WestPoint · Cameras · Vivotek
Vivotek made its name with the fisheye. It is still its ground.
Taiwanese, today inside the Delta group. A medium-sized professional catalogue, meant to fit into other people's video software, and with a deserved reputation in panoramic ceiling cameras.
What kind of manufacturer it is.
A medium-sized manufacturer that has chosen to be a good guest in other people's houses.
Its bet is integration: equipment that gets along with almost any video software, with tools for configuring in batches and without forcing you to build its own system. For an integrator that is convenient, and for the customer it means not being tied down.
Where it is recognised is in the panoramic ceiling camera: a camera with a fisheye lens that covers a whole room from one point, and the software then straightens the image so it can be looked at in pieces. Used well it replaces three cameras and three cables.
What it sacrifices is scale and the very top range. It does not have the catalogue of the giants nor the specialisation of the niche houses, and on very large projects it turns up less. In exchange the professional range is at a reasonable price and behaves predictably.
Where it behaves well.
Indoors with a low ceiling where the whole room has to be seen: shops, offices, classrooms, waiting rooms, till areas, corridors that cross. One camera in the ceiling instead of three on the walls, with one cable route instead of three.
And in medium installations with the video software already decided, where what is wanted is professional equipment that goes in without a fight and without paying for a whole family of equipment.
Where we would not put it.
And the first thing has to be said plainly, because it is the most frequent misunderstanding with panoramic cameras.
A fisheye camera shares its pixels over the whole room, so the detail drops as you move away from the centre. It is good for knowing what is happening and which way everybody went; not for identifying whoever comes in through a door twelve metres away. Where that is needed, another camera goes pointing at the door, and the two things do not replace each other.
Nor do we propose it in hard outdoor conditions with long distances, or on large projects where what is required is a long commitment on life cycle and spares. There are houses with more muscle to hold that up for ten years.
The analytics it carries inside, and where they stop.
The current range brings intrusion detection in zones, people counting and classification of what is moving, and on the panoramic ones the counting over the straightened image works well for knowing how many people come in and which way they go.
The limit has something of its own: over a fisheye image, a person at the edge looks stretched and small, so any analytics get it right less often there than in the centre. That is not fixed with settings; it is fixed by placing the camera so that the important area is near the centre.
What comes now is a recommendation with an interest of our own, so it is declared: in the same house there is IRIS Neural, the NVMS from Infinity Neural, the other company in the group. It is our own product. We would rather you knew it by reading this line.
What it brings is understanding the situation and not just counting crossings, and relating that camera to the rest. And if what was needed was knowing how many people go through an area, the camera on its own is enough and we say so.
What we do.
- Deciding what a panoramic camera solves and what it does not, point by point. The usual thing is a panoramic one for the room and an ordinary camera for the door, not one instead of the other.
- The height and the exact place in the ceiling, which on a panoramic camera is the whole decision: the area that has to end up near the centre rules, not the symmetry of the suspended ceiling.
- The light in the premises, because a panoramic camera looks everywhere at once and that includes the window: with a shop window in backlight, half the image is going to burn out and that has to be allowed for.
- The setting up with the premises running and at the busiest hour, and the check that the straightened image looks right in the customer's software, which is not always the manufacturer's.
- The maintenance: firmware, the customer's passwords, cleaning the bubble and a check of the field of view at every visit.
The angle and the height are not decided at fitting time.
On a panoramic ceiling camera there is no angle to adjust afterwards: the only thing decided is where you drill and what height it ends up at. At three metres and over the area that matters, the image is useful for years; half a metre higher and four metres out of place, and the useful part of the scene ends up at the edge, which is where this kind of camera sees worst. That is decided in the project, with the ceiling plan in front of you.
Where to go next.
Before choosing a camera you have to decide what is asked of each image: to see, to recognise or to identify. That is what the area talks about.
Get started
Do you want to cover a room with a single camera?
Tell us what the premises are like, what height the ceiling is at and what you would have to be able to see: whether knowing what is happening and which way is enough, or whether people have to be recognised. With that we will tell you whether one panoramic camera is enough or whether two cameras are needed.