So What’s All This IP Stuff Anyway?

3 part series by Anthony Cafaro

Part 2

The need for surveillance solutions began roughly in 10,000 BC when rivaling tribes would pillage one another’s food stock in the night. Without exact evidence of the culprits, allegations and feuds would escalate out of control and give us the box office hits we enjoy today. The early theft prevention implemented during this time period and lasting up until the later 1900’s was the night watchmen.

During the 1970’s with the emerging trend of corporate business, fancy “bean counters”, and stringent budget guidelines a solution had to be devised to eliminate the financial liability of the night watchmen for a more efficient and accurate surveillance solution.

The CCTV or Closed Circuit Television Solution consists of 4 parts:

• Cameras

• Monitoring Device

• “Plug & Play Cable”

• VCR (Yes, this is the same device that once occupied more than 85% of American households until the late 1990’s)

CCTV solutions are a string of security cameras run across the area to be surveillance using “Plug & Play cable” also known as Coax. The simplistic structure is run much in the same manner as our cable T.V. Images are carried from origin setup (surveillance camera) landing on a designated viewing screen (monitor) and recorded using a VCR (Very Classic Recording Device). With the use of an additional device called a “quad” a monitor may be used to display the images of 4 separate CCTV cameras simultaneously.

Although becoming outdated with the introduction of IP based deployments, CCTV solutions are still very popular due to existing infrastructure and current market costs of surveillance solutions across the board.