Choosing Outdoor Cameras

Adding CCTV, Surveillance or Security Cameras around an Automatic Gate or other areas around a property that have motion detection to start recording and/or turn on security lights and human detection to either sound an alarm or send an alert to a Smart Phone with an App is a powerful addition to the security an automatic gate already has to offer.

Motion detection picks up any changes in selected areas of an image so is ideal for starting recording and turning on security lights that won't annoy anyone if false triggered by cats, dogs or bugs, where as human detection picks up the shape of a human face moving in an image so is a much more reliable technology outdoors for activating alarms or sending alerts. Many cameras have other detection technologies too that are useful for many different applications.

We stock only high quality proven and reliable brands that we know work well because we have installed cameras for 10+ years so know a bit about them this way you're not just buying camera's to install yourself you're getting all the experience of installing them too as we can help with any issues you may have along the way.

Simplest Outdoor Camera system with Recording and Alarm

The simplest most economic camera and recording system that can be added to an automatic gate with or without an Intercom are stand alone WiFi cameras that have built in recording to an SD card. These can be viewed directly from a Smart Phone, tablet or PC from within a home or office or if connected to the Internet from anywhere in the world. If there is a compatible Intercom system installed the cameras may also be viewed on the Monitor for the Intercom.

Graphic of a Wifi Intercom and Camera System Combined

Even though these cameras are Wireless they still need 12VDC power, they don't run off built in batteries.

Advantages of IP Cameras

IP Cameras are Digital Cameras that connect to a Home or Office Network using Ethernet Cables rather than coaxial cables like traditional Analogue Cameras do. An advantage of IP Cameras is the fact that they can easily be made Wireless up to 15km by installing WiFi Outdoor Access Points (OAP) that can be shared by other cameras and Intercoms. IP Cameras can have built in recording to an SD Card or can be connected to a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) or Network Video Recorder (NVR) for recording lots of cameras from one location. IP Cameras and can be viewed directly from a Smart Phone, Tablet, PC or DVR/NVR from within the home or office or if connected to the Internet from anywhere in the world. If an IP Intercom is installed the cameras may also be viewed on the monitor for the Intercom.

Advantages of Analogue Cameras

Analogue Cameras are more budget friendly than Stand Alone WiFi or IP Cameras and can be used to upgrade older analogue cameras with modern high definition cameras without having to replace the cabling, which can be a huge saving, although they do require a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) to work, which can offset savings made with the cameras if there's only a few of them and there must be Coaxial or UTP (unshielded twisted pair) cable run between each camera and the DVR, which can also offset savings too.

The good news is a modern DVR allows older standard definition (SD) and newer high definition (HD) Analogue and Digital Cameras to all be used together so you can have a Wireless WiFi Camera at the Gate integrated with a WiFi Intercom, reuse old cameras, add new budget friendly HD Analogue cameras and everything can still be viewed from a Smart Phone, Tablet or PC from the DVR within a home or office or anywhere in the world if connected to the Internet. Motion detection and other technologies are built into the DVR not the analogue cameras so these still apply.

Analogue verses Digital CCTV Cameras

Surveillance, Security or closed circuit TV (CCTV) cameras come as analogue or digital. Digital cameras are known as Internet Protocol (IP) Cameras or Network Cameras that first appeared a decade or so ago with high definition (HD) where as analogue cameras are the traditional camera that have been around for quite sometime although were only standard definition (SD) or less until the last few years when high definition (HD) versions have now become mainstream.

Pros for (HD) Analogue Cameras are: They can be used to upgrade an older (SD) analogue system to (HD) using the same cables, they are installed the same way as the old school analogue cameras, they can work on Unsheilded Twisted Pair (UDP) cable or Cat5 or 6 Network Cable and tend to be more budget friendly than a similar quality IP Camera.

Cons for Analogue Cameras are: HD Analogue Cameras have many different formats so must be matched with a compatible recorder, must be connected to a recorder to view/record and cannot easily be made wireless.

Pros for IP Cameras are: Each IP Camera can be viewed directly from a Smartphone, Tablet, PC or Intercom Monitor without the need for a recorder, some IP cameras have built in recording or recording to a cloud, have the option of wireless using WiFi, generally have higher definition and can be integrated closely with video intercom systems.

Cons for IP Cameras are: Most do require setup with a PC before they will work and require cabling to be replaced if upgrading an old system that used coaxial cable.

