I live in Ottawa, the second coldest capital in the world. In Canada, we have four perfectly balanced seasons, which makes our climate the perfect testing ground for outdoor security cameras.

I have several outdoor cameras both at home and at work. All of them have been subjected to temperatures as low as -35c, and as high as 32c. Despite these extremes, I have never had a single outdoor camera fail.

You must be thinking that I am using fairly high end cameras with heated enclosures. The truth is, these are typical outdoor security cameras which can be purchased in the 0-0 price range. None of them are protected by an enclosure. The cameras are all made of metal (as opposed to plastic which can crack or warp in extreme conditions) and feature infrared illumination. They are usually mounted under an eavesdrop, so while they are exposed to some precipitation, the are rarely pelted by intense rainfall.

Documentation included with most CCTV security cameras usually specify a range of temparatures at which the camera can safely operate. If the documentation says a camera can operate in cold weather up to a temparature of -10c, it does not mean that the camera will cease to operate at -11c. These are operational guidelines which do leave some wiggle room.

Some cameras are rated with the International Protection Rating code, or as it is often referred to, an IP code or IP classification.

The code classifies the level of protection provided by an electrical enclosure against the intrusion of solid objects, dust, accidental contact, and water. Many outdoor security cameras are rated IP55 or better.

The International Protection Rating consist of the letters IP followed by two numbers. It is the numerical part of the code which is imporant. What follows is is an explanation of the IP rating codes:

The first digit of the IP code documents the level of protection that an enclosure provides against access to hazardous parts (electrical conductors, moving parts, etc) and the penetration of solid foreign objects.

Level 0 Offers no protection against contact and penetration of objects.

Level 1 Offers penetration protection against any large surface of the body, but no protection against deliberate contact with a body part.

Level 2 Offers penetration protection against fingers or similar objects.

Level 3 Offers penetration protection against tools, thick wires

Level 4 Offers penetration protection against most wires and screws sized objects

Level 5 Penetration of dust is not completely prevented, but it cannot enter in sufficient quantity to interfere with the performance of the equipment; this level offers complete protection against contact

Level 6 Offers complete protection against dust penetration; complete protection against contact

The second digit of the IP code refers to the equipments resistance to water intrusion

Level 1 Offers protection against dripping water

Level 2 Offers protection against dripping water when the enclosure is tilted at an angle up to 15°

Level 3 Offers protection from water falling as a spray at any angle up to 60° from the vertical

Level 4 Offers protection from water splashing against the enclosure from any direction

Level 5 Offers protection from water projected by a nozzle against enclosure from any direction

Level 6 Offers protection from water projected from powerful jets against the enclosure from any direction

Level 7 Offers protection from water when the enclosure is immersed in water at a depth of less than 1 meter

Level 8 Offers protection from water when the enclosure is immersed in water at a depth exceeding 1 meter, as specified by the manufacturer

Always verify the IP classification of a camera your are planning to use outdoors.

If you are interested in home monitoring, then you should definitely look for a certified home security company. You should make sure that you get the best home security installation from a professional and reliable firm. While there are many benefits when it comes to installing a home security system, you should first inform yourself about potential security threats and the equipment you can use to protect your home from unwanted intruders.

As it was already mentioned, you need a reputable company, one that has experience when it comes to home security. You should have a thorough discussion with the representatives of the home monitoring company and ask for as many clarifications as necessary. Moreover, you should make a list with all the requirements before the actual home security installation. Knowing what your expectations are, the specialists working for the home security company will be able to adapt to your needs much better.

Ask the company representatives how many years of experience the company has in the field of home security installation. Experience matters a lot when it comes to providing quality services to various customers. Of course, you will have to inquire if they are registered and check whether the home monitoring equipment provided complies with market standards (Underwriters Laboratory Certifications). If you really want to form a general opinion, then you should not hesitate to check the facilities and infrastructure of the home monitoring stations. The company should have a license from the local and state authorities, being able to provide exactly the desired services and security equipment.

You have to check whether they have backup power storage for at least 12 hours. In case of sudden power failure in the station, they should able to continue monitoring uninterrupted. This is the reason why you need to be sure that the home monitoring system has got separate UPS backup in case of sudden failures. You can note that most of the robberies happen during power failures. They should also have redundancies in phone, computers and internet connections. The company responsible of monitoring your home should have a backup monitoring station. This is essential in case of an emergency, the main center being unable to function as expected. This can be due to power failure, failure of monitoring equipments, communication lines or various other reasons.

