What is an IP camera?

What is an IP camera, and what are the main differences between an IP camera and a CCTV camera?

IP camera, or Internet Protocol camera is also called Network Camera, and they are widely used for residential and commercial purposes, offering the user high quality.

IP camera needs a static IP address for the router and other network devices to identify and connect with it. In case of a dynamic IP address that keeps changing randomly every time the camera is connected to the network, a fixed URL via Dynamic Domain Name Service (DDNS) must be set up.

While CCTV cameras transmit one-way analog data with the help of coaxial cable to the DVR, and then it is converted to digital data, IP cameras are able to send and receive, that is to stream digital video, PoE - a system that passes electrical power along with data on an Ethernet cable., and in this case there is no need in analog to digital conversion. IP cameras stream the video directly to the NVR, a Network Video Recorder. The main advantage of IP camera over CCTV is that the camera captures and delivers a higher quality video. Additionally, IP cameras capture a much wider field of view than comparable analog cameras. As a result, the cost of IP cameras is much higher than that of analog ones.

IP cameras either have wired or wireless connections, and are used both indoors and outdoors, during the day and at night.

There are two kinds of IP cameras:

Centralized IP cameras

These cameras require a central NVR to store the recording, handle video and alarm management.

Decentralized IP cameras

Decentralized IP cameras don’t need a central NVR, and the video is processed at the source, as the cameras have recording function built-in and can thus record directly to any standard storage media, such as SD cards, hard disc, or a server.