Design of IP surveillance systems

We provide a full range of skills to guide your surveillance project from initial consultation to successful completion using local system integrators for the supply, install, ongoing maintenance and support.

IP Surveillance System design

An IP Surveillance system will normally interface and use existing IP network infrastructure.  An IP Surveillance system design needs to not only take account of the normal considerations such as type of camera, usage, placement, equipment security, recording time,angles, coverage and illumination but also network considerations and the use of the advanced functionality in IP Surveillance systems.

An IP network unlike an analogue CCTV network is a protocol not a cable.  IP networks cross over a variety of physical cables such as copper, twisted pair and fibre optic cables.  The IP network being used to view the cameras can extend across the world via the Internet.  This adds more considerations, for example, in the choice of networks, bandwidth management, broadband connections and encryption / online security.

Then there is the on board intelligence and functionality of an IP network camera system which offers numerous features not available in analogue systems.  There are multiple conditions, or combinations of conditions, that can be monitored to define when an event occurs.

  • Sound
  • Motion detection in various places or various sequences
  • Schedules and regular timings
  • Passive Infra Red detectors
  • Light illumination changes
  • Temperature changes
  • Notifications from other cameras or systems
  • Opening of gates, doors or windows
  • Triggering of alarms, lights and loudspeakers

Similarly, there are multiple options for communicating events to people or other devices to trigger different tasks.

  • SMS
  • email
  • VoIP
  • system log message
  • IP Notify message
  • HTTP commands
  • input/output relays
  • VoIP telephone calls
  • loud speakers

The addition of Uninterrupted power supplies (UPS), RAID network storage (NAS) devices, VPNs and dual WAN devices to the already independent nature of each IP camera means that reliable systems can be built to withstand the failure or sabotage of single components.