Medical cameras
skoopia targets, develops, engineers, produces and markets cameras for the industrial and medical indsutry. Although the industrial cameras and medical cameras have an identical technical base, medical cameras feature unique aspects, quite different from industrial cameras. In the medical domain, skoopia markets four types of OEM cameras
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SDI cameras (industrial and medical cameras)
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IP cameras (industrial and medical cameras)
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Block cameras (industrial and medical cameras)
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CVBS cameras (industrial and medical cameras)
Use the underneath selection table to directly access the OEM camera overview with the required video output or find out more about the different video outputs by clicking the Why XX cameras? link.
Why medical
SDI cameras ?
Best technology for no-latency
digital video
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HD-SDI / EX-SDI from
Full HD up to 4K
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Cameras support CVBS for smooth transition and maintenance
Why medical
IP cameras ?
42mmx42mm board size for all cameras: 2 MP - 12 MP
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Products support H.265/H.264
Single SDK for entire line
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Cameras support Onvif-S and miniumum three video streams
Why medical
Block cameras?
Optical zoom 10x, 20x, 30x, 36x
Full HD, Quad HD and 4K
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LVDS, SDI, AHD, CVBS
ideal replacement for Sony FCB
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Cameras support VISCA, Pelco,
meet Sony block camera form factor
Why medical
CVBS cameras ?
No change in current infrastructure,
but skoopia medical camera
prepares you for next step
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CVBS to HD-SDI or 3G-SDI
Cameras support VISCA, Pelco
for operator performance
Medical SDI camera
SDI camera stands for Serial Digital Interface camera. At this very moment, SDI is vastly adopted in the medical and broadcast industry, and adoption in other industries is growing fast.
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SDI as video signal has several sizable advantages over other digital transmission techniques.
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Key advantages of SDI:
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Low latency (alike CVBS)
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Superb image quality as it is uncompressed
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Coaxial cabling
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Plural options at the receiver side, SDI monitor, SDI grabber, SDI recorder
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Support of Up the Coax - A smart cabling solution allowing power as well as camera control signals to use the same wires as the video transmission.
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SDI has several frequencies that each fit to a unique resolution. Some resolutions have a specific name and are formally put into a standard by SMTPE, The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers.
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Bandwidths of SMTPE SDI cameras:
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SD-SDI (480i60 or 576i50)
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ED-SDI (480p60 or 576p50)
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HD-SDI (1080i60 or 720p60)
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3G-SDI (1080p60)
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6G-SDI (2160p30 or 1080p120)
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12G-SDI (2160p60)
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24G-SDI (2160p120 or 4320p30)
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Next to the SMTPE standards numerous other resolutions and frequencies are available, and are often called identical names, such as:
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HD-SDI (1080i50, 720p50, 1080p30, 1080p25)
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3G-SDI (1080p50)
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6G-SDI (2160p25 or 1080p100)
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12G-SDI (2160p50)
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24G-SDI (2160p100 or 4320p25)
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Most of the above alternatives are based on the PAL versus NTSC video standards running at 50 Hz respectively 60 Hz in interlaced mode.
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All skoopia SDI cameras support HD-SDI and 3G-SDI. ​
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12G-SDI or 4Kp60 SDI means the SDI signal is: 12 GHz SDI signal carrying 4Kp60 video (3820 x 2160 pixels per frame, 60 frames per second).
EX-SDI camera
​Next to the uncompressed SDI standard, skoopia SDI cameras also support the EX-SDI. EX-SDI is a proprietary video signal designed, engineered and marketed by Eyenix.
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Key advantage of EX-SDI over regular SDI is the fact that it uses a significantly lower band width.
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Particularly for higher resolutions and/or longer cabling distances the EX-SDI can be a suitable alternative. Underneath you find the bandwidths of EX-SDI at video resolution and frame rate, the relevant compression rate as well as the factual signal to noise ratio the video signal can carry.
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EX-SDI bandwidths versus Video Signal versus S/N ratio versus transmission over RG6 cabling length and comparison with regular SDI signal.
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Video signal EX-SDI (MHz) S/N ratio (dB) Distance (m) HD-SDI (MHz) Distance (m)
1080p30 250 56 300 1500 80
2160p30 1500 56 80 6000 n.a.
2160p30 250 38 300 6000 n.a.
EX-SDI makes use of visually loss-less compression. Where most industrial and medical cameras provide signal to noise ratios of 40-45 dB, the EX-SDI video signal can carry video signals with a signal to noise ratio of 56 dB based on a compression factor of 6.
