Video Surveillance

A CCTV (or closed-circuit television) camera is an analog video camera that transmits signals via coaxial cable to a single central location for monitoring, recording, and video analysis. While the recent trend is a push towards IP network cameras, CCTV cameras are still widely used, and offer a cost-effective answer to many common surveillance scenarios.

CCTV technology has been around since the 1940's, and became a major player in the security industry around 1970. The two main

      PROS and CONS

•    Lower initial cost
•    Wide-spread compatibility
•    Expensive cabling - ( For large-scale surveillance applications)
•    Limited features

Components of a CCTV System

    * Cameras
    * Monitor
    * Cable

CCTV Camera Types

• Fixed  CCTV cameras point in a single direction, which makes them perfect for monitoring very specific areas of interest. These  cameras are quite effective not only for capturing footage of suspicious activity, but also for deterring criminals and vandals from carrying out their acts in the first place. 
• PTZ cameras are ideal for wide-area surveillance. They give operators the ability to remotely control pan, tilt, and zoom functions to follow activity and to zoom in for detailed monitoring.

Most standard CCTV cameras offer a TVL (Television Lines) resolution of around 380, while high-resolution cameras will deliver something closer to 540 TVL

IP-based video surveillance has improved the effectiveness of video security by leaps and bounds over the analog CCTV equipment we've grown so accustomed to over the years.

    * Simple cabling system
    * Connected to Internet
    * Scalability
    * Simpler storage (Stored in video servers)


Along with streaming video footage, network cameras can include a number of additional functionalities, such as pan/tilt/zoom operation, motion detection, audio surveillance, integration with alarms and other security systems, automated alerts, intelligent video analytics, and much more. Many IP cameras can also send multiple streams of video, using different compression technologies for live viewing and archiving.

Source: Videosurveillance.com

http://www.videosurveillance.com/

VideoSurveillance.com is  an online retailer started in 2008 specialized in video surveillance equipments.