Category Archives: Tivo

The Impact of good Security Surveillance Camera Placement

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Security surveillance cameras are everywhere but many of them just don’t give the images you would expect, resulting in a bad name for the security industry. The newer IP cameras with HD 720p resolution or higher has improved this but there are still way too many systems that are installed with fundamental mistakes.

The most common mistake made in a CCTV system is expecting the camera to do too much. I believe this is influenced by CSI style TV shows that give the impression the police can do anything to enhance the footage.

If you follow these rules of thumb when determining the location for each CCTV camera you install, the results will give you an image quality that you can work with.

One camera for one purpose. If you want to see the persons face to recognise them, don’t try to also get an overview of the scene

Have a camera at a choke point for ID and a second elsewhere for the overview This means as a person enters an area, they need to pass through a narrow area such as a door or corridor. This is the best spot to get a good quality face image. Once you have this, your other cameras just need to provide an overview of their movements.

Do not mount the cameras too high A camera mounted high and looking down is only good for an overview. There is no point in having a CCTV camera at a choke point for face identification if it can only see the top of the head or the brim of a baseball cap. An angle of 20 degrees or less is ideal.

Lots of other aspects of video surveillance can be considered when looking to improve the end result but each is a topic in itself. These include lighting, the camera’s dynamic range, lens selection and compression types of you DVR or IP camera. More education on these can be found on my site.

CCTV is not rocket science. But it is a science.

Worked in the security industry with Tim for several years truly opened my eyes as to how a salesman can get business just by giving honest advice. He is a true expert in the security camera industry I would recommend his articles on how to design a CCTV system if you want to improve your skills.

Digital Video Recorders for Law Enforcement, PI, and Secret Shoppers

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LawMate has set the bar high when it comes to portable pocket DVR for anyone from law enforcement professionals to private investigators to secret shoppers. The LawMate PV500 EVO, PV-500 ECO, and PV 500 LITE are the three units available and come jam packed with awesome capabilities. In fact, the PV-500 is recommended for secret shoppers by their parent secret shopper network. Both law enforcement professionals and private investigators love them for their rugged build, reliability, and features.

LawMate PV-500 Series Comparison

The PV-500 LITE is the “entry level” model. It’s extremely user-friendly and perfect for private investigators and secret shoppers. In fact, if you’re a secret shopping working for a professional secret shopper network, chances are you’ve been told by your network to purchase a PV-500 LITE DVR. This ‘LITE’ version differs from the EVO and ECO in several ways. For starters, we’ve included a 380TVL 3-in-1 pinhole/button/screw camera. Maximum resolution is 720 x 480 (enhanced-definition television, or EDTV), as compared to the ECO’s 1280 x 960 (zoom) and the EVO’s true 720P HD. The LITE does have a date/time stamp, but does not as a frame counter like the ECO and EVO units. Also, unlike the ECO and EVO units, the LITE does not have the key lock feature, nor does it have pre-event, overwrite, and scheduled recording modes. It does, however, have motion detection mode.

The top of the line is the PV-500 EVO model. Several major features set the EVO model apart from the LITE and ECO models. It features both 5V analog and digital camera inputs. The digital input is for CMD series cameras, such as the CMD-BU13 800 TVL button/screw camera kit. The analog input provides power for and supports any LawMate 5V wired analog camera. Pre-event, auto-overwrite, scheduled, and motion detection modes, along with a tamper-proof frame counter, touch-screen navigation, and key lock all top off the powerful features of the PV-500 EVO.

A 3-hour 3.7V 2500mA rechargeable battery is included with all PV-500 series DVRs, and a 7-hour battery is also available. Since you can use it as both a body-worn surveillance kit or a standalone DVR, you can also record while the AC adapter is powering the unit and charging the battery.

Jeff Monson is the owner of JLM Merchandise Surveillance and Security Products, a company specializing in Law Enforcement Surveillance Equipment, business and residential video security systems, nanny cameras, and GPS tracking products.

What is a Video Surveillance DVR?

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Now for a straightforward introduction into the request, what is a Digital Video Recorder (DVR).

1. Before the DVR was used

A DVR or Digital Video Recorder is a digital electronic component over time has converted the older technology of the Time Lapse Recorder. Up to the year 2000, recorded images from video security surveillance cameras utilized in CCTV, were onto video tape. The videocassette controlled the video tape with this enclosure.

The video photos recorded onto the video cassette in a linear fashion, suggesting that the first recording was at the beginning of the tape and the last recording was at the end of the tape. A 3-hour video tape is utilized, and the recording process slowed down, to capture, in some cases one full week of recording onto one, 3-hour video tape. The method called, Time Lapse Recording, it’s still used today.

2. What is a DVR

The development of the Digital Video Recorder or DVR was a natural progression into the digital word. The hard drive in the DVR records the video photos or photographs from the surveillance camera. While there are lots of variables impacting on the recorded image, all of them affect the storage facility needed and includes the hard drives fitted to the DVR.

A hard disk drive is a storage device that magnetically stores digital information for later retrieval. The capacity of a hard drive, and the quantity of disk drives, establishes how many digital pictures from the security camera the DVR can store.

3. Storage facility of a DVR

The CCTV system has several surveillance cameras. A DVR has the ability to capture the pictures from a security camera at different recording rates (Time Lapse). The DVR has the ability to record at different image resolutions. We have always been a firm believer and follower that we shouldn't ever scale back the recorded resolution of any camera. This then leaves a couple of variables, the recorded history (the quantity of days pictures are stored in the DVR) and the capture rate.

The environment can decide the capture rate where the camera is used. At a gambling house, the faster the better, a typically quit area, we can cut back the recording rate. Therefore , as a typical setup most cameras are fine when the recording rate is pre-set to about nine photographs per second. The sole variable now may be the user’s video capture history requirements. The majority of people desire this recorded history to be about 30 days.

Now if we have 8 cameras, recording at highest resolution, each video camera is recording at nine pictures per second. If the storage history is to be about 30 days, then the amount of storage should be about 4000 GB (Giga Bytes) or 4 TB (Terra Bytes) of disk drives capacity. We might normally install 2 x 2000 Giga Byte hard drives, into this DVR.

Greg Ashley has often been obsessed by the fast-changing technology that’s CCTV Video Surveillance. We have a web shop (Security Camera Shop) where you can source all your security surveillance wants.