It was a bit quiet in the office today so I decided to get acquainted with a new Hi-Definition 1080p Pan Tilt Zoom (PTZ) camera that I bought recently.

My word it is good, Hi-Def on steroids. As well as fast rotation speeds, it has infra-red so even in these days of councils turning off lighting at night, we can see what is going on in total darkness, 100 of metres away. It uses the broadcast standard HD-SDI, this means the transmitted images are uncompressed, so latency (delay) is minimal.

In due course I will post some images from the camera.

Of course these sort of products don’t come cheap. But then again proper CCTV surveillance doesn’t come cheap. If you want it to work properly 24 hours a day, in all weathers, under all lighting conditions then don’t be misled by cheap systems, you might regret it!