Video Configuration

Capturing perfect night-time plate shots will lead to success. If night capture works well, capture during the day will be correct. The capture should be sharp, perfectly focused images with even brightness across the plate. Angle the camera so that the plates from passing cars are clearly visible for at least 2 seconds.

Installation

1. Set Capture mode to 1920x1080 (16:9) @ 50/60 fps (no WDR).

2. If applicable, set the Power line frequency to the Hz appropriate for the shore provided on site.

3. The Rotate should be set to 0 but can be modified, depending on how the camera is mounted.

4. Set Zoom to Tele (max: 273). Set Focus to Far (max: 100).

Image Settings

Appearance

1. To configure the Appearance settings, set the Scene profile to Forensic.

2. Set the Saturation, Contrast, and Brightness to 50% and Sharpness to 60%.

Wide Dynamic Range

1. Set the Local contrast to 60.

2. Set the Tone mapping to 50.

White Balance

1. Set the Light environment to Automatic-outdoors.

Day-Night Mode

The Day and Night settings should be set as follows:

1. IR Cut Filter is set to Auto.

2. Threshold is set to Bright (to the left). The Threshold should flip to infrared mode while the scene is relatively bright. Sunrise/Sunset has very little light and performs better with infrared and illumination

3. Allow Illumination and Synchronize Illumination are ON.

4. The Manual Illumination Angle should be On. The Angle is set to Narrow (to the left).

Note: By default the illumination angle (tightness of the IR beam) will adjust with the zoom. However, it’s often desirable (when not fully zoomed) to push the infrared as far as possible to deliver as much possible light on the focus area. Setting this manually may improve performance.

Exposure

1. The Exposure Mode and Exposure Zone should be set to Automatic.

2. The Max Shutter should be set to 1/1000, if the capture is closer (e.g., 1-2 lanes with little zoom). If capturing at a further distance, it can be lowered to 1/500s, but no lower. This setting also relates to aperture (i.e., tighter aperture may require that setting to drop to 1/500s).

3. The Max Gain should be set to 60dB.

4. Set Blur Noise Trade-Off to low motion blur. Noise does not harm LPR performance.

5. Lock Aperture is Off.

6. Target Aperture and Exposure level is variable because it relates to focus and shutter speed. On average, the Target Aperture is set to the middle of the slide and the Exposure Level is 50%.