07.01.2009 — How many times have you watched the news and seen grainy security camera images of bank robberies or convenience store robberies? The images are usually so bad you can’t even tell if it’s a person or moose committing the crime.

Why are consumers so vehement about having HD in their entertainment systems, but business owners (except for casino security managers) are satisfied with mediocre image quality?

Well, five security equipment manufacturers have formed the High-Definition Closed Circuit Television (HDcctv) Alliance to promote high-definition video in the security field.

The charter members are Comart System, Everfocus, Gennum, Ovii and Stretch.

How it All Works

HDcctv video is transmitted uncompressed and without being encapsulated in TCP/IP. As a result, a camera can be plugged into a receiving device and display video without latency and with zero configuration.

The Alliance hopes to bring all of the benefits claimed by megapixel IP cameras to the CCTV market with the ease of use of conventional analog CCTV equipment.

HDcctv is a point-to-point system that can use standard coaxial cable (RG-59, RG-6 and RG-11). The cable length restriction is currently 100 meters for RG-59. According to the Alliance, changing a conventional analog camera system to HDcctv only requires a drop-in replacement of the existing analog CCTV with a new camera and receiver.

The Alliance says operating at 720p provides almost three times the video resolution of analog CCTV, while 1080p provides six times the resolution. The technology also claims to eliminate flicker and blurring.

For the installers, the only difference between HDcctv and conventional CCTV is that the DVR recording configuration screens show higher values (1280 x 720 and/or 1920 x 1080) in the pull-downs.

Why has this taken so long to hit the market? Because the microchips capable of capturing surveillance-grade HD images were previously unaffordable. Now that costs have come down, manufacturers can make high-quality HD cameras.