The good news is you can mix and match IP and Analogue Cameras if connected to a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) as DVR's these days allow different formats of analogue and IP cameras to be connected including SD analogue cameras although not all high definition (HD) analogue cameras are the same they have different formats but we stick with the one brand so they'll all work together.

Seeing in the Dark

Today's quality cameras work well in very low light in colour and when the light gets too low an Infrared Light Switches on so the Cameras can see in complete darkness up to quite a distance, which is black and white and cannot be seen by any intruder. If a white light is preferred an LED sensor light can be installed that comes on when ever there is someone present, which is convenient if its in a walk way and acts as a deterrent to intruders.

Picture Quality

All modern CCTV cameras whether they are analogue or digital are high definition as opposed to the older standard definition cameras. A typical resolution nowadays is 2 Mega pixel also known as Full HD or 1080P with analogue cameras going up to 8 Mega Pixel (4k) and IP cameras as high as 32 Mega pixel. Higher quality cameras also have Wide Dynamic Range (WDR), which means they can pickup more detail in the shadows where its darker and in brighter spots too. They also have better low light performance so can see when its almost dark with noise filtering preventing the picture becoming grainy in low light.

Bullets, Domes, Eyeballs or Turrets

CCTV Cameras come in three forms the bullet, dome and eyeball (or turret). The bullet is a more traditional looking camera that fits easily onto a wall and works better as a deterrent because people recognise it straight away as a camera. A dome camera has the camera in a clear plastic dome that is better for installation under an eve, is more discrete and offers a higher resistance to vandalism. Eyeball or Turret cameras look nicer, they resemble a ball and socket joint and fit easily onto walls and under eves.

Viewing Angle

Out of all the technical specs listed with a camera one of the most important for video surveillance is its viewing angle. If the camera is quite close to a gate, pool area or other subject then a wide viewing angle such as 110o is needed to cover as much as possible otherwise two or more cameras with a narrower angle such as 60o may be better for covering an area fully. If the camera is a long way from the gate or other subject then a long viewing distance or narrow viewing angle is required such as 30o.

Why High Definition?

If you catch someone doing something they shouldn't on camera you can see more detail with a high definition camera so are more likely to be able to recognise who they are or read the number plate of the vehicle they're in and you can see further into the distance with the same angle of lens. A 1 Megapixel camera captures the same detail as 3 x SD (old analogue) cameras and a 2 Megapixel camera about the same as 6 x SD cameras, 3 Megapixel 12 etc... so high definition is much better value for money. IP Cameras go as high as 32 Megapixel.

Digital Video Recorders (DVRs)

All recorders for video surveillance these days are digital that is they record video onto a Hard Drive like the data on your computer. Long gone are the days when video is recorded on Tape. Most DVR's these days will accept the old analogue SD cameras, HD Analogue cameras and IP Cameras so you can mix and match cameras. A DVR can record all connected cameras at once continuously or can record a camera only when motion is detected, which is a good way of optimising hard drive space.

Power to the Cameras

This is normally 12VDC from a power adapter (plug pack) that is run in its own cable along side the video or network cable. There is also technology available today that allows power to be included in the same cable as the video. This is called Power over Coax (PoC) for HD Analogue Cameras and Power over Ethernet (PoE) for IP Cameras.

For WiFi Cameras at the gate or IP Gate Cameras connected to an OAP you could run a low voltage cable from the gate motor, which normally would have low voltage available for gate accessories. If you have 240VAC mains at the gate you could just use the power adaptors that come with the cameras etc... and run low voltage cable to them. If the gate motor is solar powered and is 12VDC then you could run power directly off the gate motors battery to the cameras etc... although you will need to add more solar panels and batteries to allow for the extra power being drawn from the system. If a gate motor is 24V you'll need to use a 24V to 12V converter as close to the cameras etc... as possible to get the correct voltage.

If the cameras are on a lamp post that is powered by the property (not a street lamp powered by the city) then the cameras, access point and switch could be powered from the lamp post using the supplied power adaptors, although there would need to be power on the post all the time so the lamp would need to have a built in daylight switch or timer that turns the lamp on and off. If the lamp only has power when the light is on then it will need to be changed around so there is power there all the time.

Another handy source of power is a pool or maintenance shed or garage that has power.

Built in Recording

Some IP and WiFi Cameras have built in SD cards so can record video from that camera only. These are generally limited to 128Gb, which is fine for a single camera particularly if recording only occurs when motion is detected. The advantage of this is it eliminates the need and cost of a DVR or NVR because the camera can be accessed from a Smart Phone, Tablet or PC with an App, which can also playback any video recorded on that camera. Once the SD card is full the oldest video recorded is erased making efficient use of memory space. Many cameras with built in recording can be accessed from the same App that can also access Video Intercoms making a very cost effective system.

