If you are considering installing a new video surveillance system, or
expanding your existing video surveillance system, you might want to
consider installing, or upgrading to a network IP video system. A
network video surveillance system offers you a number of improvements
over a traditional CCTV video system, like better image quality and
lower cost to own and maintain.

A network IP system runs off a local area network, or LAN, which
connects computers by Ethernet. You access each camera like it was it's
own computer, because it has it's own network IP address. You can
control this camera from anywhere in the world and it makes for easier
use than a traditional analog CCTV video system.

For years, Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) video surveillance
systems were the only choice for video surveillance of your home or
business. At first, the images from analog cameras were transmitted
through cables to a quad, or monitor for viewing. With the advent of
the Video Cassette Recorder (VCR), you were finally able to record the
video to a VHS tape for future viewing. However, if you had to actually
find an instance of needing the video for law enforcement, it required
watching, or fast forwarding through hours of video.

This advanced to using a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) or DVR card
in a computer to convert the analog video signals to digital formats.
Then the video can be recorded to a hard disc, or burned to a DVR. They
were still closed systems using CCTV cameras that were viewable only by
the administrators of the surveillance system. Recent advancements have
allowed those DVR's to have the ability to connect to the internet, so
you can remotely view the cameras from any Internet accessible computer
or smart phone. The problems are that the cameras are still analog and
the system is far from perfect.

While Network IP Cameras have been around since the mid-1990's,
they were originally not as good as professional analog cameras. The
allowed digital imaging, networking, and storage, though they were
usually web-cams that let you view a tiny, grainy image over the
Internet, or a local area network.

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The times have changed; technology and IP technology have married
up with the digital camera, to create the ultimate video surveillance
system. IP network capable cameras have caught up with analog camera
technology, and now exceed the quality of the video from traditional
CCTV cameras.

The main benefits of a Network IP based video surveillance system are:

* A complete digital solution, no need for DVR's or DVR cards.
* Ease of set-up, no video cables to run.
* Power the camera over your LAN, no power cables to run.
* Pan-Tilt-Zoom is built in, no need for additional hardware.
* 2-way audio is built in, now you can hear and talk to the person.
* Interlace problems are eliminated in high resolution cameras.

These are the main advantages of a network surveillance system over
an analog surveillance system, so you can make an educated decision
before you purchase a new system, or upgrade an existing CCTV based
system. You should know that IP cameras are more expensive then CCTV
cameras, as they are considered a little computer by the network, and
have the digitizing hardware built in.

The cost of installing a network IP camera system starts to pay for
itself after 8 cameras, as you have a decreased labor cost due to no
video cable to run, you just hook up a switch to a local area network
and run your IP cameras off that.