Smart 2 CCTV 16 Channel Digital Video Recorder.

This is my review of the SystemQ Smart² Digital Video Recorder.
This is one of the 1st Smart2 DVR's installed in the UK (pre-production unit).

As can be seen above this unit comes very well packed in a sturdy box, the unit is encased inside a shaped foam section that also houses the power supply, remote control, rack mounting brackets (if you require them), the installer/user manual and a software cd. My initial impression was a great big smile on my face, it's a very smart looking piece of kit; chrome buttons, brushed aluminium front and matching case, I couldn't wait to get it going... But I'd purchased it without a HDD, as I'd planned to use the one from the DVR this Smart 2 was replacing.

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Great, fitting the HDD was a breeze. Couldn't have been simpler, just a case of positioning the HDD on top of 4x padded holed feet and securing into place from underneath with the provided screws, the entire process of removing the top cover, fitting the HDD (taking a few pictures), and refitting the top panel took about 10 minutes. And as you can see there's plenty of space available for a 2nd HDD if required.

And there it is all powered up, microphones and cameras fitted, and unit wired into my wireless router. Everything ready for me to setup the unit. The first thing I had to do was let the unit detect and clear the HDD, I actually expected problems here but it detected the HDD on power up ad prompted me to clear it before I could do anything else, anyway HDD configuring took a matter of seconds, then I altered the time and date and turned off record for the camera input's I wasn't using. There are plenty more options you can go through but after completing the above few steps everything is setup and ready to start recording.

The HDD I have transferred from my old DVR is only 160 GB in size and Initially I have setup just 2 cameras and opted to record at maximum resolution (720x288), in super fine mode and full frame rate (120 IPS) with 1 audio input 24/7. After running in this configuration for 36 hours the HDD was almost half used, meaning that at around the 80 hrs mark the HDD would be full, at this point I decided to checkout the backup to DVD feature and am happy to report that I can notice very little difference between live, and playback and recorded to DVD viewing quality. On a standard CD (700 MB limit) you can record approx 1/2 hour to the disc, with a DVD (4480 MB limit) the record time increased to 4 1/2 hours. A full DVD takes about an hour to burn.

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I have cleared the HDD and started again keeping the settings as above except reducing the IPS to 30 and I estimate this should last around 14 days.

The Smart² has now been running for over a week, and I'm glad to report no problems at all. The recorded image quality only being let down by the capabilities of one of my camera's which doesn't cope to well with excess light levels. Recorded Audio quality is good from my cheap 12v amplified microphone.

Ooops, the unit copes very well with instances of mains loss, simply re-booting and carrying on from whatever is was doing last, So basically you can set it up and not worry about it as all settings are retained. Naturally as with all DVR's they do prefer a steady mains supply, so I'll be investing shortly in a mains spike suppressor and UPS unit.

Above are screen shots of the computer software which interfaced with the unit via my wireless router. It actually required no setting up at all, but would need configuring correctly for internet access. From the software you can interface directly with the DVR to easily view live and playback recording, save frames as images or save live or recorded content as AVI files. The software is very simple to use and recorded events are easily searchable by calendar date, search bar or shuttle control.

In Conclusion:

The Smart² DVR is a very capable piece of kit, record quality is excellent compared to that of the DVR it has just replaced. Record times on best quality and IPS settings are as I expected them to be on my petite 160GB HDD, and I do plan to either add a 2nd HDD or replace the existing for a larger one at a later date. At the moment though with 2 camera's being recorded 24/7 at 15 IPS each on best quality setting and record on 1 audio channel, I'm getting just short of 14 days recording.

The unit is feature packed, all models come with an IR remote control, built in DVD writer, Support for VGA (PC) monitors, are fully network-able, and come with PC software which can be customised to display your companies details (mine says "David Partridge - T.S.I.").

As this is a publicly viewable review I cannot mention the trade prices, but will say that I'm more than happy to have purchased this Smart 2 DVR instead of one of the many other similar priced/specked units which are prevalent in the market that this DVR is placed.

Manufacturer Sales Brochure, (Prices Removed)

The prime features and full specification of the Smart² are listed below:

Lets have a look at some of this units prime features:

• Real Time display in all Channels. (4 & 8 Ch versions)
• 16 Channel Video Inputs (for up to 16 cameras total)
• ”Triplex Functions” Playback, Network and Record all same time capability.
• Enjoy the benefits of the industry leading compression algorithm JPEG2000 (12-28Kb / frame).
• Digital Zoom, Display Freeze, Simple Playback mode, Simple PTZ camera control.
• High Frame Rate (up to 200 IPS Max)
• Record: Quad 240fps, Dual 120fps, Full 60fps.
• Variable Record resolution (For higher picture quality or higher recording speed).
• Efficient Image Quality setup in 5 steps.
• Schedule Record / Holiday Record, Event Record (Alarm / Motion), Emergency Record.
• View Live and Playback images across IP network, Copy images across the network.
• Search & Playback by Date/Time, Event, Camera.
• Various steps in Forward & Backwards Playback Speed (X1/4, X1/2, X2, X4, X16, X60).
• Easy and convenient search by Jog Shuttle & IR Remote Controller.
• Simple Back-Up using built-in CD Writer (Back-up CD Player included in the package).
• Network Back-Up using Remote Viewer program (Remote Viewer included in the package).
• HDD Up to 2 HDD's, 7200RPM, IDE, with no capacity limitation.
• CD/DVD-RW Built in for easy backup.
• PIP (picture in picture), Sequence, 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 13 & 16 Camera viewing.
• VGA support for both TFT and LCD monitor's or a CRT monitor.
• PTZ Control: RS-485 Key Control or RS-232C for keyboard operation.
• USB port for firmware upgrade.
• DVR can overwrite or stop recording when the HDD is full, so no need to sit there and baby-sit recordings.
• Up to 2 HDD's, 7200RPM, IDE, no capacity limitation.
• Full featured IR Remote Controller

A Bit about JPEG 2000

This DVR uses JPEG 2000. JPEG 2000 is a new image coding system that uses state-of-the-art compression techniques based on wavelet technology. Part 3 of the JPEG 2000 standard defines a file format called MJ2 (or MJP2) for motion sequences of JPEG 2000 images. Support for associated audio is also included. MJ2 does not involve inter-frame coding: each frame is coded independently using JPEG 2000. Other features of JPEG 2000 include superior low bit-rate performance, lossless and lousy compression, progressive transmission by pixel accuracy and resolution, robustness to bit errors and provides much better image quality at smaller file sizes than JPG does.

Expected applications include:

• storing video clips taken using digital still cameras
• high-quality frame-based video recording and editing
• digital cinema
• medical and satellite imagery

Reviewed by: Dave Partridge
( Service Engineer)