If you have given any thought to home security you have doubtless considered a closed circuit TV monitoring system (better known as CCTV). What you may have with your CCTV system is one surveillance camera, a selection of lenses (pan, zoom and infrared for night vision) to concentrate on particular areas of your grounds and home, and a VCR (video cassette recorder) that may make an abiding record of what the camera is seeing.
If you must decide you would like to provide CCTV security in your house you must do one slow walk around your house, making notes as you go, about where you want surveillance, and what areas are the most exposed, and wanting protection. While you certainly need to concentrate on your home – the place where your folks’ safety is the first concern – don’t neglect to incorporate garage, breezeway, in-law quarters, back and front yard, drive, driveway, or any outside fence or gate entrance.
You can need more than one camera in your house. This may be critical if your house is huge, for example, and you are continually in one section of the home while a babysitter watches your youngsters, or a housekeeper performs their obligations.
With the superiority of home offices this can be particularly critical, if you are in your office all day with the door shut. Having a new camera watching that SOHO office might also reduce your insurance bill also.
Once you have determined what areas on which you want to focus you will have to determine the areas. The range of area needing monitoring is crucial to the dimensions of camera or cameras you get. While you can select 5 sizes of camera – varying in size from one quarter to 2 3rds of an in., the cleverest selections are going to go no bigger than a half an in.. With a camera half in. or smaller you will have a more intensive choice of lenses that may work with it. There are 4 different variations of CCTV camera lenses from which you can select.
They’re fixed aperture, manual or auto iris and zoom. A vehicle iris lens is perfect for outside viewing, as it adjusts itself to accommodate changes in lighting. In places where the quantity of lighting stays reasonably stagnant a manual iris will do. This kind of lens specifies that you really make the lighting adjustments by hand. Zoom lenses, as with any camera, let you bring a viewed situation nearer to your eye for improved visibility. When you know the number of cameras you are going to need you’ll know whether you are going to need to have more than one monitor or whether you can get by with a switcher ( one monitor, swapping location perspectives ) or a multi-plexer ( many locations showing in boxes on one monitor at the same time ). Decide how long you are going to require to record before being able to remove and replace the VCR film.
If the time you are going to be absent from the home, i.e., unable to get rid of and replace the VCR tape, is going to surpass 4-6 hours (relying on the VCR) you may not be in a position to use your house VCR. You might need to upgrade to a commercial quality recorder.
Tags: CCTV System, Monitoring System