There is no question that network or IP cameras are having a tremendous impact on the CCTV market, particularly in the remote surveillance sector and where conventional cabled systems stretch economic and technical boundaries, but it’s not all plain sailing…
What our experts say…
One aspect of their operation has created a number of challenges, and that’s recording images (and audio), and in particular, images from multiple cameras. There are several possibilities, and converting netcam feeds into analogue signals, so that they can be recorded on conventional video recording equipment, is certainly do-able. However, this is a somewhat cumbersome method that negates to some extent the flexibility and convenience of network operation.
Ideally images should stay within the digital domain and the obvious way to do that is to use viewer/recorder software on a PC connected to the network involved, and that, pretty much, is mostly how it is usually done. Technically there’s no problem with this approach, but operationally it means that for continuous and unattended monitoring the PC in question has to be left on and dedicated to the task.
Again it’s not necessarily a problem, but an even more elegant solution is to use a PC that has been designed, from the ground up, specifically for this one job, which is where the DSG Network Video Recorder comes in.
The manufacturer, Digital Security Group (DSG Poland), is a relative newcomer to the market, and it was formed a little over a year ago. Judging by the casework it’s tempting to suggest that in a previous life the company was involved in heavy industry, or another acclaimed Polish skill, shipbuilding, if the thickness of the metalwork is anything to go by… It’s a formidable piece of engineering and definitely worth shortlisting by anyone concerned about protecting their data in earthquake zones, but as always, in the end it’s what’s inside the box that really counts. Not surprisingly, considering the job it is designed to do, the case contains all of the components you would expect to find in a high-end desktop PC, and this includes an Asus P5K Workstation motherboard with a fast Intel dual core processor, DDR2 memory modules, an advanced graphics card, a pair of 500Gb SATA hard disc drives, a DVD writer and a high output power supply. The operating system, which remains very much in the background, is the ‘Embedded’ version of Windows XP, which is a good choice as it is stable and very well suited to this kind of application.
Feature-wise there’s not a huge amount to say as a lot depends on the capabilities of the network cameras it records and monitors, but the system is built around a proprietary NVR viewer recording program that can display and record images and audio from a maximum of 64 cameras, at up to 25 frames per second in resolutions of up to 1600 x 1200. Camera feeds can be displayed in single, 2 x 2, 3 x 3, 4 x 4, 5 x 5 and 6 x 6 screen formats.
Recordings are compressed using industry standard MJEPG and MPEG 4 codecs. It has built in support for a range of PTZ systems and a range of alarm options, including linked motion detection, programmable event management in response to alarms and integration with a variety of I/O devices using optional network interface modules.
It also includes support for video servers. This allows for relatively easy migration to IP monitoring and recording in installations built around conventional wired analogue cameras and it has a built-in DVD writer and USB ports for exporting and archiving recordings.
It’s unlikely to win many beauty contests, and with the lockable front hinged door-cum-air-filter closed it becomes an anonymous black box, save for a row of four function/status LEDs. Even with the flap open there’s not a lot to see, just the DVD writer loading tray, a single USB socket and the main on/off switch.
Things do not change significantly around the back, which looks pretty much like the back pane of a regular desktop PC. The only small difference is the graphics adaptor, which occupies one of the motherboard’s expansion slots and is fitted with a pair of DVI video output sockets. There’s not a VGA socket in sight. Fortunately a regular VGA monitor can still be connected, using a DVI to VGA adaptor, and one was supplied with our test machine; it also comes with a standard mouse and keyboard.
So far so ordinary, but some aspects of the design are a little unusual, like the huge five-inch fan set into the front of case, blowing cooling across the two hard drives.
This is augmented by a pair of three-inch exhaust fans in the rear of the case plus fans on the CPU and graphics card, and there’s another five-inch whopper in the PSU unit. Suffice it to say it’s really noisy.
Setup and operation
Following a fairly brief boot-up sequence the viewer/recording program opens automatically, presenting the user with a Logon dialogue box followed by a large display window with the main menu option along the top edge. A control panel that covers picture adjustments, PTZ and camera functions is on the right-hand side, and there’s a set of display format selector buttons along the bottom of the screen. The left hand edge of the displays is taken up by a list of all of the cameras recognised by the NVR.
The main menu has four options: Preview – displays live images from connected, Playback – opens ‘Timeline’ display showing images recorded associated with each camera, Settings – NVR setup and configuration menus and Logout. Clicking the Settings button opens the first of many sub menus with buttons for selecting Maintenance Logs, Administration and Support details. In order to delve deeper into the configuration settings it is necessary to enable the next set of menus, which include sub menus for changing display resolution, IP settings, adding new IP devices, recording settings (resolution, frame rate, video and audio compression etc), mouse and joystick support, recording schedules, time and date setting, disk drive management, security and passwords and alarm configuration.
Throughout the initial setup it is apparent that the NVR is targeted at users of Axis and LJD IP cameras as the Device configuration menu fairly bristles with their products. Doubtless other brands can be used but we suspect that a fair amount of network savvy will be required in order for the machine to work with them.
It’s all fairly standard stuff, though the menus and dialogue boxes are a far cry from normal Windows fare, which is a good and bad thing. It’s good in that the design and layout are (or should be) easy to use, and on the eye; the bad part is that the black and grey/silver colour scheme chosen for the menu screens can be difficult to read in strong light on some displays, and as far as we can see there’s no option to change it to an easier to read combination of colours. A quick mention for the instruction manual, which in places is quite difficult to understand – possibly due to poor initial translation – and it needs a good subbing and a run-through with a spellchecker.
Performance
Without the distractions of other unrelated tasks the NVR can concentrate on the job of making recordings. This is something it does very well and on our test setup images from an Axis IP camera were faithfully recorded and reproduced on the medium to high resolution settings, nothing added and nothing taken away, so picture quality is potentially as good as the cameras and network connections allow.
