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Huge width and depth capability with high quality

Dallmeier’s Panomera system allows users to view wide vistas, over large distances, at high resolutions.

Ettiene Swanepoel, technical director for local distributors MASS, explained that the main limitation with many megapixel panoramic cameras is the gradual degradation of picture quality as the digital zoom ratio increases.

“The engineers at Dallmeier tackled this issue and developed a technology that utilises a multi-focal sensor system. By implementing a number of megapixel sensors, each with its own lens, into the Panomera system, it is able to isolate a single sensor/lens combination to focus on a specific area within the total field of vision, while the other sensors are deployed to provide an overall panoramic view and recording,” said Swanepoel.

The sensors are arranged with preselected focal length lenses to focus on close-up areas, mid-field areas and longer distances, together with one overall view. The combination of sensors will all be viewed and recorded as one scene with the ability to access a single sensor during either playback or live viewing.

A well-known problem with PTZ cameras is that the operator is forced to choose between overview image and detailed view. However, irrespective of where specific lenses are deployed in the field of vision, the Panomera always records the entire scene. It is thus possible to later reconstruct any event for use as evidence in court, regardless of where it took place, and to recognise all persons involved.

In contrast to PTZ cameras, where only one operator can control the camera, with Panomera, an unlimited number of operators can navigate across the entire scene independently of each other. Although all operators are connected with the same camera, each of the individual users can select their view individually and zoom or pan as they desire.

It is commonly accepted that with increasing distance, one will see increasing pixellation of the image. “The Panomera camera overcomes this and is capable of recording up to 30 frames a second with viewing and recording in real-time,” Swanepoel said.

In contrast to PTZ cameras, Panomera has no movable mechanical parts, which means there is no wear, thus extending the camera’s lifetime and drastically reducing maintenance.

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