Best LPR Camera
You can find our best selling LPR camera system here.
Designing a surveillance system to monitor traffic and capture license plates is a more technical process than designing a traditional
security camera system. CCTV Camera Pros has trained system engineers located in the USA. We can assist you in planning a system and provide lifetime technical support after the sale. Please email us your system requirements or call us at 888-849-2288 for assistance.
NOTE: Please Read our LPR Installation / Positioning Guide prior to purchasing an LPR camera. You can also read or LPR camera FAQ here.
Here are some frequently asked questions that we receive about LPR cameras.
What is an LPR camera?
An LPR camera is a specialized type of video surveillance camera that is designed to capture the numbers and letters of license plates on moving vehicles. In addition, some LPR cameras like our Viewtron LPR-IP7, also have ALPR and ANPR software built into it. ALPR stands for automatic license plate recognition software. ANPR stands for automatic number plate reader software. Please note that the term LPR camera and LPC camera is sometimes used interchangeably in the security industry.
Which is better? The IP LPR camera or the CCTV LPC camera?
The Viewtron
IP camera LPR system (LPR-IP7) are the 4mp LPR-IP4 are the best choices by far. The Viewtron LPR IP camera has built-in AI software that can automatically detect the license plates and numbers and letter on them using ANPR (automatic number plate recognition). We recommend the LPR-AHD5 CCTV LPR camera to customers that already have coax cable in place and do not want to re-wire their system for IP cameras. The LPR-AHD5 does do an excellent job of capturing license plates in clear video. There is no automatic license plate reader or automatic number plate recognition software built into the LPR-AHD5.
Why are overview cameras recommended with LPR cameras?
Most LPR cameras are tuned to capture ultra high contrast video in black and white. This is great for capturing license plates but not very good for capturing an overview the the vehicle. Also, LPR cameras are typically focused on a small area (about the width of a single lane of traffic), so that the plate is clearly in focus. It is nice to have a color overview of vehicles and a clear capture of their plate.
The above surveillance image was captured using a license plate capture camera. As you can see the camera is configured to capture the license plate effectively, but does not provide any overview of the vehicle. This is the same type of result that you can also expect from our
HD CCTV LPR camera that runs over coax cable.
What type of DVR is used with CCTV LPR cameras?
CCTV Camera Pros recommend using a DVR or NVR that is capable of recording at least 30 FPS (frames per second) at the resolution of your LPR camera. For example, this
LPR-AHD5 camera is capable of 1080p / 2 Megapixel HD resolution. We highly recommend the Viewtron surveillance DVRs that we supply for use our BNC / Coax cable LPR camera. Because the LPR-AHD5 is compatible with AHD, HD-TVI, HDCVI, and analog CCTV (CVBS) video formats, it is compatible with CCTV DVRs from all major manufacturers including Swann, Samsung, Night Owl, Lorex, QSee, Defender, Digital Watch Dog, and just about all others. If you need help determining compatibility with your DVR, please email CCTV Camera Pros here.
How can I monitor the gated entrance of our HOA?
Monitoring a traffic gate at a residential HOA community typically requires an LPR camera and an overview camera for each lane of traffic that you want to monitor. Many HOAs use a license plate camera for both incoming and outgoing traffic. Please take a look at these
LPR systems for gated entrance HOAs.
What is ANPR software?
ANPR software stands for automatic number plate recognition software. ANPR software is OPTIONAL to use with LPR cameras. ANPR software uses optical character recognition to identify the numbers and letters on license plate, then takes some sort of action such as logging the plate to a database or automatically opening a security gate. Viewtron IP camera NVRs have built-in ANPR software. Please take a look at this
Viewtron ANPR camera system that includes a Viewtron NVR, Viewtron LPR camera, and one overview camera.
What lighting conditions are supported for license plate recognition?
Viewtron license plate recognition systems can capture a clear image of plates in all lighting conditions including normal light, ambient light, and zero light. These are automatic infrared cameras which means that when there are poor lighting conditions, the camera's built-in IR LEDs automatically turn on.
I currently have all CCTV cameras and a DVR that use coax cable and BNC connectors? Can I use a Viewtron LPR camera with my existing CCTV camera system.
It depends. If your existing CCTV camera DVR supports 1080p / 2mp AHD, HD-TVI, or HD-CVI video format, then you can use our
LPR-AHD5 license plate recognition camera. If your DVR only supports analog CCTV cameras (CVBS), then you may want to upgrade to one of these Viewtron hybrid CCTV DVRs. Viewtron hybrid DVRs support BNC security cameras up to 4K resolution. They work with the LPR-AHD5. Viewtron hybrid DVRs will also work with your existing analog CCTV cameras.
