General Solutions integrates Canon IP cameras

HOUSTON and LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y.--General Solutions and Canon have announced that Canon IP cameras are now fully compatible with General Solutions' DigiOp line of DVRs, hybrid video-management devices that allow for both analog and IP video streams, along with real-time audio. Ricardo Chen, manager of technical marketing and sales training for the Consumer Imaging Group at Canon U.S.A., said, "General Solutions was one of the companies we'd been targeting for a while ... They've been selling product to convenience stores and other applications where we see a lot of our products fitting." He mentioned specifically the VB-C300 network camera, which offers a 70-degree wide-angle lens and auto focus throughout the field of view, as an IP camera that small operations could use in place of a number of analog cameras. Chen said the General Solutions DVR gives his integrators options if they're not ready to install fully-IP systems. "Their hybrid system might be good for a small hidden camera--most covert cameras are still largely analog--combined with a wide-angle IP camera from Canon that can record the whole store," he said. Going forward, Chen said Canon would let end-user demand drive its integration with other software manufacturers and DVR makers. As for new features on its cameras, "Everybody has their own wish list," he said of end users and integrators alike. "I don't think there's a perfect camera out there, but we have to find a happy medium. We're still evaluating and studying market trends." If there's one thing Canon will emphasize, he said, it will be image quality. "We always start from the front, start from the lens and go back," Chen said. "Optics is what really differentiates our product. It's very unfortunate that a lot of installers do comparisons based on a piece of paper. They don't understand that not every 26x zoom lens is the same. It's the quality of image that stands out."