Rugged CCTV

Just for grins, Rugged CCTV hosted a competition among the Design Engineers for a “Pimp My Forklift” competition.

The winning design is a polished Diamond Plate model that screams “Warehouse Bling“.

“It was really fun, and an uplifting experience, punned Chief Engineer, Allen Spears (amid groans from the staff), “and it really raises the issue of forklift safety in the warehouse” (more groans).

Runner-up designs included a “Green” design with floral graphics, (it’s an efficient electric forklift), and a camo version that included machine gun mounts and rocket pods.

The winning team won gift certificates to a local restaurant, and also got to choose a favorite charity to receive a $100 donation.

Your Business May Be Hit Next - By Allen Spears - Rugged CCTV

Crime can hit your business in many different ways, and can cost you thousands in losses, deductibles and increases in coverage premiums. But crime can also impact your revenue, and in some cases, to such an extent that it could even cause your business to fail.

In fact, a study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports that as many as 30% of small business failures are the result of crime (U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 1995).

The same study concluded that small businesses are even more susceptible to crime. Businesses with less than $5 Million in annual revenue may be up to 35 times more likely to become a victim of crime than larger businesses.

Crime of all types, like burglary, robbery, vandalism and even employee theft or sabotage, can be devastating to any business. The cost is often felt in terms of money, customers and the safety of your employees. But there are ways to help protect your assets, yourself and your employees.

Physical security is always the first place to start. Good quality deadbolt locks, metal doors, crossbar posts and latches to beef up entry doors, metal grates for vulnerable windows, perimeter lighting and motion detector lights, as well as burglar alarms, glass break sensors and motion detector alarms at all possible entry points, are always part of a good prevention strategy for protecting your business.

Camera systems are also at the forefront of any good prevention plan, and can be a great deterrent as well as identify vehicles, criminals, entry methods and also what property was taken. Without a good quality security camera system, you may never know how the thieves were able to overcome your physical barriers, what vehicles were used and how, as well as quickly identify items that were taken – a process that would normally take days or weeks to discover through the inventory process. A thorough inventory after the fact will not tell you if the items were missing prior to a burglary, taken by an employee before or after the break-in, or if a sale was not recorded properly and your inventory totals are simply incorrect.

There are many more things a camera system can provide clues about. For example, one of our clients noticed when viewing the footage from a break-in, that the thieves, which were not recognizable to the owner, seemed to know exactly which door had the weakest security. There were other doors with less light and were hidden from view better than the door they chose. Then, upon gaining entry, the thieves ran straight to where the highest value items were stored in the warehouse – bypassing items that most thieves would have found attractive. Clearly they had inside knowledge. No customers or contractors had been in the warehouse at any time in the past year, so then the question was: “Did the thieves have help from a current employee, or from a former employee”. That question was quickly narrowed down to a current employee when the owner realized that the high value items had been moved to a completely different area of the warehouse within the last 6 months, yet it had been more than 2 years since an employee had left or been fired.

Also notable from the clear, sharp video footage; one of the thieves had a limp that seemed to be from a birth defect, one tossed a pair of gloves in the trash, and still another wore a jacket that were only given to employees in a local car dealers’ repair shop. All of these clues aided the police in quickly identifying the criminals. In the end, it was discovered that the owners’ most trusted employee, his manager of 22 years, had concocted a scheme with his neighbor to split the proceeds from the robbery.

Clearly, without good, clear video of the event from multiple cameras and angles, this crime would have gone unsolved. The “inside job” aspect would also have gone undetected, and could have led to further events.

Security cameras should be your front line of defense to help protect your assets and your business.

Call Rugged CCTV today and our Engineers will help you design a system that is both affordable and indispensable.

The Problems With IP Cameras - by Allen Spears – Rugged CCTV

As you may have already heard, Rugged CCTV is coming out with a new “Hybrid” DVR at the beginning of the year. Why Hybrid? Because there are still quite a few problems associated with IP cameras right now. The technology is maturing at a fast rate, but it’s still not quite where it needs to be.

The Hybrid solution gives our customers a great way to start adding IP cameras to their current systems without having to completely re-tool for a dedicated IP-only system. Our Hybrid DVR will feature 16 channels of standard cameras, while adding 4 additional channels for the addition of IP-based cameras. It’s a great way to start migrating early on, but doesn’t require re-wiring your network for Gigabit performance, or installing VPN (Virtual Private Network) switches to keep the high bandwidth traffic from interfering with your normal work-related traffic on your existing network.

