First HDCCTV Alliance spec released

SYDNEY, Australia—The HDCCTV Alliance, a security industry consortium based here that manages and promotes technical standards for HDCCTV equipment interoperability, announced in January the ratification of version 1.0 of the HDCCTV Specification. Alliance members are already introducing HDCCTV-compliant products, which provide the equivalent of one- and two-megapixel video surveillance footage via coax cable and traditional CCTV infrastructure without having to transmit video using IP protocol.

“We believe in it,” said Gary Perlin, VP of video products at Speco Technologies, of the HDCCTV concept. “We think there's a tremendous market for this specification.”

Why, with the rapid proliferation of IP HD cameras, some of which provide as much as 16 megapixels, does Perlin think HDCCTV has so much promise? “I think that the need for megapixel resolution goes without saying. The industry has been hampered by poor picture quality for many years, either end users expecting too much out of cameras or the performance just not being there. And megapixel can help solve that problem. Zooming in digitally is a great thing.”

The problem? “A lot of the analog people in the industry—maybe 98 percent of installers—they don't want to be bothered with networking at this point. HDCCTV allows them to use their tools and cables and knowledge and provide megapixel resolution.”

Speco will have cameras that meet the HDCCTV spec for ISC West, Perlin said, and he hopes to have HD DVRs as well.

“The customer who's never quite happy with the picture quality he got on an installation? You can drop this camera in,” he said, “with this higher resolution monitor and recorder, and go back in there without having to chance the whole infrastructure. And those people who may have walked away from jobs in the past can now go in and compete on a megapixel job.”