Smile, you’re on candid IP camera

Mozcom, the country’s first commercial Internet service provider, recently announced the availability of its latest model of the NetVideo Digital Video Recorder (DVR), a network appliance that can replace traditional closed circuit TV (CCTV) video surveillance systems.

The base model supports four standard co-axial cameras with four channel CIF (352 x 240) digital recording. Images can be browsed, managed and played back on standard Web browsers like MS Internet Explorer or the bundled software over a wide area IP network.

"NetVideo DVR is easy to install and maintain because it does not require a PC unlike most IP-aware video surveillance systems in the market," says Dick Chiang, Mozcom’s chief operating officer and chief technical officer.

"Monitoring your office or your store over the Internet is now feasible by just installing it in one corner and attaching your traditional CCTV cameras," he adds.

Measuring only 168 x 236 x 64 mm, the NetVideo DVR runs on an embedded Linux platform. It uses a customized MPEG-4 chip to provide optimal compression and quality, with low-bandwidth network transmission.

High compression results in smaller storage space requirement, allowing a unit equipped with a high-capacity disk to store up to a month of continuous recording.

Different compression and frame rates based on user requirements are supported. A regular analog TV may be connected to the unit for local display. Viewing can be done in single, quad or sequential displays of the four attached cameras.

Regular IDE hard drives of up to 200GB and network storage using FTP or Network Attached Storage (NAS) are also supported. Recording can be continuous, scheduled, manually or event-based triggered.

NetVideo DVR has advanced motion detection capability to initiate actions upon motion, such as start of recording, sending an e-mail, or alerting the remote surveillance station.

Mozcom also offers higher-end, PC-based models with quad MPEG-4 chips for more demanding requirements. Higher density models are also available to support eight, 16 or more cameras. For more information, visit http://www.mozcom.com/netvideo or call 848-2606.