Closed-Circuit TV Makers Focus on Security/Surveillance Systems

Mar 26, 2004 Ι Industry News Ι CHIPER TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. Ι Electronics and Computers Ι By Quincy, CENS
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The use of closed-circuit television (CCTV) for security, surveillance, and crime control has grown to unprecedented levels over the past decade, thanks to software improvements, the miniaturization of IC chips, cost reductions, and the increasing popularity of broadband Internet networks worldwide.

The growing international market for CCTV and security/surveillance systems is creating lucrative opportunities for Taiwanese manufacturers, who are known for their outstanding manufacturing, cost control, and R&D capabilities as well as their operating flexibility.

Most of the island's manufacturers in the line are relatively small (even the largest is a listed company with only 100-some employees), with streamlined workforces, a high ratio of R&D engineers, and networks of quality satellite plants that supply key parts. The manufacturers themselves handle final assembly and quality control in-house.

A well-established division of labor between the manufacturers and their satellite plants gives Taiwan a strong international competitiveness in CCTV and security/surveillance products. The manufacturers are well known for their ability to develop new products, create new application possibilities, and even alter the traditional thinking about such products.

Self-Developed Systems

One of the island's top three suppliers of high-end CCTV-system products is Chiper Technology Co., which has integrated capabilities that cover both product development and manufacturing. The company enjoys ISO9000 certification, and its products carry CE, UL, and FCC approval.

Founded back in 1978, Chiper is now one of Taiwan's most important suppliers of high-tech CCTV cameras and the island's No. 1 producer of 1/2-inch charged coupling device (CCD) cameras.

The company supplies a very wide range of CCTV and peripheral products, including cameras that it develops itself for various applications including both color and black-and-white auto/motorcycle license-plate identification as well as starlight (ex-view CCD) and infrared-cut models. The product line also encompasses video-matrix systems, pan/tilt units for cameras, stainless-steel camera housings, digital video recorders (DVRs), and advanced thermo-camera products. In addition, Chiper also offers total CCTV-related solutions such as security/surveillance systems and crime-control systems.

Chiper's vice president, Jack Wang, is proud of the R&D capability which has enabled his company to become a world-class manufacturer with the most advanced technology. Its self-developed core multi-level detection (MLD) technology, for example, greatly enhances CCTV performance and reduces costs in license-plate identification systems.

Wang explains that MLD is an advanced software technology that divides each frame detected by a CCTV into 256 (16 X 16) segments and eliminates the excessive illumination that makes images unclear in competing systems. This technology is vital for license-plate detection systems, helping to achieve a detection accuracy of over 90% in comparison with as little as 30% for other types of systems.

Chiper is the global leader in the development of MLD technology, Wang claims, adding that his products can greatly reduce system costs and expand the range of applications for license-plate identification systems into new fields such as parking-lot management. This is possible, and particularly economical, because the low-cost MLD-technology system can replace high-cost chip-card sensing systems in parking-lot management.

Wang expects his MLD technology, in fact, to win his company a more than 70% share of the island-wide license-plate identification network that is to be built by the police in Taiwan by 2008.

Unmatched Capabilities

Chiper's unmatched development capability has won the company qualification as a national defense supplier, and it began developing highly advanced thermo-cameras for Taiwan's military about four years ago. Wang says that these cameras have high-end sensors that can detect any object with a tiny difference in temperature from its surroundings.

The company is working on several new product lines this year, including fiber-optic converters for CCTV image transmission, explosion-resistant CCTV camera pan/tilt units for high-end security/surveillance systems, and web servers that match all kinds of IP cameras. These new products are expected to boost Chiper's 2004 revenues by about 50%, to around NT$300 million (US$8 million).

Chiper recently completed construction of a new plant in mainland China's Guangdong Province, and the new facility will soon begin mass production of large-volume, lower-margin items. The company's Taiwan plant will continue turning out higher-margin, high-technology CCTV cameras.

Chiper exports about 60% of its production to a number of countries, especially in the North American and European markets.

Sounding the Alarm

Another Taiwanese CCTV-camera maker that concentrates on the constant upgrading of its products is Jenn Huey Enterprise Co., which recently introduced its latest offering, a "Mobile SNG" total solution that integrates security, surveillance, telecom, and Internet technology.

This "Mobile SNG" security system, management declares, will give a home or factory full protection from interlopers by providing both video and audio warnings. When an interloper enters the protected area, the JH-230 wireless A/V transmitter and passive infrared (PIR) CCTV camera detector will send signals to the JH-C1 wireless-alarm receiver, which will sound an alarm with its built-in siren and notify the owner via a fixed-line phone or cellphone through the JH-110SA voice-audio dialer.

Perhaps even more notably, the system will transmit signals to a JH-232 four-way wireless A/V receiver which connects with a personal computer or server, which in turn will transmit audio and live images of the scene through the Internet to the owner's communication device, whether it be a notebook PC, personal digital assistant (PDA), third-generation Personal Handyphone System (PHS) handset, or general packet radio service (GPRS) cellphone.

When the owner learns what is happening by seeing the interloper's image or hearing his voice, he can decide whether to turn off the alarm by pushing buttons on the handheld device, or to talk with the interloper by pushing other buttons and using the system's built-in microphones and speakers. The device can also record the interloper's image and sounds for use as evidence, if necessary.

In addition to its security/surveillance functions, the system, which combines video, audio, and alarm functions, can also be used as a monitoring system for babysitting, home care, and other such applications. The user can turn the system off or on remotely, and can choose the target monitoring area. The basic requirements of the system are very simple: a personal computer, an asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) connection, and a third-generation or GPRS-compatible handheld device.

"Mobile SNG is the crystallization of the R&D and manufacturing experience that Jenn Huey has accumulated over the years," comments the company's president, Lu Chen-hsiang. "It is a pioneering system riding the trend of the increasing popularity of personal computers, broadband telecom networks, and color-display cellphones with Java function. We believe our Mobile SNG is an industry-redefining security system with unmatched cost advantages and ease of installation."

Established back in 1978, Jenn Huey today is a specialized maker of CCTV cameras (color/black-and-white, digital, and wireless models), image processors, and wire/wireless alarm/surveillance systems. A high ratio of outsourcing enables the company to maintain a streamlined workforce that concentrates on R&D and quality control, thus boosting its global competitiveness.
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