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Chapters 1

Introduction

An appliance that enables embedded image capture capabilities that allows video images or
extracted information to be compressed, stored or transmitted over communication networks or
digital data link. Digital video surveillance systems are used for any type of monitoring.

Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, activities, or other changing information for the
purpose of influencing, managing, directing, or protecting people.[2] This can include observation
from a distance by means of electronic equipment (such as closed-circuit television (CCTV)
cameras) or interception of electronically transmitted information . It can also include simple no-
or relatively low-technology methods such as human intelligence agents and postal interception.
The word surveillance comes from a French phrase for "watching over" and is in contrast to
more recent developments such as sousveillance.
Surveillance is used by governments for intelligence gathering, prevention of crime, the
protection of a process, person, group or object, or the investigation of crime. It is also used by
criminal organisations to plan and commit crimes, such as robbery and kidnapping, by businesses
to gather intelligence, and by private investigators.
Surveillance can be viewed as a violation of privacy, and as such is often opposed by
various civil liberties groups and activists. Liberal democracies have laws which restrict domestic
government and private use of surveillance, usually limiting it to circumstances where public
safety is at risk. Authoritarian government seldom have any domestic restrictions, and
international espionage is common among all types of countries.

The vast majority of computer surveillance involves the monitoring of data and traffic on
the Internet. In the United States for example, under the Communications Assistance For Law
Enforcement Act, all phone calls and broadband Internet traffic (emails, web traffic, instant
messaging, etc.) are required to be available for unimpeded real-time monitoring by federal law
enforcement agencies

The History of Video Surveillance

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Video surveillance is not new; it has been around for quite a while. One of the first recorded
application for closed circuit television system (CCTV) was back in 1942. It was used to view
the launch of V2 rockets in Germany. In the US, commercial surveillance applications began
around 1947. In 1957 a number of companies such as General Precision Labs (GPL division),
provided CCTV camera systems for education, medical and industrial applications.

Early CCTV equipment and TV broadcast equipment shared technology. Both camera systems
supported grey-scale video (not color) and measured and defined performance using NTSC
standards.

Color cameras became available in the 1950s, and there was a debate on whether or not color
was better for surveillance. Black-white (or grey-scale) cameras provided better resolution and
low light sensitivity, while color made it easier to identify someone by the clothes they were
wearing.

Manual Surveillance
 Impractical
 Very costly
 Lack of attention
 needs location awareness

How do CCTV cameras work?


A CCTV system has four major components namely: the camera, lens, monitor, and video
tape/recorder. Among these components, the camera is the most important because it is the one
that collects the images. The camera works the same way that an ordinary cameras does only that
it can be left to operate on it on own.
The camera comes with a motor that helps it to move the zoom parts. Once an image has been
picked by the camera, it is taken to the monitor and then recorded on video tape or DVR. The
ability of the camera to zoom in and out is determined by the type of lens it has.

CCTV stands for closed circuit television and it is used in buildings and homes for security
purposes. The good thing about CCTV system is that it can use two or more cameras. How do
these cameras work? Well, they are just like the ordinary video cameras although they have
several unique features. For instance, they come with monitors that help them to operate on their
own. They can also use wireless transmission to send images to monitors. Once the monitor has

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received the images, it sends them to the video tape or DVR. These cameras also have the ability
to zoom in and out depending on the type of lenses they have.

Chapters 2
Analog CCTV Camera

Analog security cameras are standard definition cameras also commonly referred to as CCTV
cameras in the past. These cameras record in D1 or 960H resolution on a CCTV security DVR.
In case you are only looking for a camera to view on a monitor, these analog cameras produce
video through the BNC video output that can also be displayed on a regular TV without the need
for a DVR. Below is a list of all of the analog security cameras we carry for outdoor security
applications. We also carry indoor analog security cameras.

Components of Analog CCTV Cameras

Camera

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 Starting point of the CCTV systems.
 Night vision technology based cameras are used for low light conditions.

