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 Frequently Asked Questions


DETAILS | Digital Video Systems

Question: Our town currently have 67 PTZ cameras connected to an analogue system which to be expanded to 120, preferably digital – How will your products accommodate this?

The exact placement, interconnect-ability and number of operators to simultaneously access and control the cameras dictate the configuration.  In a city centre here the cameras can only be connected by a low bandwidth link (ISDN or even radio) a “COGNITO VIDEO SERVER” will have to be placed at each point to which one or more camera can be connected with a video cable (co-axial or fiber optic).  The Video server compresses he images at full frame speed (25 or 30 frames/sec) which depends on whether the cameras are synchronized or not (down to about 14 frames/sec).  The images can be stored locally and only some of them transmitted to the central control or all of them transmitted and stored centrally.  The "VIDEO SERVER" will continue operation and recording even if the connection to the central control fails and can also act as a "HOT STANDBY" should the central control fail.

If all cameras are accessible by video cable or fiber optic cable, node points are still selected to position “COGNITO VIDEO SERVER”s but now the number are dictated by the required speed of recording.  We have found that 3 or 5 images per camera per second is normally more than adequate which will allow five cameras per “VIDEO SERVER” with full Pan, Tilt and Zoom control as well as full Video Motion Detection (including 3 dimensional and direction sensing) and resolution, brightness etc settings.  There is no limit to the number of cameras per “VIDEO SERVER” or number of  “VIDEO SERVER”s per systems.  The decision is dictated by cost against the final recording speed.  Note that each camera can be set to record at its own individual speed at individual times.

Question: What is the resolution of the digital recorder?

The resolution is fully selectable with standard settings – full image, single field, 2/3 field and half field.  For license plate recognition, face recognition and other high resolution, single field requirements we use double width resolution on a single field.

Question: How many video inputs does the COGNITO comprise and how is it networked and managed?

The COGNITO system is the “big system” comprising of the hardware of the smaller systems as building blocks.  COGNITO comprises of a central data warehouse (running on LINUX or Windows NT) connected by TCP/IP networks to user interfaces and Video Servers.  Each Video Server runs either under LINUX or Windows and can accept one or more Video Digitizers (“Frame Grabbers”) each of which can record and analyze 30 (25 for the PAL system in Europe etc) images per second.  The COGNITO further consists of “IntelliNodes”, which is the interface between commercial products and the Computers. Its VIDEO interfacing muliplexes or matrix switches video cameras to these digitizers at up to 30 images (60 fields) per second (synchronized).

The “User Interfaces” displays images and information, controls the PTZ’z and set up the system parameters.

Question:  What does an expandable system with 67 video cameras cost?

The cost is dependent on the configuration.  With installation cost excluded the two extreme cases are as follows:

Minimum Option:

Functionality (All cameras Synchronized):
One or two PTZ’s active showing 3 frames/sec and the rest recording at just over one frame per second.

Maximum Option:

Functionality:
All PTZ’s active showing 25 frames/sec or whatever the specific TCP/IP connection will allow. 
Years of images stored.

Question: What is the configuration for only one back up per week?

These days a removable HDD is used the size of which depends on the recording tempo which again depends of the amont of movement in the relevant parts of the images recorded.  A 40GB HDD per Warehouse or server is normally more than adequate.  Back-up is fully outomatic with a warning to the operator given if the Back-up HDD becomes full.  

Question: What are the VMD abilities of the system

Each Video Server incorporates sophisticated VMD abilities, which include:
Eight sets of up to 1024 sensitive points with each set with its own sensitivity, vibration and cloud settings etc. per camera.  The system knows which set of sensors was triggered which allows 3 dimensional VMD, direction sensitivity, tracking etc.
A VMD option is available on each IntelliNode, which will VMD up to eight cameras.

Question: Can an incident be recorded on other mediums for court purposes?

The COGNITO has a great number of different options for saving details and images of incidents.  The originals are optionally encrypted (date and time watermarked) while copies can be enhanced and manipulated without the originals being affected.  Copying and backing up does not affect recording tempos.  Specific incidents can be recorded on analogue recorders under COGNITO control.

Question: Does Cognito, Digital Watchdog and Digital Watchman come as a standard packages or can they be installed on an existing system?

The products come as configurable packages that can be interfaced with any conceivable system and can accept connections from most "commercial" products like video cameras, card readers, alarm sensors, gate controls etc.

Question: Does a Video Server malfunction inhibit recording of cameras connected to it?

By using the matrix option in the cameras can be directed to another Video server should a video server or digitizer malfunction.  By duplicating IntelliNodes, possible IntelliNode malfunction is also overcome.  The many operational systems prove that such malfunctions are very unlikely to occur.

Question: Can one prove that an image was not changed?

The originals are optionally encrypted (date and time watermarked) while copies can be enhanced and manipulated without the originals being affected.  Certain procedures are sometimes followed in extracting originals from the products in the presence of witnesses to further ensure acceptance in court.  Every usage of any of the versions (Cognito, Digital Watchdog and Digital Watchman) is logged in encrypted files to ensure logs of all that was done.

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