VC-016R

vc-016r, a photo by BFR Digital on Flickr.

VC-016R updated. 16 channel Video CAT (UTP) transceiver - 300m passive; 1000m meters with active receiver. www.bfrdigital.co.za

TC-402

tc402, a photo by BFR Digital on Flickr.

TC-402 updated. The TC-402 is a 1 in by 4 out video distribution amplifier. www.bfrdigital.co.za

VC016RJ-AGC

VC016RJ-AGC, a photo by BFR Digital on Flickr.

Application diagram for CCTV balun and passive receiver with independent channel AGC, ensuring the correct video level output. Maximum cable length 300metres. www.bfrdigital.co.za

BFR Digital at IFSEC2011

BFR Digital at IFSEC2011, a photo by BFR Digital on Flickr.

The BFR Digital team at IFSEC Jo'burg 2011

IFSEC2011 stand

IFSEC2011 stand, a photo by BFR Digital on Flickr.

BFR Digital at IFSEC Jo'burg 2011

PoE

PoE, a set on Flickr.

BFR Digital's PoE product range

Video CAT Pro

Video CAT Pro

Longer cable distance, easier installation, prefect picture.

We designed Video CAT Pro (also know as BFR Digital's 1 mile box) to facilitate the transmission of video over a copper cable length of 1800m.

Differential video signals sent over long distances of twisted pair wire exhibit large high frequency attenuation, resulting in loss of high frequency detail/blurring. The exact loss characteristic is a complex function of wire gauge, length, composition, and coupling to adjacent conductors.

The video signal can be restored by applying a filter with the exact inverse transfer function to the far end signal. Video CAT Pro is designed to compensate for the losses due to long cables, and incorporates the functionality and flexibility to match a wide variety of cable types and loss characteristics.

Video CAT Pro has been designed to be fully automated with the only manual function being the selector between CAT5 and RG59.

The VCP-ISL-01R offers 99% video reproduction at 1000m (same as a camera connected to a monitor on a 1m lead) and 75% video reproduction at 1800m (same as a camera connected to a monitor on 250m of RG59).

Application

http://www.bfrdigital.co.za/videocatpro_1.htm

I-WIE Wiegand Interface Isolators

We are excited to introduce our new range of Wiegand isolator range of product. All data lines are optically isolated.


I-WIE5 - Wiegand isolator for D0, D1, LED1, LED2 and 12Vdc at 10Watt

I-WIE4 - Wiegand isolator for D0, D1, LED1 and LED2

I-WIE2 - Wiegand isolator for D0 and D1

Midspan PoE PSE (Power Sourcing Equipment) with Surge Protection

BFR Digital is proud to introduce high-end, high-power solutions for PoE (Power over Ethernet) IP cameras and other devices. All our products feature a self-contained power supply and surge protection. Our production range will cater for the most demanding industrial IP CCTV applications.

As we all know, PoE offers the advantage of power and data for a network device on one cable.

Our products are 10/100 IEEE 802.3af complaint PoE Midspan PSE featuring:

· Wide input supply voltage range

· Self contained 48v power supply

· Built-in surge protection

· High power output

· Intelligent PoE status indication and power management

· 1.5KW zone 2 protection level

Products in the range:

· 10 port PSE rack mount unit with a total user power rating of 75W or 7.5W per port

· 4 port PSE stand alone unit with a total user power rating of 75W or 15W per port

· 2 port PSE stand alone unit with a total user power rating of 25W or 12.5W per port

· Single port PoE stand alone camera end protection device only

CCTV Infrastructure

Cable quality versus CCTV image quality

Graham is the project manager for a CCTV systems integration company in Johannesburg. While trying to commission a CCTV system Graham just couldn’t get the cameras into focus. The cameras were all focused on a test monitor at the camera and they all appeared to be in-focus, yet at the recorder the cameras were all out-of-focus. The more puzzling question Graham had was, why were the Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) cameras out of focus? The PTZ cameras all had auto-focus lenses and no matter what the PTZ cameras were looking at they looked out-of-focus.

Graham was at his wits’ end. He had replaced the PTZ cameras, then he replaced the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) along with the monitor and still the camera images were out-of-focus.

