Testing Oncam Grandeye's Panoramic Cameras (IPC)

For almost a decade, panoramic surveillance cameras have been promised as a 'next big thing' but has yet to meet its potential.

In that last few years, however, the situation is changing as megapixel and IP video systems become increasingly main stream - enabling easier, lower cost development and deployment of panoramic cameras.

Grandeye was one of the most well known panoramic camera manufacturers but suffered a major company restructuring one year ago raising questions on its future. In early 2009, OnCam Global announced that it acquired the "worldwide rights to Grandeye technology and products for security applications."

Adding to the hype for panoramic cameras is Mobotix's intense marketing campaign for their own panoramic cameras. 

With this in mind, we tested the Oncam Grandeye Halocam IPC camera with Milestone's Enterprise 6.5f software to better understand its functionality and abilities.

A few key findings from the test include:

• A clear tradeoff exists between panoramic megapixel and 'traditional' tele-photo megapixel cameras: Much greater FoV for significantly less details
• Fairly large areas can be monitored for activity with a single camera in the center of the space
• Integration with Milestone worked well with a few notable issues/limitations
• Low light and WDR conditions were problematic