Application of 4K Ultra HD Camera and H.265 Technology

　　Application advantages of 4K and H.265

　　Take the application of 4K ultra-high-definition cameras as an example. The use of ultra-high-definition cameras with tens of millions of pixels can provide all-weather and all-scenario monitoring without changing the number of cameras, focal length, and angle, thus better meeting the monitoring needs of users. Moreover, the rich details of the 4K picture can still be obtained after multiple levels of magnification, and the high-definition details can be obtained. This means that the monitor does not need to set up multiple cameras in the same scene to see different areas clearly. For example, when monitoring vehicles in multiple lanes in the traffic field, one camera can meet the high-definition monitoring needs of multiple lanes, which can greatly save investment costs. In recent years, many manufacturers have begun to launch 4K IPC products, including various types of gun cameras, fisheye cameras, and even dome cameras that support zoom, etc., which is also because they see the good development prospects of 4K technology.

　　The application of ultra-high-definition 4K video technology has become a hot topic. Of course, 4K technology requires higher compression ratio codec technology, especially the support of H.265 technology. The H.265 standard basically inherits the framework of H.264, in which a large number of new technologies are adopted. At high-definition resolution, the use of these new technologies can increase the compression performance of H.265 by 50% or even double that of H.264. At present, 2 million, 3 million, 4 million, and 5 million H.265 cameras have been first launched on the market by many well-known security companies. Due to the current limitations of the H.265 chip solution, its maximum pixel only supports 5 million pixels, so the 4K camera encoded by H.265 has not yet been born. Fortunately, due to the characteristics of its algorithm itself, H.265 will be more efficient in encoding processing at higher resolutions such as 4K. Several well-known platform manufacturers are also vigorously researching H.265 chips that support ultra-high pixels and have made significant progress, but they have not yet reached the mass production stage. It can be seen from this that H.265 will inevitably become the best choice for 4K or even 8K resolution in the future. In the next two years, 4K products encoded with H.265 will be widely used in the market, especially for high-end industry users such as safe cities, medical care, and finance. 4K technology video applications combined with image detection systems for more accurate data mining improve the video monitoring effect and make the details of the picture more prominent. The accuracy and ease of use of common feature retrieval, image concentration and other functions in the image detection system will be further improved after the addition of 4K technology. This will also promote technological changes in the entire security monitoring industry and accelerate the pace of smart city construction.

　　4K promotion process still requires technical support

　　Zhejiang Dahua's Tang Hangfeng believes that from the perspective of the entire surveillance market, the market application of 4K cameras is still relatively flat or even bleak. The main reason is that the low-light image effect of 4K cameras at night is not ideal. Due to the increase in the number of integrated pixels on the 4KSensor, 4K cameras can provide higher-definition images under normal lighting conditions, and the details are restored closer to reality. However, due to the limitation of the sensor target area, as the number of pixels increases, the photosensitive area of ​​a single pixel decreases, so 4K cameras are not as good as current 1080P cameras in ultra-low-light imaging. There is no starlight-level 4K image sensor on the market. This is a situation that various security manufacturers are currently facing and cannot change for the time being. In addition to image effects, it will also increase network bandwidth and storage costs. At present, the code stream of 4K cameras is generally 10M-12M. Such a large code stream seriously affects the promotion of the entire 4K project solution.

　　Although there will be some obstacles in promotion, high-definition 4K or even 8K will definitely become the mainstream product for certain special monitoring and surveillance in the security industry in the future.

　　High Definition Does Not Mean High Cost

　　We have always said that the pursuit of high definition is endless. Although 4K has caused a sensation in the industry since its launch, looking at the entire industry, 4K is still in its infancy and some technical guarantees are needed to achieve true popularization.

　　Common 4K resolutions include 3840×2160 and 4096×2160 pixels. In simple terms, 4K is 8 million pixels, which is roughly equivalent to 4 1080P. 4K images contain more details and can meet the different needs of multiple business departments at the same time, enabling resource sharing, making intelligent visualization management more efficient, linkage response more timely, and security more secure. I believe that there is no need to introduce too much about the advantages of 4K, and the current focus of the industry is more on the high storage, high bandwidth and cost issues brought by high definition.

　　Video surveillance has gone from analog to digital, from standard definition to high definition, and it can be said that it is a painful and happy journey. The video is clearer, but the cost has also risen. In the era of IP, the rapid development of ultra-high definition such as 4K has made the encoding efficiency of H.264 stretched to its limits. The emergence of the H.265 standard has undoubtedly injected a shot of adrenaline into the development of ultra-high definition. Taking the current mainstream resolution as an example, H.265 reduces the bit rate by 40%~50% compared with H.264 at 1080p resolution, and by 30%~40% at 720p. This means that 1080p full real-time only requires a bit rate of about 1.5~2M. Moreover, as the resolution increases, the bit rate of H.265 will also decrease more. Multiple tests have shown that H.265 can also achieve a bit rate that is 50%~60% lower than H.264 at 4K ultra-high definition resolution.

　　When 4K meets H.265, it is eye-catching. But if you think about it carefully, although H.265 technology greatly reduces the bit rate of 4K, at this stage, it is still difficult to popularize 4K on a large scale in the field of video surveillance. There is no doubt that H.265 technology is the best technology to solve bandwidth and storage problems in the era of big data. However, if 4K is to be widely promoted, perhaps H.265 technology still needs some changes. Can the network bandwidth be occupied a little smaller? Can the storage pressure be reduced? We will continue to explore...

　　Summarize:

　　The high definition of the security industry and the continuous improvement of the resolution of high-definition products are the inevitable trends in the security industry. Just as the security industry has transitioned from the standard definition era to the high definition era, many companies such as Hikvision, Blue Star, and Dahua have launched products that support H.265. The road to high definition video surveillance in the security industry has never stopped.