6 Important Tips for Comparing CCTV quotations.

Research labs@Digitals India

You are ready to implement a CCTV system at your premises. You have finalized the basic camera numbers, tentative placements, purpose for the proposed CCTV solution. You have even asked for price quotes from leading CCTV integrators and solution providers. But you are confused about specifications, makes and various model numbers in an even varying combination s. Sound familiar? You are definitely not alone, several of our customer face the same kind of problem as there is a wide range of products available for CCTV system in India.




While comparing, the specification might look the similar and you are enable to understand the price variations due to lack of standardization. It is Not necessary that the lowest quotation is offering you the best value for money.
There are some rules you should follow to analyze different quotation and arriving at best combination for your applications.
Rule 1# Understand the Camera Specification and configuration.
Today the most advance technology is infused into the CCTV camera. First specification is the CCD configuration. CCD is the image capturing device in the camera. Generally, A 1/3" Sony CCD is considered good quality, but 1/3" Sony HAD CCD gives you a better picture. Please note that having a  Sony CCD does not make it a SONY make camera. Next is the resolution of the cameras. You can find High Resolution Analog cameras with upto 700TVL resolution. TVL is actually a description of Horizontal resolution of the camera. More the TVL, Better the output from the camera. You can go for 600TVL, 540 TVL cameras which gives more clearer picture, and the cost is higher from any lower resolution camera. The standard and the base line resolution should be at least 480 TVL. You will need a Dome type camera for all indoor locations, IR dome or Bullet cameras for night vision and C mount camera for outside locations. Our DISVU kits offer you the right combination of cameras for various application. You can order these kits online at Shop Online.
Rule 2# Choosing the Right Digital recorders for CCTV application.
Here is Self- explanatory Chart we have Developed to distinguish a good DVR with a Normal DVR. DISVU DVRs are designed to match all the specification of a good quality DVR mentioned below.

	DISVU DVR	Normal DVR
Operating System	Linux (Virus Free)	Windows or other
User interface	User friendly	Typical
Video loop Output	As well as Video input	Not Available
Audio input	Equal to Video input	Less than Video input
Video Output	TV output, VGA out put,HDMI output	Only TV & VGA
Compression	H.264	MPEG-4
Recording Format (Resolution )	D1 ,4CIF or 704 X576	CIF or 352 X 288
Recording Speed	25 FPS	Time Laps
System Resource capability	Pentaplex- Live, Recording, Backup, Playback & Remote access	Triplex
Data Storage	8 HDD & eSATA support	2 or 4 hdd support
HDD management	Available	Not Available
Raid /Mirror Function	Available	Not Available
Backup	CD/DVD built in, USB, through Network	Only USB, No CD/DVD or Only CD/DVD, No USB
Clint Software	Built in Web browser, CMS software	No Built in Web browser only CMS software
Player Software	With Backup file on media	Additional software required to play backup file
Network	TCP/IP UDP,DNS,DDNS, FTP	FTP & DDNS Not available
Recording Mode	Motion, Alarm, Scheduled and Continuous	Only continuous
Privacy Zone Masking	Available	Not Available
Alarm through Motion, video lose, Camera Masking	Available	Not Available
Alarm input and Output	Available	Not Available

Rule# 3: Understanding the Storage requirements of the system-
Maximum External storage available is 2 TB( 1 TB= 1024 GB). Here is a useful conversion table.
There are DVRs which have slots for more that one external drive. Maximum number of HDD slots that are available is upto 7 HDD. This can expand the storage upto 14TB of Data like this DVR here.  The Amount of storage required is directly proportional to - The number of cameras and the number of days for which the recording is required. Storage calculation for CCTV is such a Vast subject that We are planning to feature an article dedicated on calculating storage requirement. You can follow our blog to keep yourself updated with Security and surveillance technology at www.securityfaqs.blogspot.com