, after which the video is transmitted to the back end. MOBOTIX embeds image processing software inside the camera. The fisheye image is first corrected inside the camera, and then the compression of the MxPEG and MJPEG compressions using its own high-definition video compression code is used to transfer the corrected fisheye image to the camera. End platform to reduce network transmission and storage load.

The difference is that the odd and even Zhou Xun thinks that the speed of the massive data brought by the fisheye image processing on the PC server will be faster, and with the emergence of higher pixel panoramic camera technology, the PC server software will occupy a favorable position. Understand that currently manufacturers use this method more.

The controversy over compression algorithms, Tyco's Lu Yang mentioned, according to IPVideoMarket. Info's test report uses the same manual focus lens, H. The 264 compression method can provide the same level of image clarity as MJPEG. The demand for bandwidth is greatly reduced, and the maximum can save nearly 90% (the transmission screen dynamics and illumination are different, and the bandwidth saving ratio will be different).

Distributed storage architecture is even more advantageous In addition, the massive data pressure facing system storage is also an unavoidable problem. In particular, the resolution of current panoramic cameras has reached a million levels, and how to load more information on the storage side The data, as well as ensuring that the vast amount of data is not missed and easy to retrieve management, manufacturers and integrators have proposed a distributed storage architecture approach, with distributed storage such as DAS, NAS, and back-end PC servers. This indicates that users may need to increase their storage investment compared to traditional analog systems.

Platform compatibility standards are in urgent need of improvement. In addition, whether the backend platform software is compatible with the front-end panoramic camera or it is convenient for future system expansion is also a key element that the user needs to consider. This means that when a user accesses a panoramic camera, he may need to increase additional expenses due to incompatibility of the platform. For example, in some reconstruction projects, whether the existing platform can be compatible with a panoramic camera, whether additional costs need to be added, and the original Whether the platform vendor is willing to participate in product access work. At present, manufacturers that provide panoramic cameras adopt different methods to deal with them, some with their own development platform, and some with platform vendors. MOBOTIX collaborates with its self-developed free platform software on the back-end server and provides free upgrade programs; AiRuiKant technology has been compatible with several well-known NVR platforms in China to achieve the compatibility of panoramic cameras, and is fully prepared for the large-scale application of panoramic cameras. .