Customer care is also important. You can see whether the company offers 24 hours a day service or not. Also the company should able to maintain the home monitoring system regularly without any interruption of the service. The company engineers should be ready to help you in case of any system failure at home. They should ensure home security installation at any given time, as desired by the customer. One should also consider the cost of home monitoring systems, looking for the best balance between quality and price. Searching for the lowest monthly charges for home monitoring is a good idea. You can also ask for free home security installation just paying the price of the equipment.

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Unless you speak Modern Greek, chances are small that you will understand it. In order to explain to you what standards are and why they are so important, let’s analyze this problem.

You could say that the reason that you don’t understand the sentence is that you don’t speak Greek. Just as well, the reason could be that the writer, don’t speak a language that you understand. Clearly there is a communication problem, preventing the message from getting across.

How can we solve this problem? You could learn Greek, but that is cumbersome and probably a bit of overkill in order to read the introduction of this article. I could learn your mother tongue, but I would have to translate this document many times if I want to make sure that everybody understands. Or we could use a common language like English, which is what we are doing now.

Clearly, the latter is the most interesting idea. With this small example, we immediately get to the core of the use and benefit of standards: using a common language reduces the overall effort and cost and allows entities to communicate with each other.

An open standard is a standard that is publicly available, meaning that anyone is allowed to use it. This doesn’t necessarily imply that it is free: technology patents for which a fee has to be paid can still apply. Open standards are not usually controlled by a single group or vendor and don’t rely on specific technologies.

There are thousands of standards available today, each with a different purpose. For networking, such standards as TCP/IP, HTTP, HTML, SMTP, XML, etc will no doubt sound familiar. For images, standards like JPEG are widely used, and everyone knows the MP3 standard for encoding sound.

Closer to the CCTV surveillance industry, there are several standards that deal with video. In the analogue world, the PAL and NTSC standards are ubiquitous. For encoding, most products use standard compression mechanisms like motion JPEG or MPEG. Also file formats can be standardized, like for instance the ASF standard.

Benefits

The use of standards benefits all parties involved. As you will see, it leads to cost reductions for everyone that uses them: manufacturers, integrators and end users.

By using standards, you become independent from a particular vendor. Any vendor that supports the standard can be used, so you as a customer are not tied to any of them. For instance, a security installer can use any brand of analogue camera, as long as they use the NTSC or PAL standard.

Similarly, a video file that is encoded and stored in a standard way can be played with any media player. You don’t need the player that the recording software provides you with, so you are not limited by its functionality. You can even make your own player should you wish to do so. For file formats, using standards is especially important to ensure that data can be accessed and exchanged smoothly at all times.

Vendor independence leads to open competition between different manufacturers. Competition usually leads to price drops, making life cheaper for you.

If you integrate a product that conforms to standards, your implementation will be future-safe, since you can replace this product without compromising your integration. You can probably even change the software platform on which you work, since implementations of standards are usually relatively easy to port. You can also “mix and match” products from several vendors to make the best total solution for the customer, without being tied to a single vendor for all components. Vendor independence also assures that the standard data will always remain accessible, even when the company that generates this data ceases to exist.

Because standards are widely accepted, you can be sure that the standard, as well as its implementations, have been ruminated many times by many different people from different organizations. You could say that a standard is formed by more engineers than one single company could ever hire. Standards are proven, future-safe technology. For a company that needs to use a particular way of communication, there is no need to invent the wheel over and over again, because the result will almost surely be of lesser quality than the existing standard.

Especially for integrators using standards means reducing costs. Because you don’t have to “learn a thousand languages” when using standards, it takes a lot less development effort to introduce new standard-compliant products into your system. In other word, you only have to invest once in the standard, and not again and again for every new product that arises. Less effort means less risk for delays and fewer resources, allowing you to deliver your system on time and on budget.

At the bottom line, standards reduce effort, cost, risk, and time requirements.

The use of standards increases the quality of the software, because we use proven technology. This makes the Quadrox software a future-safe investment.

Summary

A standard is a widely accepted and/or officially approved common language that allows devices or software to communicate.

Using standards leads to reduced effort, cost, risk, and time requirements. Standards allow you to be independent of particular vendors, ensuring price drops due to competition, everlasting access to data and high quality, low cost system building through a “mix and match” strategy. Standards are proven, future-safe technology. For integrators, using standards means a one-time investment and lower development effort.

Quadrox has replaced analogue video security standards by four IT standards: standard codecs, the ASF file format, OPC for events and SNMP for service messages. The use of these standards leads to all the benefits above, making an investment in Quadrox a low-cost and safe one.

 Please refer to other Quadrox (www.quadrox.be) documentation for a more extensive explanation about these standards and Quadrox products.