CCTV Systems, How One Little Device Can Secure So Much Property
When CCTV systems first came onto the market, the cameras were somewhat large, produced heat and had vidicon tubes that when trained on one subject for an extended period of time had the image of that area burned into the tube. Despite their drawbacks many businesses adopted CCTV cameras and their systems as a tool to combat shoplifting. CCTV cameras today are now smaller, produce little or no heat, have chips that gather images and don’t burn in instead of vidicon tubes. The small sizes and high quality images produced by today’s CCTV cameras make an attractive and affordable solution to property protection.
There are few people who do not know that most businesses have CCTV systems inside of the store, office, warehouse or factory. What many people do not know is that the CCTV systems have moved outdoors and can be found in most store parking lots, watching gas pumps or providing perimeter security at factories, warehouses or truck parking areas. These outdoor cameras protect against vandalism, theft or other means of trespass.
CCTV cameras that are outdoors can often be recognized. The housing that holds the camera may be the size of a loaf of bread. Alternatively the housing can be a dome that is smoked glass or glazed silver or gold. These dome housings hang like pendants from walls and light poles. The cameras that are in the domes are often mounted to pan/tilt heads and equipped with telephoto zoom lenses. These devices permit the camera to scan the entire area around the camera and are not fixed to a single location. Should trespass be viewed by the operator, the pan/tilt head can be stopped in the location of the trespass, the camera zoomed in to the trespasser and the movements of that person followed with the pan/tilt function controlled manually. This ability allows one camera to do the function of several cameras thus reducing the overall cost of the CCTV system while increasing its effectiveness.
CCTV camera housings are often subjects of vandalism or outright destruction. Vandals attempt to damage the camera and housing. Trespassers who are intent on robbery try to disable them to deny the security personnel the opportunity to intervene in the robbery. To combat this several manufacturers provide ballistic rated housings. These housings are built to absorb and withstand a bullet fired from a gun and continue working, providing the images of the area that they are trained on. While these housings are more expensive initially cameras that are located in vandal prevalent areas that have ballistic rated housings do not have to be replaced as often as those in non ballistic rated housings.
Personnel costs are a major budget factor for any business or company. The utilization of CCTV systems permits the owners to decrease the onsite security staff and use the CCTV system to provide the security for the area. This reduction in staff saves on payroll and the use of a CCTV system insures constant reliable surveillance of the area around and inside the plant or buildings. Additionally many insurance companies recognize the value of CCTV systems on the premises and provide lower rates for those facilities that do have CCTV system coverage.
In the past, CCTV systems needed a human operator on site to monitor the CCTV system. The availability of the Internet has changed that. Fixed cameras equipped with motion detection can transmit video signals to a remote central station through the Internet. This ability allows the operator at the central station to view the intruder and notify the local law enforcement authorities. CCTV systems still protect the store owner against shoplifting. The advent of small efficient cameras and the ability to transmit video to central stations permits the exterior of a facility protection without the cost of security staff. These attributes of a CCTV system provide an effective cost saving to the property owner.