User manual

The upgrade path
Check your DVR for additional network functionality
If your system uses aDVR rather than the VHS time-lapse
recorder as its rec fording device, find out if the DVR offers
access to stored footage or live camera streams via
industry-standard network setups. It also includes the possibility
of the DVR sending images or footage to nominated people by
e-mail or MMS in response to an alarm event. As well, the extra
functionality could also include the ability to record images or
footage from network cameras.
This functionality may be available through hardware and/or
software that you may be able to retrofit, whether done by
yourself or acompetent computer or security technician. The
software may be available for avery low price or, in some cases,
for free from the manufacturer’s site or arespected third-party
developer.
Network video encoders
These devices are used to connect the existing system to your
network. They come in one-channel or multi-channel versions.
The one-channel version can service one existing camera or the
“MONITOR” output of an analogue system’s multiplexer,
whereas amulti-channel version can service multiple cameras.
The latter solution can come in handy if you want individual
access to your legacy system’s camera outputs via your network.
It is also worth noting that some of the high-end network video
encoders come in the form of an expandable infrastructure
where there are many encoder “blades” that are installed in
arack-mount “master chassis”. This could allow auser to
increase the number of channels in the encoder simply by
replacing the “blade” which has fewer channels with one that has
more channels. These units may appeal more to installations
where there are many serviceable analogue cameras.
If any of the cameras in your system use “pan-tilt-zoom”
functionality, the network video encoder that you use for these
cameras should have acompatible “PTZ” interface so that you
don’t lose this functionality. Similarly, if your system uses alarm
connectivity for changing how it records the video information,
the network video encoder should support this same alarm
connectivity.
Recording
The IP-based video-surveillance system has increased recording
flexibility compared to the legacy systems. Here, you could have
the images captured on anetwork-attached storage unit that
exists within the logical reach of your business network. For
example, you could have one of QNAP’s multi-disk “muscle-NAS”
units located in your premises AND aD-Link two-disk NAS at
home or in another premises under your control set up to record
images from the same lot of camerasYou also benefit from the
fact that most of these NAS units can be upgraded to higher
capacity in the field through the purchase of larger capacity
OEM hard disks from independent computer stores.
In some cases, you can set up some of the NAS units like most of
the QNAP range to work as network video recorders by installing
software applications in these units. This usually allows the
cameras and the recordings to be viewed from the NAS’s
management Webpage.
It may be worth knowing that there are some special NAS units
that are optimised for IP-based video-surveillance setups. These
will usually have functions like aWeb-based dashboard,
improved user interface for indexing and, in some cases,
video-analysis functionality not available in the cameras. These
are worth considering for larger video-surveillance systems.
Alarm integration and POS Exception Monitoring
Your system may be set up so that your video recorder works in
real time if, for example, the building’s alarm is triggered or
astaff member presses the duress-alarm button during
ahold-up. You can make sure you don’t lose this functionality
when your system is network-enabled. As well, you may benefit
further from this through network cameras sending through
pictures to specified e-mail addresses or MMS-enabled phone
numbers upon alarm events.
To achieve this, you need to make sure that your cameras that
are in the alarm’s scope have alarm-input terminals and that the
signalling devices are properly wired to these terminals as
specified in the documentation. In some cases, you may need to
use arelay or optocoupler as away of achieving acompatible
connection that operates properly. An alarm installer or
electronics technician can do this kind of work easily.
If you are aretailer who integrates POS Exception monitoring
where certain normal or abnormal transactions cause your
closed-circuit TV system to register them as alarm events or
overlay transaction data on the video information, you should
make sure you can integrate this functionality in your
network-enabled system. The network-based system may allow
for transaction-searching or exposure of transaction data
independent of the video and could work with network-based
POS systems.
Scenarios
These scenarios avoid the need to replace any equipment that is
in good working order ahead of its time and prefer that the
IP-based technology be “bolted on” to avideo-surveillance
system in amanner to enhance the system without losing any of
its functionality.
Simple network enablement
You may simply start out by connecting the monitor output of
your existing system to asingle-channel network video encoder.
This may be of use if your current-term objective is to view the
system’s output on your network-connected PC or your mobile
phone.
On the other hand, you may use amulti-channel network video
encoder to network-enable all the cameras in asmall 4-camera
system or, for alarger system, afew cameras that you consider
important as well as the monitor output. Then you add another
multi-channel network video encoder to network-enable more
cameras. You then run avideo-surveillance manager program on
your general-purpose PC so you can easily view the cameras and
set up your network-based recording options.
You will still keep your “quad” and VHS time-lapse recorder or
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