Technical Manual

8
OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS
Most users prefer to operate their security systems with the DVRs recording only when motion is detected. This provides the most
efficient use of the hard drive’s capacity, plus making it easier for a recording to be located. However, if the camera’s location has a lot of
“environmental” motion, such as a fan, wind, or the like, you will receive a lot of “false alarms.” Usually, these events can be avoided by
simply adjusting the placement of the camera. Other situations may require some fine-tuning of your settings. Your DVR’s manual covers
these settings in detail, but some easily avoidable situations are presented below:
TV/Computer Screens. If the camera can see a video screen, it will trigger a motion alarm any time the screen changes, whether there
is a video or simply a screen saver. Most Q-See DVRs have the ability to let you mask out the area, or turn off sensitivity to motion in
specific parts of their field of view.
Fans/Machinery. Motion is motion and if machinery within the camera’s field of view starts automatically, it will cause an alert.
Similarly, if the camera is mounted on a wall with machinery on the other side that causes it to vibrate, that can also cause it to detect
motion. Moving machinery within the camera’s field of view may be masked off as mentioned above, or motion detection may be turned
off for that channel. If there is another camera that covers access to the area where the machinery is located, you can set it so that
the first camera will only be recording when triggered by a motion event detected by this second camera. See your DVR’s manual for
specifics on altering these settings.
Bugs. An occasional insect flying through the field of view is usually not enough to trigger an alert. However, some flying insects are
attracted to infrared light and will swarm the camera. This is usually a temporary situation that occurs at only a certain time of the year.
Lighting the area with yellow “bug light” of sufficient brightness can keep the camera operating in daylight mode and keep the infrared
LEDs turned off. A second solution is to set the channel to record all the time, and turn motion detection off at night until “bug season” is
over. Reducing the motion sensitivity can also reduce alerts as can using another camera to trigger recording as described above.
Additionally, keep your cameras clear of spider webs as the movement of the webs due to wind or critters in the web will cause an alert.
The reflection of the infrared off the webs and back into the camera will also reduce the night vision range.
Snow/Rain. As with bugs, this is usually a seaonal event and may require motion detection to be temporarily disabled to avoid false
alarms. However, positioning the camera further under shelter, such as closer to the wall and away from the edge of the eaves, can make
the rain or snow too small for the camera to notice. Adjusting motion sensitivity may also help in some situations.