Q: What is a slip ring failure?
In our experience with commercial IP PTZ (pan, tilt, zoom) cameras, a common fault which is often reported as motor failure, could be attributed to slip ring failure. A typical diagnosis of this kind of failure is when the camera provides video content but fails to pan, tilt or zoom. However, this is rarely reported back from the manufacturer as the direct cause of fault.
Slip ring failure is typically seen in light-use commercial products not designed for constant guard tour or continuous 24/7 PTZ use. This issue would usually arise in the event of improper use and specification of camera. Selecting the appropriate product for the required task would prevent this fault.
Q. What are the common problems associated with compressed digital video?
The choice of compression standards is varied and typically limited by support within individual products and manufacturers. The common compression standards, MJPEG and MPEG4, both have advantages and disadvantages regarding suitability to certain applications. However, the new standard H.264 appears to provide many of the advantages found in MJPEG and MPEG4 without many of the drawbacks associated with the other compression standards.
With more manufacturers implementing the H.264 standard in devices, we could see high frame rate and high resolution video streaming and recording becoming more common. This should drastically reduce storage required to meet the 31-day requirement of some sites. However, the H.264 standard is not yet perfect and shows certain traits similar to the network latency and processing issues seen in MPEG4.