Patent ID: 7859396

Claim:
An appliance for a network based security system, the network operating according to a packet switching protocol, comprising: a sensor component adapted for generating a signal in response to a condition present at the sensor component; a processor for generating a digital output signal corresponding to the sensor component signal; a network interface for transmitting the digital output signal via a digital network, wherein the sensor is a video sensor and the signal comprises a video signal, the appliance further comprising: an analog-to-digital converter for converting the analog video signal to a digital signal; a motion video buffer; an mpeg compressor associated with the motion video compressor; a still frame buffer; a jpeg compressor associated with the still frame buffer; a multiplexer for combining the output of the mpeg compressor and the jpeg compressor for generating a combined output signal to the processor for distribution via the network interface over the network, wherein there is further comprising: an audio sensor component; an analog-to-digital converter for converting the analog audio signal to a digital signal; an audio compressor associated with the audio sensor component for introducing a signal to the multiplexer, whereby the multiplexer produces a combined digital signal comprising a video and an audio component for distribution via the network interface over the network.