Welcome to the
"Technical Section"
of
Doktor Jons
Guide to Closed Circuit TV (CCTV)

Time Lapse, VCR's, DVR's, NVR's ...
it's time to go on the record...

How to get the best from a record system - continued

When you do have an important recording on cassette, don’t forget to flick out the ‘record protect tab’, so at least it won’t be accidentally over recorded. If you do have an incident recording, make sure it’s correctly logged, ‘bag it’ in a sealed and signed envelope or purpose made evidence bag, and lock it away till the authorities wish to view it.

One final point regarding VCR’s and multiplexers; try not to overload a single recorder with too many camera signals, otherwise you may end up with the images from each camera being spaced four or five seconds apart .... not much use!

Either reduce the number of cameras connected to the multiplexer, increase the record speed (i.e. more images per second) or choose a multiplexer with a particulalrly high frame rate (50+ frames per second or f.p.s.).

A lot of the information for analogue recording equally applies to Digital Video Recorders (DVR).

However the main operational differences are the inability to remove the ‘core’ recording media, if it’s a fixed Hard Disc Drive (HDD) [a very few do allow removal], and the ability to not only alter the record speed (same as analogue) but also to vary the level of resolution in the recorded images.

As most Digital recorders now use Hard Discs, and remember most cannot be removed without tools and knowledge, it is normal practice to leave the machine on ‘Repeat Record’ so when the disc is full, it starts to rewrite over the first recorded material.

Backing up a complete hard disc, is rarely done, and unfortunately this is a seriously retrograde step in the evolution of forensic CCTV surveillance

Some incidents may not come to light for weeks, and any opportunity for reviewing a suspects earlier visits to site, may have long since been expunged without trace.

Continued >>

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