Panasonic’s Shiny New 16-Input DVR

PANASONIC’S new WJ-RT416 is a powerful video surveillance solution that’s engineered to incorporate some of the best features of current generation DVRs in a seriously affordable package. The keystone of this new machine’s power is the use of one analog-to-digital encoder for each pair of video inputs. The use of multiple MPEG-4 encoders is a nice piece of design and these encoders and the DVR’s processors combine to simultaneously deliver 25 ips on all inputs with a strong resolution of 704 x 288 pixels. The specifications of the WJ-RT416 highlight the fact this unit was designed to gives users as much as possible of what they want the most – greater frame rates, greater resolution – and to support the increased load, more storage space – lots more storage space. Each of these DVRs has 6 HDD bays and employing 500GB Seagate drives you’d get 3TB from the RT416. There’s no mention of it in Panasonic’s literature but you’d have to expect that use of Seagate’s big 750GB Barracuda drives or the new generation of 1TB drives coming through would significantly enhance storage capacity and/or allow disk mirroring. Either way, the presence of 6 HDD bays onboard is a real bonus.Panasonic has built the WJ-RT416 with MPEG-4 compression – it’s a Compression technique specifically designed for smooth recording ofmoving objects. The high compression efficiency capacity of the HDD allows formore effective utilization and longer recording compared with other methods.Data can be transferred over the network using a smaller bandwidth, allowingfor smoother image monitoring and better quality results. As with all good DVR solutions, the WJ-RT416 has a front panel offering all those intuitive VCR-style controls. You can control the whole system on a monitor with no need for a networked environment if that suits you best. In a networked environment, you install the supplied software on a PC to allow monitoring and system management to be handled at a workstation and this control includes things like live image monitoring, playback of recorded images, recording rate setting flexibility and date/time checks to name just a few. The Net client monitoring software, which is included on a CD, allows both live viewing and playback from multiple units and also site mapping. Live images and site maps can be viewed simultaneously at an authorized workstation with dual monitor outputs. The WJ-RT416 offers a number of intelligent recording functions including timer recording. This setting enables users to set up the days of the week, the time frame for each individual camera and automatic recording – essentially it means you can lift frame rates and image quality to coincide with proven hotspot times and locations. Alarm and motion detection recording is also included, activated when motion is detected within the image of the camera; and terminal input recording is started by events such as input signals from sensors (there are 16 alarm inputs). In either networked or standalone environments, the WJ-RT416 offers live monitoring with multi screen display imaging. The monitor screen can be divided into 4, 6, 9, and 16 multiple frames so images from different cameras can all be observed at the same time. Images recorded in the WJ-RT416 can be copied to external recording media for easy transport and provides an invaluable tool for the police in crime investigation procedures. According to Rexel Australia’s Rocco Palladino, Panasonic’s new WJ-RT416 makes searching for recorded images as easy as you’d expect it to be. “Direct time and date search is possible and this enables users to enter a specific date and time, displaying all of the images captured closest to that time frame.“This is an exceptional solution,” Palladino says. “It’s a neat and complete package that’s strong in the all important areas of resolution, frame rate and storage capacity as well as being competitive in price.”Fact file:Features of the new Panasonic WJ-RT416 include:* 400 images per second* 6 HDD bays (at least 3TB storage)* 16 video inputs* 704 x 288 pixel resolution * 1 encoder per 2 inputs* Full network capability* Distributed by Rexel Video