There have been instances when extended family or unwanted visitors have caused so much disruption that families are forced to put gates on their doors and windows in order to secure them against extended family. A CCTV system can provide the ideal solution in such cases.
Security can also provide an extra measure of protection to your premises outside working hours.
What is a CCTV?
Imagine running a store on a busy street, with lots of foot traffic, when at 3am the local news reports of an armed robbery committed at your business. Your heart drops, as you realize there would have been ways to prevent this situation; CCTV could have made a tremendous difference. CCTV consists of cameras, monitors, recorders and monitors connected by wireless or wired networks to transmit images captured from cameras to recorders for viewing locally or remotely on monitors connected by cables; once stored they can then be displayed either locally or remotely on monitors located either locally or remotely from recorders or remotely via internet connections to monitors connected directly by cables for display onto monitors for viewing either locally or remotely from recorders via monitor.
Modern CCTV systems feature various customizable features that can be tailored to fit your specific needs. For example, some allow you to simultaneously view multiple cameras on one screen and zoom in on specific areas. Other features may include night vision, talkback (allowing someone nearby the camera to speak to the camera directly), media cleanup, and wide field of view so you can cover more ground with less cameras. Furthermore, storage for cameras may either be cloud or local-mounted hard drive based.
Your CCTV options include home-oriented models designed for home network usage as well as commercial systems specifically intended for business use. Which system you select depends on several factors such as size of area to cover, privacy considerations and budget; more expensive systems offer remote monitoring capability with greater field of view but are more complicated to set up compared with simpler options that use mains power for powering both camera and monitor simultaneously – this may save on installation costs but require drilling holes into walls and running cables through open areas, such as an attic space for example.
The Basics
At the core of any CCTV system is its camera. A lens directs light onto an internal image sensor, wherein an internal circuitry system converts them into analog electrical signals that are then transmitted over coaxial cables to an external recorder known as DVR that then converts these analog signals into digital formats for both local recording and remote access.
DVRs can also stream their footage over a LAN/WAN (Local Area Network/Wide Area Network), so you can watch live streams on mobile phones, tablets or computers anywhere with internet access – making a CCTV especially valuable to businesses that operate 24/7 and require constant surveillance that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to maintain manually.
CCTV surveillance systems can also be utilized to safeguard a property against break-ins, as well as keeping an eye on employees working late or in high-risk installations/areas.
Homeowners use CCTV cameras as an effective deterrent against crime and to secure their valuables, while they can also be used to monitor family members and pets. Homeowners can see if their children arrive home safely from school, elders get up from bed or whether pets eat their food.
There are two primary categories of CCTV systems – analog and digital/network. An analogue system typically uses coaxial cables to transmit images, making setup simpler and cheaper than its digital/network counterpart; however, an analogue doesn’t facilitate data encryption or remote monitoring capabilities. Digital/network CCTV requires more setup but allows direct uploads directly onto computers for monitoring purposes as well as direct transmission directly.
The Cameras
Cameras are at the core of any CCTV system and may either be hardwired or wireless. Higher quality branded cameras typically offer superior image resolution and have features like night vision, thermal imaging, number plate recognition or number plate identification that make them extremely useful security tools.
Camera resolution is measured in pixels; higher numbers indicate greater picture detail. Furthermore, brightness control can be achieved using zoom and contrast settings on a camera – these adjust the separation between light and dark areas within an image, darkening shadows while brightening highlights respectively.
Hardwired security systems allow each camera to connect directly to a central hub called a DVR (Digital Video Recorder). When your storage runs out, your DVR overwrites older footage for newer videos stored internally; you may even configure yours so it streams live footage via the internet so you can watch remotely on computers or mobile devices.
Option 2 is to install a wireless system where cameras and DVR are linked via LAN (Local Area Network) powered by PoE (Power over Ethernet). The benefit of this setup is that no professional electrician is necessary to set it up, plus cabling can easily be moved around as needed.
Motion detection software allows cameras to record only when movement is detected, saving storage space while also protecting from being used as peeping toms by neighbours.
The DVR
DVR (digital video recorder) devices, like their VCR predecessors and NVR successors, are hardwired into a system of cameras. Though this may appear restrictive, this feature actually makes DVR systems one of their greatest strengths: unlike cloud services that store footage online, these DVR systems save recordings to their hard drive for offline access.
To achieve this goal, analog security cameras transmit their raw video signal via coaxial BNC cables connected directly to their DVR. Since these wires don’t supply power to each camera, a separate siamese cable or direct power connection may also be necessary. Finally, all this raw data passes to the DVR for processing with its built-in chip before eventually reaching you on screen.
DVRs offer more reliable recording solutions than many internet-dependent options for business owners that require on-premise storage of surveillance footage. Their only real restriction lies within hard disk space constraints which could quickly fill up with high-resolution recordings.
DVRs can assist with this by offering settings to limit how much footage is recorded or reduce image quality to reduce file sizes, as well as automatically overwriting old data to prevent running out of storage space. While these features can help, they cannot replace higher-resolution images and broader functionality offered by cloud-based solutions such as Channels.
The Monitor
The monitor is where CCTV footage is displayed. Older analogue CCTV systems typically used low-resolution black and white monitors with limited interactivity; today most systems can be set up to work with high definition multi-screen display monitors that display multiple CCTV camera footage at once with features like zooming in/out or 360 degree rotation capability.
Some monitors are set up to remain active all of the time; this may lead to information overload for operators. Instead, these screens could be programmed so they only come alive when an alert from cameras triggers, helping reduce over-stimulation and fatigue for operators responsible for overseeing up to 10 monitors at once.
CCTV surveillance can be invaluable in a range of settings, from protecting businesses in high-risk areas to monitoring prisoners and potentially dangerous patients in healthcare facilities. CCTV can also serve as an essential way of deterring crime, vandalism and tracking traffic – yet not all CCTV systems offer equal benefits – it’s vital that businesses work with a trusted supplier who can advise them on which system best fits their individual business requirements.
CCTV systems may either be wired or wireless; the most popular configuration involves wired CCTV with cameras and monitors linked directly to a networked DVR that can then be remotely monitored via the internet. When combined with other security measures such as infrared night vision or number plate recognition systems, CCTV provides a comprehensive business security solution.
