Category Archives: CCTV

Thermal CCTV will help with Olympic 2012 security

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Thermal CCTV is fast becoming the answer to many things. Using thermal imaging cameras, Fire fighters use it to save lives as do coastguards and mountain rescue teams. Drug growers live in constant fear of it and Police forces across the UK use it to track down thieves and criminals.We are now finding that Thermal CCTV to protect premises and boundaries in commercial situations is fast becoming affordable. The explosion in thermal CCTV sales however will be through the needs that will arise during the  2012 London Olympics. Perimeter protection will be crucial. Many of the events will be held in areas that will be difficult if not impossible to secure. As security advisers countrywide are now deep into into their security projects based on protecting events and arenas they have concluded that thermal CCTV is going to be an integral part of their plans.

Thermal CCTV
Thermal CCTV is here

Images generated from thermal CCTV cameras are not affected by the usual issues we associate with perimeter protection. Rain, fog, absence of light all become irrelevant and an intruder is easily picked out and dealt with. There really is no place to hide from thermal CCTV cameras if you are an unwanted intruder.

So what about the cost? Well this varies depending on the sort of distance and image clarity you seek. However, budget for anything between £3000 and £15,000 per camera and if you want analytics then you should budget at least a further £1000 per camera. Not cheap you may think but to be fair the effectiveness is worth the additional money but when you take into account fixed beams or sensors along a large perimeter then the costs start to balance out.

Thermal CCTV is also getting cheaper . Soon we expect that it will become the most commercially viable way of protecting your perimeter. So if you would like an idea of cost contact us and we can advise you.

 

IP CCTV and the future of the CCTV industry.

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There are many commentators about who are still asking the question where is IP CCTV going in the future? Most are still undecided on how things will develop and there seems to be a three way split on opinion.

1) The first chain of thought and one that holds most weight is that IP CCTV will grow a little more slowly than previously thought. However it will still grow and many feel that it is inevitable that it IP surveillance systems will become the norm for Image related security and management solutions. The idea behind this thinking is down to TCO or total cost of ownership. Based on the fact that IP CCTV can provide unquestionable flexibility and image quality it seems like a no brainer that this technology will come out number 1 over its two other main rivals, but as yet a slow start despite huge investment from the big boys such as Axis, Panasonic ,Samsumg, Arecont and Sony  has suddenly shed a little doubt on just how much this technology can really dominate the market place within the next five years.

ip cameras

2) The reason for this doubt is analogue CCTV. Obvious weakness in this type of CCTV recording and image quality has been tempered by the ever decreasing cost of the products. It was originally thought that IP CCTV cameras would be mass produced bringing an very sharpe end to analogue CCTV dominance and see it disappear faster than the VCR did at the turn of this century. However big manufacturers such as March networks have decided to continue production of some high end analogue DVR products and analogue cameras keep being produced in the far east with endless relentlessness. So when will we see the demise of analogue, at the moment no one is sure but eventually it must be surpassed by IP CCTV solutions, its just when that is now in doubt. We could see analogue persist for another ten years!

CCTV cameras

3) Finally there is there is a new kid on the block. HDCCTV. This consists of HD SDI products that can transmit uncompressed HD images over coax. Suddenly this technology has huge appeal for existing CCTV companies who’s engineers are struggling to get to grips with IP. Its not that the engineers are not clever enough to make the shift to IP . It seems the cost of tooling up the engineers and giving training is holding them back. When the engineer sees 80 analogue CCTV systems to every 20 IP then even with training he will rarely get to apply newly learned skills and this then can easily cause his knowledge to fade. This is now where the HDCCTV plug and play concept becomes so attractive to CCTV installers. They are finding IP cameras and NVRs prohibitively expensive, difficult to deploy and expensive to maintain . Some are having to rely on third party IT support to commission systems or having to go to the extra cost of actually creating thier own IT departments to cope. A very costly overhead indeed. So HDCCTV with all the benefits of HD images suddenly becomes a very attractive option.

HD SDI DVR
HD SDI DVR

It is difficult to see where it will go in the end. Will it be the flexibility and superior image quality attainable by IP CCTV? The tried and tested analogue CCTV solution? Or the new kid on the block, HDCCTV? The jury is out….. but we do think we know!

DIY CCTV is it a threat to the industry?

