Features Of IP Video Cameras That Just Might Be Overkill

By James Marcella, Director of Technical Services, Axis Communications

Nobody wants to pay a premium for a product based on features that they don’t need — particularly in small to medium sized business with budget constraints. Yet every year network camera manufacturers continue to innovate delivering new solutions that push the envelope. The average installation at best leverages only 25 percent of a cameras feature set, so why pay for the other 75 percent?  Some common features that differentiate cameras but could be considered overkill include on-board analytics, wide dynamic range (WDR), image stabilization, and megapixel resolution. There is a business case that would justify some or all of the features listed above, but in most cases they are niche solutions to specific scene requirements. 

Defining operational requirements for a scene determines whether you want to detect, recognize, or identify a person or classify an object. This is the basis for determining resolution of a camera as each are measured by “pixels on target.” For instance, you need 80 pixels across the width of a person’s face to adequately identify them. There is no need to pay a premium for a megapixel camera if you can achieve the same result with an SVGA (super video graphics array) image. In some cases even an analog camera that is digitized through an encoder can deliver usable results.

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