Is it possible to integrate these license plate recognition cameras with the access control system of parking facilities?
Yes. The
Viewtron LPR-IP7 has alarm input and alarm output ports that can be used to integrate with an access control system. Viewtron IP camera DVRs / NVRs also have alarm input and alarm output ports that can integrate with access control devices. You can setup the system so that when a license plate is recognized in the approved plate database, the alarm output on the camera or DVR is triggered. The alarm output can be connected to a relay on the parking facility gate.
I want to use this LPR camera in an area with high traffic flow and higher speeds. How many plates can be detected per second?
The Viewtron license plate recognition system can detect 3 license plates per frame of video. One second has about 15 frames, so in theory, the LPR camera can detect 45 license plates per second. However, this rate of detection varies greatly depending on how much of a horizontal and vertical angle there is to the plate detection zone. It also depends on how large of a plate detection zone is configured in the LPR software and the minimum / maximum license plate sizes that are setup.
What is the difference between LPC cameras, LPR cameras and ANPR cameras?
LPC stands for license plate capture camera. LPR stands for license plate recognition camera or license plate reader camera. ANPR stands for automatic number plate recognition camera or software. Please note that there are no official industry standards for these terms and sometimes LPC and LPR are used interchangeably. Please refer to the below definitions. We also have this
video that discusses the difference between LPC vs LPR vs ANPR.
- LPC cameras support the ability to capture images and video clear enough for a human to be able to identify license plate numbers and letters when reviewing recording.
- LPR cameras typically have built in software that recognizes when a license plate comes into view.
- ANPR is specialized software that automatically recognizes the numbers and letters on license plates. ANPR software typically records plate numbers to a database and can also store an authorized or unauthorized license plate list in the database.
The Viewtron LPR-IP7 and Viewtron LPR-IP4 camera supports LPC, LPR, and ANPR. The LPR and ANPR software is fully integrated into all of the Viewtron IP camera NVRs that we supply. It is an IP camera. This is our best license plate recognition camera system by far.
The AHD-LPR5 only supports license plate capture (LPC). It is an HD BNC camera that supports AHD, HD-TVI, and HD-CVI video formats. It is an excellent solution for customers that must use a coax cable solution, instead of a network IP camera. It is an excellent solution for customers that want to use an existing HD CCTV DVR.
Can these cameras capture license plates at night?
Yes. Please check out this night-time license plate capture video demo.
Please watch the below video demos to learn about our best selling Viewtron license plate reader system.
Industry terms can be confusing when it comes to LPR technology. Watch this video to understand the difference between a LPR camera with ALPR / ANPR software and a license plate capture camera that can record video clear enough for a human to identify a plate, but does not have automation software. You can also read this blog post that compares our
IP license plate reader camera to our CCTV license plate capture camera. If you have any questions,
please email us at info@cctvcamerapros.net for a free email or phone consultation.
License Plate Capture with Vehicle Object Detection
Watch this video to see some license plate capture testing performed using the
Viewtron LPR-IP4 camera with built-in ALPR software. The LPR-IP4 has a maximum effective distance of 90 feet for the automatic license plate recognition software to work properly. However, in our testing we found that license plate capture can be performed at distances up to about 140 feet and at greater angles than what ALPR software requires. Being that the ALPR software was not reliable in detecting all of the plates, we used a separate AI security camera to bookmark all of the vehicle detection events. This makes it much easier to manually review all of the license plate captures. You can learn more about this license plate capture testing here.
LPR ANPR Camera System
Watch this video to see the Viewtron IP-LPR7 LPR camera used with (2)
Viewtron AI security cameras to provide a complete LPR / ANPR camera system. Check out this video to see the different ways to search & playback recorded LPR video footage.
License Plate Reader Camera + AI Vehicle Detection
Watch this video to see how CCTV Camera Pros used our the license plate reader camera in conjunction with one of our Viewtron AI cameras to detect when people are illegally dumping in our garbage dumpster. The AI camera is setup to detect people and vehicles around the dumper after hours and trigger a bookmarked event on the NVR. The
LPR-IP7 license plate reader camera captures plates.
Here is a picture of our
ALPR camera system setup on the pole behind our warehouse. The camera mounted down low on the pole is the LPR / APLR camera. And, the two cameras installed up high on the pole both this model
IP-A4BZ bullet AI camera. We use both of those cameras as overview cameras to cover both directions of traffic around the bend. You can click on the image for a large view.
