Conventional CCTV systems are designed by security installers, who mix and match surveillance products made by various manufacturers. Time spent adjusting cameras and DVRs to begin capturing video is part of an installer’s costs. If HDcctv cameras and DVRs do not work together straight out of the box, the installer’s costs go up.
HDcctv compliance ensures that products from various manufacturers will interoperate upon power-up. Compliance certification is important to installers and manufacturers alike. For installers, the compliance mark in a product brief means plug-and-play, which holds down costs. For manufacturers and their OEM customers, compliance certification means fewer no-fault-found returns, which increases profit.
The following timeline suggests that the impact of the HDcctv standard should become visible in the surveillance camera market during 2013.
To be certified HDcctv compliant and eliminate any doubts about transmission performance and interoperability, a camera or DVR must implement certain functions. Because the chips that power today’s HDcctv products were designed before the HDcctv 1.0 standard had been defined, they did not necessarily have the functions embedded that are required for compliance certification. This means that a large proportion of Generation 1 HDcctv cameras cannot be certified compliant.
HDcctv equipment buyers will benefit from Generation 2 HDcctv chips implementing the functions needed for compliance certification. The ten Generation 2 semiconductor products listed in the timeline represent a total investment in chip design, semiconductor manufacturing ramp, and customer assistance that exceeds thirty million U.S. dollars.
Problems from non-interoperability
Security customers care about colour reproduction, sensitivity, sharpness, dynamic range, privacy masking, ease of use, and so on.
Local-site video transport technology becomes a direct concern to customers only when it creates problems such as arise from non-interoperability.
An equipment executive’s first reflex is to differentiate his products from those of the other manufacturers. The HDcctv Alliance’s mission is to encourage competitors to overcome that reflex and cooperate when it comes to device interface technology. We’re working to help makers’ executives appreciate that everyone – customers, installers, and competing manufacturers alike – benefits from the interoperability that HDcctv compliance certification ensures.
Todd Rockoff is executive director of the HDcctv Alliance – the manufacturers association that manages the HDcctv video interface standard.
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