CCTV systems for home installation.

CCTV systems, sales grow on-line.

CCTV systems for domestic installations are becoming more and more popular as people realize the added security it can bring to your home. DIY CCTV solutions are now popping up everywhere and no more so than in the UK. Gone are the days when CCTV installations are done exclusively by security professionals. Now because of clever design and good information anyone can install cameras and digital video recorders. There are some great providers of CCTV systems on line and most will offer a 3-5 year guarantee on their equipment which has filled potential customers with plenty of confidence to buy security equipment and have a go at a DIY solution.

Electricians can profit.

Of course there will always be people who will struggle to run cables or indeed may not wish to ruin the aesthetics of their property and this is why wireless CCTV systems have also become a very popular alternative. Again the options are plentiful with online sales continuing to increase at a very healthy rate.

Adding to the demand for online security solutions are electricians who are starting to install all forms of CCTV systems and access control into both domestic and commercial premises. Often this will be an addition to an existing specification they have submitted for an electrical installation. The security aspect of the job is the icing on the cake for them.

5 year guarantees.

Once more what has made this possible and has levered business away from professional CCTV installers is the fact that on line distributors are happy to give lengthy guarantees on their equipment. Typically a couple of years ago 12months would have been all you could have expected from a supplier but now all the risk has been taken away from both the domestic customer and the electrical trade because they know that they can return the goods at no cost to themselves should a CCTV camera or DVR fail. With this in mind though it should be mentioned that reliability has been improved dramatically now and failure rates have plummeted.

It is then no surprise that on-line shops selling state of the art CCTV systems have done so well. A trend that is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.

CCTV installers face competition from everywhere!

CCTV the big  Squeeze!

CCTV installers have found it tough over the last couple of years. The
reason of course has been the recession and the lack of spending on new
equipment as a result. But is this the full storey? Careful analysis is
beginning to show that the security industry is being squeezed  from
several directions and the question has to be asked is how can this be
addressed and how can the security industry as a whole fight back to
profitability .

CCTV sales on the internet

The first issue we all have in business is the Internet.
Gone are the days that prices were kept between the manufacturer the
distributor and the supplier. Look anywhere on line and you can find
comparative prices. Even if an end user has no idea where to look for
kit he can always find what he is looking for on EBAY and unfortunately
as with any auction site, the prices never really reflect the true cost
of actually installing CCTV. This is forcing prices and margins down. If you are a
CCTV salesman you will have heard more times than you care to remember how
cheaply your prospective customer can purchase exactly what you are
trying to sell him online for a fraction of the cost. We currently have a
culture in this country now for cheap cheap cheap and everyone has forgotten
the importance of quality ..most frustrating. The Internet also provides
heaps of information and this has led to the second problem facing the
sales within the security industry.

The second problem.

Electricians are no longer scared of CCTV. In the past their workload would have seen them happy to pass this sort of business onto the professionals, not anymore…….Any electrician worth his salt can install a simple analogue CCTV system and now they are doing so. CCTVHowever their lives have been made easier because insurance companies , themselves struggling for clients have loosened some of the strict criteria they used to apply to CCTV installations. No longer do they insist that a NACOSS gold installer is responsible for installing and servicing CCTV equipment. BS8148  the British standard for monitored CCTV has fallen flat on its face and insurer’s have been unable to enforce their customers to take up this option, an option that would exclude anyone outside the security industry carrying out the installation.

CCTV monitoring at home

In addition  to this, customers seem happy to monitor CCTV systems themselves bypassing the
need for affiliated central stations, add to this the fact that we have seen a
huge shift to self insuring, some people seem to have worked out that
their losses incurred during a break-in are less than the combined cost
of  CCTV cameras and insurance.

IP CCTV.

All this is bad , but it gets worse. The security industry manufacturers have made a seismic shift into the world of IP CCTV. In theory a fantastic opportunity to upgrade customers from
analogue to IP and at the same time dramatically increase quality,
functionality and ease the grunt of the installation. This move has
however opened up the market place to a whole new breed of camera
installer. Telecoms and IT integrators have suddenly seen the light. A
discipline that held no interest for them previously has suddenly become
easy, in addition they are always on the spot to include security at the
new build point and offer this service when upgrading telephone exchanges or
installing a new cat 5 infrastructure. Building firms are now even
starting their own divisions dedicated to CCTV and security. Integrated
security is also now common and the whole job of installation is now eased by IP Access control that can fit seamlessly together on the network so no security company is required.

The big fight back!

So how can the security industry fight back? Well they need to look
towards their existing clientele for starters. Treat them like gold dust
and keep them informed of new developments involving IP, HD and
megapixel camera solutions. We need to up the level of service that we
provide. The one thing that cannot be offered by a sparky and even many of
the big IT integrators is the sort of response required when a CCTV
security system goes wrong . This is the trump card and should be used
time and time again.

Cost of a break in?

In order to address the insurance issues we talked
about earlier, prospective customers need to be told what the real cost
of a break-in can mean. Disruption of business, lost clients
embarrassment and cash flow issues. The most important point though is
that we from the security industry know about security, far more than
any builder , electrician, IT  integrator or end user and we must get this
point across. As long as we train our engineers properly, inform our
sales staff and price to compete then there is plenty of scope for
expansion in the future….once of course this recession is finally over
!!!

Pelco Spectra HD series dome.