Graham then decided to bench test the equipment. He removed the PTZ cameras, a few static cameras, the DVR and the monitor and plugged the systems together at his office on short fly-leads. Surprise, surprise, all the components worked and Graham had a fully operational system. The cameras, the DVR and the monitor were not at fault.

After much testing and investigating we found that Graham had two “challenges” with this installation:

1. Graham had used poor quality video baluns

2. Graham had installed poor quality cable

The solution to the above challenges was resolved by doing the following:

1. The video baluns were replaced with BFR Digital’s Video CAT products and the video image improved but was still out-of-focus.

2. It was only after the installation was re-cabled that the problem was successfully resolved.

What Graham learnt from this experience can be summed up in one sentence. Even if you use high quality equipment such as BFR Digital’s Video CAT with a leading brand camera and DVR, connecting these components with a poor quality cable will always result in a poor quality video image.

Do IP CCTV systems fail to deliver when poor quality CAT5 or CAT6 is used?

Absolutely! The digital high-speed data stream will experience signal attenuation and crosstalk just like an analogue video signal did on poor quality cable. This always results in reduced data throughput on that particular cable.

Remember, using good quality components installed correctly will produce superb video images every time.

CCTV Infrastructure

The CCTV components that nobody ever thinks about but could substantially reduce the costs of installing a CCTV system

Uday is the owner of a CCTV systems integration company in Tanzania. During the height of the recession in 2009 Uday kept losing CCTV deals to a South African company. The burning question for Uday was how could these South African’s under quote him? He was the local and after all the South African’s incurred extra costs like flights and accommodation. How could they under quote him when he didn't have these extra overheads? Also, the South African’s were quoting on the same camera and digital video recorder (DVR) that he was quoting. So the answer wasn’t that the South African’s were quoting inferior products.

Uday found the answer after many months and the loss of many deals. As these systems aged and required camera maintenance, like cleaning and refocusing, the customers began call Uday. It just wasn't feasible for the South Africans to do maintenance on these CCTV systems in Tanzania.

It was on Uday's first maintenance call that he made some startling discoveries. Uday took the opportunity and accompanied his maintenance crew to the customer. Uday was expecting inferior workmanship and product but this was not the case. The product installed was as per the customers specification, the same specification he had quote. To Uday’s astonishment the installation was neatly done and to a high standard.

What perplexed Uday was the lack of power supplies, RG59 coax cable and camera power cable. Instead Uday found a 16-channel box (VC-016PR) next to the DVR. The outputs of the VC-016PR were 16 RG59 coax cables connected to the DVR; the inputs were 16 CAT5 cables. At the camera Uday found a little silver box (VC-01PM) that the CAT5 cable from the control room plugged into and on the other side there was a 12volt DC power connector and a BNC connector for the camera.

Uday had discovered what was to him a unique installation methodology. He was astounded at how a camera’s video signal and power requirements could be managed on one CAT5 cable to a maximum cable length of 300 meters.

You see Uday pays $1 US per meter of RG59 and $1 US per meter of power cable but the price of CAT5 is only $0.8 US per meter. Uday worked out that by using a VC-016PR at the DVR and one VC-01PM per camera, his CCTV infrastructure, i.e. cabling, conduiting and trunking, costs would be reduced by 20%. Uday realized another benefit after using these products for the first time, because he was using less cable and conduiting his labour costs had also reduced. His installation team finished the installation faster than he had expected allowing for a further cost reduction of 5% on labour.

Uday is now a regular BFR Digital customer. Not only has Uday benefitted from our technology but he has also introduced Amar from Kenya and Faisal from the Middle East to BFR Digital's Power CAT products.

Uday is not the only one to understand the benefit of BFR Digital's Power CAT products. We understand that Uday’s position is unique and that the cost of doing business in Central Africa is high but many local end-users like Standard Bank have specified our Power CAT range of products and reduced the overall costs of their CCTV systems.

The Future of Analogue CCTV in South Africa

Although IP CCTV system sales have increased and in some first world countries have overtaken Analogue CCTV system sales. In South Africa and other third world countries Analogue CCTV systems still dominate the market.

