In The Trenches Video Series
Security camera decoders and video walls
Decoders are powerful devices that allow you to display hundreds of cameras on a video wall. Decoders are great in many scenarios like guard/security stations, production monitoring, large facilities, distributed viewing and more.
Our speakers today are:
- > Matthew Nederlanden
- > Benjamin Larue
- > James Campbell
Matthew Nederlanden:
Broad strokes are that you need a static image output. So you need to be able to always display on this screen these same four or eight or however many cameras you want to have on this screen.
Ben Larue:
Everyone, welcome to another episode of the End of the Trenches Round Table. Really excited for this. We're going to be diving into a product-focused episode. Specifically we're going to be talking about decoders. Cue up the drum roll please. Excited to dive into this one. We have our awesome panel of experts with us today.
Matthew Nederlanden:
Hello.
Ben Larue:
Absolutely. So I want to first start off by covering what sections we'll be working through in this episode. And first we're going to cover what is a decoder. That way everyone's on the same page. And then we'll move into the options that S E W provides for decoders, and then we'll wrap up and finish with actual implementation and use cases for decoders. So covering video wall setups and live viewing best practices. Without further ado, let's jump in. What is a decoder?
James Campbell:
I think the best way of describing a decoder is if you ever seen either videos or in a movie potentially of they're in the security room and they've got these cameras kind of surrounding on a big wall. They've got all these monitors and TVs. That's what a decoder delivers to you. It is a device that grabs camera streams either from the M V R or the IP camera and allows you to display them on monitors or TVs. So that's kind of them in a nutshell.
Ben Larue:
That's fair. So how exactly do these decoders connect to an N V R? Because, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't an N V R also display video?
Matthew Nederlanden:
It does. It does. And N V R is going to have one to two H D M I outputs where you can plug in one to two screens depending on the model that you're looking at. But what if you need 15 screens? So that's where a decoder comes in.
Ben Larue:
That's awesome. Thanks. So back to my main question. It was how do the decoders connect to NVRs and IP cameras?
Matthew Nederlanden:
Yeah, so the decoders actually would live on your network along with your nvs, and they would absolutely use that same network to display to multiple screens. It's actually fairly simple.
Ben Larue:
Gotcha. Okay. Okay. So yeah, can you guys maybe help me understand and the audience understand where we would use decoders over most commonly used
Matthew Nederlanden:
Broad strokes so that you need a static image output? So you need to be able to always display on this screen these same four or eight or however many cameras you want to have on this screen. And so that might be something like a production facility. You always want to see the product going in the product mid manufacturer, the product coming out with however many views make sense depending on the number of steps in your production. And to make sure that quality control, you are not going to be switching these videos up and look at a different channel. So a decoder is a really perfect example of this.
James Campbell:
I'll throw one out there too. I mean, I think one of the most commonplace you're going to see a decoder being needed is going to be a guard station. So one of the major things that you want to create when you have a command center, a guard station, or whatever you want to call 'em, is you want that consistency to know that when you sit at your desk where the cameras are and when you get a radio signal or call or whatever, and you can look up and you can see that, Hey, I can see what's going on with this camera because it's always there on that right corner. So that guard doesn't have to pull up any software, he doesn't have to grab a mouse and change views and try to find that camera. And there's just basically less things for them to have to be trained on to have to understand that could potentially go wrong. If you're using a software-based v M s, then they have to learn that they potentially could close out. I mean, I've heard tons of stories about people closing them out and all this kind of stuff and having to get somebody involved at 2:00 AM to get the guard up back up and running. So there's lots of things that can go wrong with that, whereas a decoder is reliable, consistent, live view at all times, and there's nothing you have to do to achieve that once you set it up, obviously. So
Matthew Nederlanden:
A hospital or a hotel might be another really good example. So for a hotel, you need to have your security guards that could have full control and probably need a PC that's allowing them to view a singular camera that they're investigating something. But then also the wall behind them might be every single camera. Meanwhile, your front desk might want to see who's coming into the building or who's in the hallways. Your cook in the restaurant might want to see the six cameras that are watching who's in the restaurant from the customer waiting perspective, from the food production and creation perspective. And your bellhop might want to be able to see who's waiting for bags in the hallways. And so you can set up all these different views that don't require anybody to have to know or manage the software. So you don't have to train the bellhop how to use view station. They just have an output. That's the five cameras of things in the hallways
James Campbell:
Said about, I think if we want to put just a bow on this, it's like anywhere live view is important and you needed specifically maybe even distributed live view where you need multiple people to have access to the system in a way that doesn't have a lot of implementation needs too. When we talk about the software and stuff like that, and I know we'll compare a little bit more one-to-one like what that looks like later in the video, but that's kind of the way I would frame these.
Ben Larue:
That makes sense. So lemme get this, right. If I, let's say have 10 locations, can I view all 10 of those locations at my headquarters using A V P N
Matthew Nederlanden:
Through V P N? Yeah. Yeah. If you've got a V P N, that's a virtual private network. If you're not familiar with that, it sort of combines multiple locations into one integrated network and you have the throughput to be able to send the video from location a back to headquarters and the throughput on the headquarters in order to receive all those videos. Yeah, you're going to have a great experience with this. You're going to be able to see each and every location and create custom grids that make sense for each department that needs to be able to view the use cases.
Ben Larue:
That makes sense. That's awesome. That's great. So transitioning now to talking about the different models that we carry here at SS A W. What are our options currently?
