High-definition IPC technology and applications are diverse

    If we trace back to the origin, the development of network cameras (hereinafter referred to as "IPC") in my country has been more than 10 years, but the past IPCs were at the low-pixel stage and their applications were not satisfactory. In the security industry, it is generally believed that the emergence of high-definition IP cameras in the security market has truly opened the door for IPC to enter the industry, making IPC truly enter people's field of vision.

    The emergence of high-definition IPC has its inevitable factors: first, the rapid development of the security industry in recent years has led to continuous technological progress, the market demand has changed, and users are pursuing clearer videos; second, the rapid development of network technology and information technology has affected all walks of life; third, the chip technology and software technology of the security industry have reached a high level; fourth, IPC has more advantages than traditional simulation, breaking through the height that traditional analog monitoring cannot reach. Of course, there are other key factors that promote the rapid development of IPC, but to what height will IPC develop? Will it dominate future video surveillance? These need to be explored by the industry and verified by the market.

IPC Market Status

    At present, the domestic high-definition IPC market is in a rapid development stage. Since 2010, with the high demand for high-definition monitoring in industries such as finance and transportation, large-scale international events, safe city construction, and smart city construction, the development of high-definition IPC has been greatly promoted. In terms of clarity, analog cameras have reached their limit and there is no room for improvement in a short period of time. In traditional monitoring, viewing video files is the most important part of the monitoring system, but the clarity of video files is often not high, the overall picture appears blurry, especially the details such as faces are not clear enough, which greatly reduces the actual effect of monitoring. With the society's attention to the entire city's public security monitoring and traffic security monitoring, the number of cameras installed is also increasing. How to effectively monitor and manage is also a major problem currently facing. The emergence of high-definition IPC just solves this problem. It not only provides high-definition video effects, but also has advantages in network monitoring and value-added functions that are difficult to achieve with traditional analog monitoring.

    Nowadays, high-definition IPC has been widely used in many projects. For example, high-definition IPC can be seen in high-demand monitoring places such as airports, high-speed railways, urban transportation, banks, and large shopping malls. We can find that the application of IP cameras is no longer limited to core cities and coastal areas, nor is it limited to high-end markets and specific industries. At the same time, with the increase in demand for high-definition IPC, the number of manufacturers in the industry is also surging, but the geographical distribution is relatively concentrated, mainly in Shenzhen and Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta, Hangzhou, Shanghai and Suzhou in the Yangtze River Delta, and Tianjin in North China. These regions account for most of the well-known domestic security manufacturers, such as Hikvision, Dahua Technology, Zhongxi Vision, etc. They have accumulated many years of rich experience in product research and development, production, and sales in the security industry, which has played a vital role in the overall promotion of the rapid development of network cameras.

    All manufacturers and enterprises are optimistic about the IP camera market, and fierce competition is inevitable. International manufacturers want to quickly occupy the commanding heights of the market, and local enterprises want to change their declining trend in the field of camera products through IP cameras and occupy a place in the market. In the current security industry, the phenomenon that high-definition IPCs were dominated by foreign brands in the past no longer exists. In terms of the technical form, appearance form, and functional form of IPC products, domestic manufacturers' high-definition IPC products have improved qualitatively compared with the past, and have the confidence to compete with foreign manufacturers.

Analysis of HD IPC technology and application trends

    With the rapid development of computer, network transmission technology and image processing technology, the field of video surveillance is undergoing a transformation. At the same time, driven by strong market demand and innovative technology, the technical and application layers involving IPC have achieved rapid development in the past two years.

high resolution

    High resolution is a direct advantage of high-definition IPC. Since high-definition surveillance swept the entire security industry, the resolution seems to be frequently refreshed. Up to now, 720P and 1080P high-definition surveillance front ends have become commonplace, and 3-megapixel and 5-megapixel high-definition IPCs also have a certain market share. At the Shenzhen Security Expo in 2013, which was an industry trendsetter, a few image sensor manufacturers in the industry launched image sensors with up to 10 million pixels, and as supporting lens manufacturers, they also had several ultra-high-definition lens products with 10 million pixels. This means that in the near future, ultra-high-definition IPCs with 10 million pixels may appear in the security industry.

Compression Algorithm

    At present, the mainstream compression algorithms are MPEG and H.264. The former is only used under specific format requirements, but it will bring more pressure on bandwidth, while H.264 has twice the compression capability of MPEG, so it can achieve a higher compression ratio. However, with the continuous improvement of high-definition IPC resolution, the pressure of code stream on bandwidth and storage is increasing, and the industry needs a higher-performance compression algorithm. Compared with the first generation of H.264, H.264 HIGH PROFILE has doubled its performance. Today, mainstream IPC manufacturers all use this algorithm to compress videos. However, the H.265 algorithm is a representative of new technologies, which can effectively improve compression efficiency, reduce latency, etc., and can achieve 1080P image quality transmission at a transmission speed of 1-2Mbps. This also means that mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets will be able to directly play 1080P full HD videos online.

