BUS 620

Research Abstract Six

“Video Surveillance CCTV”

 

What is Video Surveillance via CCTV?

 

CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) is a visual surveillance technology designed for monitoring a variety of environments and activities. CCTV systems typically involve a fixed (or "dedicated") communications link between cameras and monitors.  Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) is a television transmission system in which live or prerecorded signals are sent over a closed loop to a finite and predetermined group of receivers, either via coaxial cable or as scrambled radio waves that are unscrambled at the point of reception.

 

What sort of technology is used in CCTV systems?

 

The modern CCTV systems involve a linked system of cameras with full pan, tilt, and zoom able to be operated remotely from a control room.  These systems may involve sophisticated technology such as digital recording and playback as well as analog. Features can include night vision, computer assisted operation, and motion detection facilities which allows the operator to instruct the system to go on red alert when anything moves in view of the cameras.

 

Camera systems increasingly employ bullet-proof casing, and automated self defense mechanisms which ensure that cameras under attack are covered by neighboring cameras, these can be legitimately described as military style systems.

 

Components or Options with Digital CCTV Surveillance Systems:

 

  • Triplex operation for simultaneously Viewing, Recording, and Playback
  • 16 channel digital video recorder
  • 16 camera inputs Color or B/W cameras
  • Auto PAL and NTSC format detection or manual system setting
  • Built-in MPEG1 and JPEG compression
  • Dual Hot Swappable removable hard drives
  • Continuous recording, Event Recording, and time-lapse recording modes
  • 24 alarm inputs with configurable actions mapped to time zones
  • 8 alarm outputs ( 4 N.C. / 4 N.O.)
  • Event logging for video loss, motion detection, alarm input, alarm reset, power on/off
  • Recording rate:60/50 fps Global Processing Rate
  • Multiple password authorization for high degree of security
  • Remote surveillance and control via TCP/IP, LAN, Web Browser
  • Encrypted transmission for data protection
  • Able to set daylight saving time accordingly
  • User friendly Graphic Design interface
  • Nonvolatile program memory protects all programmable features against power loss
  • System Auto Recovery after power failure resumes recording operations

 

What about the Picture Quality?

 

The clarity of the pictures is often excellent, with many systems being able to recognize a cigarette pack at a hundred meters. The systems can often work in pitch blackness, bringing images up to daylight level.

 

What are the uses of CCTV Surveillance?

There are three principal CCTV uses:

 

  1. To assist in the process of apprehending criminals at the point when the criminal act is in progress. (We will refer to this category as an "Identification" system).
  2. To provide historical evidence of wrongdoing or criminal acts by colleagues, associates or other known persons. (We will refer to this category as a "Recognition" system).
  3. To substantiate or verify that an intruder has entered a protected area and thereby enable action to prevent a crime or to bring law enforcement if a crime is in the process of, or has been committed. (We will refer to this category as a "Verification" system).

 

What does the public think of CCTV?

 

The picture is mixed. While proponents of CCTV are inclined to describe opposition to the technology as marginal, the reality is much less conclusive. In one survey a large proportion of respondents expressed concern about several key aspects of visual surveillance.

 

The extent of concern was highlighted by the outcome that more than fifty per cent of people felt neither government nor private security firms should be allowed to make decisions to allow the installation of CCTV in public places.

 

  • 72 % agreed "these cameras could easily be abused and used by the wrong people".
  • 39 % felt that people who are in control of these systems could not be "completely trusted to use them only for the public good".
  • 37 % felt that "in the future, cameras will be used by the government to control people".
  • More than one respondent in ten believed that CCTV cameras should be banned.

 

While this response could be interpreted a number of ways, it goes to the heart of the privacy and civil rights dilemma. Source (Honess T, and Charman E (1992) ; "Closed Circuit Television in public places" Crime Prevention Unit paper no. 35)

 

in 1992, according to an article in Personnel Journal, there were ten million employees in the United States whose work is monitored via electronic security systems.

 

 

High Level Systems View of Digital CCTV

 

 

 

 

Notice the Surveillance Camera on the Street Light