Why HD IP CCTV?
Why HD IP CCTV?
IP CCTV has gained huge popularity over recent years with sales figures suggesting 50% of all CCTV sold is now IP based. If it's picture quality you favour first and foremost then it's likely that you will want to go with HD IP CCTV. With no unnecessary conversions of the digital signal from the camera to the NVR, IP based systems offer superior picture quality, and with very high Megapixel sensors are able to achieve very high resolutions resulting in extremely sharp pictures.
Another major benefit of IP HD CCTV is POE. Most IP cameras these days support it, and it's great. POE (power over Ethernet) enables the camera to be powered down the same cable that all the data is sent through. This is excellent for cable management as only a single cable is needed to the camera. Most NVRs now also have the POE switch built into them to add to this convenience and making our CCTV Kits plug and play.
Also you can also make use of any existing network infrastructure to connect a system up, meaning if you have a home/business with Cat5 across the building already for PCs, you could add a simple switch and a POE injector to add a camera without laying new cable the whole distance.
So if IP based systems offer super sharp pictures and single cable solutions then why would anybody choose anything else? Well, razor sharp images come at a cost, that cost being storage capacity. The higher quality the image, the more storage you will need to save all this footage and things can start to get even more expensive on top of the already higher priced IP system.
IP systems can be prone to latency issues aswell. Though most of the time this "lag" is minimal and not really an issue, it can never be fully eradicated.
Finally a note on HD over Coax (HDTVI/AHD etc) - these are now a compromise between analogue and IP and do deliver a great picture (but capped at 2MP) at a lesser cost but no networking benefits are included.
