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Adam Bannister is a contributor to IFSEC Global, having been in the role of Editor from 2014 through to November 2019. Adam also had stints as a journalist at cybersecurity publication, The Daily Swig, and as Managing Editor at Dynamis Online Media Group.
November 11, 2016

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How to get enough detail in your CCTV images [video]

In the video below, CCTV consultant Simon Lambert explains how you can set up your video surveillance system to get enough detail in your CCTV images to “identify people, read numberplates, whatever it is you need to do.”

Watch the video below and read the transcript beneath that.

“In terms of picture clarity and getting the best, lighting is one of the fundamentals. There are several others and no one is more important than the others, because really you need all of them. They all add together and benefit each other.

“One of them, of course, is having enough detail in the picture to start with, because you can’t manufacture the detail later.

“On CSI, on the TV, they can zoom in to things and read newspapers at 300 yards. That’s not reality; that’s Hollywood fantasy. You can’t do that; I’ve met quite a few customers who think that you can – and when their system doesn’t do that, they think they’ve bought the wrong thing.

“Well that’s because they believe what they see on TV. It’s not true. You have to design your system correctly in the first place.

“We talk about pixels on target and all sorts of things, and if you’re technical that’s fine; if you’re not technical, it’s gobbledegook.

“But basically, if you’ve got a picture that’s spread as a really, really wide angle – which is very often how cameras are set up it seems, because installers just set them to wide angle and walk away – then you end up with all your details spread over a wide area, so any detail in it tends to be small. And if it’s small, there’s no detail in it.

“So zoom in on the bit of area that you’re interested in, and the things at the side don’t matter. And each camera will have its own purpose.

“So maximise the detail on each camera’s area of focus, and don’t just set it to wide angle as you’re throwing away the detail that you need to identify people, to read numberplates – whatever it is you need to do.

“We found in the workshop that even with the same manufacturer, you can take two or three different lenses, and when you look at the test chart to see how clearly those lenses perform, there are differences from one model to another.

“And if that’s from a good quality manufacturer, can you imagine how much picture detail will be lost from a cheap lens for a name that you don’t particularly trust?

“This is really going to make a major difference. If you look at one and look at the other, you’ll be sold on the fact that lens quality really, really matters. If you haven’t seen one next to the other, it’s difficult to imagine, but seeing is really believing.”

Find out more about Simon Lambert’s CCTV consultancy services on at the Lambert & Associates website.

 

 

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