Pelco HD dome

Pelco have released their new Spectra HD Series dome and its one worth looking at. The new spectra HD dome is capable of delivering crystal clear pictures through a standard web browser via live streaming. With an aspect ratio of either 16:9 or 4:3 and 1280 x 960 it offers 360 degrees continuous pan at up to 400 degrees per second. Auto flip provides an added benefit.

Better resolution.

With better resolution than standard domes, the higher definition allows the cameras to be deployed in order to capture number plates, faces and even perfect detail within a casino type scenario. Ease of installation is assisted by POE as you would expect and additional features include auto tracking, privacy zones, adaptive motion detection and onscreen configuration.The camera also has the functionality to include 255 presets and 16 programmable preset tours.

VMS  CCTV software

The Pelco HD dome will interface with Digital Sentry VMS and this CCTV software allows video management solutions that are second to none in the IP CCTV market place.
Spectra HD  comes in several formats including ceiling mount, pendant and environmental models.

Norbain.

Available from Norbain, Pelco have designed a dome that can fit into pretty much any environment you require and the Pelco name will ensure strong sales.

EverFocus CCTV megapixel over coax solution

Megapixel over coax.

EverFocus have released the new EQH5200 2 megapixel IP camera that is using the latest HD-SDI serial digital interface to open the retro fit market place to megapixel technology. The EQH5200 megapixel camera is able to send images down existing RG 59 coaxial cable from a BNC connection therefore meaning easy retrofit installations for installers and therefore a more competitive upgrade solution to analogue CCTV cameras.

The camera has compact box design complete with day/night  functionality and an on screen menu set up to assist CCTV engineers.

Everfocus DVR

To compliment the ease of retro install EverFocus also have the EHDR08 8 channel DVR this unit can reproduce recordings boasting resolutions of 720p and comes in the form of a compact box design It uses the latest H.264 compression techniques and handle up to 8TB of hard drive recording space.The DVR can also output to a monitor using either VGA or HDMI.

Remote connectivity.

For those interested in remote connectivity  the EHDR08 has a 1 gigabit Ethernet interface this allows networking capability and allows remote viewing and management of the CCTV system allowing smart search functionality. Monitoring from mobile devices that is now really catching on can be achieved through 3GPP connection. A DVD burner allows information to be easily removed when required.

What we have all been waiting for.

In essence the package provide a simple megapixel solution over coax something that many installers have been waiting for for some time.

Seagate or Western digital

Seagate  or Western digital.

Hard drives! Anyone in the IPCCTV world will tell you these are the only two hard drives that are really used in most digital recorders today. They will also tell you that both are the same , there is no difference, it does not matter which one you use. This is especially true of installers who buy their DVR’s from the manufacturers and install their own hard drives .This can save a lot of money. Most manufacturers will advise against this but all in the know realize that on paper it makes little difference.

But……….

However we have come across a case where it seems some DVR’s really do need the hard drive installed that the product has been tested on. Below we carried out a series of test on a DVR that seemed to fail for no apparent reason the results were surprising and indeed could shed some light onto why DVR’s seem to fail for no apparent reason.

The test.

Below is the findings as described by the technician who carried out the testing…………………….

“I have been undertaking an extensive test on the DVR to emulate some of the issues we are seeing reported in the field”………..

The issues we were hearing were:-

  • Alarms locking up the units
  • Rebooting
  • HDD / recordings missing

I have set up a unit and  over the last 2 weeks, here are the results of my tests:-

Seagate 1Tb ST31000525SV – 2 of them to make 2Tb –  DVR 400ips unit

  • 5 cameras connected (1 camera looped to 4 other inputs)
  • CCTV Camera 1 is set up for motion and also I have turned on Sensor 1 and set to N/O – basically causing the alarm to be permanently on
  • Cameras 2-5 are set for motion
  • Recording schedule set for motion and continuous 24/7
  • Notify set to send alarm data to an internal IP address………….my laptop,……….so not always there (testing to see if a non-connection will cause lockup)

After 1-2 days of me not being present, the unit shows the ‘no HDD’ symbol with a red cross through the symbol………..looking at the System info, no HDD’s are present………reboot and they still do not appear……..when I do a full power recycle, both HDD’s appear again, the system continues recording and all video recording is still present (up to the point where the HDDs disappeared obviously)

last week, I observed the unit reboot after 3 hours, and when I checked the System info, one of the HDDs had disappeared……..a couple of hours later, both HDDs had gone after another reboot

So, I had taken delivery of 2 x Western Digital 1Tb HDDs Caviar AV 10EVDS and proceeded to put those into the  DVR in question

It is now Wednesday (5days later) and the exact same test has been performed with no reboot, lockup or HDD / Video recording loss……………….this leads me to suspect the following:-

  • The Seagate drives we were using were a faulty batch (possible but unlikely)
  • The Seagate drives we were using are actually not fully compatible with the DVR firmware, even though the manufacturer gave us the part number (possible)
  • The Seagate drives were not correctly inserted  by the client and my changing the drives to another unit is purely coincidental and corrected the fault – again  unlikely

Conclusion , it would seem that there is some subtle difference between the hard drives that has caused the DVR to crash although in practice this is not really possible the testing proves that somewhere within the firmware of the DVR a problem has occurred with the original hard drives.

When we at integrated CCTV asked the engineer if he thought there was a difference between the hard drives he replied.

“No same spec should make no difference, hard to understand, the Seagate is a good make so its not the Hard drive just the way it works with the DVR”

Feedback.

Has anyone else experienced hard drive failures on your own DVRs that may in fact be caused by a similar problem? If so we welcome your thoughts and feedback.