Hikvision 8MP Acusense Review

Hikvision 8MP Acusense – Hikvision’s Acusense 4K fixed turret camera features 8MP resolution supported by Darkfighter technology to enhance low light performance, integrated IR, H.265 compression, 120dB of WDR, and a robust part-metal build that’s rated IP67 against water and dust.

Hikvision’s Acusense is more a solution than a camera and we’re testing outside the SEN network using the DS-7732NI-I4-16 32 channel, with 16 PoE Ports, 256Mbps throughput, H.265, 4K, 1.5RU, featuring 4 x HDD Bays + a 3TB HDD. This NVR features a 4-core processor and supports H.265 intelligent compression, which aims to reduce bandwidth and storage requirements by up to 50 per cent.

Before we get into the specifications of this Hikvision 8MP Acusense camera, it’s worth pointing out that the key to this camera is Acusense technology – a deep learning algorithm able to distinguish pedestrians, vehicles and objects and report events based on rules around what they do. Video clips are sorted into categories – people and vehicles – users click one of these categories and use time or location data to quickly locate the clip they need, making searches faster, as filtration has already been applied to footage.

Key to this solution is that once it’s set up, the Hikvision 8MP Acusense camera does this automatically, all the time, and it also filters out ‘noise’ so if there’s an event, you’re not battling through a river of video. Before we go on, I’m going to quickly run over the specs, though the idea with this test is to focus on the Acusense deep learning algorithm, rather than on the camera.

Hikvision 8MP Acusense specifications

Hikvision’s DS-2CD2386G2-IU 4K AcuSense turret camera has a fixed 2.8mm lens, a ½-inch progressive scan CMOS, giving 3840 × 2160 pixels at 20ips, 120dB WDR, a Darkfighter camera engine, H.265+, H.265, H.264+ and H.264 compression, support for micro SD/SDHC/SDXC up to 256GB, and a built-in microphone. The camera delivers dual video streams, 3D digital noise reduction, has 30 metres of IR, 3-axis adjustment. It’s worth pointing out that the I model is IP66 and the IU model is IP67-rated.

Lens options include 2.8, 4 and 6mm, with a modest aperture of F1.6. The 2.8mm version, which I’m using for this test, has a horizontal field of view of 110 degrees and a vertical field of view of 60 degrees, which is ideal for my street application. Build is cast alloy with a plastic trim ring and the 138.3mm x 126.3mm camera weighs 740g and has an operating temperature of -30 to 60C and a current draw of 5.8W.

Image setting include saturation, brightness, contrast, sharpness, AGC and white balance adjustable by client software or web browser, there’s day/night switch and day/night/auto/schedule. Security features include password protection, complicated password, HTTPS encryption, 802.1X authentication (EAP-MD5), watermark, IP address filter, basic and digest authentication for HTTP/HTTPS, WSSE and digest authentication for ONVIF and TLS1.2. There’s simultaneous live view of up to 6 channels.

Hikvision’s latest AcuSense network camera is also equipped with built-in strobe light and audio alarm, which can be triggered when a potential intruder has been accurately detected. This is designed to warn an intruder off before they attempt to breach the perimeter.

A quick summation of camera performance – this is an excellent turret with strong resolution and good colour rendition – I notice a bit of over exposure or veiling flare in very bright areas – perhaps because the lens is so close to the front window of the turret. Something I like for the street is that this combination of wide view and high-resolution means that Acusense won’t miss much.

Hikvision Acusense Technology

Acusense (for accurate sensing) is where the rubber meets the road. It’s hard to express the operational paradigm shift that Acusense brings in words. With this camera you don’t view the monitor so much as trawl smart reports looking for humans and vehicles. In a real sense, I found myself getting up from the workstation and walking away – leaving the Acusense turret to do its thing. I knew I could return and see all the people and vehicle movements whenever I wanted/needed to.

As day and night go by, the Hikvision 8MP Acusense just goes on snaring pedestrian and vehicle movements. In my street application it was grabbing incidents I was unaware were even taking place in remote corners of the scene. Camera performance – resolution and moderately wide angle of view supported by Darkfighter technology – is good enough day and night that useful information is always to be found – and found quickly. And that’s really this solution in a nutshell.

The Hikvision 8MP Acusense deep learning algorithm is designed among other things, to automatically catch movements of classified objects – pedestrians and cars and ‘other’ – the point of capture on approach is around 20m in my estimation. Subjects coming from behind the camera are caught shortly after they appear. As well as human and vehicle sensing, the camera can also capture faces and manages this while at the same time filtering out false triggers and managing the stresses of changing light, and foliage, pet and wildlife movements.

AcuSense really does make searches faster and more accurate – it’s totally different from the technique of scrolling through a timeline, though you can do that using the Hikvision NVR, should you choose. Instead, with Hikvision AcuSense, there’s a quick target search feature that lets store owners, homeowners, installers or facilities managers go through events incident by incident – you might focus on time, you might focus on subject. What’s great is that the system has already found incidents and its up to you to select the right one.

Managing the process is surprisingly easy, once you’ve learned your way around the NVR interface – incidents are a couple of clicks away and are displayed as collections of incidents within time related pages, which makes finding an event – or finding a person involved in an incident – much easier.

Conclusion

Hikvision’s Acusense solution is designed for applications where in the past, searches might have been put into the too-hard basket. It automatically classifies subjects so that when an investigation is required the hard work is already done – all the user need do is scroll through a list of events already collated by the system.

Acusense works so well it renders an operator hands-off. Usually I sit around staring at the monitor all day when conducting a test but with this system there was none of that – the camera did all the work and every so often I would take a look at events – it really does change the way you monitor a CCTV camera. Does this camera highlight a future where operational requirements are supported by quality video streams and deep learning algorithms? It definitely does.

More details about other products from Hikvision here and you can also read more camera reviews from SEN news here.

Features include:

* ½-inch progressive scan CMOS, 8MP
* Darkfighter technology
* AcuSense human and vehicle target classification
* Dual video streams
* 2.8mm fixed lens
* 120dB WDR
* 3D digital noise reduction.

“Something I like for the street is that this combination of wide view and high-resolution means that Acusense won’t miss much.”