Planning to install surveillance cameras? Things to consider
The need for security systems has grown rapidly with the increasing amount of criminal activity in various places including homes, workplaces and public areas. Whether you have a small business, a federal office, a school, a shopping center or a house, you must protect it from harmful groups such as robbers, vandals, burglars, etc. In addition, you must also monitor the movements of employees, children, visitors and offenders alike. If you are planning to install surveillance cameras, consider the following points before investing in them.
Indoor or outdoor camera
The first thing to consider is whether the cameras will be used indoors, outdoors, or both. Indoor cameras are useful for monitoring the interior space in a facility. You can even install these cameras for a single room depending on the need, such as monitoring valuables, inventory, people, etc.
Outdoor cameras are installed at entrances and exits, around buildings, on the street, etc. Cameras designed for indoor use may not work outdoors. You should choose cameras that are weather and vandal resistant when used outdoors as there is a high risk of damage.
Use during the day or at night
When choosing a surveillance camera, you need to consider the sensitivity of the camera and the amount of light reaching the surveillance location. When the camera’s sensitivity is high, it requires less light to produce clear images.
If you plan to use the cameras at night, make sure the camera’s sensitivity is high enough to produce images with recognizable detail, even when there is less light available on the scene. For nighttime surveillance, you can use infrared cameras. These cameras can work even in dimly lit conditions. The camera works like a regular camera both during the day and at night and uses infrared light (which cannot be seen by the human eye) to illuminate the room.
Resolution
Install a camera with good resolving power. If the camera’s resolution is low, the image displayed by the camera will not be clear enough and thus will be blurry, making the image difficult to identify. The higher the resolution, the clearer and brighter the image is.
Coverage Area
Determine the amount of area you want to supervise. The number of cameras you need for a given area depends on this factor. So when dealing with a huge parking lot, the camera should have high coverage and greater resolution (a camera’s resolution power decreases as the area increases).
Types of cameras
There are different types of cameras available on the market. Different varieties offer different benefits. Let’s take a look at some of them.
• Dome cameras: If you want to monitor your business space even in the dark, dome cameras are the best option. The main advantage of these types of cameras is that intruders or robbers cannot know that they are under surveillance. These cameras are suitable for warehouses, stock storage and the safe where you keep valuables. The cameras can be manually tilted or rotated as desired.
• Bullet cameras: Bullet cameras are quite small in size, encased in a bullet-shaped housing. They survive all weather conditions. These cameras are suitable for commercial places such as shopping malls, residential blocks, etc. Due to their small size, they are difficult to detect by intruders.
• Box cameras: A box camera is enclosed in a compact construction. Due to such structure, it works in all weather conditions. In front of the lens is a protective glass screen. Box cameras are suitable for permanent locations in your company location that must be constantly monitored.
• Fixed or PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) cameras: Pan-Tilt-Zoom or PTZ cameras work by themselves. You can control them using the remote control, joystick or directly from your PC – according to your needs. A PTZ camera is enclosed in a structure that makes it all weatherproof. The advantage of this camera is that, despite being fixed to a point, it can focus on a large area by panning and tilting using a remote control or a computer program.
• Wired or wireless cameras: Wireless surveillance cameras are easy to install. To facilitate better functionality, they should be 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 work or at home.
Wired cameras are suitable if the distance between the camera and the recording device is long enough that it must be connected with jumper wires. These cameras are economical and easy to operate, but the installation costs will be slightly higher than the wireless cameras.
• Motion-triggered cameras: Certain cameras can alert you by triggering an alarm or sending an email. These cameras operate after the close of the daily business schedule. Such cameras are suitable for construction sites, shopping malls, warehouses or any other place that requires immediate action at the time of burglary.
Place of installation
Before installing a security camera, consider the area most prone to burglary, theft, vandalism, etc. These areas require high levels of surveillance. Fix the location of the camera so that the focus is on as large an area as possible.
Budget
Once you plan to install surveillance cameras, start by estimating the cost of cameras, installation and maintenance costs. Once you understand your purpose and have the information about the different details of different types of cameras, you can browse the web, get data on the prices of different types of cameras and select the one that suits your budget and your needs satisfies.
Last but not least, always choose a reputable and reliable supplier that will provide maximum value for your investment by offering quality products at the lowest possible price.