Home Security Cameras

Introduction.

There are many basic ways that you can help to keep your home safe and secure and installing home security cameras can give you an extra level of security and peace of mind, both when you are at home or away from your property. As well as helping you to secure your home the security cameras can be located to monitor external access points to your property such as; gates and driveways, external building such as a garage or shed and the garden/grounds of your property. With crime rates still on the increase, having a high quality security camera system will also help your local police in identifying and apprehending anyone posing a threat to your property.

Modern home security camera systems.

People have been able to purchase home security systems incorporating camera surveillance and recording for many years now. In the past this would have involved equipment like quads, multiplexers and VHS recorders; which all though they did the job were both cumbersome to install and operate. Imagine searching through a video tape recording several days of activity to locate one moment in time? In contrast modern home security camera systems use stand alone and networked cameras linked to DVRs - Digital Video Recorders - that will record only when a sensor, usually a motion sensor, triggers them. Not only are they better quality and more reliable than the old systems but you can virtually instantly locate any moment or event in the digital cyclic recording and, being a computer based system, view them from anywhere in the world should you choose to. Another feature you can incorporate into the system is receiving an alert to your cell phone if a camera is activated when your property is supposed to be vacated; indeed with a modern cell phone you can even view what your home security cameras are showing on your cell phone as well.

What to expect in a home security camera system.

You can of course have any camera system configuration you want integrated into your overall home security system. Needless to say the bigger and more complex the property the bigger the system may need to be, but fortunately it won’t become any more complex. A minimum recommendation for camera home surveillance equipment would be two IR cameras, meaning that they can ‘see in the night’ using infra red, linked to a 120Gb DVR with motion detection - capable of recording up to 30 continuous days, before beginning an over-recording cycle. To view what the cameras are showing or have recorded a color monitor of some description will also be required. A larger system will have at least four IR cameras, possibly with a greater depth of night vision penetration, linked to a 500Gb motion detection DVR and a viewing monitor. The larger size DVR is required to cope with an anticipated higher rate of recording and yet will maintain the up to 30 days worth of recording potential.

Home security camera options.

Having consulted some of the readily available digital video surveillance guidelines, there are a couple of things over and above the previously described basic home security camera systems that you could install. These are whether to have IP cameras and ones that will tilt and swivel. The vast majority of security cameras that are supplied by reputable and established home security installation companies, like ADT, are suitable for internal and external use. They can be enclosed in domes so that an intruder cannot be sure exactly where on or in your property the camera is pointing, or they can be left uncovered and overtly showing what they are looking at. Whether enclosed or open it is also possible to install cameras that will tilt and swivel to actively follow an intruder, which is an option you might like to discuss with the security system installer. The final option to consider is using IP cameras. An IP camera simply means that, in a networked system, it can have an IP - Internet Protocol - address assigned to it, meaning that you can then view what the camera is showing over the internet.