About cameras (video encoders) - Security Center 5.11

Security Center User Guide 5.11

Product
Security Center
Content type
Guides > User guides
Version
5.11
Language
English
Last updated
2024-07-05

A camera entity represents a single video source in the system. The video source can either be an IP camera, or an analog camera that connects to the video encoder of a video unit. Multiple video streams can be generated from the same video source.

A video encoder is a device that converts an analog video source to a digital format using a standard compression algorithm (H.264, MPEG- 4, or M-JPEG). The video encoder is one of many devices found on a video unit.

Each video encoder can generate one or multiple video streams using different compression schemes and formats for different usages. In an IP camera, the camera and the video encoder are an inseparable unit, and the two terms are often used interchangeably.

Cameras (or video encoders) are automatically created when you add the video units they are part of to Security Center.