Why is everybody pushing IP-based security cameras? Because there will be a lot of advantages to handling purely digital streams. The whole world is creating internet enabled devices of all kinds at a frenetic pace, and IP cameras will be able to integrate directly into that world almost seamlessly.

The problems we are running into with IP cameras though, is that the resulting bandwidth and file sizes are huge. A 3 or 5 megapixel camera produces huge pictures that not only cover a wide area, but will allow “zooming in” multiple times without blurring and pixelating the picture. But since each captured image will result in large file sizes, the resulting bandwidth and storage will create problems. As you add more IP cameras, bandwidth will quickly start to slow your network down, and will fill up your hard drives many times faster than standard cameras.

We can safely move the data from just a few IP cameras over your existing CAT-5 cables, and can add another hard drive or two to handle the additional data, but beyond that will require either separating the IP camera traffic from your normal network traffic, (such as a VPN), or, more likely, re-wiring your network infrastructure to gigabit wiring and equipment.

One of the other glaring problems with the technology right now, is that the preferred compression method – H.264, is not yet to the point where it can give us high resolution at high frame rates. Surprisingly, MJPEG and JPEG2000 methodologies are much better at either processing or moving high megapixel video over smaller data pipes than H.264 currently is. It takes a lot of processing power to run H.264, but the resulting picture quality and smaller file sizes are the “Holy Grail” that manufacturers are after. The technology is developing rapidly and is maturing at a fast clip, but it is still not quite where it should be in order to outshine other methods.

We have been spoiled by our standard cameras that have smaller file sizes and speedy processing, and thus we are recording at “Real Time” rates. Most IP cameras are not yet able to handle that many frames per second at megapixel resolutions. H.264 cameras especially, seem to be moving backwards in performance. Manufacturers are introducing higher and higher resolutions, but due to increased processing requirements, are sliding backwards when it comes to frames per second. Thus, most people running the current crop of H.264 IP cameras, are finding it difficult to record at more than 5 or 6 frames per second, and as you know, you can miss all sorts of movements and actions when recording that slowly.

So, the technology is getting there – but it’s not there yet. Not in price, and not in performance. That is the reason we are moving slowly when manufacturing and introducing IP cameras and recorders. We always try to be on the cutting edge – just not on the “bleeding edge”.

How To Make Sure Your Security Camera Recordings will be the Same Quality as a DVD Movie

By Allen Spears – Chief Engineer

at Rugged CCTV

Full Version found at http://www.rugged-cctv.com/downloads/DVD%20Quality.pdf

When you are researching a Security Camera System, it is easy to be fooled into buying a system that does not have the ability to produce DVD-like quality recordings. In fact, finding a system that can do this is not as easy as you would expect. This article will teach you how to look beyond the advertising hype to the underlying specifications that really matter in producing recordings that are at least equal to, or better than the standards for your regular TV, or DVD player.

The very first criteria that you need to look for is the particular compression method the DVR uses for compressing the video footage for optimum storage. This is a much easier task today than it was in years past. Why? Because there are only two compression methods that are acceptable when the goal is DVD quality video: MPEG4 and H.264.

If the recorder you are considering is MJPEG, Wavelet, or JPEG 2000, or any other outdated method, keep looking. These methodologies cannot give you the higher resolutions that are necessary for the best quality video.

The next criteria to look for, and these are sometimes much harder to find in the specifications, are the Recording Resolutions available. Many manufacturers or retailers try very hard to hide this number from you. In fact, many times they will quote the Live Display resolution up front to fool you into thinking that this is what you will end up with when viewing your recorded video footage. It is not. The Live Display resolution is almost always 720×480. This is equal to DVD resolution, and is exactly what you want as your “minimum standard” for recording, but chances are that the recorder will not be able to record the video at this higher resolution. Many DVR’s out there record at CIF (320×240) or 2CIF (640×240) at best. This is not good enough. You need to find a DVR that can handle recording at DVD, or sometimes referred to as D1 (704×480) resolution. Even if it is at a reduced frame rate, as it probably will be because of the processor power it takes to record a lot of frames per second at the higher resolutions, having the ability to record at D1/DVD resolution is the most important aspect in getting quality recordings in the end. Especially for important camera views such as cash points or facial recognition.

One of the most common questions from purchasers is: “How many lines of resolution should my cameras have, in order to best utilize the resolution capabilities of my DVR?” There is a lot of confusion in the industry when it comes to how “Recording Resolution” and “Lines of Resolution” (or sometimes referred to as TV Lines), relate to each other. You will probably find that many retailers don’t have a clue what they’re talking about when describing the differences in these two terms, or more importantly, relating lines of resolution from a camera, to the recording resolution of a DVR. So let’s set the record straight.

