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CCTV vs digital surveillance

What is digital surveillance? Rolf Walther of Walther Systems believes the complexity and application of digital surveillance justify the breaking down of each word in context.

"Digital because the security industry has been tending strongly towards the IT backbone for some time now and the video, audio and telemetry signals must now be collected, transmitted and recorded digitally by digital or computer-based equipment," he explains.

"In terms of surveillance the objective is more complex than just watching an area or location but rather allowing any changes to this area or location to be monitored and recorded. The monitoring component allows for human response (guard response, gate opening etc) or automatic response (alarm, light switch, any mechanical or electronically triggerable action). The recording can be continuous, event triggered (eg, motion), scheduled (at specific times) or triggered (manual - or automatic such as smoke detectors). The recorded footage can then be used for review purposes for legal, corrective, regulatory or management action."

With this combined functionality and the integration with IT technologies, Walther says the applications are countless. The IT integration allows us to optimise technology, for example take the combination of the typical surveillance signals (audio, video, control and power) into one cable which simplifies a complex network of cabling types making integration and installation quick and easy. (See the Video-AT-Net product at www.wsi.co.za)

For more information contact Rolf Walther, Walther Systems, 011 886 5279, [email protected], www.wsi.co.za

Other product categories

Microwave vs wireless

* Wireless is a broad term covering all connectivity not using cable.

* Microwave is specifically frequencies from 2 to 25 GHz.

* Microwave normally requires line of sight but can achieve ranges of up to 45 km.

Microwave transmitters and receivers

A 16 channel microwave transmitter only uses one channel to transmit on. The 16 channel means you have to select one of the 16 channels to work on for that transmitter. The same applies to the receiver.

We have had people under the misconception that 5, 16 or 32 channels on a Tx or Rx means that it transmits or receives on all channels simultaneously.

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