There’s something of a gap in the market – or at least in our reference library (OK, big box in the corner)– for readable CCTV textbooks.
You’d think that with the huge amount of interest there is in this sector, the bookshelves would be overloaded with textbooks on the subject. The alarms and access control sector is well served (a number of them written by our regular contributor, Gerard Honey).
But for at least five years we’ve been using that mighty tome, CCTV Surveillance by Hermann Kruegle as our standard reference work. For all its authority, that book, costing a small fortune ( GB pound 75 in 1996) has its limitations. Being American, Kruegle writes in the US style (“synergies” and “functional scenarios”) and it is now out of print as far as we know. There’s also been so much CCTV development in five years that, although the basics haven’t changed, there’s always the danger you’re reading old news.
Maybe the lack of textbooks is due to the fact that the subject lends itself so well to CD-ROM. (Watch out for SITO initiatives along these lines and, meanwhile, check out The Complete Handbook of CCTV on CD-ROM by Mike Constant, of Constant Consultants, tel/fax 01453 833325).
Unlike many books on the subject, however, Closed Circuit Television, is aimed squarely at installers to provide the “essential knowledge required to gain SITO qualifications”, making it highly suitable for the readers of this magazine.
Author Joe Cieszynski is a contributor to the SITO distance learning materials on CCTV as well as teaching at Manchester College of Arts and Technology.
Rather than a general discussion on security issues, his book is a technical guide to installation, maintenance, video recording , cameras and monitoring and provides the underpinning knowledge required for NVQ Level 3. Trainees studying the1851 CCTV option will also find it suitable as a course book.
Cieszynski says that advances in security right across the board have forced engineers to upgrade their understanding of alarm systems and now they are having to deal with CCTV technology often with little knowledge.
He sets the scene with a short discussion on the uses of CCTV and the abuses of it when in the wrongs hands, coming to the conclusion (no surprises here) that people and their possessions are more secure when it’s in operation.
From then on it’s straight into clearly written, practical assessments on: Signal and power transmission; Light and lenses; Fundamentals of television; The CCTV camera; Monitors; Recording equipment; Camera switching and multiplexing; Telemetry control; Commissioning and maintenance. Chapters are illustrated with charts and drawings on almost every page.
Cieszynski’s opinions sometimes read as olde-worlde wisdom that will make young, thrusting CCTV sales types wince. For instance, on cathode ray tubes: “People often think of the thermionic valve as a thing of the past; something that went out during the 1970s with the rapid introduction of the transistor and silicon chip. Yet the cathode ray tube is a thermionic valve and, despite many attempts to replace it with a smaller and thinner alternative display device, there is still nothing that can produce the picture quality for the same price” Well, put that in your CCD and smoke it! As regular readers of Security Installer will remember, we ran the SITO/C&G 1851 CCTV syllabus as our Masterclass series throughout last year. (Just to digress a little here, we know a number of colleges photocopy these commentaries and base their classroom sessions on them. Now you don’t need a photocopier … just a PC printer. The Masterclass sessions can be accessed from Security Installer’s website. Visit www.security-installer.co.uk Select “Magazine archive” and use the “Free text search” facility. Key in “Masterclass” and you’ll get our series.)
Basics explained clearly
Cieszynski’s textbook does seem to aim for a similar “basics explained clearly” approach, in a much more detailed way.
But while its link with current exam requirements is, undoubtedly, its strong selling point, it’s also a source of criticism.
Even accepting that VHS is still the standard recording medium in CCTV, you do expect a textbook with a shelf life measured in years to place a few safe bets on future trends. We were nonplussed to see a 30-page chapter on Recording Equipment have only three pages devoted to digital video recording.
… And why, in an industry bursting with DACs, DATs, DCTs, DDSs, DLTs, DVDs, D-VHSs (and that’s just the “Ds” taken care of), is there no glossary of terms? Small criticisms, however, of what will, undoubtedly, become a trusted course textbook in colleges, a reliable primer for engineers who want to get into CCTV and a well- thumbed reference book in this office.
