SECURITY

O

utdoor cameras are everywhere and watch us all on a daily basis. With crime on the rise, business owners are increasing their investments to

protect the outdoor perimeter of their building and many more cities and town centres are increasing the number of cameras they have as par t of their Public Space Surveillance systems and traffic calming schemes.

IN THE CLEAR

The need for robust, reliable and cost effective cameras that deliver excellent image quality is now more important than ever as organisations become increasingly reliant on the availability of clear, crisp images. In fact, IMS Research, a supplier of market research for the electronics industry, believes that robust, efficient outdoor surveillance is becoming more and more important to security professionals and is forecasting long-term double digit revenue growth for applications that require outdoor surveillance, particularly public area surveillance and perimeter protection. It takes a very robust camera to

withstand the differing weather and lighting conditions faced in the average external installation. An outdoor camera needs to be able to cope with the full assault of the weather including extremes in temperature − from freezing snow to windy, dusty conditions and torrential rain. Camera reliability is also extremely impor tant as outdoor cameras are frequently located in difficult to reach places, which makes maintenance expensive, time consuming and difficult. To help ensure excellent image

quality, it’s impor tant to consider the position of a camera. As they are often installed high up so as to offer the best view of whatever it is surveying, it is important that the camera can be installed easily, as the more difficult the installation, the more expensive it becomes. It is also necessary to evaluate the site where the cameras are to be rolled out as, even taking into consideration how things will change over time − what happens to the camera’s view as that tree that has been planted grows to a great height?

PREVENTATIVE MEASURES

Businesses and public sector organisations are now increasingly starting to realise the benefits of IP based network video cameras, which allow for footage to be distributed across a network simultaneously to multiple locations anywhere in the world. Outdoor surveillance installations have come a long way from grainy, undecipherable static images which can only be viewed from one location.

The ability to monitor footage remotely

is a real benefit for many organisations, and the increasing use of smart phones even makes it possible to view footage from your handset. This could potentially help prevent a break in, as early notification of an intruder could mean that they are stopped in their tracks. The outdoor perimeter of a site is a

property owner’s first opportunity to prevent an unwanted visitor on to their site and an outdoor surveillance system will record their every move and alert the security team of their presence. Many organisations are now taking advantage of a range of sophisticated technologies such as overview surveillance, perimeter protection, facial identification and license plate recognition to safeguard their properties. It is extremely important that the right type of surveillance equipment is used externally as exposure to the elements can quickly damage a camera and severely impair image quality. Equally poor lighting conditions and extreme weather conditions will inevitably hinder image quality and ultimately this can pose an extremely serious security risk. Outdoor ready cameras are specifically designed to fend off the elements and many are now tamper proof to prevent any unwanted attempts to disable them.

BY DAY AND NIGHT

All types of network cameras − fixed, fixed dome, pan, tilt and zoom (PTZ), and PTZ dome − can offer day and night functionality and are designed to be used in outdoor installations or in indoor environments with poor lighting. They are extremely useful in environments that restrict the use of artificial light and include low light video surveillance situations, covert surveillance and discreet applications, for example, in a traffic surveillance situation where bright lights would disturb drivers at night. A day and night, colour network camera

is able to deliver colour images during the day. As light diminishes below a certain level, the camera can automatically switch to night mode to make use of near infrared (IR) light to deliver high quality, black and white images. Near-infrared light is beyond what the human eye can see, but most camera sensors can detect it and make use of it. During the day, a day and night camera uses an IR cut filter. IR light is filtered out so that it does not distort the colours of images as the human eye sees them. When the camera is in night (black and white) mode, the IR cut filter is removed, allowing the camera’s light sensitivity to drop considerably.

An IR illuminator that provides near-infrared light can also be used in conjunction with a day and night camera to further enhance its ability to produce high quality video in low light or night time conditions.

Camera reliability is extremely important.

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THE NEED FOR ROBUST, RELIABLE AND COST EFFECTIVE CAMERAS THAT DELIVER EXCELLENT IMAGE QUALITY IS NOW MORE IMPORTANTTHAN EVER AS ORGANISATIONS BECOME INCREASINGLY RELIANT ON CLEAR, CRISP IMAGES.

Many organisations use outdoor ready cameras for a variety of surveillance tasks, and although each has its own specific requirements, the need for cameras that provide clear images that are both robust and easy to install remains the same.

EXTREME CONDITIONS

Although the majority of the outdoor ready cameras that are available today are capable of standing up to extreme weather or adverse lighting conditioning, conventional outdoor surveillance cameras will struggle to capture images in complete darkness or under other challenging conditions such as smoke or fog, or when objects are hiding or obscured by a complex background. In difficult conditions, you need to be able to identify an object before it can be detected and this is where thermal cameras come in to play. Visible light, which the human eye can see and standard cameras can detect and

display, requires a light source such as the sun or a flood light. A thermal camera requires no light

source, as thermal radiation is emitted from every object with a temperature above zero degrees Kelvin. Even very cold objects, like ice, emit thermal radiation. The hotter the object, the greater the radiation and the higher the temperature differences in a scene, the clearer the image a thermal camera will be able to deliver.

The advantage of this is that thermal cameras quickly detect any incidents occurring in their field of view. They are robust and cannot be blinded by strong lights or put out of order using laser pointers. They provide an ideal first line of strength that triggers further action, and so dramatically enhancing the effectiveness of a surveillance system. Although thermal cameras are

excellent for detecting people, vehicles and other objects in complete darkness, they do not, however, deliver images that allow for reliable identification.

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