When designing a surveillance solution, it is crucial to consider all aspects such as environment, bandwidth, lighting and storage to name a few.  Even something as trivial as frame rate can cause significant degradation in system performance. 

Here are some of the aspects that you need to take into consideration for your next surveillance solution:

1. Environment:  Understanding the environment that the cameras will be operating in will dictate the type of camera or form factor that you will select.  For example:

•  A Fisheye panoramic camera is ideal for a small room such as a class, shop floor or an office.
• Bullet cameras are typically used in outdoor environments for their IP67 rating (water and dust resistant) and for their viewing distance. 
• Dome cameras are perfect for indoor environments like foyers and reception areas but with its IP and IK rating, can also be used in high-risk environments. 
• PTZ cameras are normally used in wide-open spaces such as farms or parking lots where you require the zoom function as well as moving the camera around. 

2. Viewing distance:  knowing the max distance from the camera to the field of view in your surveillance solution just as important.  For example:

• IR or Infrared indicates the max distance that the field of view will be illuminated in IR light for night time monitoring or recording.
• LightHunter and Starlight technology that offers clear image in low-light scenarios.
• Lens size determines the field of view for the camera.  For example, a 2.8mm lens has a focused view and a 4mm lens offers a wider field of view. Vari-focal lens cameras offer you as the installer the flexibility to set between 2.8mm and 12.5mm. 

3. Networking aspects to consider

• Installation distance:  It is important to remember that PoE (Power over Ethernet) switches can only power up the cameras up to 200m, depending on the switches and cables used.  Should your distances exceed 200m, you will need to consider adding additional switches to the installation.
• Wireless Solutions:  For cameras that are much further away from the NVR, you can consider using either Point-to-Point or even Point-to-Multipoint wireless solutions to transmit the video footage to the NVR and control room.
• The bandwidth generated from the video footage also needs to be taken into consideration to ensure that the network, both wired and wireless can transmit the data. 

4. Network Video Recorder:  Essentially the NVR will be the intelligence behind the solution and aspects to consider when selecting an NVR are:

• Number of NVR channels
• Storage for video footage
• Supported bandwidth capacity of the NVR 

5. Smart Analytics: smart analytics are power tools that you can use in order to optimise your surveillance solution, for example:

• Using the H.265 and proprietary UNV U-code compression to save bandwidth not only on your network transmission but also on your recording space.
• Additional smart analytics to consider are LPR solutions, facial recognition and smart intrusion prevention. 

There are many ways to improve a CCTV solution, these are just the 5 fundamental basics for any installer to follow in order to optimise their surveillance solution. Uniview has the complete package in order to help you fulfil a complete solution as well as make great margins while doing so. The UNV range contains all sorts of IP cameras, NVRs, Heat tracker solutions, Accessories, CCTV switches a video doorbell and many more.