James Campbell:
We have two different models currently and one of 'em has six H D M I output. So that means that you can connect up to six displays to it and the max monitor count or max, excuse me, max display count on that in terms of grid is up to 16 cameras per display. And then we also have a 12 H D M I one. So that gives you 12 outputs now to displays. You're talking very big, but one of the advantages of that one too is that actually allows you to do up to 36 cameras per single grid too. And these are all customizable per output too. Keep that in mind. So you can choose that 36 on one and then one on another and then four here, however it works for you, we've got a pretty good example image here from one of our clients and you can see what that looks like and how they've set that up. They're kind of combining all of the tools that they have available with us to get their live view and get the views and the setup that they need.
Ben Larue:
Gotcha, gotcha. Okay. So I understand that the h I output it goes to monitors, but why do I notice looking at some of the specs on our decoders, it says they have H G M I inputs. Am I reading that wrong or is that right?
Matthew Nederlanden:
No, that's one of the coolest features. Yeah, honestly, that's a cool feature. So the six channel one or six H D M I, port one has two inputs, and then the 12 has four inputs that you could input literally whatever you want to put into that particular port and have it show on your wall. And again, configured through view station. I think James has a very, very good example of how that was used.
James Campbell:
Yeah, there's lots of different things. You can get very creative with this, but you can imagine, have you ever walked in, I'm sure everyone's walked into a gas station where you see the monitor up there and it's displaying the camera feed. A lot of times this request comes with like, Hey, they want to provide additional information and not just a camera feed to kind of tell 'em, okay, we're watching you. They want that, and then they want to 'em let 'em know that Gatorade's two for four today or something, whatever deal they're doing or whatever's important to that convenience store. So they can put the cameras up here kind of in a grid, and then as part of one of those grids, they can also plug in their computer that the sign software is on and flash through that as well. Let them know the deals or anything else that's going on with that convenience store. So they're getting dual use out of that, which is one just a security thing. It's now also a marketing asset for them too. There is so many ones there could be. So if
Matthew Nederlanden:
I'm understanding you correctly, if this video output that we're watching here on YouTube, but the four of us in a grid, suddenly we decided we didn't want Ben on here and pushed him out and instead put 10% off bullet cameras this week. We could show that up. And that's sort of what you would see for a four channel grid with one of those things being an output from let's say a PowerPoint presentation,
James Campbell:
Right? Yeah, yeah, exactly. So
Matthew Nederlanden:
That's a really neat sort of digital signage usage.
James Campbell:
That's one of the first ones that we ran into with questions about that because that was a really key thing for some convenience stores. Another one I can think of right off the top of my head is production monitoring, which is a lot of wear decoders are vital and you have to have 'em. You're monitoring a lot of cameras, you need to see a lot of them statically, but you might also need to have some kind of diagnostic or performance info that's being sent from a computer or some kind of other device and you could plug it into the HTM I input on the decoder and then display it as part of those grids. So you always know that your diagnostic infos here while the cameras are kind of surrounding it and that way you're just utilizing the space. That is a concern with any kind of thing if physically one person can only look so far. So you could have a dedicated potential display for that diagnostic info, but you kind have to have, you may want to put it in there because of the space limitations. Honestly,
Matthew Nederlanden:
You may also want to put it through the decoder because multiple parties need to see it. So let's take an energy production facility, how hot is it running? Simple temperature output. And that's not the only thing you would have here, but just dealing with the temperature output, there's probably several different individuals who need to be able to see both cameras and are the sensors inside the apparatus for the machinery saying it's running or on a production facility, are the output matching the expectations in terms of units per second or per minute? So any sort of those more industrial sensors data that you might have, you could integrate into several different parties who might all need that information, might also need visual verification of that information.
James Campbell:
That's an excellent point. You can distribute that one output maybe from that machine to, let's say you get the 12 H D M I one to all 12 of those HT M I outputs. If you want to, that's a key point with that one because I thought, Hey, that way you don't have to get into splitters and all this other kind of AV kind of stuff. Yeah, great point.
Ben Larue:
That's awesome. So that about wraps up our conversation about decoders, how they fit into the ecosystem of surveillance system. I want to wrap up though, by asking the panel of experts here, are there any other considerations we should have when it comes to decoders?
James Campbell:
The only thing is this is a fairly complicated product. It's got a lot of options. If you have questions or you think maybe I need this, if you need, viewing in itself can be a very complicated topic. So many factors with bandwidth, PCs, bottlenecks, and certain devices and everything. If you have a lot of viewing requirements, reach out to us. We can definitely push you into the right direction. Whether that is a decoder, whether that's utilizing some of the MDR or some combination of it all, let us know and we can point you in the right direction and tell you how to implement it and everything. That's what I would probably hammer it down.
Matthew Nederlanden:
And it's nice that it's just like a set it and forget it type of thing too. It's just set it up, walk away.
The thing that I would reiterate is you have a panel of experts that can help you with this from our entire sales team and support team that can assist you in setting this sort of thing up. And this is a complicated product that probably does require that, but it is probably one of the most powerful products, especially with being able to stick in that non surveillance operational or digital signage data into a view. It's so incredibly powerful. It's so neat. It allows you to really make business level changes in terms of achieving business outcomes and it's such a great product for that. But it is complex and it's good to have a team to help set it up, help define it, help you discover what would be useful for you and define how to make it work.
Ben Larue:
Absolutely. So that'll do it. Really appreciate all that final insight team. Really appreciate spending the last 30 minutes or so going through this in depth. It is a complex product and hopefully audience, you saw some value in understanding whether or not a decoder could be for you or not. But if you didn't, that's okay. Just have the conversations about viewing and we'll be able to point you in the right direction. We'll drop links to any of the resources that we've hinted at or called out in the description below. Drop in the comments below if there's any sort of topic that you would like to see us cover or a certain product. And without further ado, we'll let you get back to it. So thank you so much for tuning in this week. Bye-bye.