Focus on surveillance

Eric Blom, business development manager: Surveillance Systems at Axis, says when choosing a system, customers ought to:

* Identify needs and location. Decide whether to go for the classic CCTV (closed circuit television) based surveillance, Web cameras attached to your PC, or IP (Internet Protocol) camera technology.
* Choose between colour or black and white systems. Blom says a black and white system will be better operating in low light, while a colour surveillance camera can provide important information that can be useful to the police or other authorities.

Blom adds: "There are a number of options available that will assist in making your selected network video system simple or as sophisticated as you want it to be. It is a matter of being spoilt for choice; there are fixed network cameras for both indoor and outdoor applications, as well as pan/tilt/zoom and network dome cameras that enable remote control of pan, tilt and zoom functions over IP networks."

IP networks are flexible and powerful and they are key in providing users with a wide range of possibilities in system design, applications and solutions. "One of the reasons for IP network camera popularity is its scalability," says Blom.

"It works well in small installations and in very large ones as it is supported by an increasingly wide range of high performance, low-cost and industry-proven equipment and technologies." Based on IP protocol, network video products have the advantage of being able to seamlessly connect to a range of wired and wireless Ethernet devices.

Blom warns that dummy cameras are a bad idea, pointing out that they could create a legal liability by creating an expectation of safety when none exists. Most CCTV systems do not include audio monitoring for the simple reason that it is generally illegal, he says.