“The Samsung Techwin software engineering team has devised some very clever improvements to our version of the H.264 method of compressing images and as a result, a much lower bitrate is required to transmit the high quality images captured by our HD megapixel cameras,” said Tim Biddulph, IP Product Manager for Samsung Techwin Europe Ltd. “Our 3MP full HD models, for example, previously needed a bitrate of 10Mbps, but now only require 3Mbps to ensure that there are no latency issues or that artefacts do not spoil the quality of the video when customers have configured the cameras to capture images at the highest possible resolution.”

The upgraded firmware, which applies to almost all of Samsung Techwin’s IP network models, can be downloaded free of charge.

“The improvement in the bitrate is in itself a major benefit to our customers because it reduces the amount of bandwidth and storage required to operate an effective video surveillance system,” said Tim Biddulph. “The firmware upgrade however innovatively offers a lot more in terms of transmission efficiency in that it is able to dynamically adjust the transmission bitrate and compression settings depending on the level of activity that may be occurring within a camera’s field of view. There is little need to transmit very high quality images of an empty building or car park at night, but when however there is activity this needs to be transmitted. Our upgraded firmware automatically takes this into account and adjusts the camera settings accordingly. This results in a much more efficient and effective use of the available bandwidth.”