Some thoughts about one machine

Definition of one machine
"All-in-one machine" is the abbreviation of integrated auto focus camera. Refers to the camera body with a dedicated zoom lens integrated with a camera with auto focus and lens zoom function.

"All-in-one" integrates the zoom lens with the camera, and has an auto-focus function. Through the body control buttons or remote control mode, it can flexibly change the distant and close scenes of the picture according to the characteristics of the picture to be observed and the subject. The setting greatly simplifies the installation and operation of the camera. As the front-end product of the monitoring system, the all-in-one machine integrates the functions of the camera and the lens, and has an automatic focusing function. With the gradual expansion of the local market in China, the functional requirements of related application fields have gradually increased, and the "all-in-one" has gradually become the darling of front-end equipment, and has become one of the mainstream products in front-end equipment.

The composition and use of "one machine"
The hardware part of the "all-in-one machine" is mainly a camera and a special zoom lens; the software part is mainly an automatic focusing and zoom technology. "All-in-one machine" uses include: with the use of smart balls (currently increasing demand in the smart ball market, especially in the "Safe City" project is relatively large demand); used with the PTZ; used with audio-visual projectors In markets other than security monitoring, market demand is at least greater than the current security monitoring market).

Product advantages of "one machine"
Compared with the traditional gun-type camera plus electric zoom lens, the installation and commissioning of the all-in-one machine is much simpler. The traditional camera plus electric zoom lens must be repeatedly debugged to get clear images at near and far focus; integrated camera This link can be omitted during installation and commissioning, and the wiring is simple. It can achieve 480TV (even 540TV) high-definition image effect, with auto-focus function; and has a powerful optical zoom function, such as 16X, 18X, 22X, 23X, 32X, 35X; this type of product has high integration and obvious cost-effective advantages, which is unmatched by the traditional gun machine plus electric zoom lens. The current all-in-one products mainly include SONY (FCB-45BP / 48BP / 480BP; FCB-980BP model), HITACHI (VK-S214ER / 274ER; VKS454ER model), LG, SAMSUNG Samsung (SDZ-310 / 300 model), CNB World Lin, Japan and South Korea import products, they are leading China's all-in-one product market.

Shortcomings of "all-in-one" products
After years of development, the all-in-one machine has won the recognition of the majority of users. However, some of the main performance characteristics are a bit behind compared with the update speed of traditional camera technology, and users still feel some shortcomings when using it. It is embodied in the following two aspects.

1. Shortcomings of hardware
Camera: The current products are all using 1/4 ″ CCD products. Due to the limitation of the CCD target surface of the camera, integration has an insurmountable bottleneck in the basic technical indicators of the camera. The basic technical indicators of the camera are clarity, illuminance, and signal noise There will be different degrees of restrictions in comparison.

For example: the technical parameters are nominally 480TV horizontal resolution, the actual minimum is only 430TV-450TV;

Color-to-black minimum illumination nominal (SONY EXview HAD chip) 0.002 Lux There is a true accumulation function, the actual application is not great.

In practice, the difference in signal-to-noise ratio is not very obvious, requiring professional test equipment.

Lens: The lenses used in the all-in-one camera are all derived from the original home camcorder (the "DV" we often say). This lens is not a lens tailored for the monitoring of the "all-in-one" product. Almost all are spherical lenses, and there are insurmountable bottlenecks in the basic technical indicators of the lens such as F value and field angle. It will cause application problems such as insufficient brightness and narrow viewing angle. In the current CCTV lens, a large number of new technologies such as aspherical lenses and infrared correspondence are used. The direct effect of this is that the F value of the lens is greatly reduced, from the original F1.2 and F1.4 to F0.95. , F1.0, the illuminance of the camera is obviously improved under the same light, and the lens focus does not shift when there is an infrared auxiliary light source, and the images at night and day are also clear.

2. The deficiencies of the software
The core technology of the all-in-one machine is the autofocus function of the lens. The autofocus of the high-end product brands SONY and HITACHI has done very well. Basically, it can be achieved that once the focal length changes, the autofocus action can be focused clearly once, and there is still room for improvement in the autofocus speed of other brands of all-in-one products.

Possible development trend of one machine
The current "all-in-one" products are all derived from the concept of a home video recorder (DV), and are not tailor-made products for the needs of security monitoring. Therefore, from the perspective of security, its performance is still greatly restricted.

Under the current all-in-one technology platform structure, the camera hardware may be improved. After all, the camera itself has 1/4 ″, 1/3 ″, 1/2 ″ series CCDs. Of course, 1/3 ″, 1/2 ″ CCD can certainly be better. The difficulty lies in the lens. Because there is no common standard agreement between the lens manufacturer and the camera manufacturer, the versatility of the lens is greatly restricted, because there is no 1/3 ", 1/2" target surface lens, you must Made to order. Once the technical bottleneck of the lens is broken, then with the current 1/3 ″, 1/2 ″ CCD, the aspheric lens is used in the design of the lens group of the all-in-one. . To develop a 1/3 ″, 1/2 ″ target lens, the investment time and R & D costs are relatively large, and only a strong manufacturer can operate.

Comprehensive consideration, within the framework of the current all-in-one technology structure, 1/3 ″ all-in-one products are still possible, and it can become a match in the Chinese market when the hardware configuration of most 1/4 ″ all-in-one products is limited "Dark horse", and to meet the needs of high-end customers on the market for more powerful all-in-one machine.