First, for a better understanding of recording resolutions, let’s define some industry terms you will see when looking at the specs of a DVR.

CIF is a commonly used television standard for measuring resolution, and it stands for “Common Intermediate Format”. Most DVR’s will list their capabilities using some variation or level of this term.

Here is a list of CIF resolutions: (Note: the actual number of pixels in a CIF image may vary slightly as long as they provide the same level of overall picture quality)

1CIF (commonly stated as just “CIF”) equals 320×240 pixels.

2CIF equals 640×240 pixels (sometimes referred to as “Field” resolution)

4CIF equals 640×480 pixels

D1 or DVD equals 704×480 (sometimes referred to as “Full” resolution, or 740×480)

Anything 4CIF and above can get a little confusing because some manufacturers list 4CIF as 704×480, and D1 as 740×480, but these resolutions are very close, so it shouldn’t matter that much. The important spec to remember is that the highest recording resolution capability of a DVR should be no lower than 704×480. That is the number you need to look for.

Why are you lumping the top three most commonly used resolutions of 640×480, 704×480 and 740×480 together? Isn’t each higher number better than the one below it? The answer is: No, not really. Let me explain. Most DVR’s on the market can only see 720 pixels on any single scan line. Of those 720 pixels, the first 8 pixels and the last 8 pixels are black. They do not contain picture elements. Since the black pixels are irrelevant, we don’t include them. We subtract the 16 black pixels, and the remaining 704 pixels are all we use. Other manufacturers subtract the first and last 40 pixels on each line because, on some hardware platforms, (particularly the PC-based systems), the pixels on the edges are not as stable as they are on our platform. Thus, they use the 640×480 standard. Hopefully you see now how all these resolutions basically equal the same picture. Our DVR’s are optimized for 704×480, and thus, we give you the highest resolution available, while showing you all of the picture that is possible.

Now, let’s take a look at the following chart to see how the “Lines of Resolution” of a particular camera equates to the “Recording Resolution” of a particular DVR:

As you can see from the chart above, recording your pictures at the CIF (320×240) resolution means that you are capturing at a much lower resolution. Some users record less important camera views at this resolution to save hard drive space, thus giving them longer recording durations and smaller files to transmit over the Internet to your Remote Software. However, important camera locations such as cash points and facial recognition views will suffer at this resolution because there is less information to work with. When trying to view these small size pictures at full screen size, the system will generate extra pixels to increase the physical size of the picture, but since these are not “captured” pixels, the quality of the entire image suffers.

A camera image captured at 640×480 resolution is 4 times as large as 320×240. An example of how much more useful the larger size is, is displayed below:

Saved resolution Comparison

The larger picture was captured at 704×480. The smaller picture in the lower right corner was captured at 320×240. The advantages of the larger picture size are evident. Your hard drives will fill up quicker using the higher resolution, but hard drives are cheap. The message here is to record important camera views at the highest resolution, and set lesser camera views to the smaller size. This optimized type of setup is what we recommend to most of our customers.

Most DVR’s that you will find on the market will not be able to record at the higher settings at all. In our case, the processor that we build into our DVR’s will enable you to record at any of the resolutions listed here, (albeit at lower frame rates when recording at the highest resolutions).

Call our Design Engineers if you have additional questions about how to choose a DVR that will do what you need it to. But above all, look very carefully at the specifications of any DVR before you purchase it. Then, make sure that it is really easy to use, and is backed by a reputable manufacturer.

Hands down, the number one mistake most operators make is buying a security camera system from a discount warehouse, Internet retailer or overseas manufacturer. You will find that these systems are not intuitive to use and are hard to navigate. The manuals are not readable or understandable, and the available resolutions that you can record at, are very limited.

My experience has been that the system usually produces a good picture and will probably operate fine, but when it comes time to put it on the Internet for remote access, or to get footage off of it to give to the police, there will not be any assistance or technical support available. Now you have a system that is only usable as an observation system to watch the live camera views, but anything else is problematic. We have operators that call us with this complaint every day.

Getting your system set up for viewing and controlling it over the Internet is probably the single toughest task you will undertake with your camera system. We decided many years ago that we needed a dedicated tech person just to help owners with this single issue. This person has manuals for every type of Internet Modem and Network Router that you may have. This process usually requires the cooperation of your Internet provider as well. It is not an easy task, and it requires professional knowledge and training to get it done.

We expect the cameras to get wet. In car wash bays or tunnels, there is really no way to avoid this. We also expect them to be able to put up with some abuse from customers as well. We manufacture a lot of our cameras to watertight standards, and are tested in our “dunk tank” immersed to a depth of 3 feet for 24 hours. We also shoot the camera bodies with nitrogen prior to sealing, to displace any existing moisture that may be present. Some models of cameras also have desiccant packs inserted to help maintain low  moisture levels.