Cloud Recording

Some WiFi Cameras have the option of connecting to online cloud storage so video can be recorded without the need or cost of a DVR or NVR. The recorded video can be viewed from a Smart Phone, Tablet or PC with an App so works much the same as built in recording accept built in recording will still record even if the Internet is down.

When to use and NVR rather than a DVR

If all you have is lots of IP Cameras then a Network Video Recorder (NVR) will record more IP cameras than a DVR and at higher resolutions. Some NVRs also have many Power over Ethernet (PoE) ports eliminating the need to run a separate power cable to each camera although this does require all cameras to be connected to the NVR. There are PoE switches available that can power the cameras too and can be placed away from a DVR.

Compatibility between Cameras and Recorders

HD Analogue cameras have many different formats that will only work with a compatible recorder. Common formats are HD-CVI, HD-TVI and AHD. It is important to make sure the recorder supports the camera. Some DVRs support all these formats allowing a mix of different brands of cameras to be used to take advantage of different features and pricing.

One issue with IP cameras in the past has been compatibility between the Camera and NVR so a standard called ONVIF has been established so if both the camera and NVR are ONVIF compliant then they will work mostly together, although may not have all features available.

Is an DVR or NVR really necessary or can you just use a PC?

IP Cameras can be used without a DVR or NVR as they come with Apps so they can be viewed from a PC, Smartphone or Tablet and the video can even be recorded on these devices too although this is only really practical with a PC that has a larger hard drive and from a practical point of view this needs to be on all the time and does slow the PC down making it useless for anything else so really it needs to be used for video surveillance only and another issue is Windows isn't designed to be left on all the time and tends to want to upgrade every 5 minutes so restarts and stops recording video in the middle of the night so really an NVR is a much more reliable and economic solution as these have their own linux based operating system (not Windows) so are a lot more stable, use less power and are cheaper to buy than a PC. The App for a PC, tablet or smart phone is fine for viewing cameras and can be used to connect to the NVR remotely using the Internet so recorded video can be viewed.

Choosing the Correct Outdoor WiFi Access Point

If there is a lot of WiFi traffic as you will find in a gated community with residents close to each other then its best to choose 5Ghz Outdoor WiFi Access points as this frequency isn't used much because it doesn't go through walls very well, which brings up the next point you need to have a clear line of sight with 5Ghz Access Points because they won't go through walls or trees all that well particularly when it rains as the water in the leaves blocks the WiFi.

If you're on acreage and the WiFi does need to go through trees then a 2.4Ghz Outdoor Access Point would be better because you don't normally get a lot of WiFi traffic on acreage.

WiFi won't go through the ground or metal fencing or walls so need to keep it high enough to avoid this.

WiFi going Around Buildings or Hills

If you are using 5Ghz in a gated community and need to get around buildings or are on an acreage property and your driveway is down a hill from the house then you can use an Outdoor WiFi Access Point as a repeater by firstly adding an Omni-directional antenna and then placing it where it has line of sight (clear of buildings or hills) with both the Hot spot and Client Access points. If its a long distance then two Outdoor access points can be used one as a client from the Hot Spot and the second back to back with the first as another hot spot on a different channel. These two would use their built in direction antennas aimed at the appropriate Access Points they are repeating.

Detection Technologies that come with Most CCTV Cameras

CCTV cameras can also be used as an alarm system with much better technology than traditional alarm systems including:

Motion Detection - where areas in an image are marked and certain changes in those area causes an alarm.

Trip Wire - where a line is drawn in the image and a direction set and any object crossing the line in that direction causes an alarm.

Intrusion - where an area is drawn in a image with entry and exit arrows which can cause alarms if an object moves into or out of the area.

Abandoned Object - where an area is drawn on an image and if an object appears in that area and remains it causes an alarm.

Missing Object - where an area is drawn on an image and if an object disappears in that area and doesn't come back it causes an alarm.

Face Detection - different to facial recognition, face detection checks shapes in the selected area of an image and if they have the characteristics of a human face it causes an alarm.

People Counting - where an area is drawn in an image and an arrow setting direction and each time an object passing into the area in the direction the people count is increased by one. The people count can be displayed on the image. Once a preset number is reached it causes an alarm.

Each one of these technologies causes an alarm it can be set to start recording, send an email, sound an alarm, turn on lights or alert a monitor that may be the App on a Smart Phone.

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