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Guide to Closed Circuit TV (CCTV)

So would you like to play "Spot the CCTV Camera?". Eagle eyed visitors may recognise the profusion of street furniture, surrounding a single heritage dome camera keeping watch over part  of Londons' prestigious Oxford Street shopping area.

Information on a wide range of housings,
suitable for any application.


STANDARD WEATHERPROOF CAMERA HOUSINGS

Before the introduction of the ‘Dome’ camera, all outdoor cameras had to be fitted into weatherproof housings; and as the camera / lens combinations quite literally came in all shapes and sizes, so to did the housings that protect them.

In general terms, there are actually three main types of protective housing used with standard industrial cameras. The original designs consisted of an elaborate base section, which as well as rigidly supporting the camera, also accomodated some form of thermostatically controlled heating element (usually a ceramic or metal clad resistor).

This base section would then be locked into place into a metal or plastic box secion cover, either using spring loaded clips, or alternatively using a simple twist lock mechanism.

Overall, this type of design was and indeed still is, a well sealed, durable and relatively inexpensive approach to providing effective camera protection; but not without its disadvantages.

As a functioning unit, it’s very good, but for a sevice engineer hanging off the side of a building by their fingertips, it's a pain!.

Once you’ve undone the securing clips and then gently (or on occasions awkwardly) eased off the large box cover top section, then what? If you’re stuck up a ladder with an increasingly heavy piece of metalwork and nowhere to put it, you may be forgiven for becoming less than enamoured with this conventional design of housing. In fact, as electrical regulations were updated over the years, it didn't help having a thin earthing continuity wire from the base to the cover, which could only easily be removed using two hands.

Later models refined the design by using a compressed very lightweight folded top cover which when fitted, pressed down firmly onto a water resisting neoprene liner.

Quite a nice aesthetically pleasing design, but the downside was that over a period of time, it was not unusual to find the neoprene ageing, and rain water gradually beginning to seep in and build up inside the lower section of the housing.

Continued>>

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