Maybe the system was never designed properly to give the required number of days of storage. Designing CCTV surveillance can be very complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. When you first consider adding a CCTV surveillance system, consider how much storage you need before the system overwrites itself.
Don’t forget to look at future expansion, too. Plan on adding cameras? Factor in hard drives at the required retention rate for the additional devices. Look at desired compression, frames per second (FPS) and video quality: these all affect your storage. Your salesman will do all this for you, but be aware that with MPEG-4 or H.264 compression engines, this will be a best-guess estimate most of the time. The best way to determine your retention rate is to look at actual file sizes within the video management software.
Let's assume you already have a system up and running, and bottom line, you aren't getting the retention you need. What do you do? Do you add hard drive capacity? Other, less-expensive tricks can noticeably improve your retention rate:
-Reconfigure your system so you are recording during motion detection only.
-Lower your pre- and post-motion recording time.
-Lower your FPS recording rate. The FBI standard is 1 FPS. Note, however, that if your cameras are monitoring cash transactions, you may not be able to lower this figure.
-Lower your quality setting for your cameras. As good as it looks, you probably don't need the highest quality.
-Lower your saturation, contrast and hue for your cameras.
-Limit the bit rate coming from the camera encoder.
Only after you have performed all these tweaks is it time to add some actual hard drive capacity.
Dave Damron
Security Systems Specialist
717-653-3372
ddamron@sagetechs.com
