Many people design their CCTV system in the wrong order. They buy some cameras first, then a recorder and install them before realising the system is not performing as expected.
Follow theses 7 steps and I can assure you that the results will be much better and possibly at a lower cost.
Step 1. Determine what your want to protect
This will help you to understand what to expect from the surveillance cameras- Identify, recognise or observe people
- Lighting performance
- Installation locations & environments
- The distances involved will determine IP CCTV or analogue
Step 2. How will the system be used
How will you use the CCTV system most of the time?
- Live viewing from a back office
- Different front and back office views
- Off site live viewing
- Only looked at when something has happened
Step 3. Define the time frame before you will know something has occurred
Understanding what events you are looking for will give an indication of how long you need to store the recordings for at a minimum and the type of storage device you will need.
- Monitoring staff theft – 14 days
- Shoplifting – 7 days
- Home surveillance including short holidays – 14 days
- Public areas – 30 to 90 days
- Slip & trip incidents – 30 to 90 days
Step 4. Identify camera locations and lens sizes
Depending on the answers to step 1, you may need to mount the cameras low or a long way back, which will determine the lens size, camera resolution and special lighting features. Good surveillance camera placement will make the biggest impact to your results
- Mount the security cameras on a suitable angle (less than 35 degrees)
- Choose the lens based on the angle of view required
- Take into account the recording / camera resolution
- Avoid bright sources of back light / shadows
- Will objects get placed in front of the camera? EG shop displays
- Will additional lighting be required?
- infrared or white light
Step 5. Select the camera style
Now that you know where each camera will be located and its intended application, you can work on what camera style will work best in each location
- Do not use standard dome cameras for the following situations
- If the lens focal length is greater than 12mm
- if the light is greatly varying
- Instead buy a camera with a separate lens
- Is megapixel required?
- Will lighting be sufficient at night?
- Should a vandal resistant camera be used?
- Can rain or sun hit the camera? Check the IP rating
Step 6. Choose the recording and storage medium
By now you should know if you are installing surveillance cameras that are analogue or IP CCTV connection. This will determine if you need a DVR (digital video recorder), NVR (network video recorder) or a hybrid recorder
- Always allow more inputs than you require by at least 30% for expansion
- Your storage should use a CCTV grade hard drive such as the Seagate SV35range if you want a reasonable life cycle
- Do you require a form or drive failure redundancy?
- RAID1, 5 or 6 will all require additional storage but adds reliability
- Determine the UPS size based on the recorders power consumption. Power fails kill hard drives
- Choose a common video compression
- Stay away from proprietary formats
- Recommend H.264 or MPEG4 unless you know what you are looking for
- How many viewing outputs will you need?
- 1, 2 or more
- will different cameras be viewed on each screen?
- Decide how you will get video footage out of the recorder.
- USB memory
- DVD burner
- Networked PC
- Does the recorder need to keep recording and displaying live while playing back?
Step 7. Choose a playback reviewing method
Depending on the application, you may require to view discretely in a back office or over a network
- Can the recorder be controlled over a network via a PC?
- Are front panel controls on the recorder for local control?
- What bandwidth is needed for internet based playback to stream effectively?
- Can you remove the hard drives to review them elsewhere?
- Will the viewing monitor in the customer area show what you are playing back?
- Will you need to search large time periods for a change in the scene?
- Look for some post event analytics
Having worked through these questions you are now in a position to start shopping and be armed with the questions to get what you need. However don’t be surprised if the average shop assistant or online store really doesn’t know what they are talking about. They are not security experts and are there for one reason alone. To get sales and lots of them.
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