CCTV: The Security System That Never Got a Badge But Still Works Well

To see my country qualify for the world cup and play in the world cup is great joy. Although we have been dumped out of the competition, I’m nevertheless glad we won against the Icelandic team (I’m sorry if you are Icelandic). I hope whichever country you are supporting is doing just fine. Are you glad to have a football analyst today? Is football now part of the wonderful steemSTEM community? No, the news was to calm everyone’s nerve from a typical week’s work. I’m grateful for your soul-relieving comments on my previous posts. I also hope you now have a sizeable idea about the oil industry?
Well, enough of the oil gist for now.

While interning in an oil company at Apapa, Nigeria, I noticed there was illegal activities going on like smuggling of products and a handful of the physical workers was involved. I always wondered how they managed to get all these done without having to fear. It was then I understood life was about taking risks but theirs was a stupid one. It was noticed or reports came to the depot manager that there were illegal activities going on. He wasn’t too surprised such was happening, all he did was to call a staff meeting and warn such people that were involved.

Nothing really changed of sort, the oil thieves kept stealing and it was not really noticeable since the tanks we stored different products were usually more than ten whooping million liters. This made them continue until the depot manager had to request for a mechanism to see the oil theft thing out. He met with the security team and at long last, they finally concluded they would adopt a security system. They eventually did by the way and it paid off. If you are running a guessed name on what the security system is, wonder not and let me be of help. The security system is the popular CCTV. Now, you are giggling, I caught you there.

Let have an introduction buzz about CCTV

^{CCTV from Pixabay under the CC0 License}

CCTV is the shorten form of Closed-Circuit Television. ‘What in the world is a closed circuit and I’m not an engineering nerd’, your mind tries playing the IDK game. I’m not myself an engineer too but knowing closed-circuit came easy. Closed-circuit is an electrical circuit in or around which a signal circulates or current flows. CCTV is a mechanism that employs the use of surveying cameras seen on not often much monitors to circulate or closely broadcast signals.

We all have either seen or walked past this type of cameras without knowing or getting to know late. There was in a month or two months ago when a robbery happened in a major bank in Offa, Kwara state of Nigeria. They killed people who stood in their way or didn’t agree with them and also carted with a whole lot of items like money. It was said to be the greatest robbery in the town and one of the saddest moments in their history too. May the souls of the dead rest in peace.

The security personnel was outnumbered by the thieves and unfortunately, the thieves were not apprehended. This is like the commonest thing in robberies here. Months passed and the whole community was still outraged that they hadn’t found the culprits and that the government wasn't doing enough. I have seen cameras been placed in places but I hadn’t seen or heard them been utilized. Reading the newspaper on a faithful day, I saw the pictures of these armed robbers flying on every newspaper that wrote about them. So, finally, we are a step closer to arresting these culprits.

The pictures of them were taken at a particular angle and I knew at once it couldn’t have been taken by a professional camera, only a hung camera like the CCTV could do this. It was later released the thieves probably didn’t know the cameras were there or as the camera works, had recorded each of their actions. Whether they knew or not, the community was glad to finally have a look at the killers and individual arrest soon followed.
This is for me; one major robbery the security measure has been fully maximized. This case could have gone into thin air if the surveillance cameras were not deployed. The Closed-Circuit Television is also called the video surveillance. The latest advancement in CCTV has seen the forms of IP cameras that record videos to flash or connected to a private drive and Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) that enable videos to be kept for a longer period of time.

With all these all-in-one security mechanisms, the police department can now base their investigation on the videos recorded also using their intuition. Supermarkets and malls can now operate well as customers shop safely with no form of theft.

Technology

The technology behind the CCTV is quite a simple one. For lovers of monitors, desktop or PCs, this one is for you. The CCTV is majorly made up of monitor, camera, cables, motion sensors and recorder. The camera stays most likely deployed outside or where it is to be monitored while the monitor and video recorder work together by the controlling unit involved. It is amazing to know how such a simple tech could work so well by cameras and transmitting system. Education of the security system, planning and application is the key to a successful installation.

The monitor could be a TV or a desktop computer. It televises or projects what the DVR gets from the camera to the owner or the user. There is no point recording when you can’t see. The monitor is as equally important to the CCTV security system as the others are too. The security camera more like the usual camera, on the other hand, is the most important of the entire components where the DVR uses it to see. A typical security camera has a lens, a housing and digital signal processing chip.

