Mike Tennent, director at trainers Tavcom, muses about CCTV recording – and he may help you to win at quizzes.
How many of us have not wandered in our local electrical superstore and marvelled at the goodies? Cheap goodies, too: irons and telephones, washing machines and home cinemas. All at disposable prices; buy them, use and throw away when the next one falls off the production line. Is CCTV equipment set to go the same way? Could it? Should it? To a limited extent it’s already underway. Today, the influx of more and more suppliers providing security solutions for CCTV recordings is beginning to create a potentially massive over-supply in a relatively small market.
Not all that rich
It is my belief that many companies once viewed the security industry from afar and seen it as rich and easy pickings but have then often found to their chagrin that it is not all that rich and not all that easy to get in or out of . In recent times, however, things have been changing as very prominent Far East suppliers and manufacturers have flooded the market with products at prices far lower than our ‘recognised’ suppliers can hope to match. This development has been accompanied by a highly visible movement from other technical industries competing with traditional security and electrical installers. Energetic and highly pro-active telecommunication, structured cabling and of course IT companies are creating huge waves in the provision of security solutions for many clients.
Repair movement
A similar change of direction is occurring in the domestic television industry where IT based solutions – TV by IP and Blu Ray technology – are blossoming. I anticipate a national movement from TV repair and servicing companies which will provide a real impetus in security surveillance issues. After all, they have the technical skills, a wide customer base and knowledge of HD technology. Their strengths are in knowing how to install systems from domestic to large industrial complexes and the test equipment and tools at their disposal. Other advantages they enjoy are local area knowledge and their speed of ‘call-out’ to tackle problems.
Dilemmas
In every sector, technology is ramping at a furious rate, making even the most experienced of us feel as if we have no time to learn one new technology before another comes along. Suppliers and end users of digital video face ever more dilemmas. How do the suppliers educate the installers, consultants, training providers and distributors of the new products? Equally importantly, how can ‘real world’ serious buyers select products that will satisfy the immediate legislative and technical needs whilst making sure that their attractive ‘box of tricks’ will be compatible with technology next year? Ironically, in the face of these 21st century challenges and opportunities, there has probably never been a better time to examine, evaluate and re-establish some unchanging principles and truths. Its all very well investing thousands in a new digital scheme but it is surely wise to go back to basics and check that it will be better than analogue and that it will meet your expectations! What goes wrong when we don’t make our very own operational requirement? Well, you don’t want are any of the following:
Lack of contrast between target and similar background
Equipment reacting too slowly
Equipment too complicated
Excessive unwanted alarm rates
Light glaring on monitor
Movement blurring
Picture out of focus
Shadows concealing target
Inability to take a recording off the machine easily
Too much noise in the office environment
No operational instructions
Inability to provide pictures of evidential quality
Target concealed from camera view
Target too small to identify.
No on-site support
No telephone support
No support ! Except from that nice internet company you bought it from !
Not fit for the purpose … and you getting the sack for incompetence!
Checklist
So, the answer is to ensure that you dictate a formalised checklist. Advise your installer, consultant or supplier exactly what you want to achieve from each camera position and let them come up with the answers. Whether it is a simple one camera to one monitor job, or a fully integrated package, the importance of suitable camera and lens selection is vital. Take time to determine correct lens camera combination for each camera position. Much time and money, not to mention credibility, is earned by ensuring that each camera position is accurately tested before installation. Make sure the operational requirement is agreed by you and your supplier. Sometimes you must remember that technology is not able to provide the exact solution you have asked for. What you can do is to ensure that you know in advance whether your requirements can be met and make your decisions based on known outcomes. Ask your supplier to conform to BSEN 50132 Part 7 and you should find that your system will be as good as it can be, as long as you, your qualified consultant and your supplier work together. (Standard BSEN 50132 part 7 may be purchased from Tavcom.)
Tipcs
So you’re ready for a shopping trip in search of digital recorders? So much has been written about these items over the past couple of years that we at Tavcom thought that many potential buyers would like a list of points you can put to that smiling salesperson!
1) Will the machine really record real time? Will it provide real time picture update rate as that you would expect to see everyday on your television at home? We see 25 images a second on our televisions (unless you happen to live in countries that use 60Hz on their mains voltages; then you would have even faster update rates displayed on your TV at 30 images a second) So, if you request real time recording a minimum of 25 images a second is the speed of update. There is no alternative.
