What's New at Cohu

Two new economical day/night cameras with integrated lens for fixed-position installs

(February 2008)  Here are two great new Cohu video cameras at really competitive prices! Cohu Electronics has introduced a new line of outdoor cameras that has essential features and performance specifications, integrated lens, and a choice of IP-66 or IP-67 rating. The difference is that the the 3200 Series is designed for outdoor surveillance, access control, or process monitoring applications where full-feature and possitioning charicteristics are not needed.

"This line of video cameras supports customers who need reliable, but basic, imaging with the dependability of Cohu Electronics," said Product Manager, Kirk Leikam. "Both cameras have been designed and priced to be true 'set it and forget it' video solutions," he added.

The Cohu 3230 Series is a high performance, day/night color camera with integrated zoom lens enclosed in a sturdy IP66-rated enclosure that comes complete with a sunshield and wallmount bracket.

The Cohu 3230 Series features the same video and optical specifications, but is enclosed in a legendary Cohu sealed and pressurized IP67-rated enclosure. This model is for installations subject to extreme weather.

 Find out more about the Cohu 3220 and 3230 here.

Cohu develops exterior dome camera line with IP-encoding and high-speed positioner

(November 2007)  Cohu Electronics has begun production of an IP-enabled camera with integrated high-speed positioner enclosed in the company’s distinctive sealed and pressurized dome.  It is designed to be a more reliable and significantly higher performing CCTV camera than conventional dome cameras.

The i-dome.net is an evolution of Cohu’s popular i-dome camera line, but with upgraded camera and lens specifications and MPEG4 control and output signal compression.  The camera module and compression technology provide additional features and options, including electronic image stabilization, increased optical zoom, polygon masking, and video analytics option.

The addition of an IP encoder, located inside the dome, enables the convergence of all its video and data streams on to one cable.  The MPEG4 encoding provides the best quality video with the most efficient bandwidth utilization.  The user settings (data mode, frame rate, and resolution) further allow the operator to achieve maximum video streaming within the network environment. 

Several design enhancements further improve its reliability. First, the i-dome.net power supply is rated NEMA TS2, which enables the system to operate in “dirty” power conditions.  It also meets rigid specifications for superior shock and vibration tolerance.

The comprehensive range of features, options, and configurations make the Cohu Model 3940 the professional’s choice for infrastructure security, access control, high-value and at-risk facility surveillance, and process monitoring.

  Find out more about the Cohu model 3940 here.

New Riverside (CA) TMC opens. Example of Cohu's customer-first attitude.

(June 2007) The new City of Riverside (California) Traffic Management Center opened with great fanfare in June, and received a lot of positive publicity for its sophistication and quality. And what's up front? Cohu i-view cameras and i-linx IP management products, of course. The video system is operated by a non-Cohu protocol, because it had to integrate with the TMC's existing network, and includes new Cohu i-view cameras and Cohu i-linx^II encoders. This is a good example of how Cohu helps customer, from start to finish, expand and upgrade a legacy system. As we say: people who know traffic video call Cohu "first." Just follow the links to see the coverage.
Fox 11 News shows the cameras and TMC
Riverside Press Enterprise has a basic overview of the system

3960 Series i-View^II holds up to tough scrutiny by independent reviewer

(2007) "Hey, good looking" was how Britain's Security Installer magazine introduced its review of the Cohu 3960 camera/positioner system. We had no editorial input in the review process, and what you read here is how the review was published. We think you'll appreciate (find refreshing?) an unbiased opinion of what we've been saying all along about Cohu quality and performance. (Note: the control software issues reported in the review ARE available, but our control software is really designed to be integrated into the customer's system, so the reviewer just wasn't able to control them properly.)(December. 2006) Cohu Electronics has added two new versions of a wide dynamic range camera that incorporates a new sensor featuring Pixim, Inc.' s patented Digital Pixel System® (DPS) technology. The sensor will be used in the Cohu 1000 Series traditional-design camera and OEM board-level models for such applications as general security and surveillance, high vandalism areas and high contrast light environments. Cohu’s 1000 Series takes full advantage of Pixim’s DPS technology to deliver smear-less pictures coupled with excellent image quality and color accuracy for effective 24/7 image capture. DPS technology converts light to a digital signal directly at the point of capture in the image sensor, enabling each pixel to have independent, optimized exposure times to deliver the highest image quality. The result is excellent low light performance (0.5 lux in color, 0.1 lux in black and white), wide dynamic range (120dB max), a progressive scan imager with global shutter that minimizes motion artifacts, and high Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) even at high temperature. The camera specifications can be seen on the

Cohu partners with Agent Vi to offer video analytics

(Sept. 2006) Cohu Electronics has licensed Agent Vi’s next generation video analytics software technology for use in Cohu’s 3960 Series “i-view.net” IP camera.  With the addition of AgentVi’s camera-optimized VI-Agent edge code, the i-view.net cameras are now fully armed to run best-of-breed analytics.  An industry first, Cohu’s Agent-Vi-embedded camera runs a full analytics suite over existing network infrastructures, offers a negligible analytics bandwidth footprint (15-20 kilobits per second) and requires no field analytics hardware such as encoders, video servers, and Video Processing Units (VPUs).   Cohu plans on embedding Agent Vi technology in several other product lines in the very near future.

Agent Vi’s software is specifically designed to support the video surveillance needs for the enterprise worldwide.  Its patented Image Processing over IP (IPoP^™) core technology is a standards-based distributed image processing architecture which uses low cost Vi-Agents^™ in the field and a powerful centrally located Vi-Server^™ to monitor and generate alerts on suspicious activities, security concerns, safety breaches and loss prevention.

 “From a video surveillance perspective this camera (Cohu Series 3960 Series i-view.net IP camera) is really much more than just a camera,” commented Dieter Kondek, President and CEO of Agent Vi.  “With the addition of our IPoIP distributed image processing architecture, Cohu’s offering is really a very sophisticated and intelligent edge device providing the enterprise customer with all the benefits of video analytics minus the expense of network infrastructure and field equipment.”

 The i-view.net is an integrated day/night camera, lens, positioner, and IP transmission solution in one compact package.

 “The addition of video analytics to the package now enables a security professional to have an intelligent, high performance surveillance unit at each camera site within the system,” said Robert Ledenko, VP of Sales and Marketing at Cohu.  “This is a tremendous advantage to system designers who want to install the highest level of security at a competitive price.  Agent Vi’s state of the art technology will enable our customers to achieve the next generation video analytic capabilities from our new IP cameras,” Ledenko said.