What our experts say…
These days we are rarely surprised by what we find when we open up the cases of Bench Tested video cameras. Even so, the Genie NVD 2910 Vandal Resistant Network Dome Camera still managed to raise at least one eyebrow.
Inside the tough-looking vandal proof dome there’s lots of empty space and what appears to be a rather cunning example of product repackaging.
Of course we could be wrong, but bolted to the chassis is what looks suspiciously like the guts from a conventional compact video surveillance camera, and why not? In the end what matters is that it does the job it’s designed to do, and that’s what we’re about to find out.
Let’s begin with the business end… and it’s off to a decent enough start with a 1/3-inch Sony Super HAD CCD sporting 512 x 582 pixels with a minimum sensitivity of 0.5 lux. It sees the world through a 2.9-10mm DC controlled auto-iris ‘varifocal’ lens.
However, once we get beyond the fact that pretty well all exposure options are taken care of automatically and that there are no user or installer controls, apart from the initial lens tele/wide and focus adjustments, there’s really not much more to be said about its role as a conventional analogue, cable-connected video security camera.
This would be a very short Bench Test indeed but for the magical word ‘network’ in the camera’s model designation, and this is where it starts to get just a little more interesting.
Connect the camera to a LAN cable and a whole new list of features becomes available, including remote viewing and recording (using MPEG-4 compression), along with up to 16 other Genie cameras, on a Windows PC (no support for Mac or Linux PCs).
It has a simple motion detection system which, when triggered, can enable recording, email notification and ftp upload. There’s a facility for scheduled recording and there’s limited access to some of the camera’s video functions, including setting resolution, changing the frame rate, image quality, image brightness and enabling the on-screen time display.
Tucked away in the menus there’s a bonus feature, which is used to send streamed images from the camera to a 3G mobile phone, though despite much tweaking and twiddling we never actually managed to get this to work.
The camera is housed in a sturdy cast alloy case, built to IP66 standards; what appears to be a long rubber band acts as an anti-drop cable for the tinted dome cover. It looks as though it can withstand a fair amount of punishment; both from the elements and two-legged trouble makers.
Connections to the outside world, which comprise a 12volt DC supply, composite video output and LAN are all handled by a single cable that emerges through a weatherproof gland on the side of the case. The lead is terminated with a standard DC socket, and in-line BNC and Ethernet sockets.
Inside the case the camera module is mounted on a simple 3-axis gimbal that allows for a full range of pan, tilt and rotational adjustments. Once set. the gimbal arms are locked in place using thumbscrews.
It looks slightly crude but the bottom line is it is simple, secure and very easy to use. The camera module is connected to a pair of square PCBs located on the side of the case and these handle video processing and communications.
Immediately opposite that is a small semi-circular PCB that doesn’t seem to do much apart from being somewhere to put a preset adjustment for picture brightness. To be fair the many holes and empty component pads suggests that it may have a higher purpose on other models in the range.
Build quality is generally good and there’s been a determined attempt to tidy up the wiring with strips of curly plastic cable shroud so all in all it looks as though it should last the course.
Unlike most dome cameras these days it’s on its own when it comes to variation in ambient temperature and there’s no cooling fans or heating elements but the claimed operating range of -10 to +60 degrees C suggests that it should function happily in all but the most extreme conditions.
Setup and operation
As previously suggested there really isn’t much to talk about when setting up the camera with a wired connection to an analogue video monitor, so we’ll move swiftly on to network operation.
The first task is to establish a connection and to do that you need to install the GenieView application from the supplied CD-ROM, which also includes a separate player utility (GeniePlay), Microsoft NetFramework plug-in, the full network operations manual in the form of a pdf file and a copy of Acrobat Reader.
Normally at this point we grumble about how difficult it can be to configure an IP camera, but not this time. The software installed effortlessly on all three of our test PCs and it managed to locate the camera on the network and after entering the password, display the streamed image with a single click of the mouse.
From loading the CD ROM to seeing a picture on the screen took around two minutes, which has to be a record!
The viewer can display images from up to 16 cameras, but that’s about it. There are virtually no other options, apart from the facility to connect new cameras, set up a recording schedule or enable/disable the motion detector.
