Surveillance Definitions

Remote Access -

AGC - Automatic Gain Control is an electronic system found in many types of devices. Its purpose is to control the gain of a system in order to maintain adequate performance over a range signal levels. Or an electronic circuit that tries to keep the video signal at a constant level (1volt peak-peak). Useful on cameras working at low light levels

AI - Auto Iris is an electronic circuit that acts as an iris on CCD cameras by electronic shuttering the CCD sensor. Or an automatic method of varying the size of a lens opening in response to changes in scene illumination.

AWB - Auto White Balance is an electronic process used in video cameras to retain true colors. It is performed electronically on the basis of a white object in the picture.

CCD - Charged Coupled Device: It is analog technology. The CCD camera has a little bit hi resolution than CMOS. The camera also functions better in low light. A CCD camera drains bit more power than the CMOS cameras. It uses 12v instead of 9v. CMOS camera is smaller t CCD camera and works longer with the 9v battery.

CMOS - Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor: a lower resolution camera compared to a C The advantage of a CMOS camera is that it uses lower operation current.

HAD CCD - Hole Accumulation Diode is a type of CCD sensor with a layer designed to accumulate holes (in the electronic sense), thus reducing noise level.

S to N Ratio - Signal to Noise Ratio is simply the ratio of the signal power and noise power, expressed in decibels (dB). Or measure of noise on a video signal. It is represented in D as the level of the video signal compared to the level of noise present on that signal. The higher the signal to noise ratio the better.

BLC - Balance Light Control is a method to compensate for bright spots in a picture. It is important to consider whether there are bright spots in the picture such as car headlight can make identification of the vehicle registration or model impossible. This can also be problem where it is necessary to identify a person who is moving from bright daylight int artificial light. This could result in the subject becoming an unidentifiable silhouette.

OSD - On Screen Display is a method of displaying set-up information or instructions on the display monitor.

Resolution - Resolution measures the cameras ability to reproduce an image. The higher the resolution, the better the picture quality.

LUX - LUX is the measurement of low light needed for the camera to view and record properly

FPS - Frames Per Second is the number of still frames (pictures) that give the illusion o which appear in a single second of time.SOfps is considered "Real Time". So for Real Time of your cameras, you need at least 30fps for each camera.

IR - Infrared, IR LEDS are used on Day/Night cameras which allow the camera to see in the

Focal Length - the distance from the surface of a lens and its focal point.