Over at IP Video Market Info John Honovich has a good discussion going regarding megapixel without IP.  The topic might also be labeled: “What’s the best way to retrofit an existing analog system for megapixel video?”

Currently megapixel requires IP cameras which can be a costly upgrade if you are all analog today.  IP is very different from an install perspective and requires new cabling and complex configuration of IP addresses, cameras and NVR’s.  Or does it?

IP cameras can be auto configured with a good vms system. we at Envysion implemented auto-discovery and configuration in less than 30 days for Axis IP cameras. Using zeroconf and a simple http api we can now do it in just a couple days and push the software update into production automatically.

Ethernet can run over coax (IEEE 10Base2 is based on rg58 (50ohm), but with tweaks can run on rg59 (75ohm). There are a number of products that do this now, but they are currently a bit clunky and perhap too expensive. But that can be fixed. Just need some IP cameras with an integrated Ethernet over rg59 interface to get the cost down and provide a clean install.