All of our sealed cameras carry our exclusive Two-Year Warranty against moisture failures, corrosion,  and correct operation.

Our main objective when developing or changing the software or user interface of our DVR’s, is to make it intuitive and easy for our customers to understand and navigate.  My feeling is, that if you have to go to the manual to figure out how to do something – it is too tough already. We strive to make our menus and screens look just like the Windows software that our customers are already comfortable with. We also give each customer a “Quick Guide” that outlines functions they will use most commonly. Free Technical Support for the Life of the system is also included, just to make sure that someone is there to guide them through any hurdles they might encounter.

At Rugged CCTV, 5% of our budget goes into Research & Development toward new products designed for use in the highly corrosive environments commonly found at car washes. We are also developing new and better ways to render video, both at the camera and at the recorder.

One of the new technologies we have developed this year includes the Sun-Pix camera that we debuted in June. This camera employs a whole new way of looking at light, and is making it possible to use a camera in extreme high-glare situations. Essentially, this technology turns every pixel of the picture into its’ own camera, and enables users to get a perfect picture under almost any conditions. We hope to introduce more types of cameras using this technology in the coming months.

We are also working to compress pictures more efficiently for recording without stripping out too much data or resolution. Four years ago we joined a consortium developing out the feature sets of the newest picture compression method, called H.264. This new way of compressing and recording pictures applies to analog cameras, as well as the newest Internet Protocol (IP) type of mega-pixel digital cameras that we are starting to see used more frequently.  H.264 basically tries to achieve the best quality picture in the smallest file space. This ability will become even more important as the industry moves to the all-digital format that creates large amounts of data. Currently IP-based cameras and recorders have yet to reach their full potential, and the costs are still quite expensive, but we think that IP-based equipment will be the primary technology used within the next 5 years.

Try to take a three-fold approach:  deter, detect and delay.

Deterring criminals always starts with good locks and solid entry points. But it also includes things like  making sure that you have plenty of alarm signs and stickers placed at access points and cash points. Having an alarm system may not stop criminals from breaking in, but it does make them change their plans to a hurried “smash-and-grab” type of operation because a blaring alarm means that they have a very limited time at the site.

Make sure that there are 2 or more cameras watching vulnerable areas or cash points from different angles. If criminals know that they will be recorded on one camera while attempting to disable or vandalize another camera, they will move on to an easier target. Hiding some cameras is okay, but make sure that criminals notice the cameras you want them to see.

Detect them with motion lighting, alarms and motion-based camera systems that can notify you if a certain door is opened or even if the alarm system is triggered.

Delay them with hardened entry points and high security locks. The longer they think it will take to breach your security, the more they will be inclined to move on to another business that looks like it might be an easier target.

Burglars are not professionals as a rule, so they are mainly opportunistic and look for easy targets. They may have been in your business and something got their attention, such as seeing a low security safe, or a small safe that looked like it might be easy to remove. They may have seen a door that looked easy to break into, or maybe even a window that looked like it would be an easy ingress point. Burglars look primarily for weak security and entry points that are out of view from traffic.

For robberies, they look for a manager or employee that has a routine that they can count on, such as  cash collection at closing time, or they may have seen a bank bag in the managers’ hand when exiting the building at a certain time of day. They may have even seen a manager collect cash and put it in a locked drawer or other easily accessible place.

While they are at your business, they will also look for evidence of an alarm system. However, if they know that surrounding businesses will be closed when they hit, and there will not be anyone in earshot of an alarm siren, they won’t be too disturbed about an alarm, as they usually know how long the response time is in your area.

They will also try to see where your recording device is for the security cameras. This is something that worries them even more than the alarm system. They know all too well that the recording system can provide all the information the police will need to find, arrest and convict them. So they treat it like leaving a witness behind.

Most new Digital Video Recorders (DVR’s), are a “stand-alone” box that provides all of the functions of the system. Therefore, PC’s are no longer used as a recording device in most instances. However, since you can totally control the DVR from any computer you already have, it is standard practice at many businesses to hide the DVR in a hidden or protected place, and use a PC to call up the camera views through your network, and leave that view up overnight. That way the burglars think that the PC is the recording device and will attack it.  If you can’t do that, or don’t want to risk harm to the PC, then I strongly recommend placing an old VCR or time-lapse recorder next to the security monitor as bait, and hiding and securing the DVR in another place. If they think that they have the evidence, they will get careless.