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Remote Surveillance from the Ground Up
Factors to consider about your remote monitoring project before you even reach the design stage.The Latest from SIW
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By Rebecca Jew and Jay Wallace
Many technological advancements have been made in the past few years in the CCTV systems market: the introduction of the digital video recorder, digital cameras, CCTV motion detection, video servers, video over IP and more. CCTV has developed into an integral part of security systems and operations. It has grown in capabilities, affordability and quality.
At the same time, new threats, budgetary constraints and staffing limitations have changed organizations’ expectations of CCTV. Companies and businesses with multiple sites or campus environments now find it necessary to consolidate their security operations into one central location. As the security director or CSO of a company, you may struggle with a common dilemma: how to recognize, among the wealth of technologies, the right solutions for remote surveillance at your facility, and how to combine them to create a successful system.
Carefully examining each aspect of the surveilance system and then examining the system as a whole can give you perspective on the nature of a comprehensive and time-survivable system. Often, applying multiple technologies can prove a cost-effective benefit to system design.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth use is a critical factor for remote video surveillance. Each component of the system will affect the bandwidth needed for communication at remote locations.
Cameras and Views. What type of camera will you need? Will it have to monitor a sales counter at a 24-hour convenience store, a person exiting the building through a remote door, or an entire retail sales floor? What is the ambient light level of the area? Will you require incident detection? How detailed will the images need to be—do you need to read license plate numbers or identify drivers? Of course, larger images, higher resolutions and advanced features will likely mean more data to be transmitted.
Storage. How much online retrieval will you need? What is the backup plan? Will the cameras be recorded full time, or just upon incident? What recording rate (frames per second) will you require?
Transmission. Will the data from the remote sites and buildings be transmitted via the existing company WAN or a separate network? How much data will be transmitted from any given location?