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I recently fielded a call from a very enthusiastic “customer” who was desperate to employ my skills to install an Access control and CCTV system for him. Was i excited by the prospect ? Well at first yes until that is the chap went on to explain that he had managed to buy all the kit he wanted to install off eBay and expected my “very best price” to put this kit on the wall. He had acquired cameras and what should have been a very expensive piece of recording equipment for peanuts. I had to admire the fact that he knew so much about the kit and what he should have paid for it.

cheap dvr

He sounded most disappointed though when i refused his custom .Why you may ask would i do this. Well firstly the investment involved to be able to buy and install CCTV equipment is huge. There is the vans on the roads, the engineers, wages the investment in IT equipment not to mention getting affiliation to a respected inspectorate! Profit is made by both mark up on the kit as well as labour provided and what about a service agreement?

Its my bet the kit is cheap because it is faulty, second hand or stolen. The minute i touch this kit who then gets the blame when it does not work? Iam thinking probably me! Worse still when i give my price is my new customer going to pay extra as i struggle to get his eBay acquired equipment to work .The answer is no. Most people who go DIY do so to save money. The very nature of this potential customer means that they are unlikely to want to pay for the right kit at the right price or take others advice. So would i turn this DIY CCTV business down? Definitely!

Ultimately who ever takes on this work will get their fingers burned and i doubt the customer will end up with a good job. The secret of a successful install is you must pay for what you get and then you can demand and expect value for money. So for all those eBayer’s out there if you want to do it yourself  then do the whole job cheap and don’t expect someone else to supply the labour and knowledge for you!

Samsung SRD 1630

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Smart, compact, reliable and neat. Just a few words that have been used when describing the Samsung SRD1630. This 16 channel DVR is able to hold up to 6 internal hard drives meaning storage is never going to be an issue. The SRD 1630 is also able to support a smart phone for remote access. H.264 compression and a linux embedded operating system are also features of this DVR.

Samsung HRD 1630

CCTV Cameras – Back to the Future???

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CCTV cameras …..constantly evolving.

One of the various technologies on display at IFSEC was the variety of HD and Megapixel cameras.

But, despite the hype ongoing regarding ‘Megapixel cameras to replace PTZ’, there were actually a lot of HD cameras with ZOOM lenses on them….yes, you are reading correctly, Optical ZOOM lenses!!!

CCTV cameras

So, it seems with CCTV cameras there is in fact very much a place for zoom lenses on megapixel / HD cameras – and it makes sense

We have posted before that HD should be viewed as complementary technology – sticking to what it does best, providing stunning OVERVIEW coverage of a scene and potentially passing detail and/or data to PTZ cameras to take over and provide close in detail….

There have been various shoot outs recently between HD CCTV cameras and PTZ CCTV cameras and, the PTZ wins on many fronts……

So it was interesting to see some companies fighting back, accepting defeat, producing HD cameras with optical zoom lenses.

Sony have two modules out for use in Domes and PTZ heads – a 20x that is lifted right from their established and popular AutoFocus range, and a brand spanking new 28x module with Ultra Low Light capabilities and a host of new features designed for night time surveillance – both with 1080p outputs for HD quality recording…..Hitachi are promising similar, even to the point of increasing the optic zoom to 36x !!!

Two decades ago, CCD was just emerging, replacing the tube technology of old…..lenses were selected based on specific field of view requirements…..object 2m size at a distance of 30m away….the amount of CCTV surveyors (and sales guys) that had lens viewfinders to calculate the required lens…..

Then, all turned lazy. Varifocals were introduced to take away the specific element, allowing a little latitude to the installation engineer if he/she had to move the camera to a slightly different location. Varifocals got longer and longer until, in the end, the specific lenses were early used.

Megapixel brought all that back in again. Starting initially with specific, fixed focal length lenses, HD and Megapixel have slowly crept back towards varifocal lenses as the preferred choice.

Now, with optical zoom, it makes perfect sense that a detailed HD picture should have the ability to optically zoom as well as digitally……….what is viewed is recorded and of course, that stunning post zoom offered by most of the HD cameras out there is still available.

The next step for CCTV cameras ? Well, it makes perfect sense to take that glorious HD resolution, coupled with a decent optical zoom, and place inside a Pan and Tilt device such as a dome or similar……imagine having 360 degree movement HD resolution with optical zoom! Sounds like utopia…….and companies are working now on units that incorporate exactly that – more info to come in the near future.

We will keep a close eye on these developments but it certainly seems like manufacturers are looking at the old ways to enhance and evolve their CCTV cameras to suit new technologies!!!