What to expect from a professional Home CCTV installation in Kenya

Home CCTV installation in Kenya is one area that most homeowners misunderstand. This is because to many people CCTV cameras are the last thing they think of when their home is under construction. 

This is where most homeowners get it wrong. In that scenario, homeowners act as their experts and make decisions on how to install their Home CCTV security cameras with the assistance of the electrician. 

In the neighbourhood, you will hear a homeowner say “Nataka macho moja hapa and ingine yenye inaona 360 degrees weka pale juu kwa rooftop ione kila mahali”. 

Both will agree on a master plan to install the cameras then head to River Road and move from shop to shop asking every CCTV camera vendor  “Nii camera gani inaona vizuri kabisa nyumbani”. After serious leg work, they settle on the likely cameras and equipment based on their explanation, and the installation starts. 

In a day or two, the project is complete and the electrician shares login credentials with the client with a disclaimer to chew the password immediately after memorizing it. 

Reviewing the above illustration of how the work was done,  most likely you will find cables running on the wall surface or hanging like cloth lines between spaces, the camera choice may not fit the purpose, all cameras are placed at the highest points with the intention to cover maximum areas and the DVR is fixed in the bedroom and the monitor is connected to the bedroom TV. 

What should make you say “That is work well done”? 

As the technology used in CCTV systems continues to get cheaper making them more affordable, there is an opportunity for CCTV systems to reach the more general consumers.

However, with that said there are a couple of things that you should keep in mind. 

First, it is best to hire a professional installer to help make sure you choose a relevant and suitable CCTV camera system for your individual needs whether that may be indoor or outdoor security. They can also advise what might work better depending on your personal situation and home type. 

A functional CCTV system should have full coverage of the property with 24/7 monitoring in a well-designed network compatible with all installation components including backup power. 

The basic components of a CCTV system include:

IP-based CCTV surveillance systems can deliver significant advantages over analogue systems with better remote access, greater integration with other systems, improved image quality, and scalability. 

For end-users who want to take full advantage of the benefits mentioned above, the design and implementation of their CCTV system need to be carefully planned and executed. This will ensure the system is flexible, future-proofed, and appropriate to satisfy customers’ specific needs. 

When installing any closed-circuit television (CCTV) security system to safeguard the interior and exterior of your property, it’s best to focus on this technology’s four components; cameras, a recording system, a monitor, and video management software (VMS). 

The supporting equipment such as power cables, video recorders, routers, power supplies, and more are also essential for a fully functional system.

For many applications, IP cameras offer a range of benefits over their analogue equivalents. These include better image quality, flexibility, Power over Ethernet, analytics, and other special features. 

When selecting a camera, detailed knowledge about the installation site and application of the camera is vital to ensure suitable images are captured in the video management system. 

Main types of IP cameras to choose from:

Once the camera types have been selected, the next step is to get the functionality required for each camera. Some of the things to should while doing this include:

Image transmission is key when designing a networked-based IP security system. Depending on the application there is a wide range of transmission solutions that can be deployed to achieve the desired results such as Ethernet switches, encoders/decoders, fiber, SAN (storage area networks), Network keyboards, and wireless.

In an analogue-based solution, the transmission medium could be fiber, UTP, or COAX and is designed as part of the CCTV system. For IP systems, the video data travels across a network-based infrastructure. 

Whilst it is unusual for the security integrator to design a corporate network, it is increasingly common for the end-user to ask them to work with their IT department so that the security system transitions smoothly on their network. In many cases, this will be a dedicated LAN. 

Typically, each network design will be customized to the user’s needs and the specified installation. The security design considerations include IP addressing and transport protocols along with bandwidth, scalability, and network security. 

It is vital to consider how bandwidth will deploy on a system as this can severely impact the performance of the end user’s network traffic throughout the business. It is fair to say that in the past bandwidth usage has been a key factor in slowing down the adoption of IP-based systems. 

In smaller systems with up to 10 cameras, a simple 100-Mbits network switch can be used without too much of a knock-on effect on bandwidth limitations. This is because a typical camera delivering high-quality images at high frame rates will only use around 2 -3 Mbit/s of the available network bandwidth. 

With large systems, switches connected need to have a gigabit backbone or a separate LAN to ease bandwidth issues. Other solutions include VLANs on a switched network, Quality of Service capabilities via the switch, and event-based recordings. 

Making sure network video can only be viewed by authorized personnel is an important step in creating a successful IP surveillance installation. By their very nature, most applications contain sensitive information and selecting the right security options – such as firewalls, virtual private networks (VPNs), and password protection – will eliminate concerns about how an IP CCTV system might be compromised.

Storage requirements, the accessibility, retrieval of images and related information including scalability, redundancy, and performance, are all important to a network solution. The ability to use open storage solutions is one of the main benefits of IP surveillance and there are two main ways to achieve this. 

The most common is to have the storage attached to the server running the application, as in a Network Video Recorder (NVR). The other is a storage solution where the storage is separate from the server running the application, called network-attached storage (NAS) or storage area networks (SANs). 

SAN systems enable the designer to build redundancy into the storage devices so video data can be saved simultaneously in more than one location. This configuration can include a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) set up which also enables failover where two servers work with the same storage device (clustering) to reduce system downtime. 

Fortunately, most manufacturers provide design tools that enable the system designer to select the correct amount of storage for the specific application.

Video compression methods are used in network surveillance systems to improve the efficiency of transmission and reduce the need for more expensive storage. 

Most manufacturers use standard compression techniques to ensure compatibility and interoperability. There are three standards of video compression: Motion JPEG, MPEG-4, and H.264. The latter is the latest standard and is considered to be the most efficient and widely accepted H.264 is the latest MPEG standard for video encoding and it is expected to be the main video compression standard in the future. 

H.264 can maintain image quality, and reduce the size of a digital file by as much as 80%. This means much less network bandwidth is used and lower storage space is required. The downside of H.264 is that other hardware in the systems, such as cameras and monitoring stations, need higher-performance machines, but this now has less of an effect with advances in PC/Server technology.

In IP surveillance systems one of the most critical components is the video management system (VMS) as it’s the part the end-user client will work with directly. 

A significant difference between analogue and IP-based systems is the management of video images and related information. With network systems, the user can retrieve and access images instantaneously. As well as passively recording and displaying images, the technology also evaluates situations and triggers alarms to enable security officers to take the appropriate action. 

Video management software (VMS) is feature-rich, manages video for live monitoring and recording, and provides integration into other systems. Solutions typically range from single PCs to advanced client/server-based software that provides management functionality for thousands of cameras. 

This is a key feature as easy integration with access control devices and other systems allows users to manage video and other building controls, such as access control and badging systems, through a single program. 

The choice of video management system depends on several factors such as the compatibility of the cameras being installed, available bandwidth, storage, scalability, frame-rate control, and integration requirements.

+ ONVIF Any discussion on IP CCTV would not be complete without mentioning ONVIF. ONVIF was created to provide an open standard across manufacturers and is designed to make it easier to integrate video management software with third-party cameras and third-party software. 

It is a single protocol for everything, which means there is no need for the development of a custom API. As it is an open standard this also means the end-user is not locked into a particular camera vendor. 

When designing and planning an IP CCTV system the integrator must ensure that he chooses products that are ONVIF compliant to ensure interoperability between cameras and network recording devices. ONVIF has different versions of compatibility that dictate which features can be integrated into a system. In some cases, a camera can supply a video feed whilst lacking the ability to do more advanced features, such as video analytics. Sometimes companies say that a device is ONVIF compliant when it is not. 

The only sure bet for full functionality with your NVR or VMS is to check with your distributor who can guarantee compatibility between the devices they supply.

When designing an IP-based video surveillance system, the wide variety of equipment available and the rapid pace of technology needs to be balanced with the end-users’ specific needs to ensure the best solution is delivered to the customer. 

The main principles are still the same for designing IP-based systems as they are for analogue solutions; specifying the correct camera and evaluating issues, such as the location, lighting, the field of view and fixed or zoom lens functionality. 

Thereafter the IP system takes on a completely different design as the transmission, management, and storage of the video is distributed via a network. In addition to this, the cameras and recording devices must be ONVIF-compliant to ensure compatibility. 

This means there is a need for system designers, installers, and integrators to learn new skills and consider applications from a different perspective if they are to make the most of the technical advantages available from the latest technologies in the market today thereby maximizing return on investment for their clients. 

By breaking the CCTV systems installation decision-making process down into simple steps, all possible scenarios are covered. 

The above information provides the fundamentals for designing and installing an IP-based video surveillance system with first-rate functionality and future-proofed flexibility – advantages a world away from a traditional analogue solution.