Celebrity Sexy Teeth Smile Lips review reviews Malaysia N73 N82 N95 N96 O2 Zinc PSP Slim Wii Fit Price | How To Choose The Right Surveillance Camera System For My Business?

How To Choose The Right Surveillance Camera System For My Business?

Posted on July 25, 2008
Filed Under Gadgets |

If you own a business, you know that theft occurs by your customers and employees. Employee theft exceeds $8.5 billion annually! 75% of inventory shortages are attributed to employee theft. (National Restaurant Association). It’s been reported that over 75% of internal theft is undetected, and growing at a 15% annual rate (Justice Department). All this dishonesty costs American businesses between ½% and 3% of their gross sales! Even 1% costs over one billion dollars a week in employee theft.

The results of all this? 30% of business failures are due to poor hiring practices by hiring thieves. Annual losses generated by poor hires, absenteeism, drug abuse, and theft amount to $75 billion per year. (U.S. Department of Commerce-Atlanta Business Chronicle.). While we can’t screen your employees, you can keep an eye on them, and a video surveillance system is one of the best ways to do it.

When choosing a video surveillance camera system, there are lots of things to consider: • Hidden Cameras vs. Visible Cameras • Wireless Cameras vs. Wired Cameras • Indoor Systems vs. Outdoor Systems • Video Recording vs. DVR Recording

Hidden Cameras vs. Visible Cameras Hidden Cameras The first thing you want to consider is whether you want your cameras to be visible or not. Modern technology has reduced a video camera down to miniature levels. Hidden cameras can be hidden behind a pinhole, and can be put in practically any everyday item in your home or office, in a briefcase or backpack, or even hidden in a hat or behind a button. The advantage is that the criminal will not know they are being recorded, and you should catch more theft. Hidden cameras could be more high-priced then visible cameras.

Visible Cameras A visible camera system consists of any number of visible cameras from the black dome cameras you see in most stores, to the old fashioned kinds on brackets pointing at you at the bank. There are also high resolution cameras that can zoom in to tight detail. The advantages of these types of systems is that your criminal will know they are being watched, and that should deter a lot of crime that normally would occur without the cameras.

Even a series of dummy camera’s, camera bodies with no working parts except a flashing red light, are proven to deter crime. If you do not have the funds for a working video surveillance system, just installing four to twelve dummy cameras fools the criminal into thinking you’ve a real system in place.

Wireless Cameras vs. Wired Cameras You’ve two choices for the type of surveillance system, wireless and wired. Both have advantages and disadvantages;

Wireless Camera System Wireless camera systems are the fastest systems to install, as you just need to mount the cameras, hook up the wireless receiver in the back room, and wire it all together to a power box and some type of system to record the video.

The advantages of wireless cameras are that they can be installed in locations that are difficult, if not impossible to wire. They can be moved to different locations easily, as often as you like, and if the need arises, they can be hidden inside a moving object like inside your cloth, cap, briefcase or carrying bag etc.

To overcome the disadvantages of a wireless camera, you should purchase one with a higher frequency transmission band of at least 1.2GHz or above. If you need to take video from the wireless camera a long distance from the receiver, or there are walls, metallic or steel obstacles between the wireless camera and the receiver, you should buy a wireless model with a higher transmission power, that’s, a transmitter with longer transmission distance. Another good idea is to use a high gain antenna for the transmitter or receiver, which will improve the signal transmission/reception.

The disadvantages of wireless cameras are that the video stream might be disturbed or influenced by moving objects or strong radio or even telephone frequencies. Video/audio transmission is limited within the prescribed transmission range. These disadvantages won’t occur with a wired camera.

Wireless camera systems are also more high-priced than wired systems, as they require a lot of receivers and transmitters to received the video that normally would run in the affordable wires. However, the costs are usually worth it, as it could cost less to install, and less to relocated. Overall, the video/audio signals from a wireless camera are less stable than a wireless camera.

Wired Camera Systems Wired camera systems are more stable due to the cable, which doesn’t have the interference problems associated with wireless systems. You need to run a video cable to each camera in order to get a video feed. You’ll have to run the wire either through the walls and ceiling, or have it exposed on the wall. While the cost of the system is less than a wireless system, it will require more work to install, and if you’re paying someone, it might cost more than buying a wireless system.