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The latest EX-SDI (EX-SDI 3.0) also allows a mode with visual loss (although only visible in specific circumstances) of 38 dB in cases in which digital 4K video is required over longer distances with low latency.
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skoopia SDI cameras supporting EX-SDI all provide 720p60/50/30/25 and 1080p60/50/30/25. The latest 4K EX-SDI camera also supports 2160p30 in EX-SDI mode.
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Consider SDI industrial cameras whenever you want excellent digital image quality without latency over standard cabling.
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skoopia has released a blog on 4K EX-SDI camera for medical SDI applications, but also for industrial EX-SDI camera applications. Click here to read the blog. It's first medical 4K EX-SDI camera and industrial 4K EX-SDI camera has been released in December 2019.
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Next to SDI cameras, medical cameras also often use USB as transfer. Where USB has some clear advantages (it can be plugged into any computer), medical SDI cameras are superior in latency (most USB cameras can only transport up to 1080p30 without compression (USB3) or even just VGA (USB2)- combined with the fact that USB requires computing in the PC causing additional latency. As indicated above, skoopia will push medical SDI cameras, and in the 4K SDI camera it has high hopes for the adoption of the visually lossless 4K EX-SDI medical camera.
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Medical IP camera
Medical IP cameras are not so common, as IP has latency. Medical IP cameras are typically used for all types of medical / hospital / home care applications, that do not require time critical video.
Perhaps the best known IP application in the medical field is the camera baby phone, an addition of the baby phone, which only captured the sound of the baby sleeping (and becoming awake when he /she was crying ). The camera baby phone adds video images of the baby, and as such is a monitoring mode of the baby's situation.
This also immediately provides the base for medical IP cameras. Surveillance. Whether it is ICU monitoring, or just monitoring of a patient undergoing computer tomography or magnetic resonance imaging, the camera provides video of the patient at a distance, for which the video latency is less of an issue.
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Medical IP cameras from skoopia differ from regular surveillance cameras in their longevity and upgradeability (see form, fit, function). Key benefit is the fact that all units are available for a long period of time, and that also successor units are meeting identical dimensions, pinning and output.
This is fundamental as particularly the certification process of a medical camera is long and costly.
Medical Block camera
Medical block cameras are primarily found in the field of operating room lights (recording the operation for training or review purposes), dental application (also integration in the lights), in microscopes (research and review of biopsy, blood samples etc) and/or in the visually impaired or low vision market, supporting people having an eye disease.
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Except for the visually impaired or low vision market, the characteristics of medical block cameras hardly differ from the characteristics of industrial block cameras. In both fields, LVDS block cameras integrated to a secondary video output board still dominate, with a clear demand for medical block cameras supporting HD-SDI (and more recent 4K-HDMI), while in the industry support for other video standards (AHD block cameras or IP block cameras) is more regular.
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Both markets (indsutrial block camera market as well as the medical block camera market) still have a legacy of CVBS block camera demand, as product life times in both markets are easily exceeding 10 years.
skoopia expects that EX-SDI block cameras (particularly 4K EX-SDI block cameras) will become a new standard for 4K image transfer, as it allows for easy cabling without any latency. Check our blog on this specific topic.
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Medical CVBS camera
Medical CVBS cameras are primarily found in medical applications where the resolution is less of an issue and replacement of wiring is expensive, or where long wiring and no latency is a must.
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Existing infrastructure
Nice example is the usage of CVBS cameras in patient surveillance. Although mostly replaced by medical IP cameras, the medical CVBS cameras are still used, in e.g. older hospital buildings only equiped with coaxial cabling for data transport.
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Very limited space & low resolution sensors.
Another reason for CVBS or even lower resolution, is the limited space available for the medical camera. Applications like ear, nose, throat or colonoscopy require very small cameras to be able to view the relevant sections of the human body. Here, often small size sensors with low resolution are used (e.g. 200x200 pixel sensor with diameter of 1 mm). Medical cameras based on such sensors do not require higher resolution transmission, and CVBS provides the advantage of very easy transfer via plural wiring, without compromising the image quality provided by the sensor.
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Alternatives
So far the Medical industry has made the transition from CVBS directly to HD-SDI. Newer Full-HD or even 4K alternatives, such as AHD or EX-SDI have not made their entry.
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Although the visual image of AHD and/or EX-SDI is significantly better if compared to CVBS, the medical domain is very sceptical towards any type of compression (even if it is not seen, such as EX-SDI's visually lossless compression).
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