Rich and diverse functions

    Compared with traditional products, IPC products have more functional forms and can bring more added value to users. Camera manufacturers will also integrate rich and practical functions into their respective IPC products to attract more users. For example, the SNWF-2123B high-definition infrared gun camera of Zhongxi Video Communication not only has built-in multi-stream technology, which enables the front-end equipment to output a variety of different streams for viewing on different devices, but also provides electronic image stabilization and corridor mode, and also integrates the fog-penetrating function, so that the camera can obtain clear images even in harsh environments.

Intelligent Application

    Intelligent video surveillance is based on digital and networked video surveillance, but it is different from general networked video surveillance. It is a higher-end video surveillance application. Intelligent video surveillance systems can effectively utilize and expand the use of video resources, automatically identify different objects, discover abnormal situations in the monitoring screen, and issue alarms and provide useful information in the fastest and best way, so as to more effectively assist security personnel in dealing with crises and minimize false alarms and missed alarms.

    Nowadays, IPC's intelligent video analysis is gradually being applied, and many camera manufacturers' high-end IPC products will incorporate corresponding intelligent video analysis functions. At present, the mainstream intelligent analysis functions in the security market include video occlusion and video loss detection, entrance and exit population counting, object identification, intrusion identification, video motion detection, crowd movement and congestion identification, etc. The intelligence of the camera can identify behaviors and types from complex data analysis, and can provide operation commands, data and information, thereby realizing intelligent behaviors such as alarm, reminders, and intelligent retrieval. At the same time, because intelligent devices can selectively transmit videos, bandwidth is effectively saved and the available network bandwidth is greatly increased. Today, intelligent monitoring has become an important theme in the development of monitoring technology and market demand.

Mobile monitoring

    The deployment of 3G and 4G mobile data networks makes it possible for wireless networks to be used as video image carriers. In particular, telecom operators are vigorously promoting 4G networks, with a maximum speed of 100Mbps, which can fully meet the communication bandwidth of current high-definition IPCs. Mobile video surveillance is an important development direction in the future. Mobile video surveillance has gradually transitioned from the original fixed-line video surveillance to distributed mobile video surveillance, such as subways, railways, and public transportation industries, thus breaking through the limitations of the original video surveillance in terms of region, technology, and cost, thereby expanding the audience of business applications.

Family

    Video surveillance is developing rapidly in the home and civilian use because it contains huge business opportunities. In the past, ordinary people did not have much awareness of security, which was related to the economic conditions, network infrastructure, and advanced equipment at that time. Today, even the price of high-definition IPC is affordable for ordinary home users, and the simple and easy-to-understand features of civilian high-definition IP products such as P2P plug-and-play, automatic penetration of multi-layer routing, no need for IP domain name configuration, adaptive network, and support for multi-terminal system monitoring make installation easier. You only need to follow the simple instructions in the manual to install it.

    In the future, my country's video surveillance market will continue to develop in the direction of home and civilian use. 3G and 4G video surveillance is a typical representative of 3G and 4G multimedia services with high-end and differentiated characteristics. It can serve professional fields such as emergency command and public transportation monitoring, and can also be used by ordinary consumers to enter the fields of home monitoring and public multimedia services. In addition, the current high-speed network support of WiFi everywhere will greatly promote the progress of civilian security.

Conclusion

    With the rapid development of science and technology, the era of security network has gradually entered the entire security monitoring market, and network cameras are the core equipment in the entire network video monitoring market. There is no doubt that the application and development of high-definition IPC represents the trend and future of the development of the entire network video monitoring. At the same time, as a new force in the current video monitoring industry, IPC is also gradually adapting to the current market demand and the diversified needs of future market development.

    In the current information age, people's demand for materials and the development of industry technology, the security monitoring industry is experiencing a transformation from traditional analog CCTV to DVR digital monitoring, while networking, high-definition and intelligence are gradually integrated into the development trend. In order to achieve the "three transformations", chip manufacturers are making every effort to launch high-performance chips that adapt to technological development. Among them, HiSilicon, as the largest domestic chip manufacturer, is not to be outdone. Its HI3516 and HI3518 are professional high-end SOC chips developed for high-definition IPCamera product applications, and TI's DM365, DM368, Ambarella's A5 and other solutions are also the main choices for high-definition IPC. It is the development of these chip manufacturers that has promoted the development of IP monitoring, allowing IP monitoring to continue to advance and innovate in the history of security.

    From the perspective of the entire security industry, network monitoring has gradually been integrated into and penetrated into the entire video monitoring field. With the rapid development and advancement of the entire security industry's networking, digitization, high-definition and intelligentization, the pace of analog to network will inevitably accelerate. With the improvement of social awareness of security precautions and the technical protection brought to people by scientific and technological life, the construction of safe cities and smart cities in various places is being promoted in full swing, which is bound to become a catalyst for the development of high-definition IP monitoring.