To delve deeper into the camera’s inner workings it’s necessary to right-click on the camera’s entry on the list and select Web Configure. This opens an Internet Explorer browser window with a password request box. This leads to a web-based setup menu page. There are five headings, six if you count a Language selector, with English as the only option…
At the top of the list is the Information menu, which provides a page of data on the model number and ID, network connection, number of users, resolution, bandwidth, email alarm setting, recording status and MAC address.
The Network menu has options to set up a manual IP and DNS Server addresses. There’s also a sub-menu for enabling PPPoE to obtain an IP address. Menu number three is Video and used to set up the password, Internet speed, adjust resolution, frame rate, image quality, brightness, NTSC or PAL output and on-screen time. A sub menu has 3G settings for images sent to a mobile.
The Schedule menu has three sub menus covering setting recording times, ftp upload and email notification configuration, Network Attached Storage (NAS) setup and motion detection sensitivity. The Admin menu deals with passwords and user names, web port, time and date settings, firmware updates and rebooting.
Some of the menus are a little idiosyncratic and there are some notable absences, including no easy way – which we could find – of changing the camera’s preset numeric ID to a title.
It may be possible, by deleting the camera’s default entry and creating a new one, but this seemed like tempting fate, so we left well alone. Some features, like the motion detector are very basic indeed.
There’s no way to define a target area, or schedule an alarm time so it is quite limited, moreover the recording facility is only available if the camera is connected and logged onto a PC with the viewer software running.
The GeniePlay player utility presents a list of recorded events, which can be video files or still snapshots. It’s quite basic and videos can be replayed in real time, half speed or paused, but there are no frame stepper or reverse play modes.
You can, however, quickly go to any point of a recording using a timeline slider. There’s also a zoom facility, though this only seems to work on recordings made at lower resolutions
Performance
It may well boast a Sony image sensor, but the picture quality on our sample, when connected to a video monitor, was decidedly average. Even in good natural light there was a fair amount of noise, which tends to soften fine detail.
The auto-exposure systems struggled to deal with even minor aberrations, such as an unevenly lit scene, or a bright light. In low light the AGC kicks in and the image changes to black and white, but surprisingly there’s only a small increase in noise levels. Its low light capabilities are limited but it does give quite a good account of itself in unfavourable conditions.
Another plus point is colour accuracy, which is also better than expected. The picture remains reasonably natural looking, even under tube and mixed lighting conditions.
The picture does look a little better on a PC monitor, mostly because it tends to be in a smaller window and the slower frame rate reduces the impact of noise but the imperfections do become obvious when a full-screen display is selected.
Two more small items of good news. There are fewer than usual internal reflections from the heavily tinted dome and mechanical stability is excellent. The picture remained rock solid throughout its meeting with the SI Rubber mallet.
Overall assessment
This is quite a difficult one to call; analogue picture quality on our sample was a tad soft but on a network connection it was comparable with many budget to mid-priced IP cameras.
Network setup is amongst the quickest and simplest we’ve ever come across but when you get there it’s a pretty half-hearted affair with a fraction of the features we’ve come to expect from a network camera.
We’ll be generous and say it’s okay on the basics, but we do feel it is left wanting when it comes to things that are virtually standard these days, like adding a camera title, a decent zoom facility, configurable motion detector, a range of replay speeds and, of course, some manual camera controls.
If you can put that to one side and avoid mounting it where it is likely to encounter difficult lighting conditions then it should not be dismissed…
What the manufacturer says…
No networking experience is required with Genie’s simple IP camera series. Power up the camera and plug it into a router with an Ethernet cable. This will identify a suitable IP address automatically.
Install the GenieView software (from the CD Rom supplied). Installation takes seconds.
Once launched, the user will see a GUI with a list of cameras and blank screens.
The ID card supplied contains the camera’s ID number and a changeable password. This is required to initially connect and locate a camera from the internet (utilises Internet Explorer only).
If accessing through the GenieView software, the camera is automatically detected.
Now, any user or installer with no IP/networking experience can install these simple and easy to set up IP cameras.
