Axis Communications 241SA user manual Megapixel See Pixel

76AXIS 241QA/AXIS 241SA - Glossary

JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) - Together with the GIF file format, JPEG is an image file type commonly used on the web. A JPEG image is a bitmap, and usually has the file suffix '.jpg' or ".jpeg." When creating a JPEG image, it is possible to configure the level of compression to use. As the lowest compression (i.e. the highest quality) results in the largest file, there is a trade-off between image quality and file size.

kbit/s (kilobits per second) - A measure of the bit rate, i.e. the rate at which bits are passing a given point. See also Bit rate.

LAN (Local Area Network) - A LAN is a group of computers and associated devices that typically share common resources within a limited geographical area.

Linux - Linux is an open source operating system within the Unix family. Because of its robustness and availability, Linux has won popularity in the open source community and among commercial application developers.

Lux - A standard unit of illumination measurement.

MAC address (Media Access Control address) - A MAC address is a unique identifier associated with a piece of networking equipment, or more specifically, its interface with the network. For example, the network card in a computer has its own MAC address.

Manual iris - This is the opposite of an autoiris, i.e. the camera iris must be adjusted manually to regulate the amount of light allowed to reach the image sensor.

Mbit/s (Megabits per second) - A measure of the bit rate, i.e. the rate at which bits are passing a given point. Commonly used to give the "speed" of a network. A LAN might run at 10 or 100 Mbit/s. See also Bit rate.

Monitor - A monitor is very similar to a television set, but lacks the electronics to pick up regular television signals.

Motion JPEG - Motion JPEG is a simple compression/decompression technique for network video. Latency is low and image quality is guaranteed, regardless of movement or complexity of the image. Image quality is controlled by adjusting the compression level, which in turn provides control over the file size, and thereby the bit rate.

High-quality individual images from the Motion JPEG stream are easily extracted. See also JPEG and GIF.

Megapixel - See Pixel.

MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) - The Moving Picture Experts Group develops standards for digital video and audio compression. It operates under the auspices of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The MPEG standards are an evolving series, each designed for a different purpose.

MPEG-2- The designation for a group of audio and video coding standards, and is typically used to encode audio and video for broadcast signals, including digital satellite and Cable TV. MPEG-2, with some modifications, is also the coding format used by standard commercial DVD movies.

MPEG-4- MPEG-4 is a group of audio and video coding standards and related technology. The primary uses for the MPEG-4 standard are web (streaming media) and CD distribution, conversational (videophone), and broadcast television.

Most of the features included in MPEG-4 are left to individual developers to decide whether to implement them or not. This means that there are probably no complete implementations of the entire MPEG-4 set of standards. To deal with this, the standard includes the concept of "profiles" and "levels", allowing a specific set of capabilities to be defined in a manner appropriate for a subset of applications.

Multicast - Bandwidth-conserving technology that reduces bandwidth usage by simultaneously delivering a single stream of information to multiple network recipients. See also Unicast.

Multiplexer - A multiplexer is a high-speed switch that provides full-screen images from up to 16 analog cameras. Multiplexers can playback everything that happened on any one camera with no interference from the other cameras on the system.

Network camera (Network video camera) - A network camera is a camera and computer combined in one intelligent unit. It captures and sends live video directly over an IP network such as a LAN, intranet or the Internet. Users can view and/or manage the camera using a web browser or application software from any local or remote computer on a network. The camera allows multiple authorized viewers from different locations to simultaneously access images. A network camera is sometimes known as an IP camera.

Network connectivity - The physical (wired or wireless) and logical (protocol) connection of a computer network or an individual device to a network, such as the Internet or a LAN.

Network video - Network video (often referred to as IP-Surveillance for specific applications within security surveillance and remote monitoring) is a system that gives users the ability to monitor and record video over an IP network (LAN/WAN/Internet).

NTSC (National Television System Committee) - NTSC is an analog color encoding system used in television systems in Japan, the United States and other parts of the Americas. NTSC defines the video signal using 525 TV lines per frame, at a refresh rate equal to 30 frames per second. See also PAL.