Monitor
 Operators view footage from central location on monitor.
 Dedicated monitor : display video from a single camera
 call up monitor : access multiple cameras at the same video

Cable
 Coaxial Cable: for transmitting video footage from cameras.
Expensive and difficult to install

DVR ( Digital Video Recorder )


 Convert the analog footage to digital which extends the storage capacity
 Makes it easy to search archived footage allows users to stream video over a network for
remote viewing from multiple locations.

The advantages of Analog CCTV Cameras

Analog CCTV products are at this point in time still cheaper than their IP counterparts – NVRs
can be twice as expensive as a DVR for example. The installation of an analog surveillance
system can also be less expensive because they are quicker to install with minimal network set-
up and configuration.

Analog CCTV systems are easier to maintain


Overall standard CCTV security systems need little maintenance once installed. We recommend
a basic check once a week to confirm all cameras are recording and footage can be retrieved
from the DVR.

Because an analog system is not attached to the business or home network it won’t be at the
mercy of network issues. Large file sizes, limitations to the bandwidth, viruses or too many
devices trying to use the network (congestion) are just some of the challenges facing the
installation and ongoing maintenance of an IP system.

Analog CCTV cameras can perform better in some environments


Depending on the environment an analog security camera may perform better than an IP camera
in the same position. Situations where this may occur include:

 Low light: The CMOS image sensors normally used in IP cameras deliver great
HD resolution but do not handle low light very well. Some IP cameras will produce a

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grainy picture at low light (which also uses up bandwidth and storage space because it is
interpreted as motion)2. Many analog cameras use a CCD image sensor which has much
better low light performance.
 Darkness: Most analog surveillance camera include in-built IR (infrared) that allows the
camera to record images even in complete darkness. While IP cameras will record down
to a very low level of light if they need to record in zero lux separate IR illuminators will
need to be installed

Disadvantages of analog CCTV

 Cabling volume in the system is high.


 Image cords and cables should be drawn separately.
 Ability to save and view images simultaneously from several points of good quality, is
not possible.
 Ability to define access levels for different users, and cannot change it.
 Making the smart cameras is possible only by the ZEXON Network Video Recorder.
 Motion control cameras often have separate cabling to be done.
 It is very difficult to change the location of the control room.
 Maximum 0.4 mega pixel image quality for each camera there.
 Analog cameras due to limitations on the use of standard (PAL / NTSC) for each picture
twice and with time delay which caused a sharp drop in the quality of scanned images are
animated

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Chapters 3
IP camera

3.1Introduction
An Internet Protocol camera, or IP camera, is a type of digital video camera commonly
employed for surveillance, and which, unlike analog closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras,
can send and receive data via a computer network and the Internet. Although most cameras that
do this are webcams, the term IP camera or net cam is usually applied only to those used for
surveillance that can be directly accessed over a network connection.
An IP camera is typically either centralized (requiring a central network video recorder (NVR) to
handle the recording, video and alarm management) or decentralized (no NVR needed, as
camera can record to any local or remote storage media). The first centralized IP camera was
Axis Net eye 200, released in 1996 by Axis Communications.
IP cameras are typically available at resolutions from 0.3 (VGA resolution) to 29 megapixels. As
in the 21st century, there has been a shift in the consumer TV business towards high-
definition (HD) resolutions (e.g. 1080P (Full-HD), 4K resolution (Ultra-HD) and 16:9
widescreen format).

3.2 ADVANTAGES OF IP CAMERA


Security cameras have become a common feature of modern security systems. However,
technology continues to move forward and analog systems are becoming outdated. More and
more facilities are moving away from analog to IP video surveillance systems. There are a
number of reasons for this, ranging from budgetary to technological. Let’s look at the top four of
them:

Image Resolution – All analog video cameras use the NTSC analog video standard, which was
created in the 1950s. No matter what the camera’s manufacturer claims the image quality is, it is
still being transmitted and recorded using this standard. It is an absolute cap on image resolution
that you can’t get around. On the other hand, IP cameras come in a broad range of resolutions
(measured in megapixels, or MPs) from which to choose depending on your specific
requirements. For example, a 1.3 MP IP camera (generally the lowest resolution camera on the
market) has almost 4 times the resolution of an analog camera. With this added resolution, faces

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become clearer, license plates become easier to read and larger areas can be covered by a single
camera.

