THIS year’s SecTech Camera Shootout, sponsored by CSD and Milestone, will have an operational focus – we will run through multiple scenarios and assess camera performance but we’re also going to focus on the ability of some of the industry’s best-selling camera types to support the face recognition and license plate recognition functionalities of the Milestone XProtect VMS.
The categories we intend to cover this year are 2 of the best-selling camera types – external domes and external bullet cameras. We will also test the 36x-plus PTZ cameras again at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney and this year we will record our test for presentation in subsequent cities – Adelaide and Perth.
Something that has been a struggle in the past has been the setup process. The fact so many changes have taken place during the shootout has made life extremely tough for our VMS provider in each city – it gets easier as we travel but is never easy enough and the first couple of cities are always very difficult for the VMS engineers.
To simplify the process, we are going to undertake the commissioning process over 5 days in a dedicated and fully-controlled space at the CSD office in Sydney with support from the Milestone team, and then travel with a fully integrated solution. To achieve this, each camera must be commissioned and adjusted to best handle the expected conditions before the first city (Melbourne).
There will be a small amount of time allotted to tweaking basic camera settings before each demonstration, but we don’t want code writers under the test jig making the lives of our VMS operators more complicated than they need to be as has happened in previous years.
With this in mind, SecTech Roadshow Camera Shootout organisers won’t accept any beta camera versions this year – all cameras entered into the Camera Shootout must be available to market and must integrate with the Milestone XProtect VMS.
We will be providing a standard mounting plate for cameras – cameras will be attached during commissioning and will then remain on their mounting plates throughout the roadshow. Cameras will be packed in a dedicated road case after initial commissioning in Sydney so setup in Melbourne will be as plug and play as possible. After each city, cameras will be re-packed in their dedicated road case.
Something that posed a singular challenge last year was the physical setup of the PTZ cameras at Randwick Racecourse – we had cameras on tripods, cameras on rails, cameras attached to road cases – it was far too organic. To simplify the process, each PTZ entered in the shootout must be delivered with a base-mount or pendant-mount tripod capable of positioning the camera lens at a height of 2m.
Each dome and bullet camera must be supplied with a 10m drop cable. Each PTZ must be supplied with a 20m drop cable and a power supply and 20m power cable. To make breakdown easier, the cables should be labelled so they can be flaked and stored with the relevant camera.
Our test parameters will include low light, backlight, IR (Vivotek unit) and a strobe, but at all times we’re going to be hunting for operational outcomes – face recognition and LPR among them. To this end we’ll be using test targets Norman and Ronnie Rotakin, but we’ll also be using a rotating license plate unit, as well as calling on the participation from members of the audience.
As usual, we will be providing a workstation, a PoE switch of commensurate size with redundant power supplies, and multiple lighting systems, including adjustable white light and IR. Our targets will be around 8m in depth and around 4m wide and we’ll measure them for consistency in each city.
More information will be forthcoming but in the first instance, camera manufacturers should start thinking about which cameras they intend to bring to SecTech Camera Shootout 2018 (you need not enter a camera in every category).
Attendees – now’s the time to note SecTech Roadshow dates into your diaries – Melbourne May 8, Brisbane May 10, Sydney May 15, Adelaide May 17 and Perth May 23! Click here to pre-register for SecTech 2018!
