Camera Systems are used on homes for several reasons. The first is to give the homeowner a view of any suspicious person who may approach the home. The other is to record any criminal activity that may occur in and around your home. A camera system can alert you to trouble before it starts. If a stranger is approaching to attempt a break-in or to steal property in your yard, garage or house, you can alert the police so that the person is caught in the act. A camera system can also record criminal activity such as someone breaking your window or kicking in your door when you are not home. Your alarm will scare them away but the camera system will document when the crime occurred and who committed it. The cameras can be viewed remotely on a smart phone or through internet access.

 

What Camera Equipment, Components and Features Do You Actually Need in a Camera System?

To determine what components you will need for your camera system, first you must decide what you will use the cameras for. Will it only be used when you are home to keep an eye on your property around your home and your possessions? Or will it be used to record any criminal activity while you are away from home? Or both?

If you are only using the camera system to observe activity around your home, you will only need cameras on the outside of your home. Make sure you have enough cameras to cover all of the areas where activity may occur that you want to observe. Some of the areas you may want to cover are: front of the house, porch or front door, driveway, mailbox, sides of the house, backdoor, backyard, garage and alley.

If you are using the cameras to record any criminal activity that occurs, you may want cameras on the inside and outside of the house. The cameras on the outside will cover the same areas we just suggested. On the inside of the house, cameras can be installed in the living room, family room, hallway and master bedroom. (Although most of the items taken in burglaries are taken from master bedrooms you may not want to install a camera inside the bedroom since anything that occurs in that room will be recorded. You may choose instead to install a camera in the hallway outside the bedroom)

Once you determine how many cameras are necessary, you will need to choose a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) with the proper amount of channels to connect those cameras. The DVR’s come from the manufacturer with 4, 8 or 16 channels to connect that amount of cameras. DVRs can be ordered with more channels if necessary.

Cameras are color during daylight hours and black and white during night hours. In order to produce a color picture, the camera requires a large amount of light. Because of this, the picture at night changes to black and white and the infrared comes on allowing the camera to see in the dark.