Sony announced that it has formed a business partnership in visual security with US semiconductor manufacturer Intersil for worldwide development of the industry's first network camera capable of simultaneously transmitting both analog SD and digital HD images over a single coaxial cable.

Sony aims to introduce this new category of network camera - the ‘Hybrid Camera' - to the market in the latter half of this fiscal year as part of its lineup of security cameras, which currently include SD-resolution analog cameras and HD-resolution IP network cameras.

Since last year, Japan's domestic security camera market has been developing rapidly, with an influx of HD-resolution IP network cameras capable of transferring images over a LAN or over the Internet, supplying power to the camera and/or controlling it. Sony has also expanded its lineup with box-style and dome-shaped cameras. Meanwhile, there are many facilities around the world that already have infrastructure in place with analog SD cameras and coaxial cables laid and installed, such as office buildings, commercial facilities, financial institutions, and seaports. Formerly, expensive facility-wide modifications spanning the entire interior of a building, including all cables, were required for such venues to introduce HD cameras to their systems.

However, Sony's new ‘hybrid cameras' are the first in the industry to be equipped with IC chips that use Intersil's SLOC (Security Link over Coax) technology, thus eliminating any need for new cables to be laid or replaced within the building. This in turn enables the existing infrastructure environment of coaxial cables for analog SD cameras to be used "as is", thereby drastically reducing installation costs and facilitating effective use of available cable resources from an environmental perspective. Sony's IP network cameras are capable of image surveillance in high-resolution digital HD, and also offer advanced graphics processing functionality, such as improved visibility of images with light/dark contrast through composition/auto-correction and motion detection.

The SLOC technology was developed by the Intersil Techwell team, and is incorporated in Intersil's TW3801 and TW3811.  This unique technology allows simultaneous transmission of analog CVBS video and digital IP video over a single coaxial cable, enabling mega-pixel IP cameras to operate on existing CCTV coaxial infrastructure at distances of up to 500 meters. This highly effective hybrid surveillance system supports latency-free analog CCTV as well as networked IP surveillance functionalities. The SLOC device will be incorporated directly into Sony's security cameras in 2011, providing customers with a flexible solution that allows latency-free live viewing and traditional real-time PTZ control. 

 hese new ‘hybrid cameras' make full use of the special characteristics of analog SD image signals, which boast virtually zero image transmission delay. The cameras can therefore continuously meet the needs of markets such as the financial market, in which systems must have the ability to conduct surveillance in real-time. The new hybrid cameras can be recommended for both potential new customers and for existing SD users.

Sony is positioning its ‘visual security business‘ as a main cornerstone of its professional solutions services. The company will continue to dynamically and proactively promote its business further by enhancing its wide range of tailor-made devices together with this newly-added category, and by strengthening its system solutions capabilities.