License Plate Capture vs Automatic License Plate Recognition
If you are shopping for the best LPR camera solution, I recommend that you understand the difference between license plate capture and automatic license plate recognition first. Equally important is understanding the differences in installation requirements to accomplish LPC vs ALPR. Let’s start with some definitions.
- License Plate Capture Camera (LPC) – a specialized security camera that is capable of capturing video surveillance footage of moving vehicles clear enough for a human to identify license plates clearly when reviewing recorded video. LPC cameras are typically connected to a DVR / NVR to record the video surveillance footage.
- Automatic License Plate Recognition Camera (ALPR) – a specialized security camera with embedded software that can automatically identify the alphanumeric characters on a license plate. The license plate numbers are typically logged to a database and / or used for access control integrations such as automated gated entries for vehicles. The video recording typically happens on a DVR / NVR and the license plate database may also be located on the security recorder.
Please note that all ALPR cameras are also LPC cameras, but not all LPC cameras have ALPR software built into them. Sometimes, both of these camera types are simply referred to as “LPR cameras”. This can be confusing in the security industry, and we even do this here at CCTV Camera Pros.
Automatic License Plate Recognition Camera
This is the Viewtron LPR-IP4. It is, by far, our best selling “LPR Camera”. It has automatic license plate recognition software built into it. However, it can be used simply as a license plate capture camera. Using the ALPR software is optional. The Viewtron LPR-IP4 is a network IP camera with PoE support. It is my top recommendation for license plate capture and automatic license plate recognition. We almost always sell our Viewtron LPR cameras with a Viewtron NVR. Viewtron NVRs are 100% integrated with the license plate detection and automatic license plate recognition software functions. All of my most recent license plate recognition video demos use this camera.
License Plate Capture Camera
For customers looking for a CCTV camera solution for license plate recording, our LPR-AHD5 license plate capture camera is an excellent choice. This is NOT an IP camera. It uses coax cable with BNC connectors to record video to a CCTV DVR. This is an LPC camera. It DOES NOT have ALPR software built into it.
Automatic License Plate Recognition Installation Requirements
Here is the Viewtron LPR-IP4 that is installed on a pole located in the back of the plaza where CCTV Camera Pros warehouse is located. Notice how low to the ground the LPR camera is installed – just 4 feet off the ground. Also notice that the pole is not set back too far off to the side of the road – only 10 feet. This minimizes the vertical and horizontal angle to the license plate detection zone.
License Plate Detection Zone
You can see in this picture how this minimizes the angle of view to the license plate detection zone, which is configured in the software on the Viewtron NVR that this camera is recording to. You can see our complete LPR camera installation guide here.
Automatic Number Plate Recognition for Gate Access Control
Watch this video demo to see how automatic number plate recognition (ANPR), synonymous with ALPR, can be used to trigger the alarm relay output on a Viewtron NVR. The alarm relay output can be used for access control (to open a community gate). The camera is used to capture license plates to the NVRs database and also check those plates or access control to the community. In addition to the alarm relay output, the Viewtron NVRs also have Wiegand ports for access control integration.
License Plate Capture Camera Installation
Here is the same model Viewtron LPR camera installed on my house. I installed this camera about a year ago to test license plate capture at a much more extreme mounting angle.
The camera is mounted 9 feet 4 inches high.
The location where the LPR camera is mounted on my house is set back 35 feet from the road.
To help minimize the horizontal angle as much as possible, the camera is focused on a license plate detection zone 110 feet away. The results are that the Viewtron LPR-IP4 works great as a license plate capture camera at this angle, but does not reliably detect the alphanumeric character on plates via the ALPR software. To be clear, I can review the recorded video surveillance footage on my NVR and see every license plate that passes by my house clearly.
Here is the video that I made back when I first tested this ALPR camera at my house. Please note that when I started testing and recording video surveillance footage for this video, my intention was to show people why installing an LPR camera on a house does not normally work well. It was to my pleasant surprise to find out how well the Viewtron LPR-IP4 worked when installed at this distance and angle. Ever since then, the team at CCTV Camera Pros has been recommending our Viewtron license plate recognition systems for “license plate capture” applications when the camera can not be installed down low and close to the road.
