E – 1733 Surveillance, Emergency Power and Home Automation Systems

Surveillance systems can be configured in numerous ways, depending upon the desired function of the system. Will the system simply observe an area and display activity in real time on a monitor with no memory, or will it be desirable to have the system remember what activity took place in the field of view of a camera over a period of time? If so, how long should the system remember what happened before the information is erased or replaced with new information? Will the system consist of a single camera or will it have multiple units with their outputs displayed simultaneously at a monitoring station? What communication method will be used among system components? Will data be compressed? If so, how? Will the system be wireless or wired? Will the cameras be fixed or moving? Will they be indoors, outdoors or both? Will they operate during daytime hours, nighttime hours or both? Will an operator be able to adjust the camera field of view from a remote location? Fortunately, surveillance system manufacturers have produced design guides, one of which is the Samsung Networked Surveillance System Design Guide, the first edition of which was produced in 2012. This guide can be downloaded from the internet.