When choosing a video surveillance system, you want to get the best video quality for your money, and with a network IP camera, there are 10 reasons why you should consider them over 20th century CCTV cameras.

1. Get rid of your interlacing problems:When you switch to a network IP camera, you get rid of the interlacing problem with moving video. If you’ve seen a moving image with lines, that’s interlaced, where two fields form a complete frame using interlaced scanning.

With a network camera, a full frame is used during a progressive scan, so your moving images are much clearer than with a CCTV camera.

2. Power your cameras over Ethernet: When you power your cameras over your Ethernet network, you save money and increase the reliability of your network.

You can’t power your CCTV camera over your Ethernet network, and this is beneficial because you don’t need a power outlet to power a network camera. This will save money on electricity and allow you to perform centralized backups.

All network cameras can be powered over Ethernet, whether they have built-in support or not. If the mount is not built in, you can purchase an injector/splitter, which will add the electricity to the Ethernet cable and then peel it off to power the camera.

3. Megapixel resolution: CCTV cameras have limited resolution and most cannot give you megapixel resolution. 1 megapixel is 10 times the resolution of CIF, which is 352 x 240.

With a network camera, you get better resolution, which makes it easier to identify when you review the video. You will no longer get blurry videos, especially when the subject is moving.

CCTV cameras are limited to 4CIF, or 704 x 480, while IP cameras far exceed 3 megapixels, or 2048 x 1536.

4. Smart cameras: CCTV cameras are dumb; they simply send video to a DVR. A network IP camera is smart, offering alarm management, image enhancement, license plate and facial recognition, and is built with the latest technology, and is really a little computer with a camera lens.

This allows you to have more detailed video, which helps identify suspects, and can have motion or alarm activation and unlimited scalability.

This allows you to set up specific areas of motion detection that you want to observe, within your camera image, and if no one enters those areas, even if they are in the field of view, it will not be recorded. Examples are a door in a hallway or a specific part of a hallway.

5. Integrated PTZ control:With a CCTV setup, you need separate cables to control the PTZ function of your camera. With a network camera, everything is done over the network. With integrated I/O, you can trigger anything and be triggered by anything.

This results in less labor, wiring, cost, and greater functionality and integration than with a CCTV camera system.

6. Built-in audio: With a CCTV camera, very few have built-in audio. It requires a separate cable and a DVR that can accept an audio file. With a network camera, the audio is usually embedded and captured on the camera. You can integrate it with the video stream or keep it separate. You can also have two-way audio, to and from the camera.

This allows you many possibilities such as ease of installation, cost savings, audio synchronized with video and two-way audio; duplex, half duplex, simplex.

With integrated audio, you can have a remote dialogue and allow access to the gate or door, as well as listen on location. This is a great way to help with surveillance scenes.

7. Your communications are secure: CCTV video cameras are easy to access the video and replace it with a signal from another source. In the movie, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Brad Pitt changed the video on an elevator camera before it was destroyed.

With IP cameras, they require authentication, and with their encryption, you can’t access the signal, giving you complete privacy, secure image capture and transmission, and a trail of evidence.

8. Flexible and cost-effective infrastructure options: With CCTV cameras, you have expensive unreliable wireless, fiber and coaxial cable installations. The further away you are from your DVR, the worse the images will be. When you add power or audio, you just make things more difficult.

With a network camera, you have an established IP address, giving you clear digital images with no loss of quality. You can send many video streams from dozens of cameras at once, giving you a single-wire network that allows for hundreds of simultaneous full-frame video streams.

This gives you better image quality, flexibility and scalability at a lower cost of operation than traditional CCTV cameras.

9. A true digital solution: A network video surveillance system will give you much clearer video because the images are digitized on the spot. With a CCTV camera, you lose image quality every time you transfer the video from the analog signal as it is digitized in the camera’s digital signal processor, which is then converted back to analog to go over the coaxial cable , which is again digitized on the DVR for recording.

With a network camera, images are digitized once and remain digital without further conversion, resulting in the clearest video you can get from a video camera.

10. Lowest Total Cost of Ownership: When you compare the cost per camera and the flexibility and performance that a network camera gives you, it makes sense to go for the network IP camera.

Things to consider are back-end applications and storage costs, as well as the use of open system-based servers, versus open systems. proprietary hardware like a DVR. The software that comes with the camera is usually functional enough for basic viewing, although the control center software allows you to view multiple locations at once.

Plus, you’re using your current network infrastructure, which can save you money in the long run.

It is clear that the future of video surveillance is in network cameras, let’s summarize the benefits:

• remote accessibility
• Easy integration and future-proof
• Scalability and flexibility
• Clear video with no interlacing issues
• Cost effective • Lower installation costs
• distributed intelligence
• proven technology