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The 5 essentials of surveillance

As IP-based video surveillance systems continue to evolve, more and more businesses are choosing to opt for them. However, these video surveillance systems have come a long way from the traditional surveillance systems of years past. Also, this technology continues to evolve, with video surveillance solutions becoming more and more affordable for businesses of all sizes, from big box retailers and large corporate campuses to smaller mom and pop operations.

Sony have been in the surveillance business for 28 years and have come up with a laundry list of the essentials of surveillance. We shall discuss these 5 essentials for a birds-eye view of what to keep in mind when looking to choose and install video surveillance systems.

These systems can be used for purposes other than theft and loss prevention, such as for studying customer movement through your retail setup. There are a wide variety of IP-based video surveillance systems available, so do keep these points in mind when deciding what kind of video system is right for your business.

1) Ensure that the image-sensor chip inside the camera works: If the image sensor chip inside the camera does not capture a subject, it’s gone forever. The sensor chip is responsible for sensitivity, resolution, frame rate, and colour. The right sensitivity lets you see in low light; the resolution lets you see in detail; the frame rate lets you capture moving objects at the decisive moment, and the colour lets you see important identifying information.

2) Try to compensate for what you cannot control: When it comes to effective surveillance, there are some things that you just cannot control. Low light, backlight, changes in light level, and camera shake can interfere with that perfect surveillance mission. While you may not be able to completely control these issues, you can compensate by using the camera’s digital image processing. All cameras are not equal, so do choose the right IP camera for your surveillance solution. The right IP camera is adept at compensating for issues of extreme backlight, low light, and changes in light level.

3) Use security cameras that are difficult to vandalise or steal: Security cameras need to continue working 24 hours a day, 365 days in a year. They often work in the most challenging of environments. This is why you need to ensure that cameras placed in vandal-prone locations are protected from intrusion and damage. The right IP cameras are hard to break into and are also protected on the IP network with features such as password-controlled access and SSL client authentication.

4) Buy the right security camera without focusing too much on the price: As a user, you may be focused only on price. However, such “bargain” cameras work out to be rather expensive in the long run. If a camera cannot produce usable pictures, the potential costs could be catastrophic. So, you should not look at only price, but also at total performance.

5) See and test the camera at work: While specification sheets published by manufacturers of IP cameras are valuable, they do not tell the whole story. These sheets do not address certain important specs such as colour reproduction. They also do not describe how quickly cameras adapt and stabilise when scene lighting changes suddenly, or when someone turns the room lights on or off. The specs also do not describe how a camera’s noise reduction handles moving subjects. So, do actually see the camera at work, rather than just relying on spec sheets.

Now you know what to keep in mind and the top insights to consider when thinking of investing in IP-based video surveillance solutions. Here’s to effective, safe, and secure surveillance!

For more information on how you can set up the right surveillance systems and solutions for your business, contact Actis at 022-30808080 or at contact@actis.co.in.

(Content and images courtesy: www.sony.co.uk)