printer friendly version

Sony offers hybrid cameras

Sony has announced it has formed a business partnership in visual security with US semiconductor manufacturer Intersil Corporation for the worldwide development of the industry’s first network camera capable of simultaneously transmitting both analogue SD and digital HD images over a single coaxial cable.

Sony aims to introduce this new category of network camera – the hybrid camera – to the market in the latter half of this fiscal year as part of its lineup of security cameras, which currently include SD-resolution analogue cameras and HD-resolution IP network cameras.

Since last year, Japan’s domestic security camera market has been developing rapidly, with an influx of HD-resolution IP network cameras capable of transferring images over a LAN or over the Internet, supplying power to the camera and/or controlling it. Sony has also expanded its lineup with box-style and dome-shaped cameras all of which it distributes exclusively through Norbain SA.

Meanwhile, there are many facilities around the world that already have infrastructure in place with analogue SD cameras and coaxial cables laid and installed, such as office buildings, commercial facilities, financial institutions and seaports. Formerly, expensive facility-wide modifications spanning the entire interior of a building, including all cables, were required for such venues to introduce HD cameras to their systems.

Sony’s new hybrid cameras are the first in the industry to be equipped with IC chips that use Intersil’s SLOC (security link over coax) technology, thus eliminating any need for new cables to be laid or replaced within the building. This in turn enables the existing infrastructure environment of coaxial cables for analogue SD cameras to be used as is, thereby drastically reducing installation costs and facilitating effective use of available cable resources from an environmental perspective.

These new hybrid cameras make full use of the special characteristics of analogue SD image signals, which boast virtually zero image transmission delay. The cameras can therefore continuously meet the needs of markets such as the financial market, in which systems must have the ability to conduct surveillance in real-time. The new hybrid cameras can be recommended for both potential new customers and for existing SD users.

Share this article:

Further reading: