When designing video monitoring solutions for small and medium-sized businesses, it's essential to highlight the actual needs of the business segment in the medium to long term to avoid unnecessary costs. However, many managers end up opting for equipment with attractive upfront prices, which often lead to long-term headaches.
In the CCTV market, you can find diverse solutions with varying prices, configurations, and durability. Here, we highlight some tips that usually offer a good cost-benefit ratio, always emphasizing business solutions.
IP Network and PoE System
Currently, IP transmission technology is quite popular in the CCTV market, although analog equipment is still available. The main advantage of acquiring equipment with this type of communication is the cost savings it can provide to the overall project, as IP systems can communicate in high quality and store data across various devices easily, especially if the devices communicate via PoE (which sends and receives data and electrical energy through a single cable). Unlike analog technology, which often requires more structured cabling and configurations, such as DVRs for medium-quality data storage.
In the long run, using IP systems can contribute to cost savings in project maintenance, as the number of cables and storage equipment will likely be fewer than those used with analog cameras.
Cameras
The secret to finding the right cost-benefit camera is to locate the perfect model for each monitoring area. Generally, PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) cameras are quite popular as they allow image movement through user control, enabling a single PTZ camera to replace multiple fixed cameras (which lack this type of movement).
Additionally, there are cameras ideal for places like hallways, which allow lens movement from horizontal to vertical, capturing a larger portion of narrow environments on the sides, such as hallways. With this functionality, besides potentially saving on the number of devices needed to monitor a single environment, it is possible to save on bandwidth and data storage, as the monitoring pixels are all focused on the correct area without wasting space on walls.
Furthermore, other features in CCTV cameras can be a differentiator for a small/medium business project. The type of environment for which the camera was designed is an example; there are cameras for indoor environments with specific protection and cameras for outdoor environments that can withstand rain, sunlight, and other events.
Additionally, there is a type of impact certification that helps equipment, especially outdoor ones, resist vandalism acts. These can be classified, such as IK09, IK10 (the higher the number, the better the protection settings).
Cloud-Based VMS Software
Lastly, but no less important, the way the network and monitoring data can be managed also impacts the cost-benefit of a small/medium-sized project. The benefits of cloud storage are numerous, including savings on storage, enhanced security with encrypted domains, and remote access via smartphones, tablets, and laptops for authorized users.
Thinking about small and medium-sized projects, we developed a specialized Hotsite for these segments, where you can not only design your project but also make direct purchases. Click here to see this CCTV solution that can be acquired for both residential and business security purposes.
