The Locksmith Journal May-Jun 2015 - Issue 38 | Page 42

42 • cctv PROUD SPONSORS OF THIS PAGE CCTV today & Off – Site CCTV Remote Monitoring In his second article for The Locksmith journal, Umar Haq of Manchester-based Learn CCT, updates us on the development of CCTV and asks – should it now become SCTV? »»Many people assume that CCTV is just about installing a few cameras to a DVR and viewing the images on a monitor and that’s all there is to it. That used to be the case nearly 25 years ago - hence the name derived, CCTV – Closed Circuit Television. But consider: it is no longer on a closed circuit; people can view away from the main controller over a Local Area Network. They can also view from their mobile phones or tablet devices from anywhere in the world. So should the name be changed from Closed Circuit to something like Secure Circuit TV? I doubt that will happen, will but with the phenomenal growth of CCTV in the UK there is more than a system can do nowadays than provide a simple picture. Let’s just look at that growth for a minute. In 2011, The Guardian newspaper reported that for every one person there were 32 cameras in the UK. In 2014, the same paper reported that there were now 11 cameras for every one person - and this is in the UK alone. In the space of just three years, growth has tripled. WHERE TECHNOLOGY IS NOW But back to the main topic of remote monitoring: I always like to go back to where it began and let people understand where technology is now, and where it has advanced. Previously, with a VCR CCTV system, there was no way for you to monitor the cameras remotely. It was only local recording. A device was invented which would connect to the cameras and allow you to dial in via a standard PTSN line and watch the cameras. Now at 56.6k modem speed, it wasn’t the fastest around, but you could still see images remotely. Just at the point when Broadband was available, CCTV Systems were changing from VCRs to DVRs. As they were PC based there was, of course, a network port available. This changed the future of CCTV. With the DVR connected to the Network, the possibility of viewing the system remotely was there. All you had to do was download some software to your laptop or PC, type in the IP address of the CCTV site and away you go. You could view/playback all cameras. What we have available nowadays is just amazing. From your smartphone, you can connect to a DVR to view live images. You can view playback recording. You can take a snapshot of the screen and email the picture out within a matter of seconds. You can listen and speak back to the site – two- way Audio. You can control PTZ cameras. You can activate relays to open gates, turn lights on etc. You can also stream recordings so that in the case a local system was to be damaged or stolen you would still have recordings off site. COST SAVINGS This then brings us to the next topic of transmission. Everyone reading this will be familiar with the Redcare system for Alarms. If an alarm is activated, the signal is sent via Redcare to a monitoring station which, on confirmation of a genuine alarm, will contact the police. Few people realise, however,that a similar system is available with CCTV. It is basically called Off Site Remote Monitoring or CCTV Transmission. It works in entirely the same way but with video pictures. A transmission device would be installed at the site which would also have some Alarm detectors connected to it. If a break in were to occur, the detectors would pick this up, and the transmission device would within a m