The Predator camera
produces video images compliant with the NTSC standard.
Thus, Predator video, with or without our Television Package,
is suitable for display on any standard CCTV monitor,
or with the aid of a common adaptor, on virtually any
television set (those with an AUX video input).
Without the Television Package, switching between Predator
video and regular TV programming is performed with the
TV remote control by switching between broadcast video
and AUX video. Aside from the cost of the adaptor, typically
$2 to $4, there is no extra charge for this capability.
Our Television Package however, offers a substantial advantage
in that the Predator video is modulated and merged with
the incoming broadcast, cable, or satellite TV signal,
and is distributed throughout the house via the TV cabling
within the house. This makes Predator video available
at every cable outlet in the house; available to any TV
or video-equipped PC.
In this case, rather than switching to the AUX video,
the viewer merely switches to the channel assigned to
the desired camera. Channels allocated to a Predator camera
are typically blank channels (such as, say, channels 75
through 94), so one does not normally need to 'sacrifice'
a viewable channel to make room for the Predator video.
It is important to note that each television on the system
is independent of all others. Predator video is available
at all outlets, but like any other channel, each viewer
selects the channel he or she wishes to watch. Selecting
a channel assigned to a Predator camera on one television
set in no way affects viewing on other television sets
in the system.
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Predator
Family of Cameras - Television Package
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This cabinet houses a typical Television Package which distributes video to 12 outlets throughout the house. These cabinets are typically installed such that the cabinet door is flush with the wall.
Immediately above this cabinet is a small shelf where the manual lens controller sits. This provides the owner a mechanism for adjusting camera focus, zoom, and lens opening.
A cable outlet is also provided as a maintenance station, enabling the owner to view the video as the lens controller is adjusted.
Immediately below the cabinet are the webcam server and
the router.
This installation employs 5 modules to distribute both
Predator and commercial television video to twelve cable
outlets throughout the home.
The center right module, the 4x1 driver, accepts up to 4 modulated auxiliary (surveillance) video signals, producing 1 modulated video output which is fed to the Video Engine to the immediate left.
The video Engine accepts the surveillance video and the television video to produce a single composite video signal.
This is fed to the 2, 1x6 driver modules below for distribution to the 11 rooms (cable outlets). The twelfth cable outlet is immediately above the cabinet, and serves as a maintenance station.
The single, small box in the upper center is the video modulator.
Cameras v. Channels
Typically, each camera has its own channel assignment and thus has the entire screen for the duration of the display. This trades 'channel space' for continuous viewing, but if one has 4 or more cameras, the allocation of one channel per camera can become problematic.
However, it is possible to 'share' a channel by merging the video from two or more cameras into a single video output with the aid of a 'splitter', thus using a single channel to view the images produced by two or more cameras. A splitter may combine the video from two or more cameras into a single, 'windowed' image, or it may operate in a 'round-robin' fashion, wherein each camera receives a certain amount of display time and is then replaced by the next camera.
In the 'window' mode, the splitter breaks the screen up into, typically, 2 or 4 windows, and assigns the video from one camera to each window. In this way, each camera is continuously displayed, but it receives only a fraction of the screen for its display.
In the 'rotate' mode, each camera is given the entire screen for a selected interval, at the end of which, the splitter selects the next camera for display. Thus each camera receives the entire screen for its display, but only for a fraction of the display cycle.
In either case, with a splitter, two or more cameras are merged into a single video image, sharing a single channel.
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