Features Of An Effective Security Surveillance System

Keeping an eye on your property is not as easy as picking up cameras from the shops and mounting them at the main entrance of your property. It takes a professional to design and install a system that is uniquely suited to your specific needs. It starts with analysis of your property, identification of blind spots, determining the operating conditions of the system, sizing of image storage space, identification of mounting positions, comparing products available in the market among other factors taken into account before a system is designed.

To get the best security surveillance system design and installation that is uniquely suited to your situation, you will have to have the following questions;

• Are my cameras to work both day and night?
• What will be the operating conditions of the surveillance system?
• Do my cameras need some of automation like motion sensors?
• How much video or images will I need to record and for how long?
• Will I need to access my security surveillance system remotely?

Below are top five features of an effective security surveillance system:-

1.Night Vision Monitoring
You should look at a system that is able to clearly capture details on video at night as majority of break-ins, vandalism, and thefts occur under the cover of darkness. This would enable the authorities to accurately identify the criminals or their vehicle.

2. Weatherproof Camera Housings

If you need to monitor the outside of your location, you will need weatherproof cameras or camera enclosures. CCTV camera housings protect against various intensities of dust and moisture that range from zero to complete protection.

3. Motion Detection Recording

By switching your video security system’s recording setting from “continuous” to “motion activated”, not only will you maximize your storage space, the video you do capture will be of actual events as they unfold rather than hours upon hours of an empty hallway.Your system can be configured to ignore specific areas of the camera’s field of view and the trigger’s sensitivity can be adjusted as well.

4. H.264 Video Compression

H.264 is the latest and greatest video compression codec that greatly reduces the demands on your video recorder’s storage space and transmission bandwidth. (Makes smaller video files and transmits them faster over your network.). It’s strongly recommended that you use DVR / NVR with the H.264 codec and motion activated recording as this setup is able to store at least a month’s worth of video on a single hard drive.

5. Remote Access on Smartphones / Tablets

With the advent of the smartphone and broadband internet, your system is quite literally at your fingertips everywhere you go. With a free apps available on various platforms, you can sign in, view archived video, and manage your surveillance system on your smartphone or tablet from anywhere with an internet connection. This security camera system feature is peace of mind in your pocket. At any time of day or night, you can check in on your family, make sure your employees are working, double check that you turned off the lights before you went on vacation, or adjust your recording schedule for an upcoming holiday.

In addition to making the correct choices while picking up a system for your use, the following are mistakes that you must avoid to get what it is worth from your system:

1. Working cameras – those are important!

You should make sure that each of your cameras is functioning properly at least once a quarter. Cameras can hang, lose focus, or be fried by a power surge, and if you don’t check on them routinely, you won’t realize that they aren’t working until it is too late.

2. Is the DVR or NVR actually recording?

If you make any configuration changes, the power goes out, or someone else has been playing with the security system, always double check that it’s recording. We cannot stress this enough.

3. Is everything plugged in 

Unplugged components of the Security surveillance systems is particularly common in bars, restaurants, and other places where ownership may change relatively frequently or multiple contractors may have worked on the surveillance system. If you have an NVR involved, make sure it is connected to the network, and make sure hard drives are all plugged in and working so you capture the maximum amount of video without recording over old footage.

4. How long are you recording for? Is there enough space?

You should always make sure that your recording time and associated disk space match up so you can record the absolute maximum amount of video before the space is recycled. If you can’t record more than a few days of video, you may want to add additional hard drives or adjust the resolution and FPS to accommodate longer recording periods.

5. is your resolution and frames per second optimized?

Resolution and FPS play a huge role in the clarity of the video, and the space that the video takes up on your recording device. Depending on the cameras and DVR/NVR that you are using, you always want to optimize it so that you get the clearest and smoothest video possible while still being able to keep a good amount of video before your hard drive space is recycled.

6. Are your CCTV cameras covering the right areas?

Was your surveillance system there when you moved in? Have you checked the areas that the cameras are covering? Were they installed to cover the old owner’s office, cash registers, etc? Is your layout different? If so, make sure to move and/or re-focus the cameras on the critical spots in your business or home.

There are many more security surveillance mistakes committed, always make sure you get a professional to install and also do regular checks on your security Surveillance system. Relemech Services LTD is a Electrical and Mechanical Building Services design and build firm, and security surveillance is part of what we design for you. Do not hesitate to contact us.