VC (Videocontrol)

With little fanfare or many of us even taking notice, it’s become a digital world. Look around, so many products incorporate digital technology. Cars, cameras, and microwaves all utilize digital technology. Personal digital TV recorders are rapidly gaining popularity. Many feature film directors now shoot with digital cameras. And all those MP3 players? That’s digital technology providing listeners with thousands of songs in a device you can hold in your hand. How has this process of digitization come about, and what are the effects for the security industry? The process of digitization makes products function better and more efficiently for the end user, and over time they also become cheaper—a powerful combination. Most products follow an  evolutionary path beginning with discovery, through stages of constant technological innovation, and then mass production. A good example is the radio. In the 1960s, radios were bulky, expensive pieces of furniture. The 70s saw the advent of the tabletop transistor radio. Now, what once occupied an entire corner of the living room can now be added to your watch at the cost of a few dollars. The digitization process starts with first generation products that are not as good as the existing technology and are usually many times more expensive. Typically, enthusiastic “early adopters” are the main market for this product generation, users who appreciate it simply because the technology is new. With continuous product improvement come better-functioning products, lower costs, and a steadily growing customer base. After a few years, the product based on digital technology begins to dominate the entire market.

Network cameras have been around for a number of years; the first one was released in 1996. In the early years, network camera technology was not on par with that of professional level analog cameras. They were thought of as web cameras used to view objects and events over the Internet or a LAN. Initially designed to take advantage of digital imaging, networking, and the Internet in new application areas, these cameras were not used for surveillance  applications. That has certainly changed. Over the last year, network cameras have caught up with analog camera technology and now meet the same requirements and specifications and, as we’ll see below, in some important areas network cameras surpass analog camera performance.