Almost everyone who has gone back to their recordings after an incident has the same experience: there is footage, and it is no use. The face cannot be made out, the plate cannot be read, or that day has already been overwritten. The camera quality is rarely the problem. Six installation decisions are.
# One: decide what you are trying to do
There are three different objectives in camera design, and each needs a different install:
- Detection: you only need to know somebody was there, and a high, wide view is fine.
- Identification: you need to recognise the face, so the camera has to sit near head height, on a route people must take.
- Plate reading: a specialist job needing a purpose-built camera, with the exposure and angle worked out.
Most systems are bought with an identification expectation and installed with a detection layout. That single mismatch explains most of the disappointment.
# Two: mounting height
A camera four metres above head height records the tops of heads and shoulders. To identify a face it has to be near head height. The usual worry is that a reachable camera gets vandalised; the right answer is a protective housing and a position that is itself covered by another camera, not simply putting it out of reach.
# Three: light behind the subject
A camera pointed at a doorway from inside records a black silhouette against daylight. Everyone who walks in is a shadow. The light needs to fall on the subject from behind the camera, not into the camera from behind the subject.
# Four: how long footage is kept
When the disk fills, the recorder overwrites the oldest footage. If it only holds three days and you notice something after a week away, there is nothing left to look at. Size the storage for the window you might realistically need, which for a home is usually two to four weeks.
# Five: the default password
A large share of installed recorders still run on the factory username and password. Those defaults are public and indexed. The practical effect is that the inside of your home or shop is on an open channel.
Related: remote viewing should not be set up by forwarding a port straight to the internet. Safer methods exist and an installer should know them.
# Six: where the recorder lives
Do not put the recorder by the front door in plain sight. The first thing an intruder does is take or smash the recorder, and then the entire system was for nothing. It belongs somewhere concealed, away from the way in.
# A checklist for a system you already have
- On the entrance camera, could you identify a stranger’s face?
- How many days does it actually retain? Check the real number in the settings.
- Has the recorder’s factory password been changed?
- Where is the recorder, and can somebody reach it from the entrance?
- How usable is the night image? Go and look once in the dark.
- Do you know how to find and export a specific time range? Practise before you need it.
For a review of an existing system or a new installation in Gurab Zarmikh, Soumeh Sara and the surrounding villages, get in touch.
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