CCTV – Closed Circuit television
It is crucial to take security seriously. It is not just businesses and commercial properties that need good security but it is our homes too. With crime increasing and burglaries becoming common, it is very important to consider the available security options and choose one that is the best fit for you.
CCTV system in your home or workplace offers many benefits. A CCTV system provides audio/video surveillance and can even capture footage of burglars in the act of unlawfully entering your premises. CCTV systems can also give you a discount on your insurance and are great for deterring criminals from entering your premises.
The technology behind security equipment these days is incredibly advanced, and it is even possible to hook the cameras up to an ordinary television or computer to watch the footage.
The following are some of the concerns both home and business have and the Top 10 Reasons for installing CCTV.
Prevent Crime
Prevent Employee Theft
Be a useful piece of evidence
Help law enforcement solve crime
Protecting your staff
Encourage good behaviour
Monitoring high-risk area
Increase customer’s confidence
We provide a range of CCTV products with dome or PTZ cameras offering HD video quality but also a state of the art video analytics that will make your security bullet proof.
CCTV Surveillance System Components
There’s a lot that goes into a successful CCTV installation. While the cameras get most of the attention in the beginning, you also have other concerns, such as viewing, recording, and archiving the video footage, and the equipment required for carrying out those tasks. Here’s a look at the basic components of a typical CCTV system.
Cameras
Security cameras are the starting point for most CCTV systems. There are endless possibilities when choosing CCTV cameras and lenses – everything from fixed models designed for monitoring very specific locations, to day/night cameras, and powerful PTZ domes for patrolling large areas.
Video cameras are either analogue or digital, which means that they work on the basis of sending analogue or digital signals to a storage device such as a video tape recorder or desktop computer or laptop computer.
Can record straight to a video tape recorder which are able to record analogue signals as pictures.
Analogue signals can also be converted into a digital signal to enable the recordings to be stored on a PC as digital recordings.
Another way to store recordings on a non-analogue media is through the use of a digital video recorder (DVR). Such a device is similar in functionality to a PC with a capture card and appropriate video recording software. Unlike PCs, most DVRs designed for CCTV purposes are embedded devices that require less maintenance and simpler setup than a PC-based solution, for a medium to large number of analogue cameras.
Some DVRs also allow digital broadcasting of the video signal, thus acting like a network camera. If a device does allow broadcasting of the video, but does not record it, then it’s called a video server. These devices effectively turn any analogue camera (or any analogue video signal) into a network TV.
These cameras do not require a video capture card because they work using a digital signal which can be saved directly to a computer. The signal is compressed 5:1, but DVD quality can be achieved with more compression (MPEG-2 is standard for DVD-video, and has a higher compression ratio than 5:1, with a slightly lower video quality than 5:1 at best, and is adjustable for the amount of space to be taken up versus the quality of picture needed or desired). The highest picture quality of DVD is only slightly lower than the quality of basic 5:1-compression DV.
The new CCTV market is multi-megapixel IP-CCTV cameras. They can capture video images at resolutions of 1, 2, 3, 5 and even up to 20 Mpix or more. Unlike with analogue cameras, details such as number plates are easily readable. At 11 Mpix, forensic quality images are made where each hand on a person can be distinguished. Because of the much higher resolutions available with these types of cameras, they can be set up to cover a wide area where normally several analogue cameras would have been needed.
Looking at the inside of a network camera. From left to right: network adapter, power supply, CPU, image encoder, image sensor.
IP cameras or network cameras are analogue or digital video cameras, plus an embedded video server having an IP address, capable of streaming the video (and sometimes, even audio).
Because network cameras are embedded devices, and do not need to output an analogue signal, resolutions higher than closed-circuit television ‘CCTV’ analogue cameras are possible. A typical analogue CCTV camera has a PAL (768×576 pixels) or NTSC (720×480 pixels), whereas network cameras may have VGA (640×480 pixels), SVGA (800×600 pixels) or quad-VGA (1280×960 pixels, also referred to as “megapixel” resolutions.
An analogue or digital camera connected to a video server acts as a network camera, but the image size is restricted to that of the video standard of the camera. However, optics (lenses and image sensors), not video resolution, are the components that determine the image quality.
Network cameras can be used for very cheap surveillance solutions (requiring one network camera, some Ethernet cabling, and one PC), or to replace entire CCTV installations (cameras become network cameras, tape recorders become DVRs, and CCTV monitors become computers with TFT screens and specialized software. Digital video manufacturers claim that turning CCTV installations into digital video installations is inherently better).
DVR/NVR or VMS
Video management software (VMS) allows you to record and view live video from multiple surveillance cameras—either IP-based or analog cameras with an encoder—monitor alarms, control cameras and retrieve recordings from an archive. Because they are IP-based, VMS systems are more expandable and flexible than DVR-based systems, and employees can control the software from anywhere on the network. Surveillance and security teams can use the software for live monitoring, as well as investigative and forensic purposes, using archived footage
CABLE
Coaxial cable is used with analog cameras
CAT 5e/6 Ethernet cable for IP cameras