Scalability – Generally, analog cameras run a coax cable transmitting the video to a VHS
recorder, which records straight to video tape or a DVR (Digital Video Recorder), which turns
the analog signal into a digital signal for storage and review. The problem with this is that the
VHS or DVR has a finite number of ports that cameras can be plugged into. Once you max out
that number of ports, you would need to either buy a new VHS or DVR with more ports or a
second, separate machine to run the additional cameras. IP video networks have the clear
advantage when it comes to adding new video cameras. First, since IP cameras connect to the IT
network, there is no limit to the number of cameras that can be connected. Second, the need to
run a cable from the camera to the DVR is eliminated – you only need to run a cable to the
nearest network switch. In addition, in IP-based systems the video is recorded using NVRs
(Network Video Recorders), which use multiple hard drives and often employ a backup
technique know as RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) to disperse the data across
multiples hard drives for data safety and efficiency. Finally, since the data is being transmitted
digitally, it can be transmitted across the internet, allowing for multiple locations to utilize the
same NVR, meaning that a new video system does not need to be set up at each site, allowing for
scaling beyond your existing facility.

Ease of Installation – Many find it hard to believe but at this point IP video security systems are
actually quite easy to install. Today, most IP cameras are actually plug-and-play, the same way
your computer’s webcams are. In addition, the cabling is easier as well. With an analog camera,
which has a single cable that can only transmit its video signal, it will also require a separate
power cable and, if you want added functionality such as PTZ (Pan, Tilt, Zoom) controls for the
camera you’ll need another cable for that. However, IP cameras use a single cable that can be
used for everything. Using PoE (Power over Ethernet), IP cameras can be powered through the
same cable that transmits the video signal and any PTZ commands. Finally, as mentioned above,
since IP cameras run on the network, you don’t have to run the cable all the way back to the
DVR. Instead, you only need to run it to the nearest network switch.

Analytics – Historically, analog CCTV systems were very reactionary. They used human
monitoring to catch events in real time and stored past video feeds for review to reconstruct
events after they have happened. When monitoring, someone would have to sit at a bank of
monitors and watch the screens for any situations developing. This was a very time and labor-
intensive activity and was dependent on human infallibility, which we know doesn’t exist.
Occasionally the person watching the monitors would miss something because he or she was
looking at the wrong screen at the wrong time or just suffering from fatigue after staring at the
screens for hours and hours. Then, with the advent of Video Management Systems (VMS), video
security became pro-active. Software was introduced that could monitor all the video feeds
simultaneously, using analytics to detect potential situations developing before they actually
occur and trigger alarms that humans can respond to accordingly. These analytics include facial
recognition, loitering, line crossing, object taken and many more.

As the technology continues to improve, we see the cost of IP cameras dropping as well. As the
cost of IP cameras becomes more competitive with analog cameras, combined with the above-

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mentioned benefits of improved image resolution, scalability, ease of installation and the ability
to apply video analytics, now is the time to move your video security system from analog to IP.

DISADVANTAGES OF IP CAMERA

 An IP camera relying on the internet is susceptible to the same interferences as any WiFi-
utilizing equipment is.

 Structures such as buildings, trees, vehicles and racking can sometimes impede the signal
and potentially decrease the quality of the footage. We’ve done some calculations and
identified how much data WIFI security systems use.
 As footage transmission takes up bandwidth, if you have multiple cameras in a complex
system, the signal may be slowed.
 Lastly, you’ll need to ensure you’re abiding by any legislation when filming in areas
covered by the WiFi camera – their portability means you can cover a wider area.

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References
1.http://www.videosurveillance.com/cctv- technology/intro-to-cctv.asp2.

2. http://www.wikipedia.com/surveillance

3. Stephen Russo, Director of Security and Privacy Technology, IBM


Corporation : Digital Video Surveillance

4. http://homeowner.hubpages.com/hub/Video- surveillance-cameras-
for-farms-and-agriculture

5. http://www.videosurveillance.com/farms.asp

6. http://www.farmcameras.com

7. https://blog.cammy.com/advantages-disadvantages-wifi-security-
camera

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