The DVR functions as the CTO (Chief Technical Officer) of the security system. It ensures every recording by the camera is projected and DVR, by the way, means Digital Video Recorder. Imagine not having a DVR, unimaginable! The DVR also enable you view as many footages from the camera as you want depending on the DVR channel support. Why DVR has been widely used is that it has a technology that helps it store videos or footages for a period. By storing, the owner is provided the ability to watch what he missed when he probably wasn’t available or make security personnel investigate a case(s) unlimitedly. Take the depot I cited earlier as an example, I met the depot manager glued to the monitor a few times I saw him in his office. He was watching 16 cameras from the entrance to the engineering unit right to the gantry where workers dispensed products.

A motion sensor just senses everything that goes on in the environment. It has the ability to sense even the slightest movement. This is particularly necessary because while it detects movements, it also alerts the owner. For the effectiveness of a CCTV system, a motion sensor is advisable to be installed.

The cable as known generally for its work does the same here too; it basically does two things. One is to transmit video from the camera to the DVR which then projects it on the monitor and secondly, it ensures that there is a supply of power to the camera to keep it wide awake.
The cable (RJ59 or RJ45) works as the middleman when it takes signal in form of a video from the camera to the DVR. Inside the camera is a lens which captures light stream, the light stream is then converted by the digital signal processing chip and the motor in the camera enables zooming. The cable also makes power supply possible from the CCTV power supply to the camera.

All these parts combined are what make the CCTV security system possible. The technology as said earlier is overall simple and the installation is not rigorous.

Installation

Installation of CCTV system is in no way a hard job to do. Firstly, you must check your home design or blueprint to accurately know which component(s) would suit you perfectly (If this is not done, you may end up buying and installing the wrong parts). Once you have successfully chosen the parts needed from the wired or wireless camera to the motion sensor, to the Siamese or BNC cables, DVR and monitor, you are then good to go.

Once you have a particular area that you’d like to survey, choose a perfect angle that you’d place your camera(s). You could either drill holes to screw the mount to the wall or use the sticky pads that come with them. When this is done, connect the camera to a power source with its adapter and you connect one end of the cable (BNC) to the camera and the other to the DVR. Now that you have your camera mounted and your DVR connected, you may go ahead and link your camera (wireless) to the monitor. To have a direct access to the camera, you have to install a software that comes with it. The last connection to be made is from the monitor to the DVR. The cable used to connect can be an HDMI cable or a BNC cable. Attach one end of the cable to the output port in the DVR and the other end to the input port in the monitor.

When all these connections are done, try troubleshooting to ensure all the parts are connected and perfectly working.
The types of cameras and where they are used/how they function

Just as we have attires that suit different occasions, so do we have a variety of camera that is meant for specific places. These cameras are but not restricted to;

The bullet camera is a protruding and cylindrical camera used to cover a spacious environment. Since this camera is long, it is widely used in commercial places like malls, and sometimes prisons. It really can’t be hung on the roof so it is wall-mounted. The dome camera is another cherished camera in that it has a good small size. It is glued to the roof of a building and by this has access to everything going on. Since it needs a roof as a foundation, then it is used indoor all the time. The camera allows for easy surveillance of the environment and is mostly used in banks. People watching the camera can’t specifically say this is where the camera is facing because it is covered by a non-transparent object which makes it difficult to see. Other cameras include day or night, c-mount, wireless, infrared cameras and a host of them.

Conclusion

The CCTV security system though simple should not be undervalued. This in most developing and developed countries has helped theft, shoplifting and even terrorism reduced to the very minimum. The CCTV is mostly priced or chosen over other cameras because it works as a closed-circuit mechanism; that means it can’t be hacked from outside or manipulated. If you are familiar with some movies, you’d see how they plant some people who weren’t in a crime scene as though they were. Here, they had the random camera in use.

We have the analog and the IP (Internet Protocol) based CCTV and they are majorly differentiated by their storage systems. The analog records videos via the famous DVR (Digital Video Recorder) while the IP based uses NVR (Network Video Recorder).

The decision of which camera to buy depends on what you need it to do. If you are setting out to buy a camera, be sure to have a good look at the sensors. The sensors come in two types which are the CMOS i.e Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor and CCD i.e Charge Couple Device (You should go for this because it gives a clearer image). Apart from the sensor, buying the needed lens that suits your desire is crucial. If the lens is below par, images won’t be converted well since the lens allows the camera to take light to the sensor. Finally, take a look at the pixel of the camera. You wouldn’t want to compare a Tecno mobile with 5 megapixels with another product with about 20 or more megapixels. Same applies to the camera.

Installing the CCTV system was a major breakthrough for the company as there was a reduced case of oil theft. They had a little inverter power it when the usual source of light was off and they got it running day and night.
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REFERENCES

Web - Components
Cabling - Understanding
Trinity - Different cctv
Caught - Cctv
Wikihow - Install