CBZ Selous Avenue and Norton Branches

CCTV Audit Report

CCTV Consultancy
Engineer Lovemore Kaseke MSc (Coventry, UK)
Report on the analysis of poor quality CCTV footage at Norton and Selous Avenue

CCTV Consultancy 9 Lezard Avenue Milton Park,

11/3/2011

Introduction
A survey was carried out at your Norton and Selous Avenue Branches. The purpose of the survey was to find out why the CCTV was generating low quality images. The procedure that was used to carry out the survey was as follows: Examine the type of camera Examine the images from the CCTV cameras Examine the nature of the camera in terms of weather it is a CCD type or CMOS type Measure the Signal To Noise Ratio at the DVR input and at the camera output Identify the quality of the camera in terms of TV lines Measure the Voltage drop between the power supply and the input to the camera with the camera connected and without the camera connected. Compare the image quality of the installed camera with a standard 540TVL camera Check the type of DVR

Findings
The findings from the survey are as follows: The images from the cameras are very poor compared to a standard 540TVL camera The cameras are written CCD Camera, but they have no brand or reference to any camera specification except the IP66 standard which is for the housing not for the image quality. The cameras are drawing current of about 3A and causing a voltage drop on average of about 3,6V, which is not normal The cabling is fine as testing for video quality at the camera and at the DVR ends show consistent picture quality when connected to a normal 540TVL camera with a Cony CCD chip. The Power Supply is of good quality as it shows consistent output of 12V with current varying as per demand by the load. Voltage drop using a normal camera with Sony CCD chip is below 1.0V which is fine for the distances involved. The DVR at Norton is faulty and has stopped recording. It appears to be of low quality as its cooling fan is not running, the processor is very hot and video playback is very poor in terms of quality. Play back from the DVR is of low quality just like the live footage. The DVR shows that it has a resolution of 4CIF or 704 X576, but the output picture quality is much lower than that on visual analysis.

Explanations Why Your CCTV is Giving Poor Picture Quality

The Type and Quality of the Imaging Chip in the camera: CCTV security cameras produce images using CMOS or CCD (Charge Couple Device) chips. Tiny and/or very low price CCTV cameras usually use CMOS technology, produce poor quality video and have very poor light sensitivity. Decent quality and better CCTV cameras use CCD technology. The size of the CCD chip is normally 1/4", 1/3" or 1/2". As a rule of thumb, the larger the size, the higher the quality of the image produced and the higher the price. However, higher density 1/4" and 1/3" CCD chips can now produce as good an image as many older 1/3" or 1/2" chips. The nature of the images produced by your cameras, make me believe that they have very small and/or poor quality CCD chips. The Make of the CCD chip in the camera: Not all CCD chips are equal, even with the same specifications. Quality varies by manufacturer. Sony and Panasonic are generally recognized as producers of the best CCD chips. Most CCTV security cameras supplied the best vendors clearly specify that they use Sony or Panasonic CCD chips. This is not the case with your cameras. Camera resolution A high resolution camera of 540 TVL (television lines) gives you a more detailed picture. Most cameras on the market these days are in the 540 TVL range. On connecting a 540 TVL camera in place of your camera and monitoring the image using my CCTV Tester, I am convinced that your cameras are below 540 TVL and this explains in part why they are showing poor image quality. Light Sensitivity: Sensitivity ratings are generally given as the minimum "Lux" levels at which the camera will produce a useable image (1 Lux equals 1/10 Foot Candle). The lower the Lux number, the lower the light levels at which the CCTV camera will produce an acceptable image. In other words, the lower the Lux level rating, the more light sensitive the camera. Lux level ratings (and the amount of light entering the camera) are inversely proportional to the aperture of the camera iris and so are stated at a specific F Stop (Focal Length divided by Aperture). A camera with a Lux rating of 1.0 at F1.4 will only have a Lux rating of 2.0 at F2.0. The adoption of enhanced light sensitivity CCD chips from Sony and CCD chips from Panasonic, can produce exceptionally light sensitive color cameras. These are the best CCD chips on the market. When I replaced your camera with mine that had a Sony CCD chip, it produced a much better image under the same light conditions. This means that your installed camera has a very poor sensitivity. Signal to noise ratio If you think of "signal" as image detail and "noise" as static, you want a camera that has a good signal to noise ratio (S/N or SNR) to avoid a grainy picture. The measurement is in decibels (dB) with 30dB delivering a poor quality picture and 60dB a first class image with virtually no static to be seen. 40dB offers you a reasonable picture for general surveillance use. On testing signal to noise with my CCTV tester on your cameras, I get around 22dB. What this practically means these are poor quality cameras. Light sensitivity The lux rating of a camera tells you its sensitivity to light. A camera able to take acceptable

