Featured Products and Technologies

Reliable CCTV – even through network failures
Only Bosch can offer you the reliability of its patent-pending Automatic Network Replenishment (ANR) technology. ANR allows local storage in the encoder to act as backup if the network goes down. Conventional NVRs experience recording gaps during network failures, but Bosch’s NVR uses ANR to automatically replenish those gaps. It even staggers the information relay to the NVR so the network doesn’t get overloaded.

Audio capability – listen in
Options are available with one- or two-way audio. Bosch enables video and audio to be relayed as a single media stream so the two are synchronised.

Pre-alarm recording – capture the lead-up to major events
Bosch encoders can temporarily record video of key security locations; then, if and when an alarm is activated, they will rewind and permanently record the information just before and just after the alarm. The relevant video is safely stored on the secure server, but valuable space isn’t wasted with hours of uneventful recording.

Video management systems – bridging PC and
analog viewing
Bosch encoders can temporarily record video. The best CCTV systems enable users to view video via both PC and analogue monitors. The Bosch VIDOS Video Management System provides a single means to control both, providing the most efficient way to manage video information in an IP network CCTV system.

Accessibility
As the market strives to reduce the amount of staff needed to operate security systems, IP networks allow further centralisation. A single operator can monitor remote and wireless cameras from anywhere on the network, and the video can be stored remotely as well. And while many competitors offer point-to-point wireless capability, Bosch allows wireless access anywhere on the network.

Simplified installation at lower costs
Rather than requiring extensive coax cabling like analogue systems, IP Network Video systems connect through CAT-5 or wireless communication systems that already exist in many buildings.

Reduced storage costs
When CCTV video moves into the networked world, it allows you to take advantage of IT technologies like network attached storage and storage area networks, which can hold huge amounts of data. The system is using dedicated high-density storage servers rather than relying on a single hard drive. The video on those servers can then be shared with anyone anywhere on the network.

Reliability
IP uses the benefits of Internet technology to create a more reliable security system. It can automatically redirect video traffic to a backup storage system in the event of a power failure or network outage.

Scalability
IP networks offer improved flexibility for enlarging a CCTV system. It is not only easy to add cameras, but also to add storage space and distribute it across the network. Plus, IP networks are uniquely able to support multiple viewers. In the same way that an e-mail server can send the same data to multiple people at the same time, the network switch has the ability to clone the video and use the same data multiple times.

Video quality
Modern IP systems use MPEG-4, which makes more efficient use of the network than M-JPEG. For times when lower quality would be sufficient and would help control the amount of storage used, IP gives you the ability to customise the quality of the video output based on your viewing needs and storage capacity.

Convenience and overall efficiency
Network video recorders (NVRs) using IP Network Video are the next step in an evolution of more cost-effective and space efficient solutions for viewing and storing video. 
IP-based digital encoders push encoded video onto the network for storage anywhere. This has opened the door to the process of converting analogue video to digital, storing it in one place, and viewing it from anywhere in the world.

Cost effectiveness due to gradual transition
As with any technology advancement, some users will be ready to make the jump to IP immediately, while others will prefer to transition over time. Because Bosch IP Network Video products are compatible with existing analogue components, the transition can be effected gradually, allowing you to take advantage of the benefits of IP video while continuing to make profitable use of your analogue investment. Or, you have the option of installing a complete IP system all at once for instant access to the latest CCTV technology.

Wireless
Advances in wireless technologies have been fueled by the demand for increased mobility and ease of installation. IP enabled products instantly leverage this trend without requiring any change in their technology. Where is this technology headed? Imagine walking around with a single wireless tablet and viewing any camera on your network. Or instantly installing cameras along tunnels and bridges without any cabling except power. The technology is moving quickly. The future is not distant.

Audio
Like Internet radio, IP allows the transmission of audio over enormous distances. And because it’s digital, not analogue, the sound quality doesn’t degrade over long distances. Once archived, it can be played back over and over without degradation. Most importantly, there’s no need to run separate microphone or speaker wires from the camera to the observer. It’s all done over the ethernet.

Alarms
Alarm triggers can be generated by an amazing range of products, including contacts, sensors and other systems. But now, instead of being translated from voltage across two wires, they have become bits of information that can be received and handled anywhere on the network – even by multiple recipients.

Relays
Central monitoring sites simply can’t afford to have dedicated wires running to and from every location and device that needs to be controlled. IP technology allows the operator to switch anything on and off and control it from anywhere in the world.

Serial ports
The average serial cable becomes unreliable after the first 3 to 4 metres. But by converting the serial data to IP, the same data can be moved across the planet and in both directions. In CCTV applications, this is particularly important to the reliable operation of PTZ cameras over long distances.

Built-in motion detection
Motion detection through an IP encoder is typically used to raise an alarm to the operator, increase the frame rate of the recording to capture the event in more detail, and cause the alarm video to be safely stored either locally or on a distant NVR. Bosch motion detection is even more sophisticated, allowing you to designate the specific direction of motion that would trigger the alarm as well as how much motion needs to happen. The result is that as little information as possible is sent across the network and stored when nothing is happening, but as soon as an event occurs, it is captured in great detail.

Video and audio compression
The evolution of compression formats is an unending process – from MPEG-1 on S-VHS to MPEG-2 for DVD, then MPEG-4 for Internet streaming. Bosch video IP encoders are field upgradeable, so if a better compression format is discovered, you have access without investing in new hardware. Our current technology relies on MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 rather than MJPEG to achieve better efficiency. Specifically, MPEG-4 stores only designated keyframes and then the difference between subsequent frames. So if the view of a hallway remains unchanged for hours, the scene and any changes in it are captured using a minimum of storage. And the number of keyframes is fully configurable according to specific user needs.

Dual streaming
Bosch encoders offer dual streaming capability. Depending on the model chosen, users can adjust frame rate, compression standard and/or resolution to control the quality of the video for different purposes simultaneously – from local viewing to satellite viewing, Internet viewing or archiving. The result is the ability to control frame rates and resolution for each video stream.

Multicasting
IP network technology enables the network switch to automatically clone data if multiple recipients want to view the same thing. The proper switch allows multiple viewers to see the same camera over an LAN or WAN without stressing the single encoder. This is a vital component to a scalable solution.

Bandwidth throttling
Even dedicated CCTV networks can get crowded periodically. With Bosch, users can choose how to adjust to accommodate temporary traffic surges. The frame rate can drop temporarily while the sharpness of each image is maintained, or, conversely, the same number of frames can be recorded but at a lower resolution. Each encoder can also be programmed so that the bandwidth it uses is allowed to rise and fall as necessary to preserve both the frame rate and resolution. Or the user can fix a maximum threshold to ensure that even if every encoder on the network became active, the system would still not exceed the total bandwidth allocation. Bosch provides the flexibility to choose which option is best for a particular application.