When meeting with people at their house or place of business, I am often asked to give them my professional thoughts on how best to protect them, and what type of alarm system do I recommend. As part of the comprehensive security they are looking for, I almost always mention cameras.
It is really interesting to often hear the same people say “Oh, I will buy a kit at BJ’S or Costco”. For some reason they want, and respect my opinions on alarm systems, but when talking cameras, they believe that they know what they need to, and make decisions on that thought, discounting my experiences, knowledge and research on camera systems.
Much hard work goes into picking the proper equipment for a job. Let me give you a sample of some of the reasons to install a real professional system vs the consumer electronics concept.
EXPERIENCE, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, AND PROGRAMMING
Our use of 45 years experience in cameras, cannot be replaced by instructions on the side of a box. This experience comes with every system we install. We have special IT people on our team that knows the software, and networking needs of the various camera systems. This is almost impossible for consumer grade systems, as they do not know your individual network, and internet set up. This also complicates their attempt to get the cameras on their smart phones. I have even seen consumer camera systems instruction sheets written in Chinese! The recorder was also in Chinese, so there was no way to switch it on the computer!
INSTALLATION
Once again, it falls on the consumer to install the cameras themselves, as opposed to our team doing the installation. There are a multitude of reasons why the layout and installation should be done by a professional – including, but not limited to: Knowing what a camera will “see” before even installing it, ensuring it covers the proper areas that need coverage. Aesthetics are critical in running the wires in a fashion that is neat and clean with as little, if any, of the wires being exposed. Included is keeping the camera safe from vandals who wish to destroy it, and cut the wires. Using the proper gauge wires, keeping in mind the limits of the power and video outputs over those wires – the proper size and equipment to much must be used. Tipping the ends properly to minimize trouble down the road, such as oxidation, or damage because a water loop was not put in where appropriate. I will include in this category, knowing how many cameras for proper coverage do you REALLY need. You may only need 5 cameras, but you will have to buy a kit with 8 cameras because that is how they come pre packaged.
THE CAMERAS
One of the most important items are the actual cameras. Much time is expended by us, aside from previous experience, to research, look at, and learn about various cameras, their features, and knowing the quality of the cameras. Think about a wedding – you would never count on your friend to just use their camera for your pictures. Rather you have a professional photographer who understands lighting conditions, how they change, and what he must do to produce the portraits and pictures you desire. Knowing which cameras have which features, and what camera is appropriate for a given location, is crucial beyond words. The right voltage, resolution, infra red, housing styles, lens capabilities, programming, and working seamlessly with the right recorder {NVR), are just a few of the things we look at.
RECORDER
Managing your video images, is obviously where particular attention must be placed. Consideration for the hard drive, space, speed, formats, programming, ease of use, durability, scalability, growth potential and what “platform” is being used, are again just a few of the items we look at when specifying a Network Video Recorders (NVR’S). Overall, there is a grave danger with consumer electronic type systems and recorders. They are often hacked. We see in the news that companies are often hacked and outsiders have taken control of the cameras, watching, you, pulling archived video, possibly locking one out of the system so that you lose control. This just happened with the attached story: https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/security-camera-hack-exposes-hospitals-workplaces-schools-76371080
The public has seen companies that offer these consumer product, such as Ring, get hacked way too often. Sometimes we find that the company just goes out of business, or a line is dropped. This happened to GE and other large computer companies like Microsoft that out of the clear blue decided to abandon support for their older doorbell style cameras. They wanted to force you to buy a new one – running on a totally different platform. Hence the need to ensure that we are using stable companies with formats that we can manipulate. Which takes us to the concept of support. They do not offer the level of service, programming, availability, and knowledge, to properly help you on the phone in a timely fashion, with the right answers / changes that may need to be made.
It is our prayer that you not need the video footage ever – but that it will be there when and if you should need it. Our Secure Cloud Services agreements are now on Spring special. Mention on the phone, that you read about the discount on our website, and you will get a 25% discount, for one year on the Secure Cloud Services. (some of the features are: we store your video footage on our secure servers, for approx. 9 months – well beyond the capability of the recorder, and if the recorder is stolen or damaged, we still have the video for you. It also includes service calls, remote programming, and support).
A second spring offering, again, mention the website special for 15% off of any new system with at least 4 cameras. Both specials may be used together. They expire July 1st 2021.
Thank you for spending the time with us, reading our blog. I will be sending them out periodically with the specials attached too.
We are here for you with any questions, or to schedule your installation…
Avrahom D Sauer
Office (410) 318-6665
Cell (410) 812-4800