Sony has formed a business partnership in visual security with Intersil, for worldwide development of the industry’s first network camera capable of simultaneously transmitting both analog SD and digital HD images over a single coaxial cable. Sony aims to introduce this new category of network camera – the ‘Hybrid Camera’ – to the market in the latter half of this fiscal year as part of its lineup of security cameras, which currently include SD-resolution analog cameras and HD-resolution IP network cameras. Sony’s IP network cameras are capable of image surveillance in high-resolution digital HD, and also offer advanced graphics processing functionality, such as improved visibility of images with light/dark contrast through composition/auto-correction and motion detection.
Sony’s new ‘hybrid cameras’ are the first in the industry to be equipped with IC chips that use Intersil’s SLOC (Security Link over Coax) technology, thus eliminating any need for new cables to be laid or replaced within the building. These new ‘hybrid cameras’ make full use of the special characteristics of analog SD image signals, which boast virtually zero image transmission delay. The cameras can therefore continuously meet the needs of markets such as the financial market, in which systems must have the ability to conduct surveillance in real-time. The new hybrid cameras can be recommended for both potential new customers and for existing SD users.