Don’t let the cost be the guiding light for you in the pursuit of IP Security Cameras. Many people buy the IP security cameras keeping in mind cost as their first priority. They keep effectiveness as second priority resulting in out of focus, grainy images.
Tools like the ones available on the IQInvision’s website help in choosing resolution and the lens which fits the needs of buyer, based on the factors such as IP security camera height and distance. Most people don’t do any calculation, and many don’t even know how to do one. They assume that all the IP security cameras have similar capabilities, so they go for the cheapest one. It is recommended that a savvy buyers should determine what they need to accomplish, whether it be reading license plate numbers or knowing whether the cars are moving in a tunnel.
Don’t go small when you are upgrading from VCR/analog systems. When VCRs at Montgomery Country schools district started breaking down, a district school manager switched to DVRs first. After talking to a consultant, he went for bigger strategy: the centralization of all the video security systems, including access control, alarms, visitor management and the surveillance, on a single platform. It turned out; current network infrastructure was able to support the system.
Although DVRs had a lower cost, the benefits were not that much. According to the district school manager each DVR could support 16 cameras only, and the storage capacity was of only couple of weeks. The school district now is in middle of six year project which will cost about $1.5 million yearly. The aim was to tie all security components together.
Do understand trade-offs to the high quality images. It is recommended to favor crisper image over the smoother motion.
The digital quality is just not as crisp, but it does meet the needs of the schools. They chose not to upgrade to the megapixel IP security cameras due to the resulting storage and bandwidth requirements. It was a balancing act between detail you could capture and storage required.
Do consider benefits of having centralized video camera surveillance. Each department at N.C state invested in their own equipment before the standardization on surveillance system with single IP. Some departments were using analog and some IP. It was difficult to find anyone with the knowledge of operating the system. If the older system was in place, it was too old and people have just moved on and if it was modern the people didn’t know how to use the software. But now the campus police have the ability to log in themselves, instead of working with every single department in order to view the security footage.
Don’t think everything is mix and match. Many of the network IP security cameras are marketed as having compatibility with a number of software’s, some of them are more open than the others. For example, a Verint software performs health monitoring of its cameras and can even alert the users to temperature of the cameras. On the other if non-Verint hardware is used, the system will tell about whether a camera is out. It cannot tell about whether it is out because of the heat.
Although multiple cameras can be used with the DVTel management software each camera has a learning curve about how it relates to software. For example, settings for motion detection in the DVTel’s software conflicted with the setting in Axis cameras. Tahis resulted in cameras recording 24/7 and filling up storage archive in 7 days. The DVTel software didn’t support the megapixel cameras. According to McInturf, IP industry for the video is fairly proprietary and quite young, and everything does not work with everything else.
