4.11 Operating Multiple Cameras
4.11.1 Overview
Modern video control centers are increasingly equipped with computers that sup-
plement or replace analog video technology components and features. Due to the
low resolution of TV screens, one monitor can usually display only one camera
when using analog technology. Sometimes, up to four cameras need to be dis-
played on one screen resulting in even poorer image quality (quad display).
Using computers and high-resolution computer monitors opens the cost-efficient
possibility to display considerably more than just four cameras on a single monitor
while providing high resolution. In this scenario, the computer retrieves the IP ca-
meras' data over the network and those of the analog cameras from a digitizer
(frame grabber card). Camera management and display on one or several moni-
tors is achieved through an application that, depending on its features, is called eit-
her a video management or control center application.
In the past, this solution had the disadvantage that one could not speak of
live
image display any longer if more than a handful of cameras were displayed. At a
frame rate as low as two to five images per second, the display was jerky and not
smooth.
This was due to the fact that displaying the video streams on the monitor required
the computer to decompress the camera images previously compressed by an
MPEG4 decoder. Uncompressed data, on the other hand, can only be transferred
at highly reduced image quality and low resolution or not at all, due to the extre-
mely high bandwidth needed and the resulting high network load.
This results in special performance requirements for the computer, the software
and the compression method used (e.g. MPEG4, MxPEG). The key to fast video
display is the method of compressing and decompressing the video data as
fast and efficiently as possible.
© MOBOTIX AG • Security-Vision-Systems • Made in Germany
www.mobotix.com • sales@mobotix.com • 10.10.2006
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Software Camera Manual Part 2
MOBOTIX cameras can
easily display more than
four cameras on one moni-
tor!
Note
Programs and processes can be displayed and removed using special
applications (such as the Windows Task Manager). Deactivating or re-
moving processes, however, may require fundamental knowledge of
the operating system. Windows operating systems may require mani-
pulating the Windows registry; on Linux systems, you may need to
change configuration files. Make sure that you have the required
knowledge before attempting to make these changes. We strongly re-
commend to backup your system before attempting to do this.
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