We think that for a fair amount time both types of setups will co-exist in mutually exclusive market segments. Digital PoE based IP CCTV system have achieved high levels of maturity & reliability (with only the camera image processing and artificial intelligence evolving) and would see deployment in large installation and enterprises. The IP cameras is this setup can function in all three deployment topology (distributed, centralized and decentralized).
For wireless cameras, the technology is still not mature wrt to topology and still evolving (along with the camera capabilities) and will see more favor with smaller single-home setups, small shops, etc. The two sub-types if these (wifi access + wired power) AND wire-free (wifi access + battery/solar power). However the utility of the former by itself is low as in many cases, running a power cable is as good (probably less safer) then running an ethernet cable, and you still need to supply UPS wired power (may not be a problem in some countries where power does not go off randomly and is very reliable with 1/2 planned outages per year). Still their could be a lot of homes, where electrical power line or socket is available on or near the site of camera installation (for eg, electrical lamp point to install Floodlight cameras, false ceilings which can hide wirings, kids cam, etc) but may have issues in laying new ethernet wires. Once you have electrical power 5/12V DC-DC UPS are relatively easily available (For example Resonate RouterUPS, Cuzor etc in India) to provide small distributed UPS function to the cameras. However, we think the main pull of such cameras is a DIY installation for small setups (<= 4 cameras) and we think the two wireless camera topology should merge in the future with below characteristics:
(1) Support Inbuilt battery (replaceable) and charging circuit (that can be fed by power adaptor or Solar Panel). In case the charging circuit is cut off (no sun, no power), the camera would run on battery un-interrupted till the battery drains out. This means inbuilt DC-DC UPS functionality
(2) The camera will support redundant SD-card/Base-Station/NAS storage (mandatory) and Cloud storage (optional subscription based). Max SD card supported capacities should be in 128/256 GB at least, rather than 32/64 GB only
(3) The WiFi support will evolve from 2.4G single band to dual-band 2.4/5G.2.4G has good range poor bandwidth (interference) suitable for far away/outdoor cameras, while 5G have less range but good bandwidth suitable for nearby/indoor cameras. Outdoor wifi Router (rare) can reverse the characteristics, though
(4) And parallelly enhancement in camera technology (lens, sensor, AI algorithms, etc) will continue as in Wired PoE IP cameras bringing the two almost on war. on Bus power, motion triggered algorithms like might even become PIR + Frame-Change or like an NVR + PoE IP camera rolled into one (Mobotix).
The main reason why we see a convergence of the two wireless sub-types is that a considerable bloating of the claims on battery performance and life of multiple reputed brands of wire-free cameras AND the wireless cameras with wired power need UPS power [AC UPS to adapter or DC-DC UPS in between] to keep the battery from getting discharged. As more features and AI functionality is introduced in these cameras, the pressure on battery capacity will only increase (it will make camera heavy making it unfriendly for DIY installers). Tall claims are made that batteries last for 3/6/12/24 months, but the fine-print missed out is that the projection is based on the premise that only few minutes of motion triggered recording are done per day, which is impractical for many deployments, if not all.
- Suman Kumar Luthra @ APRC-P3 Telecom Sub-Committee
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