Why do you have TWO cameras in one location.

Jul 31, 2018
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texas
I thought i would post some camera shots of why we give the recommendation for two cameras in one area. One camera is for overview. And one camera is for facial recognition. It's very hard for police to use your footage for facial recognition from an over view shot. Because when you zoom in it gets pixelated. But if you have your second camera zoomed in to the area you get great facial recognition.
overview.jpgZoomed in.jpg
 
Absolutely. This should added as an example to ipcamtalk's Cliff Notes :)

I thought i would post some camera shots of why we give the recommendation for two cameras in one area. One camera is for overview. And one camera is for facial recognition. It's very hard for police to use your footage for facial recognition from an over view shot. Because when you zoom in it gets pixelated. But if you have your second camera zoomed in to the area you get great facial recognition.
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I do have a question. PTZ helps when you're watching the video and checking what you want in realtime.
However, for most crime the video are checked after it had happened, how would zoom camera help as it's fixed in a limited view spot unless your interest happened to be in that spot.
 
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You zoom it to the choke point to begin with. No magic after the fact.
bigredfish is right, you have one camera already zoomed in to the choke point (pointed in the same location as the overview camera). Notice the overview picture above, now look at the zoomed in picture. The zoomed in picture is where your second camera is going to be at all times. I have a PTZ camera as my zoomed in camera which is the zoomed in picture above. (SD49225T-HN) It is not being used to auto track or any of that. When i want to look around with the PTZ i do it, other than that it remains in that zoomed in location. I capture License plates as well as everyone who passes that camera and i get a good facial pictures.
 
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I do have a question. PTZ helps when you're watching the video and checking what you want in realtime.
However, for most crime the video are checked after it had happened, how would zoom camera help as it's fixed in a limited view spot unless your interest happened to be in that spot.
Your right if your interest is in that spot. Which is why you have one overview and one zoomed in camera in all of your locations. The interest will be in one of those spots. Just build your system one camera at a time, or what ever your budget can handle.
 
bigredfish is right, you have one camera already zoomed in to the choke point (pointed in the same location as the overview camera). Notice the overview picture above, now look at the zoomed in picture. The zoomed in picture is where your second camera is going to be at all times. I have a PTZ camera as my zoomed in camera which is the zoomed in picture above. (SD49225T-HN) It is not being used to auto track or any of that. When i want to look around with the PTZ i do it, other than that it remains in that zoomed in location. I capture License plates as well as everyone who passes that camera and i get a good facial pictures.

Are you getting plates at night AND people walking by and can ID them? If so, what are your settings? My plate came is an all black image...
 
Are you getting plates at night AND people walking by and can ID them? If so, what are your settings? My plate came is an all black image...
At night its just plates. My other cameras get night images as they are starlight cameras. At night you use the varifocal cameras as your zoomed in cameras and that will get you clear faces, if you also have bright lights around your house lighting up the areas. I am still building my system so i have not purchased more varifocal cameras to zoom in on choke points for night use yet. But here is a look at the night plates and people in front of the PTZ at night.
ptz choke point.jpgPTZ license.jpg
 
And here is the same shot in over view. So i will be adding another starlight camera here for the zoomed in facial pic at night. Because the PTZ is not the best at night.
overview night.jpgoverview night2.jpg
 
How does the face look from the other camera when zoomed in? Based on this picture, the face looks a bit too grainy. Can't make out facial details like birth marks and such, etc.
As you see in the above post of the same person in front of the zoomed in PTZ camera, It's not as good a zoomed in picture, hence i will be adding another starlight camera in this same location for zoomed in night facial recognition.
 
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Here are the correct settings.
 

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If a person is able to use an overview camera to direct a PTZ camera to the desired target, that would seem the most beneficial.
 
If a person is able to use an overview camera to direct a PTZ camera to the desired target, that would seem the most beneficial.

That is certainly possible, if a bit complicated to set up. The lag time between motion in one area and having a PTZ focused on it would also be too high in many cases.
 
That is one situation where I think those PTZs with built-in overview cams to direct the auto-tracking feature could be really great to have. But they need some miniaturization and cost cutting before they can be popular for home users.
 
That is certainly possible, if a bit complicated to set up. The lag time between motion in one area and having a PTZ focused on it would also be too high in many cases.

I have done just that. I call it the "poor man autotrack" LOL. I set up several clone and zone cameras in BI to direct the PTZ. It works fairly well and initial set-up wasn't hard. Just like with an auto track, there is some "calibrating" and acceptance that not everything will be caught, but I am overall satisfied with my setup and generally accomplishes what I wanted it to do. I certainly wouldn't use this as an alternative to a fixed cam, but in instances where you have overlapping coverage and the PTZ is your "fun" camera, it can be used very beneficially to get an even better image or video if set up correctly in the right situations.
 
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When putting two cameras in one place, not including big PTZ cameras, can you have one Ethernet cable and split the POE and data at the end with something fitting in a small junction box? Or do you need to run a 2nd cable?
 
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