You should look at the total costs to purchase and install both systems and go with what is ideal for you. Overall, the video/audio signals from a wired camera are more stable than a wireless camera.

Indoor Systems vs. Outdoor Systems Depending on your needs, you will need a camera for indoor or outdoor needs. If you need to monitor your loading dock, you’ll need a camera that can withstand the elements. Unless it’s specifically sold as an outdoor camera, a regular camera cannot withstand the beating from Mother Nature that a weatherproof camera can endure.

You can find many types of outdoor camera, dome, bullet, and standard. All are enclosed in waterproof cases and some even have heaters for cold areas. You can also purchase hardened cameras that’ll withstand direct hits from bats and hammers. These are suggested in high crime areas.

Video vs. DVR recording You need to determine if you want to record the activity, or just hire someone to monitor it. It’s a good idea to record the video so you can give a copy to law enforcement for future needs. You have two choices, VCR or DVD.

VCR grants you to record the video with a Video Cassette Recorder (VCR) directly to a VHS tape. You can use a bank of standard VCR’s, or there are high density VCR’s that grant you to record days of video. Some come with motion detectors and won’t record unless the video changes. The disadvantages are that you’ve to know about what time the event occurred, or you’ll have to review all the tape sequentially, or on fast forward.

The latest technology is using a DVR or PC based DVR system to record the video to disc. The advantages are a DVD can be burned from the digital recording. This is the easiest system to review your recordings, as you can jump ahead to any point in the recording, unlike the VHS tape. The initial cost will be more massive than a VCR system, though you will not need to buy tapes, and the ease of use will be worth the extra money for a DVR based system.

You have two types of DVR systems, DVR recorder and Personal computer based. DVR recorders feed the video directly into the hard drive or disc on the recorder and you either burn the disc, or back up the hard drive. These come in a variety of sizes, from standard sizes for indoor uses, down to field use DVRs the size of a pack of cigarettes that can record up to 60 hours of video from a hidden surveillance camera.

Your other option is the Computer based surveillance system that uses a Personal Computer, a video capture card, and software as a control center that can not only record the video and burn it to disc, a quad can be installed to monitor the feeds on real time over a computer screen, and break it up into quadrants to monitor multiple cameras at the same time, in real time.

We’ve only just scratched the surface of video surveillance systems with this brief overview, and future articles will focus on the pros and con’s of what is out there, and is it right for you.

Do not delay installing a surveillance system for your home or business. You never know when crime will strike and it is too late after the fact. Get it on disc so the police can arrest the criminals.

Interesting related posts you shouldn't miss

    VoIP small business phone systems
    Kieran is complaining that his company's phonebills are among the highest overhead that he has to bear. He wants to find some ways to cut down on expenses and he's
  • Digital Camera Batteries
    I just found the box containing the digital camera that i've to return to my friend this morning. Took me a good two hours, lol. I've kept it inside the
  • Save more with hosted PBX small business VoIP phone systems
    Are you looking to improve and explore new technologies for your company? Have you considered switching over to Voice Over IP (VoIP). If the answer to both questions is a
  • GPS system for your car
    Hubby wants to buy another car, preferably an MPV this time. We have two small kids and he now wants to take them along on his business travels. It's not
  • Online payments solutions
    many of my friends are asking me why i still havent launched my online store yet. The reasonn is simply because i havent found a solution to how i want
  • Are pixels count really a determining factor in buying a digital camera?
    Camera manufacturers are churning out those ultra megapixels faster than i can print money. I was looking at 7 or 8MP cameras, and now comes those 10Mp ones, flooding the
  • Photography fun
    I think of all the items that i have bought over the years, the one that i truly treasure would be my digital camera. My first was the Ricoh RDC-7
  • Olympus Mju 790 SW for my kid
    I think i've found the right digital camera for my kid. It's the Olympus Mju 790 SW. I fell in love with their colors more than anything else. Beside all
  • Audio Visual Installation
    I was just telling hubby that we should get a suitable audio visual system for our office conference room. The one that we have is really old and its sound
  • Buying A Digital Cameras
    Make sure you know what you need from a digital camera before you buy! You might be thinking about making the leap from a regular camera to a digital one but

Comments

Leave a Reply




*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture. Click on the picture to hear an audio file of the word.
Click to hear an audio file of the anti-spam word