Started out originally with video capture cards (Hauppage WinTV and the like). Found myself building a video network paralleling the Ethernet network. Then I moved on to IP Cameras and servers.
Dome cameras (pan and tilt units) and the like often use RS485 or an "up the co-ax" variant for control of the motion functions. Each manufacturer has a proprietary protocol. Some of them are documented.
The way that I went is to use an Axis webserver. There are boxes that takes
4 composite video signals and turns them into motion JPEGs or MPEG streams. There are also loadable drivers for a number of P/T/Z protocols. The box is a webserver you put on your network which downloads an ActiveX to your browser on a PC to view the pictures (or for that matter a stand alone application). Such ActiveXs can then also be embedded in (for instance) RSView - probably others. I'm not a Wonderware on InTouch person, so I can't vouch for their ability, but I think they can do ActiveX too.
Try...
Axis:
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Dedicated Micros also do a range of stuff (Same company as Dennard - make good domes)
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There are others but I haven't used them so can't vouch for them.
Both those companies have "developer" programs that give you additional software tools, documentation for their APIs etc so that you can do clever stuff.
Now the crunch... *BE CAREFUL WITH BANDWIDTH AND SECURITY*. It is all to easy to bang a pile of network cameras in your plant on an Ethernet network and without proper planning and segregation of the traffic allow the non critical cameras to trample all over your critical SCADA comms. Conceptually, the easiest way to deal with this is to have independent networks with additional network cards in relevant machines. It is possible to design a resilient Layer 2/Layer 3 switched network that can also segregate this traffic, but it is tricky and you will wind up with the Plant Engineers having to talk with Corporate IT to strike a deal as to who will block which traffic at which nodes.
The hassle of video capture cards in each machine starts to sound sensible again...
Currently at the plant that I am responsible for I have RSViewSE, and NI Labview as SCADA with the thick end of 30 PLCs. In one building I have a pile of Axis IP Cameras. In the other building I have Dedicated Micros BX2 with Dennard 2060 domes and fixed cameras. TCP/IP on Etherent Layer 2 (Cisco and Moxa) and 3 switches (Cisco) keeps the traffic managed. I have four domains on each switch at each plant - "office traffic", "SCADA trafic", "Cameras" and "High Speed Data Logging". There are defined routes with controlled bandwidth for PC computers in the management office suite to see certain parts of the SCADA and camera traffic, but the Office traffic is never allowed to pollute the critical control networks. Top the whole lot off with VPN capable routers and firewall (Cisco again) with carefully drilled "holes" through into the "office" domain and you can view the whole lot from home on broadband.
If you haven't already, then make the PCs running SCADA at least dual headed (plenty of cheap graphics cards do this now) so that you can run multiple monitors off one PC - you will need all that screen real estate. You also get to reduce your SCADA licensing costs, because a single screen window can be quite big when spread over many monitors ;-) , or you can run multiple applications such as SCADA on one screen, Laboratory management (LabView) on another and video cameras on a third. LCD monitors with thin bezels give a great video wall type effect.
But it's been 18 months in the making and its still a work in progress.
Dave Slee Engineering Specialist The New and Renwable Energy Centre
Mirroring what Dave said, WonderWare will do active x as long as your pc can handle the bandwidth. For live/real time data your looking at a separate network. Otherwise the rest of the plant is going to suffer SERIOUSLY. You are grazing around one issue in your post, recording. I have crashed networks with live data. Not at all a pretty site. Have you priced the development package of WW lately?
Good luck with the project let us know what you decided on using.
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