It is reasonable to think that in a few years one will only find an analogue CCTV camera as part of a museum display along with vidicon and ultracon cameras. Especially with IP creating an extraordinary amount of hype in the CCTV market. With all this hype you would think that IP sales are rocketing but this is not the case.

Analog Devices say, “Analogue is everywhere”. Although an IP camera produces a digital output, once this signal leaves the camera it enters the analogue world. This digital signal is still influenced by surges, induction and cable attention, which limits the cable distance to 95 meters between devices. This is a challenge for System Integrators that are accustomed to transmitting analogue CCTV video signals up 1000 meters on copper cable. Not only is the IP CCTV camera equipment more expensive but the infrastructure required for an IP CCTV system is also substantially more expensive as a fibre optic cable infrastructure is required to guarantee throughput on cable distances greater than 95 meters.

Major silicon manufacturers like; Intersil, Techwell and Maxim are manufacturing new devices that offer greater cable distance; in some cases up 1600 meters on copper cable. Devices that compensate for high frequency cable losses and include automatic adaptive equalizers for varying lengths of cable. One manufacturer claims full signal recovery on 300 meters of cable. This means that the signal is the same quality at the end of a 300 meter length of cable as it was at the camera.

You have to ask why these leading international companies that manufacture silicon devices for many leading CCTV brands producing new analogue CCTV video devices? The answer is simple. CCTV camera and recorder manufactures are demanding these devices.

Is analogue CCTV a thing of the past?

I think not!

BFR Digital is always on the hunt for new technologies to implement in our products. Our products always feature the latest technology; watch this space for our next generation of Video CAT UTP transmission equipment.

IVSA-01R Specification Sheet

Din-rail-mount enclosure for Fibre Lite and Fibre Lite Plus

*** NEW PRODUCT ***

The LDIN-C is a din-rail-mount enclosure that can accommodate any Fibre Lite or Fibre Lite Plus cage card. This enclosure requires a 12Vdc power supply.

Compatible Part Codes:

Fibre Lite: LVTX-010-RMM, LVTX2-010-RMM, LVRX-010-RMM, LVRX2-010-RMM, LVTXD-010-RMM, LVRXD-010-RMM, LDTX-010-RMM, LDRX-010-RMM, LCTX5-010-RMM, LCRX5-010-RMM, LATX2-010-RMM.

Fibre Lite Plus: PVTX-010-RMM, PVTX2-010-RMM, PVRX-010-RMM, PVRX2-010-RMM, PVTXD-010-RMM, PVRXD-010-RMM, PDTX-010-RMM, PDRX-010-RMM, PCTX5-010-RMM, PCRX5-010-RMM, PATX2-010-RMM.

Fibre Lite stand-alone video and data link

Single Pan/Tilt/Zoom (PTZ) camera, stand-alone, multimode fibre optic video and data link.

Fibre Lite stand-alone video link

Single camera, stand-alone, multimode fibre optic video link.

VOTXD and VORXD

BFR Digital launched the VOTXD and VORXD models at IFSEC Johannesburg 2010. These models feature the transmission of 8 video channels and 2 bi-directional data channels over a single fibre. This range is available for both multimode and single mode fibre optic applications. All video channels are digitally encoded using 8-Bit A to D encoders but is not compressed; delivering 8 high resolution images in real-time.

BFR at IFSEC Johannesburg

Our IFSEC team. Silvana, Bruno, Charmaine and Dion. 1 September 2010

BFR at IFSEC Johannesburg

Renato, Fernando and Bruno. BFR Digital’s three directors at IFSEC Johannesburg during stand buildup.

Success Story

IVSA-01R was specifically designed for a customer that operates a remote video monitoring control room. The IVSA features 10 channels of video surge protection that starts clamping at 2.5 volts instead of the industry standard of 5 volts. This unit also features ground-loop isolation and one 10/100 Ethernet surge protection port.

Last week one of our customers sites was struck by lightning. Of the 52 channels of video on the site the 20 video channels connected to the IVSA units were the only ones not damaged.