A couple of months ago I was up in Brisbane for a week and I took the time to visit Avigilon in the big Technology Park at Eight Mile Plains. I’ve seen Avigilon around before – and we’ve written the product up as well as running case studies – the most notable being an install at Canberra Stadium. One of the cameras Avigilon’s Matthew Fisher took the time to demonstrate to me was the 16 Megapixel camera it first released in 2007. Avigilon says its 16 megapixel camera is able to replace 50 cameras with 640 x 480 resolution and it’s fair to say that the demo shows this camera lives up to the hype. One of the most impressive things about the camera was the ability to zoom across significant open space and peer into an underground carpark on the other side with enough resolution to recognise the type of vehicles inside. The distance was maybe 300 metres. Something surprising to me was the fact the car park was dark but the camera was managing the job nicely. The company uses scientific grade CCDs in its cameras and the Canon lenses work well, too. There’s no doubt in my mind the current leader in big megapixel cameras is Avigilon.
