CCTV Security Considerations

CCTV systems were first developed in the UK in 1970s. They used to be extremely expensive, cumbersome and had to be professionally installed due to a complicated electronic setup. Systems today are much more reasonably priced, easier to configure, and small CCTV systems can be installed by the end user.

A basic CCTV system includes a camera, monitor and recording device. Before settling on the specific components for your site, however, there are several decisions you will need to make.

Firstly, you’ll need to decide if you want a colour or black & white system. It is important to remember that only colour CCTV footage can be used in a court of law to positively identify a person. If black & white footage is installed, it will not give you evidence quality CCTV protection.

Your second consideration is whether you want to install wired or wireless cameras. Although, wireless is much easier to install, it is more expensive and can occasionally be unreliable. With a hardwired CCTV camera, it is more difficult to install, but you don’t have to worry about signal loss.

Your third consideration is perhaps the most important and comprises of five individual aspects. You need to decide:

• what area you need to see
• how far away this area is
• how much coverage you need
• what the lighting conditions are like
• will it be indoor or outdoor

You have to know the answers to these questions in order to determine the correct kind of camera and lens combination.

Your fourth consideration is the type of recorder that will work best for your needs. Time lapse recorders are still available however, they have many limitations on the time and scene recorded, and additional equipment, such as a switcher or multiplexer is often required. A CCTV DVR, on the other hand, allows you to record much longer periods of time, which can be downloaded to a PC or burned to a CD. In addition, the quality of your CCTV footage will not degrade over time.

Your final consideration is the CCTV monitor. You need decide what type and size of monitor you want or if you even need one. The space constraints in the area you will place the monitor will determine what size of CCTV monitor you should get.

Many of our systems do not even require a dedicated CCTV monitor. By using sophisticated CCTV software, your system can be monitored from a normal PC screen, and can even be viewed over the internet from another location.

There are many considerations you need to take into account when installing a CCTV system, and it is often better to have on-the-spot advice specific to your site. If you would like one of our engineers to visit you onsite to provide you with a free security audit, don’t hesitate to contact us.