Newsflash! GigE cameras ARE taking over the world

In “GigE – the future of machine vision?“ I described how Ned Lecky’s enthusiasm for the GigE interface standard was perhaps, well a little too enthusiastic. But now a quiet little press release from AVT has given me cause to think that perhaps Ned is a trend-spotter extraordinaire.

What’s happened is that AVT have brought out a single SDK that supports all their camera models. As this encompasses the former Prosilica range of GigE cameras, this means the new “AVT Universal Package” covers both FireWire a and b as well as GigE.

So is it fair to conclude that AVT’s purchase of Prosilica was a well-considered strategic move designed to protect them from the coming market shift? Or perhaps it was a more defensive, “let’s keep a foot in both camps,” approach. Either way, I think I detect a wind blowing, and it’s not blowing FireWire’s direction.