2) Will the machine still record real time with more than one camera plugged in? Most DVRs (Digital Video Recorders) have the capability of recording at at least 25 pictures a second But if a second camera is plugged in it might share that circuitry and as a result the update rate per camera would drop by half to 12.5 pictures a second. Many manufacturers use fields as their source of video inputs from the cameras (that is an update rate of 50 images per second using only half of the full possible video signal). Eight cameras sharing the same box of tricks would thus be 50 divided by eight. That means you will have 6.25 pictures a second. It’s simple mathematics.
3) Do I need real time? Only you know the answer. However I would make one observation. In many CCTV operations using digital recording they have found that whilst everything meets the need in ‘background’ recording, it is not possible to record incidents in real time. I know of many places re-introducing a VCR (tape video recorder) just for incidents to operate in the three-hour mode (real time mode).
4) How do I provide video evidence to a third party? I did talk about this in the last article [in the January 2006 issue of Professional Security]. To reiterate, it is important to establish what form of recording media is used to copy information from an incident. It is really important to select a system that provides a simple and easily obtainable playback source to use at home or say in a magistrates court. How many minutes/hours of video information can you copy onto the supplied media? CD ROMs are in minutes, DVDs in hours. One pedantic point; most DVRs claim frame rates. Really it should be field rates as most use only half of the full frame. Maybe IPS (images per second would be more accurate in many cases).
5) How do I know the picture quality will meet my requirements? How do you ask this question without getting the technical jargon responses and how can you interpret the responses? You may wish to consider asking the professional opinion of a specialist for this question: I would add independent specialist rather than the supplier’s representative although it is often good practice to discuss issues with potential suppliers and the independent.
6) How do I know it is recording? A bit embarrassing if you hand a disk to your local policeman and he finds that nothing has been recorded and that the error message says that a hard drive corruption occurred three months before and that the machine has been recording absolutely nothing since! Dreamland? No; this happened to one of our customers quite recently! So, make sure there is a simple check for each shift to ensure that information is being recorded effectively.
7) What happens when I wish to update to more cameras next year? These are a selection of questions you can ask the potential supplier: Is there enough capacity to physically plug in additional cameras? Does the software of the machine allow the extra cameras without an additional cost? If there is additional cost, how much is it? Is there enough space on the hard drive to enable more cameras to be recorded over the same amount of days?
8) What if it goes wrong? Do you have a local technical support agent? What are the terms and conditions of the manufacturers warranty? What are the terms and conditions of the installers warranty? Does the maintenance agreement stipulate the time of attendance at a call out? Does the maintenance agreement include the immediate replacement of the digital recorder?
9) How many days can I record for? That depends on: your budget, the size of hard disk, the quality of pictures recorded and the number of cameras on the recorder. You need to explain to the potential supplier exactly what your expectations are and ensure that the equipment can provide you with your requirements.
10) How noisy is it? There can be times when the equipment will be housed in, or close to, the operations point. It is wise to enquire about the noise levels. Suppliers can and should quote you figures in dB (decibels). You really need to have one demonstrated in the location to determine the acceptability. There are some installations where the noise factor causes severe operational difficulties.
Here’s a Trivial pursuit question … why is d in small font and the B in Capitals? (dB) The answer below!
11) Can I have more than one recorder cascaded?
When the recorder is full of data (video information) do you want the system to automatically STOP or REWRITE over the existing video images? Perhaps you want another DVR to automatically trigger in and take over the recording when the first machine is full? This obviously would suit particular remote sites where changing the operation manually for routine tasks is a possible relatively high cost.
12) How often should I have the system serviced?
Does the system have a UPS capability? What is the operational effect for a STOP in recording for a period of time?
13) And how much does it cost?
Or is that the question you ask first and not worry about the capabilities?
Your bonus question: How do I measure the performance and competency of the installer, supplier and consultant? Answers on a postcard to Tavcom Training!
In summary
In the main, the prime decision maker and ‘driver’ of the market is still you! You are the market forces! So, do you want to have a commodity industry similar to the domestic TV where you can pop into Dixons, Comet or Currys to view the ‘toys’ then quickly trawl through the internet and find one even cheaper? Or perhaps – after you have decided that the risk demands the use of CCTV – you may wish to continue using a trusted and proven source?
Trivial Pursuit answer: the small d is ‘deci’ the large B is Bell the surname of the inventor. You will find that most abbreviations also use the inventors name in capitals.Examples include milliamp (mA)with small ‘m’ for milli (meaning one thousandth) and the A is for Ampere, the name of the inventor. Another common one is kilowatt (kW) small k for kilo (one thousand) and W for the name of the chap…that Mr Watt.
