What are the most important considerations for CCTV camera Installation ?

The market in 2020 is full of IP CCTV cameras of various types such as Power of Ethernet cameras, Wireless (WiFi) cameras, battery powered cameras, solar cameras, LTE cameras, and so on. A good installation can make a inexpensive CCTV cameras very reliable & effective for meeting the purpose it was installed (assuming it satisfies the functional requirements), whereas a poor installation can make even the most expensive and capable camera an unreliable system. So how do we ensure we have less installation failures ?

In our opinion, any CCTV camera installation needs to carefully consider THREE critical infrastructure aspects :

(1) Power

(2) Network

(3) Vandal Resistance

You need power to just run the camera. It should be *un-interrupted AFAP, otherwise you may miss recording critical events and raising alarms. Power can be supplied using electrical outlet (AC-DC adapter typically 5V or 12V), Over Ethernet (PoE or 802.3af/at/bt/*), Battery, and Solar. Even a combination of above methods such as Battery-cum-AC-DC adapter (battery gives backup in case of transient loss of power), Solar-Panel-cum-Battery, etc. Not every power supply suits every installation. You may not have power adaptor or ethernet port nearby, might be indoors ruling our solar option, not suitable to do any retro-fit wiring, and so on. Irrespective of the constraints, the facts remains that you need to supply *un-interrupted power by some design method.

Similarly CCTV recorded footage can be stored on camera, in an off-camera location like recorder rack nearby, a recorder in central location or in a cloud service or a combination. In either case their is a need to access or transfer surveillance footage from camera and for this a network is required. This network can be Wired Ethernet, WiFi, 4G-LTE/5G radio or in worst case the camera needs to become a WiFi hotspot to which a client can connect and view/transfer surveillance footage. Again like power this provides challenges. You may not get a strong cellular signal (indoor locations like basement, pump rooms, etc), may not have a WiFi or ethernet availability, etc. Nevertheless, one network connectivity method has to be found out OR the camera will have to be removed, taken elsewhere for viewing/transferring footage, which means a break in service. 

A third aspect worth considering is the vandal resistance of installation. It should not be very easy for anyone to tamper with the camera setup. Putting cameras at a height, hiding them, using special vandal resistant constructions (like domes), redundant storage (Cloud storage, SD Card + NAS, Recorder + Cloud, centralized off camera storage in secure environment, etc.), hidden (secured) cabling, having alarm/notification when camera is down, UPS functionality in case of blackout, etc. can be critical to prevent a criminal from committing a crime by tampering with the camera and getting away with it, even if their is no live monitoring of camera feeds by a dedicated surveillance system operator.

If an installer (Professional or DIY) gets these aspects right and selects the most suitable camera, he will end the project on a very satisfactory note AND have less lifecycle headaches to deal with during camera lifetime.

- Suman Kumar Luthra @ APRC-P3 Telecom Sub-Committee

How can we make our CCTV systems robust so that nothing escapes it ?

Any CCTV system with enough eyes and fair stability & availability will be very effective deterrent against unorganized, opportunistic, impulsive, hot-headed and petty crime or undesirable acts committed by vandals and ordinary citizens, but the same may not hold true against organized crime where you need additional measures to make the system robust. So before we charter into this territory first think if your requirement is to curb un-organized crime or organized one and read the rest of the post only if you feel the need of additional protection against sophisticated and organized vandals. 

If you want to make a very robust system, you have to first get into the mind of AND think like a vandal or criminal looking to commit the crime. A CCTV system is like Human body sensory organ sub-system viz. eyes (+ears), optic nerves & brain. To defeat the CCTV system it has to be deactivated before or made in-accessible at least after the crime is committed. A skilled vandal therefore can resort to one or more of the following tactics:

(1) Blind the CCTV system (cameras) before committing crime.

(2) Impair the communication mechanism between the eyes and brain (recording system) *before committing crime

(2) Impair the brain of CCTV system *before committing crime

(3) Destroy the contents of the the brain *after committing crime or run away with the brain. 

The above objectives can be met by either physical and non-technical actions, or by cybersecurity breaches.  A vandal who does not follow the above *before and *after tactics, will likely either be caught on camera committing the crime or leave enough circumstantial evidence for law enforcement to get him into the investigation net. 

And so our objective is to make it difficult (if not impossible) for him to do so, if we want to make our CCTV system robust. Its like an arms race. Lets see how this can be achieved in *abstract terms.

(a) Two eyes are better than one. 4 better than 2. More so if one eye watches the other. Do not think having one camera or a camera on main door is enough to deter crime inside the home. You need to have few inside, few outside at different locations, cameras on opposing diagonal room corners is even better,  so that it becomes difficult to bypass system by compromising one camera. A good camera density is a must so that its impossible to erase *all traces of circumstantial evidence even if *clinching evidence is erased. Less is not necessarily the best. 

(b) Another way of blinding the eyes is to smoke them by cutting fuel like power. If cameras are supplied power from a common source and that source is cut, then the eyes stop working. If camera is not on UPS and power is cut, the cameras all go down together and it does not matter if you have one eye or four. Therefore making it hard to reach common power source, distribution of power sources, redundant sources (Emergency Battery backup + UPS + Utility/DG supply) all help as counter measures. In case a common source is used, the common source itself can be watched by an eye, so that the act of disruption leaves a trail of circumstantial evidence.

(c) If a breach like above does happen, it may help if extra countermeasures are deployed. For that incidents like multiple cameras going down together can trigger notifications/alarms that alert the system owner and he can initiate manually a sanity check and any extra safety measures.

(d) The communication mechanism between eyes and brain could be the network. That network can be wifi or wired or cellular. Wireless signals (wifi or cellular) can be jammed, but this is a sophisticated cyber attack beyond the reach of an ordinary vandal. Wired networking can be disabled by cutting either cutting the networking cables and/or networking equipment or the power . Power we have dealt above, but typical counter measures for securing wired networks is not exposing cables (retrofit installation is weak), Putting cables in rigid conduits, junction boxes and not exposing any part, Securing networking switches just like power sources, obscuring the raceways/conduits by mixing them with others (at cost of maintainability), etc. are all strategies that are useful in deterring the vandal. If their is dependency on Internet access (cloud storage), having redundant internet connections can improve the vandal resistance as it *may get difficult to cut 4 connections together, and where the cabling is together the area should be on CCTV coverage also. 

(e) The brain of the camera can be on-board SD card, an off-camera but on premise-recorder, or Cloud storage. A cloud storage is very hard to tamper (governed by rules, no single person control, democratic governments,  geographical redundancy, etc). the only way you can compromise it is my keeping is so less that before the crime is detected, the footage of it is overwritten. It will however be helpful if cloud storage is augmented by an on-premise storage in either camera SD card or NVR/File-Server/BaseStation. Similarly having duplicity of storage in home such as both on camera and on NVR/File-Server/BaseStation etc is helpful if cloud storage is not used. Another tactic is to hide the Recording device and make it harder to access (lock it, put at height, cover by camera footage, etc), so that attempts to tamper with it (steal hard disk, cut power supply, etc) before and after the crime, cannot escape the eyes and brain. 

(f) Lastly keep the methods deployed top secret. Many crimes are and will be committed with insider help. So if the vulnerabilities are known, the risks multiply. Which means we will not tell what all &  how we have deployed these vandal resistant methods in our apartment complex ;-))

Despite all this you cannot make an unbeatable surveillance system. You can just make it harder to defeat, because a vandal will need to deploy many tactics together and in unison to do so. And if after all this you are still defeated, give credit to the vandal and accept fate. Its survival of the fittest and he clearly came out first in the arms race.

- Suman Kumar Luthra @ APRC-P3 Telecom Sub-Committee

Where all CCTV cameras should be installed in residential apartments ?

For apartments complexes, 

1. Gates

2. Basement car parking driveways

3. Visitor parking areas 

4. Gardens 

5. Walkways and Jogging tracks

6. Common  facilities (STP, WTP, Generator room, Filtration plants, Transformer Yards, water storage area, communication rooms, supermarkets, ATM, etc)

7. Club and other recreational sports facilities (incl. kids play areas)

8. Elevators & Elevator lobbies 

9. Building entrances and exits 

are all places where surveillance cameras should be installed to ensure tenant safety. Few mobile cameras (battery powered  which can work without WiFi and record to SD card) should be used for dealing with dynamic surveillance requirements on areas not otherwise covered by CCTV in response to incidents. Any private areas like public urinals, change-rooms (in gyms), toilets, etc. should be strictly skipped.

For individual homes, the following page gives a good starting point (and are applicable to villas as well as independent houses):

https://www.safety.com/security-camera-installation/

- Suman Kumar Luthra @ APRC-P3 Telecom Sub-Committee

What is a distributed IP CCTV network system and where it can be applied ?

Distributed CCTV design concept comes mainly from the concept that the *storage of CCTV cameras is distributed or *NOT put in a central location like on-premise command center. As such each camera will have its own *exclusive storage on or near to it. This concept is used by OEMs like Mobotix and many wireless/wire-free cameras when *not using cloud storage. Now the centralized IP CCTV vendors like Hikvision, Cpplus, Dahua, etc are all jumping into this domain.

An important characteristics of such system is lack of physical *wiring work and more suitability to a DIY/Retrofit installation, not requiring a professional installation and big $$$ in equipment & labor costs. Therefore, most system integrators discourage this for N number of *invalid reasons like poor quality, reliability, etc. whereas the fact is that they are equally competent. Beyond networking, it is the feature of camera like lens quality, Sensor, face/object recognition, etc. which dictate its value. 

Consider a small home installation. Less than or around 4 cameras. Retrofit as no wiring (or option to do) available. Mobile cameras in setup like kids and elderly watch. No 24x7 live monitoring but event based surveillance footage view. Smartphone as choice of viewing surveillance footage than dedicated screen inside house. Many cameras at a height, making them vandal resistant. And availability of 24x7 consumer broadband & WiFi networks. Quarterly maintenance work like cleaning, battery replacement, etc practical. This is typical scenario for many apartment or small villa. Above case immediately force you to ask whether we need to go for wired systems, whether we need to buy & maintain dedicated recorders (NVRs) with unreliable mechanical disks (HDD), etc. 

Today IP cameras support the most efficient H.265 encoding, 15-20 fps, Motion triggered and AI augmented smart recording  making them spectrally and temporally very efficient wrt to video storage requirement. They may generate 1-2 GB of surveillance data per day at max. SD cards come in capacities of 64 GB, 128 Gb and even 256 GB and easily available  making 2-4 months quite common on SD cards. An SD card sector can be read, erased and written maybe 300 times giving a lifetime of card exceeding 10 years, which is way beyond the usable life of camera considering the rate at which technology advances. In 5 years you would surely want a better camera and want to upgrade.

Wrt to our 3 key installation considerations, our view is:

(a) Its also easy to maintain a 24x7 BB connection that reboots every night or weekly/monthly by software/hardware timer and provided the required wireless networking access, not just inside home but anywhere away from it to on your mobile device. Many cameras will support software timer based graceful reboot. All this makes the networking part very reliable.

(b) Most Wireless cameras are powered by 5V or12V supply or a battery. many support dual mode like Micro-USB charging port and internal battery with the battery providing backup in case power is lost on the charging port. DC-DC UPSes exist in small form factors. Small Solar Panels can support outdoor installations by charging internal battery daily. All this makes the Power supply part very reliable.

(c) The only nitpicking you can do is the vandal resistance [if camera lost/stolen/malfunctioned, footage access is also lost perhaps permanently], which can be worked around by having cloud storage back of a week, backup storage on LAN, etc. The real cost or value is not of the camera or the recording device, but the content recorded and we have ways to improve its security without abandoning the system design concept.

We would go as far as to say that unless you have a home where nobody stays (no maintenance) for long periods 3-12 months or more), wired cameras are an overkill and increasingly are beginning to  look like the mainframes of the IP CCTV world. 

However these are not suitable everywhere. Its unsuitable if you have a large number of cameras (overloaded wifi, software limitation, less capable video decoding or viewing device, etc) OR need 24x7 centralized live monitoring (like apartment common areas, offices, malls, hotels, casinos, etc). Because of this reason, our apartment CCTV system is centralized one, while we recommend that tenants needing dedicated cameras to monitor their personal car parks, main door, homes use distributed IP CCTV cameras. The apartment does not have resources to manage and monitor their personal space (besides privacy implications) surveillance.

- Suman Kumar Luthra @ APRC-P3 Telecom Sub-Committee

What is a centralized IP CCTV network system and where it can be applied ?

A centralized IP CCTV system is the exact opposite of a distributed system, wherein, the storage of all cameras in put in a single common location (in one or more recorder devices).  It comprises IP camera, Network, recording & viewing sub-systems. This is the traditional PoE based IP CCTV design, very similar to Analog CCTV. It is especially suitable for scenarios where one or more of the following requirements apply:

(1) Need live monitoring 24x7

(2) Cannot guarantee safety of surveillance storage on camera and nearby locations (like multiple buildings in a multiple building setup)

(3) large number of cameras
(4) Need special smart camera like High-end PTZ, Number/License Plate recognition, Thermal, People Counting, etc.

It requires a network to function which may be wired ethernet, WiFi or even 4G-LTE/5G cellular. And this network design and performance is very critical to ensure security and performance. And just as Distributed system vandal resistance can be *augmented by having centralized cloud storage, a distributed system's weak point (the network availability) can be overcome by implementing an onboard storage cache (flash or SD-Card) to temporarily store footage if network goes down and send all data to central location once network becomes available again. 

Needless to say installers love the on-premise installation of this architecture. They require extensive investments in installations (cameras, cabling, switches, recorders, TVs and monitors) and operations (maintenance, live monitoring) which is big $$$. Our own apartment network is of this type, and costs nearly INR Rs. 20,000/-  per camera to build and usually has 50% cost distribution in IP cameras, Recorders & Storage, 10% in networking gear, 20% in cabling(passive) parts, and ~20% labor. A huge effort & time (90% plus) is spent in creating the supporting cabling and networking infrastructure, while the actual camera installation and configuration effort is minimal. It also needs 2% to 5% (depending on how well you bargain and who is doing it) of per camera cost annually in India for non-comprehensive maintenance & upkeep (add 10-15% annual wage inflation overhead on maintenance costs). Non-comprehensive maintenance covers labor only, while comprehensive maintenance includes parts and will be billed at a much higher rate (its more like insurance). 

They are extremely stable, of high quality, highly capable in terms of features and reliable. They will run for 5 years atleast if maintained routinely and actively. If maintained well, the lifetime could even be 7-10 years. But some replacement costs of cameras, mechanical storage (HDD), switches, recorders, etc. should be expected after 5 years. 

On the flip side, wired PoE installations are not easy to retrofit and need professional labor. If not done well they become eyesores and definitely not a great choice in all situation indoors (unless you have a comprehensive false ceiling running all through the home to hide the cabling & conduit/raceways). Even outdoors, their may be discoloration,  paint mismatch, wear & tear as time goes by. 

With the latest developments in wireless and wirefree camera design with cloud storage is becoming really popular. The ideal camera for home is wirefree, DIY installable/retrofit-friendly, runs for 6 months on battery, supports both onboard (for many months) and cloud storage (a few weeks atleast or subscription based) as well as cheaper with acceptable quality. We recommend such cameras for small home installations and personal use.

- Suman Kumar Luthra @ APRC-P3 Telecom Sub-Committee

What is a de-centralized IP CCTV network system and where it can be applied ?

Midway between centralized (fully) and decentralized (fully) deployment topology, lies the decentralized topology. In centralized system, their in ONE storage area for all N cameras in the system. In Distributed system, their are N storage areas for all N cameras in the system. In decentralized their are M storage areas for N cameras where 1 < M < N. The main motivation for doing this is when the network is highly unreliable (speed varies based on other factors) AND/OR hard/expensive/impossible to build. Very large systems like City Surveillance, Country surveillance etc will use such designs AND if multiple on-premise centralized setups (buildings) are linked to a common control room, then this larger system becomes a decentralized setup.

For eg, a villa layout wants to cover all roads and intersections and junctions. It can deploy a pole at each junction/intersection and at some midway point cameras to cover all roads running away from it. Since its not possible to network each and every pole in a retrofit manner with Fiber or copper cabling, it is not feasible to provide a wired networking and wireless may have bandwidth constraints. There the ideal choice is to locate small recorders on the camera pole itself , with UPS unit in weather proof housing and use wideband modem connectivity like 4G-LTE /5G to hook up to a centralized location, where surveillance video can be viewed. Similarly many apartment complexes may have multiple buildings each with a lobby and secure place to have local, manned surveillance command center, with each building coming up at different time of year/decade making a decentralized setup a logical way forward to start installing the system. Once the project is 100% completed a reliable backbone IP network can be built and the decentralized setup can be converted to a fully centralized setup or linked together to a bigger command center. Analog CCTV integrators typically follow this approach because that is what they are comfortable and experienced with [the NVR and TV is always an arm's throw distance away from the camera ;-))]. And also because they are generally ignorant about privacy and recording device safety.

We assume above that power can be supplied in such distributed setups. If not off-grid solar (or on-grid in case of large outages) is the only option, further adding to the costs & complexity.

- Suman Kumar Luthra @ APRC-P3 Telecom Sub-Committee

Do we need a maintenance contract for CCTV systems

This reply is based mainly on business situation in India and may not be applicable in other markets with labor shortage and expenses.

In our opinion, for DIY systems like wire-free or wireless systems with small number of cameras (<=8), their is no need of AMC contracts with any vendor. Since you have installed it yourself, you can make an effort to troubleshoot & maintain it yourself. If you have got such setup installed by a vendor, then its better you engage him on a per call basis to maintain rather than enter into an AMC contract with him. The vendor is not going to make a loss and their is not much money to be made by him anyways. If a camera or SD card or adapter or battery needs replacing, just pay him to replace it.

However the same strategy may not be useful for larger camera setups involving 16/32 cameras or more if using wired PoE installation (both centralized and decentralized designs). Often such setups are outside your home in apartment complex, where you have no business of doing DIY activities. You  may need to use ladders, power tools, etc  which only a professional installer has.  The question here is whether you should do an on-call maintenance or AMC contract. In our opinion for <32 cameras (or in worst case 64 cameras) and simple setups on-call maintenance is just fine, and you can keep switching vendor if a particular one is slow to fix or does not give a satisfactory service. Remember engaging an on-call service requires you to spend your personal effort for coordination & management (this need maybe very low for small systems but can be substantial for large systems)

But for bigger or complex setups (involving smart switching, optical fibers, elevators, etc) involving more than 32 cameras and 2 NVRs, you should engage the services of a professional installer/maintainer on a maintenance contract basis as you simply will not have the resources, tools and time to do it. Such contracts can be of two types:

(1) Comprehensive - Both Parts and Labor covered AND are costly. This is similar to insurance and will go up as time progresses (more parts expected to fail). Enterprises, Medium to Large  Commercial establishments, Senior Citizen homes, etc would like to use this method and outsource this activity completely. It is very hard to judge what the right pricing & terms should be  and MOST small installers will never enter into such contracts because of the risks involved. The upside of this is that vendor will do very good job as he can minimize failures and maximize profits with that approach and the customer has to spend very little effort & time on this. Done well this is what should be done. Big installers and security firms prefer to enter into such contracts as they can potentially profit and have the resources to manage well.

(2) Non-Comprehensive - Only labor covered. For parts, the customer has to pay separately. Most small installers prefer this as this reduces their risk exposure and they can focus on what's the work and what's the remuneration for it and whether its profitable enough for their time. They may also like to retain such work to showcase their capability and get more work elsewhere. Its also fair on the customer as he has control on maintenance costs. However the downside of this is that the vendor does not have a very big incentive of doing a good job as he is *not accountable for failed active components (cameras, recorders, storage media, hard disks) and cables rarely fail completely by themselves unless compromised by rodents, elements, vandalism (which anyways they will try to get indemnity from in the contract). So having a water tight contract listing down activities to be performed AND ensuring that those are carried out properly falls on the customer. And often the AMC providere will have a big list of rather important *exclusion clauses in the agreement for common problems to protect (reduce) his *contract covered effort investment.  So there is a constant tug-of-war between the parties.

Our community has chosen Option (2) - Non-Comprehensive maintenance contract presently AND have been using it by donating personal spare time and part of weekend to keep the large system running for 3+ years now. Out of 450 cameras, despite our strong design, installation, and maintenance practice,  2-3 cameras cameras go down every month and we need corrective maintenance work at-least once a month on average to bring them back up (usually cables have to be re-terminated or some entity restarted or some consistency check done on storage media or even a faulty camera replaced). We intend with this process, to keep the system running for  12 years at-least before we start upgrading equipment. and we are paying 2.5-3% of system installation CAPEX cost *annually for non-comprehensive maintenance (a 12 year contract will cost upwards of 30% and bring stable long time revenue to our system integrator)

Our contract template and verification checklists are attached:

(1) AMC Contract Template

(2) Preventive Monthly, Quarterly, Half Yearly and Annual Maintenance Checklists

If you go through them, you will get an idea over the whole CCTV system maintenance concept & activities.

- Suman Kumar Luthra @ APRC-P3 Telecom Sub-Committee

In future whether wireless (wire free) CCTV or PoE IP cameras will be winner ?

We think that for a fair amount time both types of setups will co-exist in mutually exclusive market segments. Digital PoE based IP CCTV system have achieved high levels of maturity & reliability (with only the camera image processing and artificial intelligence evolving) and would see deployment in large installation and enterprises. The IP cameras is this setup can function in all three deployment topology (distributed, centralized and decentralized).

For wireless cameras, the technology is still not mature wrt to topology and still evolving (along with the camera capabilities) and will see more favor with smaller single-home setups, small shops, etc. The two sub-types if these (wifi access + wired power) AND wire-free (wifi access + battery/solar power). However the utility of the former by itself is low as in many cases, running a power cable is as good (probably less safer) then running an ethernet cable, and you still need to supply UPS wired power (may not be a problem in some countries where power does not go off randomly and is very reliable with 1/2 planned outages per year). Still their could be a lot of homes, where electrical power line or socket is available on or near the site of camera installation (for eg, electrical lamp point to install Floodlight cameras, false ceilings which can hide wirings, kids cam, etc) but may have issues in laying new ethernet wires. Once you have electrical power 5/12V DC-DC UPS are relatively easily available (For example Resonate RouterUPS, Cuzor etc in India) to provide small distributed UPS function to the cameras. However, we think the main pull of such cameras is a DIY installation for small setups (<= 4 cameras) and we think the two wireless camera topology should merge in the future with below characteristics:

(1) Support Inbuilt battery (replaceable) and charging circuit (that can be fed by power adaptor or Solar Panel). In case the charging circuit is cut off (no sun, no power), the camera would run on battery un-interrupted till the battery drains out. This means inbuilt DC-DC UPS functionality

(2) The camera will support redundant SD-card/Base-Station/NAS storage (mandatory) and Cloud storage (optional subscription based). Max SD card supported capacities should be in 128/256 GB at least, rather than 32/64 GB only

(3) The WiFi support will evolve from 2.4G single band to dual-band 2.4/5G.2.4G has good range poor bandwidth (interference) suitable for far away/outdoor cameras, while 5G have less range but good bandwidth suitable for nearby/indoor cameras. Outdoor wifi Router (rare) can reverse the characteristics, though

(4) And parallelly enhancement in camera technology (lens, sensor, AI algorithms, etc) will continue as in Wired PoE IP cameras bringing the two almost on war. on Bus power, motion triggered algorithms like might even become PIR + Frame-Change or like an NVR + PoE IP camera rolled into one (Mobotix).

The main reason why we see a convergence of the two wireless sub-types is that a considerable bloating of the claims on battery performance and life of multiple reputed brands of wire-free cameras AND the wireless cameras with wired power need UPS power [AC UPS to adapter or DC-DC UPS in between] to keep the battery from getting discharged. As more features and AI functionality is introduced in these cameras, the pressure on battery capacity will only increase (it will make camera heavy making it unfriendly for DIY installers). Tall claims are made that batteries last for 3/6/12/24 months, but the fine-print missed out is that the projection is based on the premise that only few minutes of motion triggered recording are done per day, which is impractical for many deployments, if not all. 

- Suman Kumar Luthra @ APRC-P3 Telecom Sub-Committee

Should we use Digital IP cameras that record sound ?

In our view this is a strict NO-GO zone.

Most of the PoE IP and wireless cameras (which anyways offer 2-way intercom communication) have this ability in the same or slightly upgraded model costing no more than INR Rs. 500 than the one without this ability.

However, our opinion is that is very invasive on the individual's privacy. If two individuals are in a cameras field of view talking in a field of view of Camera, and that they are not physically damaging any property or indulging in vandalism, then  no one has any business of recording ( and potentially playing back or listening) on what they are talking AND without informing them that is being done.  It is their personal and highly private matter. Sound recording by Cameras is no different than telephone wire tapping which is prohibited and only allowed with authorized permits to law enforcement agencies. 

We have taken above into consideration and decided that:

(1) We will *NOT install Digital IP PoE cameras with any sound recording capability

(2) We will *NOT buy any equipment with sound recording facility and then disable the feature for use at a later stage by configuration. 

Even if we take opposite decision and put signages that what you are talking in cameras field of view is being recorded, its is extremely unnerving to tenants, visitors, workers, etc. 

- Suman Kumar Luthra @ APRC-P3 Telecom Sub-Committee

Why power is such a big challenge in operating IP CCTV cameras in Indian homes ?

Vandal resistance is same for any camera (wired or wireless) with wireless actually having some advantages. Its also easy to improve wireless connectivity for just wireless cameras by using inexpensive 2.4G Wireless repeaters (they will work rather well to support wireless IP cameras of upto 1080p resolution).

But supplying reliable power could get very challenging for some cases. Every-time you abruptly lose power and your recording system (on or off camera recorder) turns off abruptly your filesystem on the storage media has a risk of getting corrupted, losing all recorded data part from not being able to record more data till power is restored.


Wirefree cameras
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Generally wire-free cameras advertise long lasting battery times (on a single charge or replacement) such as 3-6 months, 6-12 months and even 2 years. However the fine print that is missed out is that this projection is made on a premise that no more than few minutes of motion triggered recordings will be generated per day. For eg., the most reputed brands and models:

(a) Amazon Blink XT2 - Advertised 2 years on 2xAA batteries. However continuous recording capacity is only 15 hours.
(b) Netgear Arlo - Advertised 3 to 6 months on proprietary battery. Assumption is that recording is made for Only 5 minutes per day
(c) EufyCam 2 -
(d) Reolink Argus 2 Pro

So if the above assumption do not hold, you are going to see very low battery lifetime. false alarms on birds, squirrels, dogs, at times moving trees and branches in wind, cloud, light (AI not working well), etc (if sensor is not a pure PIR) all add up to the recordings. Poor Wifi impacts Battery drain rate negatively too.  You may get a week, sometimes 2, sometimes a month or max 2 months juice of a battery charge cycle. And now the big $$$ wire-free camera system bought on big expense and cloud subscription charges will sound *not so attractive and a pain (frequent replacing/charging batteries) to maintain, however good its mobile app is or how well it alerts you and 911, etc. Their could be some limitations on how well the PIR sensor behaves and at times it could be slow to react and record or miss few seconds of critical footage before the event of interest.


Bus Powered Wireless Cameras
=======================
Usually in many cases its easier to find a power line (or tap) or socket nearby or even at the site of camera install. It may also be feasible to run cabling in some homes which have false ceilings if no free wall-chased spare conduits. Atleast its much easier to get bus power than running a new ethernet or category-N cable.

Bus powered wifi cameras use anywhere between 2.5-5W (5V-1A). You will need 2.5-5 WHs of energy. In India, we get frequent power outages even in cities AND we get DC-DC UPS equipment with about 22wh of capacity, making them suitable in giving battery backup of 4-8 hours . This is likely  enough for most deployments, but this may cost an additional 2/3rd of camera cost plus make the system a little DIY installation unfriendly (because you need to conceal the weather un-proof DC-DC UPS unit in a mounted IP rated hensel box or something similar and make some holes to let equipment breathe). If you live in an area of very frequent outages, the frequent discharge-charge cycles will also likely reduce the DC-DC UPS Li-Ion battery life (which are non replaceable) , but its still manageable if it has done to be  replaced once every year or two.

If your home has DG backup (which limits outage to 30s-1min max) OR you have a home inverter supporting 4-6 hours daily backup OR even an on-grid solar power, this solution becomes slight overkill as the real need is of having a very low WH & inexpensive DC-DC UPS [maybe with 1x18650 battery of 2000 mah capacity instead of 3-4 used in DC-DC UPS and user replaceable] and give 5-15 minutes of backup. It could even possibly be built using supercapacitors, but such products are not see in local market as of 2020.

Our ideal bus-powered Wifi camera supports  H.265 or H.265+/Ultra H.265 encoding, 128 GB SD Card (atleast), barrel or Micro USB power jack requiring no more than 1A of current draw. And then you have the smart features thrown in like others.


Wired PoE IP cameras
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Wired IP cameras need 6-12W of power. Even many bus powered wireless cameras by manufacturers of PoE IP cameras use 12V DC input of 0.5-1A rating. This means 6-12WH  of energy which is very similar to a consumer entry level to mid-range Wifi router. If you are using such wireless cameras (eg., Hikvision Ezviz C3X), the DC-DC UPS which are primarily designed for wifi router backup can support such wireless cameras for 2-4 hours backup time and  should work fine if you have the DC-DC UPS installed. Should work in most cases.

But when using PoE IP cameras, power comes on Ethernet cable from a rack that will have a PoE Switch AND recorder, which means like power supply is also centralized. Therefore the central node must have a UPS backup and that central UPS, The power need  will be less than 50W for this system. Lower Consumer UPSes (600-650 VA) on light loads cannot run for more than 1 hour when no-load shutdown is disabled (if you will enable it will switch off in 5 minutes). So if a single outages exceeds 1 hour you are in trouble AND its required to have DG/Solar/Inverter backup. Or you need to go for a higher capacity UPS which can run for more than 1 hour on light CCTV load, which means more $$$. UPS battery life should be 3 years atleast, irrespective of whether they come with 1 year or 3 year warranty.


Our recommendation still remains (1) or (2) for small installations, provided you can get 3 basic requirements sorted. It would be best bang for bucks. 

- Suman Kumar Luthra @ APRC-P3 Telecom Sub-Committee

How are large Centralized or Decentralized IP CCTV managed ?

Very often large IP CCTV systems are centralized completely or partially (decentralized architecture)  because they need to be live monitored at a common place by dedicated operators/security-guard(s). The job of these humans is to ensure

(1) Surveillance of all camera feeds and *prevent incidents

(2) Carry out Post mortem investigation of incidents

However to ensure (1) and (2) are properly accomplished, we need top ensure that all cameras, recorders and network are functional 24x7. If we *detect anything amiss, we have to 

(a) Report it to the system integrator/maintainer

(b) Use his help to fix it 

To minimize downtime, speed is key. key in both (a) and (b).  NVRs can do some of this work, but would require them to be exposed to the internet, which is not safe. This is where a PC is useful, especially for large setups of multiple NVRs and/or CMS.

A PC can

(1) Run software tools to diagnose and repair software faults, often by restarting nodes.
(2) Configure (& reconfigure) the cameras, switches and recorders. We use Hikvision IPC system, and its has many useful tools like SADP, Bulk Configurator, Remote backup, iVMS 4200 Client, etc. which need a windows PC/Mac to work.
(3) Upgrade firm-wares and keep them up to date for cyber security, bug-fixes and new features

(4) Health check all active nodes using heartbeat software like Multiping, and automatically report (by email or other mechanism to the system integrator) if a camera, recorder or switch is down for more than a configurable N minutes of time eliminating a strict dependency on humans.
(5) Carry out surveillance footage backup as evidence to be shared with law enforcement and confront citizens engaged in undesirable activity

(6) And finally to carry out all these activities both onsite and offsite (remotely by remote login software) to improve efficiency of the system integrator. This also provides additional level of security

And one does not a very high end PC to accomplish the above. In our facility we are using a Intel Celeron Dual core J1800 based PC with 8 GB DDR3 RAM (Windows 10 is not happy with 54 GB RAM), 120 GB SSD (fast bootup and generally fast IO/responsiveness) and Nvidia GT1030 Graphics card (needed for HEVC/H.265 and H.265+ decoding), small 15.6" monitor. The PC runs 24x7 (the entire system uses no more than 30-40W of power ) rebooting automatically if power is lost, thereby ensuring that it is as much available as the rest of the network. Needless to add, the setup is inexpensive ($300 for all of it) and is now running continuously for 3+ years without rest. You may however chose a mid-range Core i3/i5 or Ryzen 3/5 PC if you have the budget and the need to run more applications such as CMS.


- Suman Kumar Luthra @ APRC-P3 Telecom Sub-Committee

What is the correct way of implementing effective CCTV live monitoring ?

A very interesting design point of a large IP CCTV system is a central command room. generally every NVR or CMS will have at least 2 display outputs:

(1) One Displaying all or a subset of NVR view channels which will respond also to mouse & keyboard events. We can call this the primary display

(2) Another optional display which can display all or a subset of NVR channels but which does not respond to keyboard events. We can call this the secondary display. 

Depending on the NVR you have 2xHDMI, 2xVGA, HDMI+VGA or 2xHDMI/VGA display port combinations. Like two simple graphic cards on a PC, each having the ability of independently displaying what we configure it to display.  Basically one is always targeted to display all or multiple channels (secondary), while the other is used for investigation of specific video channels (live or post mortem).

If you are setting up a decentralized live monitoring architecture with multiple human eyes watching, you can keep a single monitor and do both live monitoring & investigation with one monitor (and one at a time). This is not very good but still practiced for simplicity, cost and this is what most  system integrators are comfortable with. They connect one NVR to exactly one display monitor/TV and a mouse connected to NVR controls it.

The correct implementation leaves one group of monitors (depending on the number of NVRs or CMS)  to always display *all or *key video Channels and the second group of monitor setups (one per operator) for specific expensive, Obviously this is more expensive to build and will make sense only if you have large setup and trained CCTV operator manpower, not the regular security guards who double up as CCTV operator sidekicks. Such trained manpower have basic IT skills, have good physical orientation of the property, know the location of the cameras from the back of their head, and basically have a trained eye to spot anomalies quickly and keep an eye on multiple monitors more effectively than the regular security guard. 

So a computer desk and video-wall is the way to go. The each desk can handle multiple NVRs and CMS (often switching between them with a KVM switch) or powerful computers with client consoles that can watch one or more CMS/NVR feed. This is, however, going to be expensive to install as well as operate. And makes more sense for industries, malls, hotels, hospitals and other commercial organizations. For residential properties its a slight overkill, but still the right way …


- Suman Kumar Luthra @ APRC-P3 Telecom Sub-Committee

Can we watch the same camera feed in multiple places ?

Yes you can.

Your requirement can be driven by use cases such as:

(1) Have centralized Network design with all camera feeds recorded in common place, but need few cameras to be visible to security at the gates (deterrent value and enhance his eyesight)

(2) have decentralized architecture with every building having its own CCTV monitoring and recording area, but we also want to observe/store everything in central area for redundancy or management. 

If your requirement is to just watch feeds, then one of the two methods below would suffice

(1) In second location keep an small NVR (4-8 ch) + Monitor and add the camera to that NVR also. The small NVR need not have a disk if no recording is done, just live monitoring.  For decentralized system, this could be a big CMS or bigger NVR. This is very simple to get get up and running and also to operate. 

(2) In the second location, add a decent android STB + Monitor, run client software (like iVMS 4500 HD in case of Hikvision) in kiosk mode and configure all channels to be monitored here. This will only work for a small number of cameras and therefore more suitable to add secondary live monitoring to a centralized architecture. 

You should put the secondary setup also on UPS. You get 15.6" 1080p monitors which run on USB (5V -1A) supply and android STBs are ARM based typically run again on 5V-2A setups, giving a power supply need of less than 25W with mouse and keyboard. Why I am pointing this out is that you can run the entire setup of a PoE+ port, with splitter, splitter cables, barrel to micro USN converters and so on, assuming that the switches are put on UPS. Suitable for about 4 cameras maximum. 

- Suman Kumar Luthra @ APRC-P3 Telecom Sub-Committee

Does live monitoring room/areas need a CCTV camera ?

You should put it. It is center point for recording and if vandalized will destroy all traces of culprit. We should have a CCTV camera installed and its recording should preferably go to a cloud server or other location not known to the CCTV operators. Someone needs to keep an eye on them too …

- Suman Kumar Luthra @ APRC-P3 Telecom Sub-Committee

What is the recommendation regarding use of fake or dummy cameras ?

CCTV cameras are deterrents to criminals & vandals. They also provide a sense of security to the property tenants and guests. However,

(1) the moment a fake camera is deployed, the tenant's sense of security/safety stands misplaced. In case he meets with an undesirable incident in view of what he thinks is a CCTV camera, he cannot fallback on the recorded footage to help identify the perpetuator. This may lead to legal implications also. 

(2) most fake cameras stand out from the rest. A smart vandal can spot the differences immediately (always on LED light, no IR LEDs like others, non-standard housing, different color/construction/branding , no branding, no-wiring, etc.) and identify that the camera is a dummy. This eliminates the deterrent value also. However these may be able to defeat the unsophisticated/casual criminal/vandal.

(3) most fake cameras are battery powered. Any sizeable quantity of deployment would require changing the batteries periodically, creating a maintenance nightmare. 

So for all practical purposes any permanent deployment of fake cameras looks counter productive. Its much simpler maybe to deploy an inexpensive low resolution IP camera rather than a fake/dummy one.  And this is what our opinion is. We haven't deployed any till date.

We are, still considering, if we can have some use cases if we can get models which look real to artificially jack up camera density, use them temporarily as deterrents for less functional purpose such as:

(a) Act as deterrent for some non-critical intermittent *isolated bad behavior incidents (such as monitor temporary areas  for garbage/waste disposal ). We know think a battery powered temporary mobile camera is more suitable for such applications.

(b) Put a dummy camera to cover a real one if we think the latter is more prone to vandal resistance and nothing can be done otherwise. Dedicating a camera just to protect another (and redundancy) does not look to be financially prudent. 

(c) Even jack up camera density to cover some non-critical blind spot, though its against principle (1). 

But we have not implemented anything, mainly because their seems to be no pressing need for it.

- Suman Kumar Luthra @ APRC-P3 Telecom Sub-Committee

Do I need inverter/DG or UPS backup for my PoE IP CCTV system ?

CCTV recorders and IP cameras should be put on UPS so that the Recorders and/or cameras with continuously updated storage are not abruptly interrupted while doing this task resulting in data corruption (reformatting disks may be required which will cause all data loss) and neither we loose valuable seconds or minutes of surveillance. However the rest of the logic has nothing to with CCTV and more with power plant setups. 

UPS is only an emergency source used to manage transition between primary sources (utility company supplied power) and secondary backup source (Diesel Generator, On-Grid Solar, Inverter, etc.) . It is not a secondary backup source. Typically switchover from primary to backup sources (and vice versa), may take a bigger fraction of a second, a second, few seconds or even up to a minute. This is enough to cause camera and recorder reboot (like they would for a PC) thereby necessitating the use of an emergency backup such as UPS to manage the transition, which is UPS or Inbuilt battery.

In countries with every reliable utility power (rare planned shutdowns, non-existent power shutdowns) both emergency power and secondary backup power is not required. Otherwise they are. And the matters become serious if these run into 30 minutes or multiple hours in a day frequently (most parts of India for eg., in 2020). Such frequent long duration shutdowns will create a double whammy by impacting the UPS battery life and still run into a shutdown (it does not matter if it happens after 5 minutes or 50 minutes) as long as it still happens. If you try to respond by deploying a UPS of very high capacity, expect to spend unreasonable amounts in both installation and maintenance, and penalties in space. If your secondary backup source is reliable and available, maybe only 5 minutes of UPS backup is required which maybe easier to implement. So focus should be put in integrating a cost-effective and reliable secondary power source.

- Suman Kumar Luthra @ APRC-P3 Telecom Sub-Committee

What type of UPS should be used for powering IP CCTV cameras ?

Before we answer the question, one must consider what is exact function and differences between the two sources relevant to CCTV application. UPS devices  come in 3 types (you can find tons of material on the differences online)

1. Offline - 10ms or lower switchover time, no mains power conditioning
2. Line Interactive - sub 10ms switchover time, Automatic voltage regulation + Surge protection + other mains power conditioning (based on model)
3. Online or Double Conversion  - 0 ms switchover time, Completely clean power from inbuilt alternator. 

(3) are the best, used for very sensitive application like medical instrumentation, Data center, etc. and therefore expensive. However, you will not see them easily available in sub 1-KVA capacities. Big centralized/de-centralized wired IP systems whose power requirement itself is in KVAs, should use this AFAP (we use this in our system with VRLA/SMF battery bank)

(1) May create risks for equipment if the basic power supply is not clean (fluctuations, brownouts, frequency problems, etc) like Diesel Generators. One would be better avoiding this type of setup, if the quality of power cannot be guaranteed, despite having SMPS functionality in camera chargers and recorders which may tolerate some anomalies. It can avoid expensive non-warranty repairs. 

(2) is sort of middle ground. Balance between cost and capability. They can be used if the power supply (discom and backup generator) is relatively stable/clean and so some cleaning themselves. They are somewhat suitable for consumer grade equipment , but definitely not for enterprises.

Here is a summary of common electrical power supply faults and the equipment/protection device required:

Types of Faults	Description				Offline UPS	Line Interactive	Online	Electrical Protection Device functionality needed
Blackout	No Power				Yes	Yes	Yes	NA
BrownOut (under-voltage)	Lower voltage for few Minutes to few days				Yes	Yes	Yes	Voltage Stabilizer, UVR
Over-voltage	High Voltage for few minutes to few days				Yes	Yes	Yes	Voltage Stabilizer, OVR
Power Sag (Short term Under Voltage)	Upto few minutes				No	Yes	Yes	Voltage Stabilizer, UVR
Power Surge (Short term Over Voltage)	More than 110% of normal voltage				No	Yes	Yes	Voltage Stabilizer, OVR
Switching Transients	Instantaneous Under-voltage for nano seconds				No	No	Yes	Surge Protector
Frequency variation	Deviation of frequency from 50hz (common in DGs)				No	No	Yes
Electrical Line Noise	RFI or EMI (Interferences)				No	No	Yes
Harmonic Distortion	Waveform distortion (eg. square wave)				No	No	Yes

Pure inverters should not be used at all. Infact they are more suitable as secondary sources akin to Diesel generators.  As their switchover time from mains to battery is in seconds, which will result in camera and NVR reboot (along with chance of storage media corruption) when a a switchover between primary(mains) and secondary sources (battery) takes place. Also to be avoided are non sine-wave inverters (they are bad for *most electrical or electronics equipment). These days non-sinewave and pure inverters are rare. What is *commonly available (and more cost-effective) are Home/Office Inverter UPSes that combine both *offline UPS AND *Inverter into one device, making the picture confusing. However these are more suitable for home UPS application and for not-so-sensitive electrical devices like lights, fans, refrigerators, etc. But they may not be the best choice for sensitive electronics equipment like IP CCTV Cameras and Recorders, Servers, etc. Therefore we recommend that a centralized/decentralized IP CCTV not be run of a Inverter UPS in the interests of maximum safety, though it may run fine in the short term like a Desktop PC would on a home Inverter UPS enabled power socket.  

A very similar phenomenon is observed when powering an Wireless IP CCTV camera by 5V USB power-bank and 5V DC-DC USB UPS. The former (assuming passthrough charging is supported) acts more like an inverter. Whenever the charging port loses power (or it comes Back), camera will reboot immediately as their is a little delay in switching to (from) inbuilt battery. The latter option provides true un-interrupted power supply as no abnormal behavior is observed during switchover.

For our apartment system, we use redundant online UPS units with VRLA/SMF batteries. And for Wireless cameras, we recommend either using battery or any deployed single-phase home UPS (not Home Inverter-UPS) supply or DC-DC UPS if home UPS supply is not available on nearby socket to which the wireless camera is plugged into.

- Suman Kumar Luthra @ APRC-P3 Telecom Sub-Committee