Whenever we receive a press release containing information about surveillance cameras, 99% of them ends up in recycle bin - after all, most of them are recycled news: same CMOS sensor, same capabilities, maybe increased processing rate or difference between power over Ethernet, wireless mode and so on.
But this time around, we received a pleasant surprise - on display, at least. AirLive just announced AirCam POE-200HD, a surveillance camera with a kick. Seeing POE and HD rose some hopes - by the time we ended up reading the press release, I was enthused.
What's so special about POE-200HD? For starters, this surveillance camera comes with a 1.3 MegaPixel CMOS sensor of high quality, unlike the majority of other surveillance cameras. The CMOS sensor was attached to the powerful image processor, meaning this camera can capture a resolution of 1280x1024 pixels at 15 frames per second. In baseline VGA mode, the camera captures up to 30 fps. This camera relives the need to combine this camera with image enhancing software in order to read the information on the images. Data and power go through the 100Mbps Ethernet port.
In order to capture images in high quality and yet does not smolder your network with megabytes of image data, POE-200HD is one of first cameras to use H.264 encoder, reducing the image size by 80% when compared to usual Motion JPEG format used by vast majority of cameras on the market. AirLive also claims that it reduces the file size by 50% when compared to MPEG-4. The camera comes with AirLive CamPro Express monitoring software enabling you to cover up to 32 IP cameras via web user interface, so that you can check monitored locations regardless of your location.
AirLive's suggested retail price is 319 USD in North America or 215 EUR in the EMEA region. We have requested a sample and as soon as it arrives, you can be sure we'll perform thorough testing of this interesting product.
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