Need help with IR Camera Setup

[Ashfieldschooltech]

Hi all,

 

As a preface, excuse my ignorance, my knowledge on video terminology is non-existent and I am a fundemental amateur!

 

I've bought what I thought to be the most appropriate camera to act as an IR 'Blackout Camera' for our school.

 

I bought this IR Camera

 

I then, bought this SDI to HDMI Converter

 

So with these components and a HDMI monitor, is there any possibility of a successful setup? If not, why and what do I need to make it work on a budget!

 

The camera has the option to select either: TVI, AHD, CVI and CVBS.....

 

I have followed all basic troubleshooting steps (checked the monitor and HDMI cable, the power sources, the cables.) and nothing on the monitor.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

 

Owen

 

: )

[sleah]

It looks like the camera you have is analogue only. The convertor is digital to digital, suffice to say it won't work....

You need a composite video to HDMI convertor, which converts the analogue signal to a digital one.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=cvbs+to+hdmi&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

 

Other options may be possible, however I don't know much about the other standards you mention the camera can output.

Edited April 1, 2021 by sleah

[timsabre]

TVI and AHD are both higher res analog systems (usually 720p, 960p, 1080p) which may be preferable to using SD composite video which usually looks horrible when converted to HDMI. For example this box from CPC will do AHD to HDMI

 

https://cpc.farnell.com//SR10891

Your camera says it's 1080p so you'd get a much better picture than using composite to HDMI.

 

As Simon says SDI is a digital system so you could swap the camera for one which outputs SDI, the quality you would get is much better than using the AHD/HDMI kludge.

 

Also, be aware that "infra red" cameras such as the one you have use infrared LEDs to illuminate the scene which only work fairly close to the camera. Depending how big the room is, you might need to add infrared illuminators to actually be able to see anything in darkness.

Edited April 1, 2021 by timsabre

[cfmjohn]

Ideally you'd want to try and use TVI, AHD or CVI as they'll give you the HD resolution that the camera is capable of.

CVBS is composite video so you'll only get a standard definition picture with lower image quality.

 

Something like this box would probably work - though I have no personal experience of it. Just watch out for the note on the listing saying it will default to 720p resolution and you need to press a button to switch to 1080p each time you turn it on.

 

There weren't many options on Amazon - maybe you'd have more options from a CCTV supplier.

[ojc123]

Absolute minimal budget thinking here.

 

I think that all you'd need apart from the camera is an old tv with composite input (yellow socket) and a BNC to Phono adapter and it would work on CVBS.

 

If it's just to see what's going on on stage then standard quality will do just fine. We used these and they did that job.

 

These cameras kick out a decent signal so you could probably split it to a number of similar old TVs without amplification. Put out a notice in school asking for old tvs with a yellow socket and you'll probably get quite a few. PAT is a very good idea.

[Dave m]

When I set up a couple of control rooms with black out cameras, I used simple crt monitors using loop through.Mine were 9" Panasonic video monitors because I had them. The control room sightlines were terrible so the sound desk and lax desk each got a monitor.

For the simplest system where timing isn't vital, you could use simple led tv monitors but they will have a slight delay compared to real life.So a conductors camera would be best with crt (an old 12" portable from someone's spare bedroomI recently bought a 7" LCD monitor intended for a car's headrest forum Amazon for £50

There are IR illuminators that run on 12v that you could conceal in the rig or level with the stage front

[ojc123]

Following on from my post above we also had some reversing monitors from ebay at less than £20 which were very useful.