Guardian Electronics offer a wide variety of Surveillance Cameras or Security Cameras
We will show you the importance of selecting your surveillance camera according to the use to which you want to put your system, without spending a fortune in the process.
Surveillance cameras have the task of capturing images by transforming the visible scene observed by a Camera Lens and projected upon a Camera Sensor, converting it into an electric digital signal to be further processed and transmitted.
For an informed decision when choosing from Surveillance-cameras the equipment for your CCTV video system you have to take into account a few considerations:
- The task that Surveillance-cameras systems are intended to perform (detection, assessment, alarm, identification, documentation).
- The overall characteristics of the system you specify according to the actual application (space to observe, details, sensitivity).
- The light available at the selected location, its amount and variability.
- The environment, exposed or protected.
- Location, where the actual camera will be installed.
- The cost.
To consider the alternatives of the different types of Surveillance-cameras, you should examine the characteristics as follows:
- Color vs. Black & White
- Outdoor vs. Indoor environment
- Fixed lens vs. varifocal lens
- Dome vs. Bullet
- Infrared vs. light amplification
- Fixed vs. PTZ
- Environment
Given the object and the purpose of the surveillance one should select the most suitable equipment (Outdoor vs. Indoor). It is recommended to consider the options before performing the final selection.
For outdoors applications, Surveillance-cameras come with a more durable and watertight housing, usually sufficient for light rain, although not waterproof if immersed.
Outdoor Surveillance-cameras are designed to keep the camera’s parts at an optimal temperature in outdoor weather conditions. If in a certain location environmental conditions may be occasionally extreme, provisions like internally mounted heaters and blowers can be selected to guarantee continuous operation.
Dome vs. Bullet
Regular cameras come full size like a short tube (bullet), a cylindrical body, or a square section box. They may be either exposed or protected in a dark dome or a mirrored finish (which reduces some of the illumination and distorts color accuracy), or an elongated body dome to hide the real line of observation. For use in extreme low light conditions, a series of infrared lamps may surround the lens. See hereafter additional considerations.
The Benefits of Dome Cameras Are:
Aesthetic appearance: A dome makes the collection of equipment more aesthetically acceptable, and does not detract from the interior design.
Mount
For installing Surveillance-cameras a suitable mount should be selected. Depending on the location fixing the mount to a wall, to the ceiling or to a pole may be most suitable. In general the camera should not be accessible without a ladder or a construction.
This is to avoid interference or sabotage or even removal. If the selected camera has to be fixed in position, the mount should permit easy orientation and final permanent set.
Fixed vs. PTZ
A camera can be fixed in space so that its field of view is not going to change. This will probably be the case for most of home surveillance cameras except for those continuously monitored by operators.
Alternatively the camera may be given the motorized capability to pan (move from side to side to cover a panorama) to tilt (to search from floor to ceiling), and to zoom in (to enlarge the image and reduce the field of view) or zoom out (to reduce the image and enlarge the field of view) from near to far.
This faculty, called PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom), needs be commanded by an operator with a joystick or through mouse and software in a PC based system. This is not normally the case for home security applications where the camera has to work unattended.
Call us if you want to know more about security cameras or if you are interested in implementing CCTV cameras in your location.
