A Digital Video Revolution

There is a new wave of storage media sweeping over the CCTV world. DVR’s (Digital Video Recorders) are set to become the standard platform for recording and reviewing captured video over a CCTV network.

Older PC Video Recorders worked by recording to a PC that was susceptible to the flaws common place in such operating systems. Thus making it an unstable option, but unfortunately at the time, the best option. Although a significant step up from recording to analogue tapes, which produced footage that often fell far short of ‘evidence quality’ pictures, there was still a long way to go.

DVR’s have taken the next technological stride forwards. A DVR is a dedicated recorder with a specifically written program embedded on its hardware flash drive. Generic PC motherboards have been replaced by a purpose built integrated board combining video circuits, Ethernet connection and processors that reduce power consumption and provide a system it for 24Hr, 365 day operation.

Users of more ‘traditional’ CCTV systems however, will not feel like they have to learn an entirely new system. This is because a number of the new DVR’s designed to have the same ‘look and feel’ of their older systems. This is making the change over for many companies much easier than anticipated.

The advances made are not limited only to the higher quality footage achieved, but also include the way in which data can be reviewed. DVR technology allows the user to view and analyse both live and recorded video as before, as well as offering the ability to view ‘event based’ video clips, where only footage of things happening is shown. Countless hours of dead time can be quickly ignored so the users time can be better utilised.

The amount of time available to record to a DVR is obviously dependant on the model and disk size, but the weeks of storage available on some models offer a tempting alternative to stacks of old video tape recorders, all busy capturing sub-standard images.

With storage ever an issue, especially with the advances in camera quality, DVR’s can offer a readily accessible hard drive, but also have the additional option of a DVD writer, effectively offering unlimited, high quality storage.

The industry is also being revolutionised by functions found on DVR’s like the E-Mail and SMS alerts of unauthorised activity, playing the part of a operator watching live events unfolding.

Another storage friendly option offered up by these systems is the ‘pre-alarm’ recording function. The recording that is continuously being overwritten can be logged and stored separately in the event of an alarm being triggered, with footage before the event itself stored as well.

Companies around the CCTV world are also now benefiting from the remote access made easily available by the I.P. connectivity and remote monitoring functionality. Where this has been an option in systems before, it has never been as straightforward.

If you are looking to install a DVR based CCTV solution on your premises, or simply require further information or advice on security solutions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.