Front view

View of a single drive bay

View of a single drive bay

Back view

View of the included remote control

The accessories included

The accessories included

The Protect 218 M80218 is a 4-channel mobile DVR designed for use in coaches, city buses, minibuses, street cars/trams, subway, corporate vehicles, tractor-trailer trucks/TIR trucks, patrol cars, prisoner vans, ambulances or military vehicles. It has been specifically designed to provide increased resistance to vibration and shock.

The DVR is designed to be mounted inside the cab of a vehicle, e.g. under the seat, in a glove compartment etc. The power cables have to be connected to the battery and ignition switch (similar to radio), so that the device automatically begins video and audio recording simultaneously with turning on the ignition. The power circuit is protected by 5 A fuse which protects against excessive current drawing and burning of the wiring in the event of a fault. By default, the recorder runs until the power supply is turned off with the ignition key, unless the delayed turn off function (running for a specified time after switching off) or a schedule function is active. The DVR has also its own power backup and runs for about 8 seconds more to safely save all data.

Diagram of the plug for connecting cameras

Protect 218 has 4 video inputs, 3 of which are equipped with standard M12 connectors and one (the first) connector is 10 pin. This is a connector with a DSM signal which allows the connection of a special camera testing the driver behavior. The fourth connector makes it possible to connect an ADAS camera testing the movement of the vehicle. The package includes adapters with BNC socket (video), 2.1/5.5 plug (power), and RCA socket (audio). Connection of cameras to M12 connector allows quick and secure connection of video signal and power supply to the cameras directly from the DVR itself. The DVR allows to record images from 4 channels simultaneously at 25 fps at resolutions of 1080p or lower. The video quality is sufficient to easily recognize the traffic situation, the behavior of people, and even faces, or license plate numbers. AHD and CVBS signals are supported.

The DVR has a built-in 2.4 and 5 GHz dual-band WiFi module. It supports IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac standards. This allows the recordings from the DVR to be automatically uploaded to the recording server. The vehicle, upon arrival at the depot, connects to the WiFi network where the recording server service is running (free IVMS software is included). The synchronization of the recording is automatic. The device is equipped with two antennas which further increases the stability and speed of data transmission to the server.

The DVR supports H.265 video compression which, compared to its predecessor (H.264), reduces by half the data stream and the demand for disk space. Thanks to that, the capacity of data carriers can be reduced by half, or twice as long recordings can be stored.

A GPS antenna is included. When connected, the GPS module turns on automatically and details of the speed and device position are included in the video. Simultaneously, data from acceleration and position sensors (gyroscope) reading data in three axes (X, Y and Z) is always recorded. The device can detect a collision, sharp braking, accelerating or cornering too fast.

Recording of video and audio from the connected cameras is carried out via a single HDD/SDD slot with capacity up to 2 TB. Recordings can be exported to a flash drive or memory card and played back using the included software. The recordings are stored along with the GPS, acceleration and alarm input data in their respective device formats. In addition to searching and playing recordings from cameras, the software enables the use of the additional DVR capabilities including generating a graph of the alarm input activation on a timeline or vehicle position based on the saved GPS coordinates.

The alarm inputs can monitor the vehicle devices plugged into the electrical system. These may include shifting into the reverse, opening the fuel filler door, door closing, seat belt fastening, cargo area opening, brake pressing, indicting etc. Activation of an input can be linked to an alarm action, e.g. the shifting into reverse can display lines on the camera image showing the distance, or switching the image preview to a specific camera.

The DVR can be controlled with the included IR remote control. The graphical menu is displayed by video output that can be connected to a monitor.

The DVR has 3 video outputs: VGA (1280 X 1024), Cinch (CVBS signal) on 3.5 mm jack connector on the front and M12 socket on I/O connector on the back (CVBS signal).