Looking for an Industrial Video Monitor

[ECSI]

I have an industrial customer looking for a good quality video monitoring system. The process involves a product conveyor where an operator makes adjustments to properly position the product as it travels across a certain point on the conveyor. The control station cannot be located very close to where the product is for various reasons. So, the operator checks the product...walks over to the control station and makes adjustments...walks back to the conveyor to check accuracy...walks back to make more adjustments...back to conveyor...etc. etc. So, we want to put one camera over the product on the conveyor, one color monitor, maybe 10", at the control station, and a joystick or remote control of some type for panning and zooming the camera. That's it. I know there are a thousand 'security' cameras out there but I'm hoping some of you have suggestions based on experience. Thanks

[paulengr]

I've had very good success with monitors from Pelco, and very good success with nearly any of the cameras made by Speco Technologies. I've had good luck with DVR's made by Approtech as well. I'd consider other companies as well as long as you get the "standard" features (get Ethernet...you will be much happier later and it's a cheap option; also get "triplex"...can play, record, and monitor simultaneously). I really don't see much point in getting videotape recorders if you want to record any more...lots of time tied up in maintaining them. DVR's are "install and forget". You will quickly notice that essentially all the cameras cost roughly the same. With monitors, that's not the case. It is actually kind of hard to find decently priced video monitors. Another nice option is a "multiplexer". This combines multiple video feeds onto a single output. It is usually cheaper to buy a bigger monitor and get a <$200 multiplexer than to buy multiple monitors. Standard "surveillance" stuff is actually very cheap and easy to do yourself. You really can't screw it up too badly. You will get seriously ripped off if you have a "security company" do it for you. The equipment is unbelievably cheap for most items. Where you get into a lot of money is in the installation labor/markup, or if you are trying to buy ultra high speed video recording equipment for casinos, or you want to monitor more than about a dozen locations simultaneously. I've made many purchases lately from www.atvresearch.com. They say "wholesale only" but I've never had an issue with this since I approach them as a company. Their staff seems very knowledgeable when we try to do anything not "out of the box". Just downloading their catalog is worth it for browsing purposes...you can get a very good idea of what's out there. You can buy pretty much everything except the DVR's from Grainger or McMaster-Carr, too. Prices aren't too far out of line for this stuff in general. Actually for monitors, I've had better luck with Grainger. That being said, I haven't actually done any PTZ installations yet. Not worth the extra money. I've mostly bought water proof "bullet" style cameras like the CVC-320WP. If you shop around, you can get a decent camera for under $200 and a decent small (9") high resolution monitor for about $150. Security camera stuff is all composite video so if you can find an LCD TV/monitor which takes that as an input, you could also go that route. I recommend sticking with BNC connectors as they are a bit more rugged, less inclined to get crap inside them, and cleaner. In terms of wiring, I can't recommend "siamese" style wiring enough, or else the integrated DC over video setup. In "siamese" wiring, the power wires are molded into the coaxial cabling. In "DC over video", with the above mentioned camera, the camera has a capacitive filter in it to strip the DC off the video signal and vice versa at the receiver end. Power is carried directly over the coaxial video cabling. You can also buy adapters to do the same thing although I've never been impressed with the pricing. Either way, standard RG-59 "cable TV" cabling is all that you use for the wiring. You can also buy something a little heavier for more rugged cabling if you want. Just pay attention to the cable impedance. Try to stay close to 75 ohms since surveillance equipment uses that as the standard instead of 50 ohms. If you screw this up, you'll get losses at your connections. By the way, this is by way of "ridiculous" situations. I was first turned onto doing this kind of stuff when I ran into installations on dredges (marine application). I took the same components and have been applying it again over and over in a lot of other "heavy" industrial plants (foundries, mines, etc.) where it's very difficult sometimes to make this stuff survive for any time at all with "typical" Panasonic cameras and such. We have run video signals extensively all over the plant I work at, mostly to help operators remotely monitor various parts of the operation. It has only been in the last 6 months that we actually started doing any kind of true "surveillance". And in the areas that we are doing it, we are very, very obvious about it. They sell lots of very cool hidden cameras such as one that is actually inside a fully functioning EXIT sign, but I prefer to be out in the open. Problem employees will still screw up on camera even when they know the cameras are there sooner or later.

[ECSI]

paulengr...thanks for the great info! I'll check out some of the manufacturers that you mentioned. I only need the camera, monitor, and zoom/pan control for realtime operator adjustments, so the ethernet, recording and playback features aren't important for this application. Thanks again