Planning To Install Surveillance Cameras? Things To Consider

By Author: Nate Rodney
Total Articles: 499
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The need for security systems has increased rapidly with the increasing number of criminal activities at various places including homes, workplaces and public spaces. Whether yours is a small business, federal office, school, shopping mall or a home, you need to protect it from harmful groups like robbers, vandals, burglars, etc. Moreover, you also need to monitor the movements of employees, children, visitors and trespassers alike. If you have a plan to install surveillance cameras, consider the following points before investing in them.

Camera for indoors or outdoors
The first thing you need to consider is whether the cameras will be used indoors, outdoors or at both places. Indoor cameras are useful for surveillance of the inner space in a facility. You can install these cameras even for a single room depending upon the need like monitoring the valuables, inventory, people, etc.

Outdoor cameras are installed at the points of entry and exit, all around the buildings, on the streets, etc. Cameras designed for indoor use may not work for outdoors. You should choose cameras that are weather-proof and ...
... vandal-proof if they are to be used outdoors as there will be high risk of damage.

Day or night use
When choosing a surveillance camera, you need to consider the camera’s sensitivity along with the amount of light reaching the surveillance location. If the sensitivity of the camera is high, it requires less light to produce clear images.

If you are planning to use the cameras during night, you need to make sure that the sensitivity of camera is high enough to produce images with recognizable details even if the amount of light available at the scene is less. For surveillance at night, you can use infrared cameras. These cameras can work even in poorly lit conditions. The camera works like an ordinary camera during the day and at night, it uses infrared light (which cannot be seen by human eye) to illuminate the place.

Resolution
Install a camera with good resolving power. If the resolution of the camera is low, the image given by the camera is not distinct enough and is thus, blurred, making the image hard to identify. The greater the resolution, the distinct and clearer the image is.

Coverage area
Determine the amount of area that you are planning to put under surveillance. The number of cameras you need for a particular area depends on this factor. Thus, if it is for a huge parking space, then the camera should have high coverage and greater resolution (the resolution power of a camera decreases as the extent of area covered increases).

Cameras types
There are various types of cameras available in the market. Different types offer different advantages. Let us consider few of them.

Dome cameras: If you need surveillance of your business place even amid darkness, dome cameras are the best option. The very advantage of these types of cameras is that trespassers or robbers cannot know that they are under surveillance. These cameras are suitable for warehouses, inventory store and the strong room where you keep valuables. The cameras can be tilted or rotated manually as required.

Bullet cameras: Bullet cameras are pretty small in size, encapsulated in a bullet shaped enclosure. They survive all weathers. These cameras are suitable for commercial places like shopping malls, residential blocks, etc. Due to their small size, they are hard to be detected by intruders.

Box cameras: A box camera is enclosed in a compact structure. Such structure makes it work in all weather conditions. There is protective glass screen in front of the lens. Box cameras are suitable for fixed places in your business location that needs constant surveillance.

Fixed or PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) cameras: Pan-Tilt-Zoom or PTZ cameras are self-operated. You can operate them using remote control, joy stick or directly from your personal computer - as per your requirement. A PTZ camera is enclosed in a structure that makes it all weather-surviving. The advantage of this camera is that despite fixed at a point, it can focus on a wide area by panning-tilting using remote control, or a computer program.

Wired or wireless cameras: Wireless surveillance cameras are easy to install. To facilitate better functionality, they should be located near the recording device - the distance between the camera and the recording device should be within the prescribed limits. These cameras can be installed anywhere at workplace or home.

Wired cameras are suitable if the distance between the camera and the recording device is long enough so that it needs to be connected using connecting wires. These cameras are economical and easy to operate, but installation cost will be bit higher than the wireless cameras.

Motion activated cameras: Certain cameras can alert you either by triggering an alarm, or by sending an email. These cameras work after the closing of daily business schedule. Such cameras are suitable for construction sites, shopping malls, warehouses or any other place that demands immediate action at the time of intrusion.

Location of installation
Before installing a surveillance camera, consider the area that is most prone to burglary, theft, vandalism, etc. These areas need high surveillance. Fix the location of the camera at a point such that the focus is on the largest possible area.

Budget
Once you plan to install surveillance cameras, you start estimating the cost of cameras, installation and maintenance charges. Once you are clear of your purpose and have the information on the various details of different types of cameras, you can surf the Internet, get data on the prices of different types of cameras and select the one which suits your budget while fitting your needs.

Last but not the least, always choose a reputed and reliable vendor who offers maximum value for your investment by offering quality products at lowest price possible.