Darren Nicholson, National Marketing Manager for US CCTV manufacturer Kalatel, discusses remote video surveillance.
Providing users with the ability to monitor their businesses at any hour from their office, from the easy chair in the living room or from a hotel room when traveling is a growing opportunity for security managers, one no security professional should ignore. In fact, remote video is developing the fastest among small to medium surveillance applications. The primary reason for this growth is the cost of ownership has recently become very affordable. Increasing numbers of small convenient stores, gas stations, coffee shops and even fast-food franchises are embracing remote surveillance. And, interesting enough, going beyond the scope of traditional business, we are hearing more activity from home-owners. Parents want to check in on their children at home and children want to check in on their aging parents at the retirement village. Most remote video systems are simple, incorporating only a couple of cameras. In a business application, like a convenience store, the surveillance system may include one camera aimed at the entrance and/or exit. To watch money exchange hands, one camera may be monitoring the area above the cash register. And, to maintain back-room security, one camera is trained on the receiving door. In a home surveillance application, the CCTV system may include one camera at the front door entrance, one in the children’s playroom and, perhaps, one looking out to the pool. For either of these systems to operate, you would use a master video transceiver such as the Calibur RSM-1600 by Kalatel. This type of device interfaces with the cameras and transmits the selected video over a common telephone line. This small box has plug-in connections for three cameras, a telephone and a telephone line. For the video to be received at the viewing location, one additional transceiver is installed there. It plugs into a telephone line, telephone, and TV monitor. The user then uses the telephone handset to select the camera view, resolution, transmission speed and even electronic pan tilt and zoom (PTZ). The handset offers an easy-to-use means of operating the equipment’s functions. This system is very easy to install and, once done, you’ve created a monitoring system that can be called up at any time. If your customer wants more than one monitoring location, you simply install a master transceiver at each site. It’s fairly simple to install. Most importantly, the hassles of dealing with special telephone lines and high-speed internet connections are avoided. A standard telephone connection is all that is necessary to transmit video. As a result, this type of system is not only very effective, but it is inexpensive. That is this market’s most important requirement; low cost.
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What if this same customer wants to add more than three cameras and provide two-way audio, or even integrate existing alarm components’ Can you still help’ Yes! In addition to the originally installed master transceiver and cameras, all you need to install is a video/alarm expander. It will increase your user’s video capability to ten cameras and provide eight alarm inputs. It’s easy to install. Simply plug the expander into your master transceiver and then connect all the video inputs. With minimal effort, you have now provided easy access to video from as many as ten different cameras. During a programmed alarm condition, the system will even automatically send video images of the camera associated with the alarm to the monitoring location. Going a step further, would your user like to monitor video from a laptop or PC’ That, too, is easily accomplished with simple-to-install monitoring software. By connecting the PC modem to a telephone jack, the computer can then dial the master transceiver at the remote site. With the use of a mouse or touch-pad, the user merely points and clicks the simple on-screen menus to operate the system.
Technology advances in digital compression techniques has provided a means of recording video to a standard compute hard-drive. New DVMRs combine the capabilities of a video multiplexer and hard-drive to provide multiplexing and recording, all in one unit. With a unit, such as Kalatel’s Calibur DVMRe, your customer has instant access to any concern-critical remote recordings, right from his own office. On-screen menus and simple keystrokes allow him to search for images or events by alarm, time, date, camera number and ASCII cash register or ATM text. The DVMRe jumps to the selected image instantly and begins playback. You can even create a system that lets your customer watch live or recorded images using a PC, from anywhere he can plug it into a phone line. He can save images or clips on his PC hard drive for later viewing or printing. They can even be posted on the network to share with others. There are a few things you should take into consideration before installing one of these systems. Be sure to install a phone line specifically dedicated for the remote monitoring system. We find that one of the major causes of customer dissatisfaction actually stems from other equipment being attached to the phone line being used for the remote surveillance equipment. Here’s the scenario. All too often you will want to share this ‘extra’ phone line with a fax machine, credit card machine or even an off-site ATM in the store. Don’t do it. Be sure to maintain a dedicated line for the video system, so you have access without limit. You don’t want to view the surveillance system and call up the fax instead. And, you don’t want repeated phone calls about how the system doesn’t work.A dedicated line will save you time and money. When you implement a remote video system, you can be practically assured that it will grow. Customers start layering applications upon it. The daycare center begins to offer it at an extra fee for parents to see their kids at play. You want more transceivers. Stores start using it to analyze traffic flow. You require more cameras and expanders. Thus, you want to make sure that the equipment you select is modular.
