Axis P3301 in IP cameras

For IP camera surveillance the preferred video compression technology has always been MPEG4 Part 2. With Axis' P3301 you can say goodbye to this, as it heralds in the MPEG4 Part 10, or H.264 codec. In a nutshell, H.264 delivers far more efficient video compression, offering operators a much wider range of options.

H.264 is actually a few years old and it's only now that its benefits are being seen, with many multimedia applications using it. Among these are iPods, QuickTime, HD DVDs plus video cameras, and BBC's iPlayer went over to it recently. For IP cameras, the benefits are reduced network bandwidth and lower storage requirements for recordings, allowing resolution and frame rates to be increased at no extra cost.

The P3301 is a fixed-mount camera, with a solid plastic casing and clear polycarbonate dome - Axis also offers a metal vandal-proof version for £531. The camera's top resolution is 640 x 480 pixels, and it supports the maximum 30fps at all resolutions for both MJPEG and H.264. PoE is on the menu, it has sockets for an external microphone and speaker, and an internal microphone as well. A delay of around one second means sound will be slightly out of sync with the video feed, but we found quality to be very good.

The bundled IP Installer software locates the camera on the network and then it's over to the tidy web interface for further configuration. The homepage opens with a live view and, once the camera is in position, you adjust zoom and focus using pullers on the lens that are then locked down. For sheer picture quality Axis is always way ahead of the rest, and the P3301 is no exception, since its image using MJPEG or H.264 is superbly sharp and detailed, with very good colour balance.

Motion at 30fps is conveyed smoothly, and the camera worked very well under both daylight and artificial lighting. It can operate down to 1lux, and we found we could see most activity in the lab at night with it lit only by the TFT screen we were watching.

H.264 delivers on its promises for reducing bandwidth, and we used Network Instruments Observer to test this. With five systems accessing the camera over Fast Ethernet, we saw an average network utilisation of 44% with MJPEG selected and plenty of activity occurring in the viewing area. Switching all clients over to H.264 saw this drop to less than 10% utilisation. With no activity in the viewing area the five MJPEG feeds drew 43% of available bandwidth, while H.264 averaged only 3.5%.

Along with superior image quality the P3301 delivers a superb range of features. For motion detection, it supports up to ten include or exclude windows in the viewing area, and now offers an even finer sensitivity for detection. Access controls extend to a username and password list, plus an IP allow or deny list and a RADIUS server for external authentication.

As one of the first IP cameras to market that supports multiple H.264 and MJPEG streams, the P3301 sets a very high standard for the rest to follow. It offers an unbeatable range of features for the price, and image quality simply doesn't get any better than this.

Author: Dave Mitchell