In case if you digitize a signal from standard CCTV camera you can get a digital stream with more than 150 Mbps (Mega bits per second), but such a stream contains a lot of  redundant information.

All image compression algorithms are divided in two groups namely:

• lossless
• lossy

Most CCTV compression algorithms used in CCTV are lossy compressions, because such algorithms offer higher compression ratio (the ratio of the resulting video file size compared with the original file size).

Video compression algorithms are divided in two groups:

• Frame based compression (JPEG, Wavelet, JPEG 2000)
• Stream based compression (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, MPEG-7)

Usage of stream based compression algorithms enables greater savings on storage space and network bandwidth but as a trade off these algorithms require higher computing performance.

Four of the most common type of compressions widely used in CCTV are:

• Motion JPEG
• MPEG-4
• H.264
• JPEG2000

IP Video System Design Tool can help you to see how choosing of compression methods can affect required network bandwidth and CCTV storage space, so you can clearly see the difference in terms of compression ratio.

Motion JPEG is very popular compression format. MJPEG fits very well for video archives because of its frame based nature.

MPEG4 can be 3 times more efficient in terms of compression ratio in compare with Motion JPEG.
But MPEG4 is a bad choice for systems with frame rate less than 5-6 frames per second.

H.264 can be 50-100% more efficient in compare with MPEG-4
MPEG-4 and H.264 are ideal for CCTV  systems with limited but stable bandwidth.

JPEG2000 is similar to JPEG, but uses wavelet transform instead of discreetest-cosine-transform (DCT) of JPEG. JPEG2000 offers a better image quality on higher compression levels. Another great advantage is a possibility to decompress lower resolution representation of the image. This feature is good for motion detection algorithms. However JPEG2000 compression needs way higher CPU performance, than JPEG.

More CCTV Guides

Online and Windows version of CCTV Bandwidth and storage space calculators

 
Open Online Bandwidth and disk Storage Space Calculator

In the new book of A.Caputo “Digital Video Surveillance and Security” our software tool is mentioned in 2 chapters: Chapters 6 “Site Survey” and Chapter 8 “DVS Archiving and Storage” . By mistake in Chapter 8, pages 220 and 249 our software is called IPConfig Tool / IP Design Config Tool from www.jasc.com instead of IP Video System Design Tool from www.jvsg.com.

The book itself is a must-read for security professionals and it really covers all important topics of in-depth CCTV knowledge.

For sure it was a pure accident but it gave us an idea to look for shorter name for our design tool.

Other websites also quite often mistype our website address: JVSD, JSVG instead of JVSG.

Also, our friends from HD CCTV alliance suggested “IP Video System Design Tool” name is not that good and we better find other and probably shorter name for our software.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us in case if you can suggest a new idea. Something short like IPConfig Tool and probably from 2 words and even without “IP” to not mix up with different IP configuration utilities of IP camera manufacturers.

Motion JPEG is a popular CCTV compression format, where the video sequence is made of a series  of JPG (JPEG)  images. This compression method is required where lower FPS are used (like 5-8 frames per second).  A typical MotionJPEG compression ratio is from 10 to 30 in compare with raw video.

To check how frame resolution, FPS can affect network bandwidth and storage you can use IP Video System Desgin Tool software:

CCTV and IP Video Guide

Online and Windows version of CCTV Bandwidth and storage space calculators

 
Click the image below to open Free Online M-JPEG Calculator:
Online Bandwidth and disk Storage Space Calculator
 
 

Typical mistypes of Motion JPEG is Motin JPEG or Motion Jepeg.