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Canon explodes into South Africa

Canon is a well known global brand that markets a range of products in South Africa. The company is perhaps best known locally for its range of cameras as it is the top selling point-and-click camera and professional DSLR camera in the country and a top-selling, respected brand in other product categories.

Canon is also a global tier-1 brand when it comes to surveillance cameras, but only started marketing these in South Africa in late 2013. Steyn worked for Canon Europe for three years as a product specialist before returning to South Africa to launch the company’s range of network cameras. Canon works through channel partners and Security & Communication Warehouse has been appointed a distributor for the brand and is working with the company to grow the brand’s recognition locally.

Canon has developed its own lens technology for its cameras and this, according to Braam Steyn, Canon SA’s new business development manager for network cameras, is where Canon differentiates its network cameras. He says choosing the right camera for the right environment is critical if the user is to obtain the best images. And in this regard, the lens plays an important role and Canon integrates its lenses into the cameras to ensure the camera performs exactly as required in its designated environment.

Canon’s image processors ensure the cameras record in Full HD. Steyn says the processors were developed as broadcast image processors, which means they deliver high quality images, especially in low-light conditions. Canon’s cameras use the DIGIC DV III and DIGIC NET II processors for image processing and transporting the video over IP networks.

Steyn explains that a Canon network camera is not a device you can plug in anywhere. Users need to ensure they obtain the camera designed for the environment they are operating in.

Canon offers a three-year warranty on all its network security cameras. In South Africa, Security & Communication Warehouse will support system integrators as the first port of call if something is not working correctly. If it is a product problem that cannot be resolved by either the system integrator or the distributor and technical repairs are necessary, Canon has ensured that its local repair centre, Camera Tek, is geared to handle any other repairs required.

The cameras

Canon has released two camera ranges in South Africa to date. The first is a series of four fully featured, Full HD indoor and outdoor cameras. The range consists of a PTZ suitable for indoor or outdoor use depending on the housing chosen, a vandal-proof outdoor dome camera that is IP66 rated, an indoor dome camera, and a box camera that can be used in either scenario depending on the housing.

The second, more recently-released range is an ultra-compact, Full HD series of network cameras with in-built analytics. The new ultra-compact S series has been designed for indoor environments which require sensitive monitoring of specific areas or items, such as the retail, education, commercial and hospitality sectors. The four cameras in this series are:

* VB-S30D: A PTZ mini dome with 3.5X optical zoom. Steyn says this is the smallest Full HD IP camera on the market.

* VB-S31D: A PT mini dome with a fixed lens aimed at room surveillance where the operator needs some pan and tilt control, but does not need to zoom in for details.

* VB-S800D: A fixed mini dome, and

* VB-S900F: A fixed mini box camera.

While the processors remain the same as the former range, the internal programming in the S-series’ processors has been re-engineered to deliver multiple H.264 and/or MJPEG streams in HD or lower resolutions. In addition to multi-streaming, the cameras can also do simultaneous streaming. The full range supports edge recording on microSD cards (up to 64 GB) and features a new utility that can playback directly from the microSD card without the content being downloaded to a PC first.

The cameras also include built-in analytics that sense movement, abandoned and removed objects, camera tampering as well as detecting changes in volume when a microphone is plugged in. In addition, Steyn says that changes in light conditions would normally interrupt analytics, but the new range automatically resets within 20 seconds of detecting a significant increase or decrease in brightness. This ensures minimal interruption to any running analytics.

The cameras are compatible with major third-party solutions and ONVIF v2.2 and Profile S compliant. In particular, Canon is a Mirasys Platinum Partner and ensures its cameras are fully integrated into this video management system, also distributed by Security & Communications Warehouse.

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