pictures in an area with restricted lighting has a lower lux rating such as 0.5. It is not clear from analysis of your cameras, what lux rating they are, but connecting a camera with a lux rating of 0.45 in place of your camera gave me a very much better picture quality than your camera is giving under the same circumstances. The only explanation for the difference is that your cameras have very poor light sensitivity. Pixel Size Image resolution is largely related to a characteristic of your system known as "image scale," expressed as arcseconds per pixel. For simplicity's sake, we are ignoring the influence of your optics and tracking on image resolution, although these factors are obviously important as well. The image scale of your system is dependent upon only two factors- your CCD camera's pixel size, and your camera's effective focal length. A low number for image scale (like 0.5 arcsec/pixel) means high resolution, and a high number for image scale (like 10 arcsec/pixel) means lower resolution. This makes sense- if 10 arcsec worth of data are represented by only one pixel, you have essentially crammed all of that detail into one point! Calculation of image scale (in units of arcsec/pixel) is easy: 206 x pixel size (in microns) / effective focal length (in mm). Dynamic Range Dynamic range refers to the difference between the brightest and the faintest regions of an image that can be simultaneously recorded by the CCD camera. The larger the difference, the better you will be able to capture faint signal in your image without blowing out (clipping) the highlights. So a higher dynamic range is generally always better to have than a low dynamic range, meaning that you should choose a camera with a high full well capacity, low read noise, or both. Note that dynamic range of a CCD camera is a measure of two related properties1) The difference between the highest and lowest signal intensities, and 2) The number of steps captured between the highest and lowest intensities. However, it does NOT guarantee that all of those captured steps will be faithfully rendered in the process of converting the electron signal of each pixel into a digital read out (i.e., the analog to digital conversion). Once captured, the ability to faithfully render those steps is related to another feature called "bit depth," which is a property of the camera's analog to digital converter. The analog to digital converter of most good quality CCD cameras already operates at a bit depth of 16 bits, meaning that it can convert the analog signal into 2^16, or 65,536 digital steps. From this description, it should be clear that dynamic range and bit depth are two different characteristics of the camera. You need a high dynamic range to capture faint signal without blowing out the highlights, and to capture fine gradations of intensity ("steps") in the image. However, you need a high bit depth to actually render all of those captured steps into a useable digital output. A camera can have a high dynamic range but low bit depth, in which case you will not be taking full advantage of all of those fine gradations of intensity that the camera has captured. This wastes the dynamic range and is not optimal. Likewise, a camera can have a low dynamic range but high bit depth, in which case you will certainly take advantage of the dynamic range, but there just won't be many steps available for the AD converter to render.

Your cameras have not been specified in terms of their dynamic range and bit depth. My suspicion is that it has a very low dynamic range and bit depth. This partly explains the poor picture quality that you are experiencing at the two branches.

Dark Signal Every CCD camera generates a dark signal that varies with exposure time and chip temperature. A CCD chip works by converting incoming photons of visible light into electrons, which are stored in the pixels and later converted to a digital signal. However, it turns out that electrons are not only produced by photons of visible light that strike the CCD chip. Dark signal refers to electrons that are generated in the absence of light, as a result of heat produced by the CCD camera chip itself. These "thermal electrons" create hot pixels which increase in intensity over the exposure duration, and which can be minimized by cooling the CCD chip. Some chips, like the Sony chip used in most CCD cameras of reasonable quality, have very low dark signal. Your CCD cameras that are installed at Norton and Selous Avenue Branches do not have Sony or Panasonic CCD chips, which could mean their Dark signal is very high. This compromises the picture quality a great deal.

Blooming Blooming is a phenomenon that occurs when electrons fill the well of a given pixel and spill over into adjacent pixels, causing a bright, vertical streak that destroys the data contained within those adjacent pixels. CCD chips that bloom are called "non anti-blooming gate" chips (NABG) and are typical of many low quality chips in the market. Anti-blooming chips do not have this problem. They contain an "anti-blooming gate" (ABG) that bleeds off electrons before they can spill over into adjacent pixels. ABG chips are typical of the Sony CCD and Panasonic CCD chips that are installed in most high quality CCTV cameras. It is not clear if your CCD cameras at the two branches are NABG or ABG, but they appear NABG. This partly explains the low video quality they are giving you.

Recommendations I am not sure of the specifications that you gave your installer before you gave him the contract for the two jobs at Norton and Selous Avenue, but the system as installed does not meet the minimum specifications for a robust, durable and quality CCTV installation for a critical operation like a banking institution. I therefore recommend that you install a completely new system at both branches. This time please give a very clear specification for the cameras, the DVR and the cabling. Conclusion CBZ is advised to specify and purchase a completely new system for the two branches.