Full-color: Smart Dual Light
Types of Illumination:
There are 3 main types of Illumination:
IR - Infrared utilises IR Light and a cut filter to produce a clear B/W image in low light.
White Light - White Light LED illuminators add suplemental lighting to a scene providing colour image in low light.
Smart Dual Light - The best of both worlds! Automaticallty switches between IR and White Light to reduce light pollution. The camera utilises IR when the scene is too dark to retain colour detail and then brings on White Light LED when a target is detected to provide a colour image of key events.
Smart illumination cameras can be set to any of these modes manually. i.e If you wish to use standard white light full colour functionality, setting the unit to White Light Only will achieve this, no IR or Smart illimination will occur.
Illumination vs Active Deterrance:
A key thing to remember, is that illuminators of any kind, IR, White Light etc are not an active deterrance. Illuminators are designed to provide clarity to the footage, whilst Active Deterrance are for deterring intruders upon activation. Typically seen as the Red & Blue LEDs alongisde audio warnings as seen on the TiOC range.
Smart Illuminaton ≠ Active Deterrance and vice versa.
Smart Dual Light - IP Cameras
Set Up For IP
Smart Dual Light cameras have smart illumination enabled by default out of the box. Smart illumination analyses the whole frame to see if a human/vehicle is in frame and providing that the camera is in IR, it will bring the white light illuminator LED on. Best practice is to enable SMD or IVS rules on your camera alongside smart illumination so that you are able to receive notifications from events.
To adjust Smart Illumination configuration, from the NVR, Navigate to Camera > Image and select the relevant channel. Click Illuminator settings and you will be able to select the illumination method from here. This setting may not appear if your recorder is on older firmwares, if so will need to update the firmware or login to the camera's front end and change the illumination settings within the camera.
Can I use a Smart Dual Light Camera as a Security Light?
A common question alongisde the White Light not coming on at night. An important distinction to make is that Smart Dual Light is not an active deterrent method and is an illumination method. It's design philosphy is to keep light pollution to a minimum while giving colour to key events.
While the camera will turn on the LED's when a target is detected, it will only do so if the camera is in IR. Security cameras are designed to take in as much light as possible during low light conditions to retain a colour image. If ambient light is enough to keep the camera in colour without the camera needing additional illumination the White Lights will remain off.
How an IP Smart Dual Light Camera Works
Smart Dual Light - CVI Cameras
Set Up for CVI
Much like their IP counter parts, CVI cameras with smart illumination have it enabled out of the box.
It is important to note with CVI, as the XVR is doing the processing, if no IVS or SMD rules have been set then Smart Illumination will not function.
CVI cameras with Smart Dual Light require an IVS or SMD rule to trigger the white light. Once the rule has been created you will see a tick box to enable the white light under the parameters for the rule as seen below:
When the rule triggers and the camera is in IR, the white light will now turn on, if the camera is in colour already then the white light will not turn on as the camera doesn't need the extra light.
How CVI Smart Dual Light Works
Requirements For CVI Smart Illumination
IP cameras can do their own intelligence and can handle the Smart Dual Light side of things themselves. CVI cameras work a bit differently as they need the recorder to do the A.I for them so an intelligent XVR is required for Smart Dual Light to work. Any I3 recorder such as the XVR5104HS-4KL-I3 will be able to do the IVS rules for Smart Dual Light.