Viewtron NVR with ALPR Software Integration
These Viewtron NVRs have ALPR software integration. This means that you can setup / configure all of the ALPR functions from the simple to use interface of the NVR. You can also control multiple LPR cameras centrally on the NVR. I always recommend using a Viewtron NVR with Viewtron LPR cameras.
More LPC and ALPR Camera Videos
You can watch additional license plate capture and automatic license plate recognition videos here.
Have Questions / Need Help?
If you have any questions related to license plate detection or anything related to security camera systems, please email me anytime at mike@cctvcamerapros.net.
Video Transcript
Here is a text transcript of the video at the top of this page. CCTV Camera Pros co-founder, Mike Haldas is the speaker in this video.
Hey guys. Mike from CCTV Camera Pros here in this video, I want to talk about the difference between license plate capture and automatic license plate recognition when it comes to LPR cameras. So by definition, license plate capture is the ability to record video surveillance footage of license plates clear enough so that when a human reviews the recorded video surveillance footage on the DVR, they can clearly identify the license plate numbers and letters. Whereas automatic license plate recognition, that’s specialized software built into an LPR camera where the camera can automatically identify the letters and numbers on the license plate and log that plate to a database or check that plate against a database for things like access control and access control systems. And our Viewtron LPR camera is an ALPR camera, but it can also do license plate capture. So generally, any LPR camera that has automatic license plate recognition software built into it, obviously they can also act as LPC cameras or license plate capture cameras. Whereas a license plate capture camera like the one we have with our LPR-AHD5, which is a CCTV camera that uses BNC connectors and coax cable, as opposed to the Viewtron IP camera that is capable of clearly recording license plates. But there’s no automatic license plate recognition software built into it.
So what becomes important here is the installation requirements for license plate capture versus automatic license plate recognition. For the automatic license plate recognition, the installation requirements are much more strict. Ideally, you have to mount the plate fairly low to the ground, like at license plate level, and not offset at an extreme angle horizontally or vertically, whereas license plate capture, you could be a little more lenient with those requirements that set the camera further back and higher and more off to the side. So here is how. We have the Viewtron LPR camera installed in the back of our warehouse on this pole. And as you can see, that pole was strategically installed not too far off to the side of the road. And you could see that the, the LPR camera is mounted about three and a half, four feet off of the ground. That’s to minimize the horizontal and vertical angle to the license plate detection zone.
And that camera works extremely well, almost flawlessly for automatic license plate recognition. Now, a while ago, I took that same Viewtron LPR camera to my house and mounted it about eight and a half, nine feet high. And my house is set back from the road about 35ft, so a pretty extreme angle for license plate recognition. And honestly, when I made that video back then, my intention was to show viewers that this is not a good idea and does not work well. But with this new Viewtron LPR camera. What I found was even at this extreme angle and height, in a lot of cases the automatic license plate recognition software was still working. Not as good as the camp when we have installed out back more properly, but pretty well. And the license plate capture was working almost flawlessly.
I was recording every plate that went by my house and I was able to go back through the footage and read all of those plates even though the automatic license plate recognition software was not able to. So in most cases we have customers contact us and what they need is license plate capture. They don’t need the automatic license plate recognition. And our Viewtron LPR camera is excellent for this even though it has the ALPR software built into it. You don’t need to use that. You could use it as a license plate capture camera and it’s the best hands down at doing that. I want to mention that CCTV Camera Pros helps our customers design LPR camera systems for home, business and government projects. We work with homeowners that just need a very simple solution and we’ve done government projects that consist of hundreds of systems across a huge enterprise.
And we help customers in between those two extremes. And we provide lifetime technical support for all of the Viewtron products, actually all the products that we supply here. Guys, I hope this video has been helpful. You can reach out to me anytime. If you have questions, I could be reached directly mike@viewtron.com if you want to learn more about our Viewtron LPR camera systems and see a bunch of demo videos that I did over the years with them, please visit www.viewtron.com/LPR. Thank you for watching.
