Glossary

CMOS traditionally consumes little power. Implementing a sensor in CMOS yields a low-power sensor. CMOS chip can be fabricated on just about any standard silicon production line, so they tend to be extremely inexpensive compared to CCD sensors.

CCDs use a special manufacturing process to create the ability to transport charge across the chip without distortion. This process leads to HQ sensors in terms of fidelity and light sensitivity. CCDs use a process that consumes lots of power. CCD consumes a much as 100times more power than an equivalent CMOS sensor. CCD sensors have been mass produced for a longer period of time, so they are more mature. They tend to have higher quality and more pixels.

In images where a bright light source is behind the subject of interest, the subject would normally appear in silhouette. BLC allows the camera to adjust the exposure of the entire image to properly expose the subject in the foreground. However, WDR is a more effective alternative to BLC because it handles multiple exposure zones to give both the highlight and low light areas a proper exposure.

Unit of measure for the speed of data transmission.

A technology that integrates motion detection into the camera allowing tracking an object and zooming in to optimize size and its perspective.

As the camera zooms in to increase the size of objects on the monitor screen, the pan and tilt speeds are reduced so that the relative speed on the screen remains constant.

A feature records the sequence of movements of the camera’s PTZ for later playback allowing a set pattern to be repeated automatically.

As the camera tilts through the vertical position, the camera rotates to maintain the correct orientation of the image.

A techniques that boost video signal level to produce a full amplitude video signal, even if its scene contrast is less than full range (glare, fog, mist, etc).

The camera pans moves continuously between right and left with limit settings.

A camera with full integration, high speed, pan/tilt/zoom function built into a protective dome housing allowing full and continuous 360 degree coverage of the scene.

The lens iris opening is automatically adjusted to allow the correct illumination of the camera sensor.

Autofocus refers to a camera lens' ability to adjust its configuration in order to focus properly on a subject regardless of whether it is near or far from the camera. Autofocus lenses generally provide vastly superior image quality than do their fixed focus cousins since they do not have to rely on their depth of field.

Each unit has a numerical address in the control system in which it is located. This allows the appropriate unit to be operated.

A flexible and sophisticated alarm management subsystem that allows rules to be created which define that input(s) activate one or more output(s). In its most basic form, a rule could define which inputs should activate which outputs. In a more complex form, a rule can be programmed to take specific keyboard command (pre-existing or not) and perform a dome function, or any combination of the above.