Megapixel Security Camera Comparison

Viseum Intelligent Megapixel AI Surveillance Camera

Gigapixel Analytics 360° Megapixel AI Surveillance Camera

Automatically protects up to the size of 4 Olympic Stadiums.

The internationally proven Viseum Intelligent Megapixel Security Camera. This system holds several fixed cameras and one moving PTZ Camera in one unit, with video analytics software. It verifies and monitors the whole scene at all times. It detects, zooms into and follows every suspect, wherever they enter, move or leave.

• Britain’s largest police force called it their best crime deterrent. They described it as a virtual gigapixel camera, a virtual operator and a virtual guard.
• Operates completely automatically: identifying, confirming and following incidents close up and in every direction.
• Multi-HD-Camera view of each incident: PTZ Camera Close-up View and Wide Contextual View. See the lead up to the incident, what happened after and who else witnessed it.

The Problem:

This news will worry megapixel camera marketers. Stuart Thompson, President of the Viseum UK Group and CEO of Viseum International Limited, said: “Overselling has led people to assume more megapixels means more coverage. That is a myth and a mis-sale.” In low light, every wide-area megapixel camera loses coverage. The small pixel size degrades the light passing through the camera. Merging pixels to hide that failure lowers quality again. When such a project does capture a crime, it makes headline news. But with well-managed constantly monitored PTZ Camera installations, the ability to capture evidence is standard.

Set aside the coverage and low light problems. A wide-area megapixel camera still cannot get the right video to the right people in time. Searching takes too long, and storage and bandwidth costs are extreme. Stuart Thompson added: “We are happy to expose the megapixel myth. The industry is waking up to the need for fit for purpose AI situational awareness.”

Also, as with prosumer and consumer digital cameras, just upping the megapixel count is not enough. This on its own does not necessarily give you better quality images and more coverage. The fact is wide-area megapixel cameras are never used for effective people surveillance in large wide areas. You would need too many units, with extreme bandwidth and storage, to make it viable. For example, a typical public parking area needs 40 standard megapixel cameras, or four constantly monitored Viseum PTZ Camera installations. The other selling point was that PTZ cameras are rarely manned. The claim was that a megapixel camera covers everywhere, so no operator is needed.

The Solution: 

A viable system needs modern optics. It also needs the camera pointing the right way, so it captures quality images. It must also use the low bandwidth and storage already available. In practice a PTZ camera is rarely monitored at all times. The problem remained until 2002, when Stuart Thompson proved the solution worldwide. Viseum technology arrived for good reasons. Its cameras grew in popularity right through economic downturns. The main benefit is automated Video Monitoring local to the PTZ Camera. It protects the remote site without a monitoring network.

Bandwidth and storage

The solution was to use the readily available low transmission bandwidth and data storage capacity. This solution made the Viseum UK Group a pioneer of security and surveillance technology.