PELCO digital recording systems. Article updated in 2023.

The main event of 2007 for PELCO was the company's entry into the financial and industrial group Schneider Electric and the actual unification of its engineering, production and marketing potential with TAC, a well-known supplier of solutions for engineering support of buildings. The main goal of this step for PELCO was to attract the investment power of Schneider to enter new markets for integrated security systems. In particular, as a result of the merger with TAC, the range of PELCO digital recording systems was expanded with Digital Sentry devices.

Currently, PELCO supplies the market with 3 large families of digital recording systems: the DX family, the Digital Sentry family and the ENDURA family. The hierarchy of devices in terms of their functionality and market demand is presented graphically in Fig. 1.

The unconditional advantage of the stand alone DX4000 series video recorders is their reliability (thanks to the use of Linux OS), low price, good recording speed and resolution characteristics, as well as the presence of a single software that allows convenient access to each recorder within the system. The DX4000 series is an ideal solution for budget installations.

– Number of video channels: 4, 8, 16
Number of audio channels: 1, 2, 4
Number of alarm inputs/outputs: up to 16/up to 4
Encoding: MPEG4
Recording characteristics: CIF/25 fps, 2CIF/12.5 fps, 4CIF/6 fps for each channel
Built-in memory: from 160 to 3 TB
Support for PTZ control of PELCO and third-party cameras
Additional spot monitor
Intelligent search in the archive
Free client software for access to the archive and live video over the network

The DX8100 series includes devices for recording video images of the pc-based DVR class. These devices have proven themselves well in the construction of fairly large systems consisting not only of digital recorders, but also of PelcoNet IP encoders. In this case, the DX8100 series devices are combined using the VMX300 software. VMX300 provides support for graphic plans, work with matrix switches and network video recorders of IP streams NVR300.

– Number of video channels: 8, 16, 32
Number of audio channels: 8, 16, 32
Number of alarm inputs/outputs: 8, 16, 32/8, 16, 24
Recording characteristics: CIF/400 fps, 2CIF/200 fps, 4CIF/100 fps for all channels
Encoding: H264
Built-in memory: up to 3 TB
External RAID: up to 6 TB
Support for PTZ control of PELCO and third-party cameras
Possibility of connecting an external keyboard with a joystick
Possibility of connecting 2 VGA and an additional spot monitor
Intelligent search in the archive
Possibility of working with cash terminals
Advanced free client software for access to the archive and live video over the network

As noted above, the emergence of the new Digital Sentry family in the nomenclature of PELCO digital solutions is the result of a merger with TAC. The fundamental differences between Digital Sentry video recorders are their open architecture and the associated combined ability of each device to work with both analog and IP cameras. Thus, each digital video recorder of this family is also a network video recorder. Entering the market with such a system, PELCO has made a real revolution in its concept of working with IP cameras. The company has set a course for integration with IP devices from third-party manufacturers. All devices in the Digital Sentry family are capable of recording IP streams not only from PELCO cameras, but also from AXIS, SONY, PANASONIC and many others.
DS RealVue Family of Digital/Network Recorders (DS RealVue Xpress, DS RealVue Raid, DS RealVue Desktop)

Number of video channels: 4, 8, 16, 32
Number of audio channels: 4, 8, 16, 32
Number of IP channels: up to 16
Number of alarm inputs/outputs: up to 15/1
Encoding: MPEG4
Recording characteristics: CIF/25 fps, 2CIF/25 fps, 4CIF/25 fps for each channel
Built-in memory: up to 2 TB
Support for PTZ control of PELCO and third-party cameras
Intelligent search in the archive
Single client software Ds Control Point for access to the archive and live video over the network
DS NVR/NVs family of network recorders
Number of IP channels per device: 4, 16, 32, 64
Encoding: determined by the type of connected IP camera
Recording characteristics: CIF/25 fps, 2CIF/25 fps, 4CIF/25 fps for each channel
Memory capacity: network RAID without restrictions
Intelligent search in the archive
Single client software Ds Control Point for access to the archive and live video over the network
Another unconditional advantage of the Digital Sentry family of products is their software integration with I-Net access control equipment and other building engineering systems supplied by TAC

PELCO continues to develop and improve its ENDURA IP system. The advantages of ENDURA are: