Understanding Data in IP CCTV
IP CCTV is a form of digital CCTV. What this means is that the camera records digital files like those you might use to watch films and programmes on on your computer. There is an alternative to digital CCTV however and that is ‘analogue CCTV’. Analogue CCTV means that you are recording onto video tape – VHS – rather than recording digital files or onto DVDs/CDs. In other words this refers to the kind of data that you are recording and how it is stored.
For an analogue CCTV camera that data is being stored magnetically. This then means that it is recorded onto the metal ribbon that folds up inside the VHS tape. However this is sorely limited in what it can achieve. First of all it means that you can only record from one channel at once and that means that your cameras need to flick between tracks. At the same time it means that you have to store the data on large bulky tapes and these tape up a lot of physical room and can be lost etc. You also cannot manipulate this analogue data on a computer.
With a digital CCTV camera such as IP CCTV your information is saved as a file. This means that it is represented by a series of digits that allows the computer to decode where all the pixels go on the screen and what sound to play.
How is this digital information stored? Well this depends on where you store it and it requires a basic understanding of how a computer works. Essentially the way a computer works is via microprocessors which are made up of millions of tiny ‘and/or’ gates. These are tiny circuits with switches that register whether the power is traveling through (whether the switch is on or off) in order to produce statements such as ‘And’, ‘If’, ‘Or’ or ‘Then’. For instance a circuit with two switches in a row is an ‘And’ statement, because both switches need to be on for the information to pass through. A circuit with two parallel switches is an ‘Or’ statement because the current will get through if either is on. This is why you use these statements in programming and the computer uses ‘binary’ at the most basic level (1 being ‘on’ and 0 being ‘off’).
This information is then also how images are saved, and when they’re saved onto the hard drive of your IP camera this will mean that the circuitry of the microprocessors inside the camera has been physically altered. When the information is stored onto a flash card meanwhile this is achieved in another way – by charging capacitors that hold the charge in order to alter the circuit.
What’s really good about a digital camera such as an IP camera however is the fact that the information can be sent as files which contain the code that the computer reads to recreate the state. This then means that the information can be e-mailed or received and it means it can be edited and compressed.
With an IP camera you can send and store digital information. Follow the links to find IP CCTV for your own premises.
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