ARTICLES

The security industry has historically suffered from a lack of any accepted standards for the measurement of illumination distances. Methods for measuring achievable distances have typically been left to the subjective interpretation of individual manufacturers without any scientific basis – resulting in varying claims. It is not uncommon to have two illuminators with a similar light output, that are quoted with wildly different maximum distances – because each manufacturer has a different opinion on what is classed as an acceptable image quality at their maximum distances. The first problem is... Read More

Over time technology improves, and the cost of that technology comes down. We can certainly see this with surveillance cameras where there has been some price erosion. This means that lighting manufacturers must also respond with lower cost solutions. If the cost of a video surveillance camera falls, then it follows that the price of lighting must also fall to support that camera. LED lighting is a global growth technology attracting lots of investment. Consequently, the performance of LEDs is constantly improving and developing. Modern illuminators that are purpose designed... Read More

There is little doubt that cameras are getting better in low light conditions. All of the major camera manufacturers now have low-light models that are highly sensitive to light. These cameras are designed to maximise any available light on scene to produce images at night. But remember, these are low light cameras, not no-light cameras. All cameras need light to see, whether that’s in the security industry, photographic industry, televisual industry or integrated into your smart phone. Good lighting and a noise free image will also lower your bandwidth and... Read More

The increased use of multi-sensor cameras also creates a demand for more powerful illumination. With multi-sensor cameras, huge areas can be monitored by stitching together multiple images, so that the end user can deploy fewer cameras to save on installation costs. A multi-sensor MP camera can cover the whole scene effectively and its digital zoom enables investigation of areas of interest. The challenge from a lighting perspective is that huge areas need to be illuminated from a single location – close to the camera. When you are replacing multiple cameras... Read More

Over the last few years we’ve seen a steady rise in users demanding more detail from their surveillance images at night. High megapixel and multi-sensor cameras are being used to provide evidential detail, not just an overview of a scene. This represents a big leap forward in image quality for the security industry. But more pixels require more light. High megapixel and 4k cameras need professional lighting to enable the higher resolutions that they are capable of – especially at night. Without dedicated lighting their performance will degrade back to... Read More

Many of today’s latest camera trends are IP based. IP video surveillance systems allow end users to monitor their site and respond dynamically to any event, at any time. When designing lighting for intelligent IP systems, it is important that your lighting provides this same level of control and interactivity. The latest developments in network illuminators offer the most flexible solutions for high performance night time surveillance. Network illuminators can be operated: a) manually, through a user friendly GUI that allows operators to respond to real time events and adjust... Read More

Gone are the days when surveillance lighting was used as a stand-alone entity. Today, the smartest LED network lighting can be fully integrated into the heart of any IP video surveillance system. It is designed to communicate seamlessly with all devices on your network, and automatically respond to any incident at any time. Raytec’s VARIO 2 IP range of Network Lighting is dedicated to helping IP cameras get the best images at night and deterring crime. It is fully programmable meaning that you can configure it in any way you... Read More

Integrated Web Interface Raytec VARIO IP network illuminators have an integrated web interface to provide direct control over the illuminator. This allows easy, simple set-up and configuration from anywhere on the network. It also allows an operator to take direct control over individual illuminators or groups of illuminators to respond to events on site in real time, adjusting the illuminator for the best performance. Used in this way, lighting can be instantly adjusted to deliver the best CCTV images at any time, or to respond to operational changes on site.... Read More