Camera Naming Conventions

Now that the quality of security surveillance video has improved, and camera deployments have expanded, there are video stakeholders outside of the Security function to whom video has value. Thus, the camera naming convention – how cameras can be given names meaningful to all stakeholders is a more important subject, especially for multi-site video deployments.

Q:  We have established a regional security center for viewing video from multiple sites, and site-specific camera names like “front lobby” and “employee entrance” are no longer helpful. Is there guidance for camera naming?

A: Over time, several organizations have published such guidance, and nowadays, there are new types of stakeholders for building area naming conventions, and for global video monitoring, multiple languages must be accounted for.

Today, there is a need for Video Management System (VMS) camera names to be readable and meaningful at a glance, not just by Security Operations Center staff, but by first responders, facilities management, and other video stakeholders. The naming scheme below supports a single- or dual-language approach. This naming convention applies to names in languages written in Roman (a.k.a., Latin) script, not to Asian scripts such as Japanese.

These guidelines are not strict rules. The idea is for you to adjust the naming so it aligns with how your company, nationally or globally, refers to its building sites and the areas within them.

Could you update this document to reflect what works best for your organization? Beyond the security function, it can be helpful to add an appendix for each site that identifies all camera coverage areas. The area names are then valid for all security, fire and life safety responders. Of course, the most practical use of the appendix is to create or update the VMS/NVR camera names for the site.

It is common for companies headquartered in English-speaking countries to use an English/Local-Language naming approach. This guideline uses English and Spanish as the two example languages.

Both Genetec and exacqVision support 63-character camera names, as do most other VMS software. Specificity for (1) name uniqueness, (2) readability, (3) geo-location and (4) field of view are the four key requirements for camera names. The Milestone XProtect VMS allows camera names to be up to 128 characters long. This applies to both the camera's "short name" (used for smart map display) and the full name shown elsewhere in the VMS client and administrator interface.

Some systems support longer character lengths, depending on the software component used for naming. For example, the Avigilon Control Center limit is 85 for on-premises software configuration or 128 using the web interface. The Bosch Video Management System (BVMS) supports 255 characters if configured in the BVMS Configuration Client.

Many map views limit the names to 32 characters. Many providers recommend limiting names to 64 characters or fewer. The examples that follow limit the names to 63 characters.

Camera Name Elements

This type of camera naming scheme is also referred to as a hierarchical naming scheme. It is standard practice to use the following convention for camera names, designed not to exceed 63 characters:

• Region-ID: Country/Region/Site Code —2 characters
• Campus-ID: Optional—used for countries with multiple sites whose multi-building campuses are typically referenced by city name or abbreviation—2 to 7 characters.
• Building-ID: Building or Grounds-Area Code—2 to 7 characters
  (e.g., WH for Warehouse, Bldg.-A or Bldg-01, PRKLT01)
• Zone-ID: Optional Zone/Floor/Department—2 to 5 characters (FLR01) 
• Camera ID: Sequentially assigned 3-digit site number starting at 001
• View Description: Brief field-of-view descriptor—up to 46 characters unless Campus IDs and Zone IDs are used. In dual-language deployments, this typically required standardized abbreviations in both languages.

The assembled name components are:

Region-ID | (Campus-ID) |Building-ID | (Zone-ID) | Camera ID | View Description

Camea Name Components

Region ID

It is customary to use the two-character country codes per ISO 3166-1 alpha-2, such as:

            US – USA, CA – Canada, MX – México, JP – Japan, BR – Brazil, CR – Costa Rica

Campus ID and/or Building ID

If at least a few of the sites are multi-building sites, then Building IDs are commonly used, and when there is only one building, the Building ID is replaced by “00”, “01”, or “Main”. In common parlance and documentation, sites are often identified by their city names or abbreviations, such as Detroit, Seattle, Miami, Philly, SF, NYC, and LA. City names may be used as Campus IDs or Building IDs, depending on the custom.

Zone ID

Zone IDs are appropriate for floor identification for multi-story buildings and structures, including parking structures. Floor numbers and compass designations can be used, such as 02NW for the northwest portion of the second floor. CTR can be used for the center. It is best to use the way that building occupants usually refer to areas of the building. Designations like ACCT or PAYRL or EXEC or SALES would also work.

Area identification is appropriate for multi-area outdoor facilities such as golf courses, sports parks, city parks, racetracks and so on.

Additionally, many Audio Visual (AV) departments have naming conventions for rooms that house AV equipment. The room designations are essential when providing tech support to callers in those rooms. For global companies, there is often a standardized naming convention that starts with the country or site location and then continues down to the specific location where the AV equipment is located. Often, that naming convention can be adopted at least in part for identifying camera fields of view. For example, the AV function won’t have names for areas without equipment, such as the northwest corner of a parking lot. But sometimes it does have names for areas where no AV equipment is located, such as a lobby. The AV naming conventions, by necessity, use abbreviations or short names, and it is helpful for the Security function to follow the same abbreviation or short name conventions.

Camera ID

This is the simplest name component of all, because it is a small, unique identifier that’s useful to installers and service technicians. In high-camera-count facilities, like Casinos, it is a four-digit number.

View Description

This is the most challenging part of dual-language naming conventions, due to length restrictions.  On the following page are several tables listing abbreviations for English/Spanish common corporate site camera deployments for:

1.    General Spaces

2.    Circulation Areas

3.    Functional Areas

4.    Security/Access Areas

5.    Directions & Positions

6.    Floors and Levels

Security staff quickly become familiar with the abbreviations and recognize them very soon on a computer screen or mobile device display. 

Camera Name Examples

Here are some example English / Spanish camera names using the shortened dual-language abbreviations on the pages that follow, using DET as the abbreviation for the city of DETROIT:

·         US-DET-01-CAM001-MN-LBY-ENT / PRIN-LBY-ENTR
Main Lobby Entrance / Entrada Lobby Principal

·         US-DET-01-CAM002-RCP-DSK / RCP-MST
Reception Desk / Mostrador Recepción

·         US-DET-02-CAM003-PRK-ENT / EST-ENTR
Parking Entrance / Entrada Estacionamiento

·         US-DET-02-CAM004-WHS-LOADING-DR / ALM-MCL-PRT
Warehouse Loading Dock Door / Puerta Muelle Carga Almacén

·         US-DET-03-CAM005-ELV-LBY / ASC-LBY
Elevator Lobby / Lobby Ascensor