LPR System Demo
Viewtron license plate recognition cameras (LPR) are designed to detect when vehicle license plates enter a defined area. The LPR system tested in the above video used a Viewtron
LPR-IP7 license plate AI camera connected to a
Viewtron IP camera NVR. When a plate is detected, the event is bookmarked, a snapshot is taken, and video is recorded on the NVR's hard drive. Thumbnail images can be displayed on the live video view (like you see above) for easy access to playback the recorded video of the license plate capture.
Watch the Viewtron license plate recognition system capture plates at night time in a very dark environment. After watching the above video, you will better understand why it is important to install an LPR camera with at least one overview camera.
In addition to detecting license plates, the LPR-IP7 is also an ANPR camera (automatic number plate recognition). Number plate recognition and license plate database applications are possible when you connect a LPR-IP7 to a Viewtron NVR. The above ANPR database screenshot was captured from a Viewtron NVR. Please note that Viewtron BNC hybrid DVRs do not support LPR and other AI functions.You must use a
Viewtron IP camera NVR for all AI functions.
Check out this video to see the amazing night-time license plate capture capability of the
Viewtron LPR-IP4 camera. CCTV Camera Pros does not typically recommend installing license plate reader cameras at the height and angle seen in this installation on the front of Mike's house. However, our testing shows that although the automatic license plate recognition software (ALPR) does not work reliably at this angle and distance, the license plate capture (LPC) works awesome. To make it easier to locate all of the LPC events, Mike uses this IP camera with AI security software to detect all of the vehicles driving through the license plate detection zone. This bookmarks all of the vehicle detection events on the video player timeline on the NVR, which saves a lot of time when reviewing recorded video surveillance footage.
Front License Plate Capture
Here is another night license plate capture recording. Except this one demonstrates capturing the license plate mounted in the front of the car. This video shows how well the LPR-IP7 compensates for headlight glare. In this video, the LPR-IP7 camera is connected to a
Viewtron hybrid security camera DVR that also supports IP cameras. This is also known as a hybrid BNC DVR. Hybrid DVRs allow customers to use BNC security cameras and network IP cameras on the same recorder.
The one downside to using a Viewtron DVR vs NVR is that the DVRs do not have the ANPR software built-in. What does this mean? Basically, the camera and DVR will be able to record license plates clear enough for a human to read, but the DVR will not automatically identify the license plate and specific numbers automatically. Only Viewtron NVRs have the automatic number plate software built-in.
Please use these recommended best practices in order to plan a successful
license plate capture camera installation. It is important to mount the camera so that the camera view width is 16 feet or less at the point where plates will be captured. License plate cameras can not monitor wide areas also capture small details like the numbers on a license plate. These are extremely important concepts to understand when planning a successful license plate capture system.
Watch this video to see Mike discuss all the the best practices that he recommends when it comes to installing a
Viewtron LPR camera system.
Watch this video to see Mike review the various ways that recorded LPR video surveillance footage can be searched for and played back on Viewtron NVRs.
Watch this video to hear Mike explain the differences between LPC (license plate capture) vs LPR (license plate recognition) cameras. Mike also discusses ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) software.
CCTV Camera Pros supplies this
wireless camera system as an add-on for IP cameras. Watch the above video to see the LPR system installed at CCTV Camera Pros warehouse in West Palm Beach, Florida. We are using the WIFI system to transmit HD video from 3 security cameras mounted on a pole behind our building. This system is working great. This was an important demonstration because license plate recognition requires high quality video and frame rate. The fact that we are able to do this over WIFI is important to document for our customers. Please note, we ALWAYS recommend hard wiring camera systems. Wireless is ONLY recommended as a last resort if hard wiring is not possible. Wireless is NOT as reliable as a hard wired surveillance system.
Watch the above video to compare the video captured by a license plate recognition camera versus a traditional security camera (non LPR) in a moving vehicle traffic application.
License Plate Capture & LPR Camera Videos
CCTV Camera Pros has a large gallery of
license plate capture, LPR camera, and ANPR software videos here.
Page Author
This page, including all product information, images, videos, and FAQs, was created by and maintained by
Mike Haldas. Mike is the co-founder and managing partner of CCTV Camera Pros. If you have any questions related to this page or anything related to security cameras or video surveillance systems, please email Mike at cctvcamerapros@gmail.com.
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CCTV Camera Pros is proud to have an
A+ rated with the Better Business Bureau. We also maintain a 5 star online review rating with ResellerRatings.com.
CCTV Camera Pros is proud to be a US Veteran Owned small business. Our co-founder, Mike Haldas, served in the United States Marine Corps 1993-1997.
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