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Video surveillance solution design guide -- part 1: introduction & security camera selection
November 08, 2008
By:
John Honovich
Designing a video surveillance solution requires
decisions on 7 fundamental questions. This tutorial walks
the reader through each issue explaining the basic options
and the rationale for selecting different options.
This is a survey to help those new to video surveillance
(and the first chapter of the
"Security Manager's Guide to Video Surveillance" 2nd Edition
book). Its goal is to quickly identify the key aspects
of video surveillance design, not to examine the many
details and edge cases in such designs.
The 7 fundamental questions are:
- What type of security cameras should I use?
- How should I connect cameras to video management
systems?
- What type of video management system should I use?
- What type of storage should I use?
- What type of video analytics should I use?
- How should I view my surveillance video?
- How should I integrate video with my other systems?
1. Security Camera Selection
Security cameras are literally the eyes of a video surveillance
system. Cameras should be deployed in critical areas to
capture relevant video.
The two basic principles of camera deployment are (1) use
chokepoints and (2) cover assets.
Chokepoints are areas where people or vehicles must pass
to enter a certain area. Examples include doorways, hallways
and driveways. Placing cameras at chokepoints is a very
cost-effective way to document who entered a facility.
Assets are the specific objects or areas that need
security. Examples of assets include physical objects such
as safes and merchandise areas as well as areas where
important activity occurs such as cash registers, parking
spots or lobbies. What is defined as an asset is relative to
the needs and priorities of your organization.
Once you determine what areas you want to cover, there
are four camera characteristics to decide on:
- Fixed vs. PTZ: A camera can be fixed to only
look at one specific view or it can be movable through
the use of panning, tilting and zooming (i.e., moving
left and right, up and down, closer and farer away).
Most cameras used in surveillance are fixed. PTZ cameras
are generally used to cover wider fields of views and
should generally be used only if you expect a monitor to
actively use the cameras on a daily basis. A key reason
fixed cameras are generally used is that they cost 5 to 8
times less than PTZs (fixed cameras average $200 to $500
USD whereas PTZ cameras can be over $2,000 USD).
- Color vs. Infrared vs. Thermal: In TV, a
video can be color or black and white. In video
surveillance today, the only time producing a black and
white image makes sense is when lighting is very low
(e.g., night time). In those conditions, infrared or
thermal cameras produce black and white images. Infrared
cameras require special lamps (infrared illuminators)
that produce clear image in the dark (but are
significantly more expensive than color cameras - often
2x to 3x more). Thermal cameras require no lighting but
product only silhouettes of objects and are very
expensive ($5,000 to $20,000 on average) In day time or
lighted areas, color cameras are the obvious choice as
the premium for color over black and white is trivial.
- Standard Definition vs. Megapixel: This
choice is similar to that of TVs. Just like in the
consumer world, historically everyone used standard
definition cameras but now users are shifting into high
definition cameras. While high definition TV maxes out
at 3 MP, surveillance cameras can provide up to 16 MP
resolutions. In 2008, megapixel cameras only represent
about 4% of total cameras sold but they are expanding
very rapidly. See a
demonstration of megapixel cameras
to learn more.
- IP vs. Analog: The largest trend in video
surveillance today is the move from analog cameras to IP
cameras. While all surveillance cameras are digitized to
view and record on computers, only IP cameras digitize
the video inside the camera. While most infrared and
thermal cameras are still only available as analog
cameras, you can only use megapixel resolution in IP
cameras. Currently, 20% of cameras sold are IP and this
percentage is increasingly rapidly.
Most organizations will mix and match a number of
different camera types. For instance, an organization may
use infrared fixed analog cameras around a perimeter with an
analog PTZ overlooking the parking lot. On the inside, they
may have a fixed megapixel camera covering the warehouse and
a number of fixed IP cameras covering the entrance and
hallways.
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About the Author
John Honovich is the Founder of IP Video Market Info. You
may hire John or other industry experts in the
IP Video Marketplace.
Also See:
[
Camera connectivity & types of video management systems ]
[ Types of
storage for recordings & usage of video analytics ]
[ How
to view surveillance video & integrating with other systems ]
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