CMS Software, DVR’s, Networking

We do installations for many businesses that have multiple locations and have the need to be able to view all of them at once.  We also get a lot of questions about how to do off-site recording.  CMS or Central Monitoring Software comes with our 4, 8 and 16 channel H.264 DVR’s.  We currently have all of our locations networked in order to give our customers a better understanding of what they will see.  The software is pretty simple and you can actually turn a remote PC into your very own off-site recorder.

The software also works independently from the DVR itself.  You can configure settings remotely but they only affect the computer that’s being used to view and record the video and not the DVR itself.  We found this to be very handy and a really nice way of not accidentally changing settings in the DVR.

During our testing of the CMS we also liked the quick record from a live view mode.  Just a simple button of start and stop and you can record a bit of what you see live.   The address book was easy enough to populate with IP addresses and you can log into 2 different locations as once.  They are separated by tabs and all you have to do is tab from one to the next.

Now of course the one thing that is most important to anyone in this business is .. “will it convert to an AVi file?” .. and yes, yes it will.  In the software in one of the video playback menu’s there is a convert to AVI function.  Very handy.

B. Eaton

Digital video is the new analog?

In our business we almost sell an equal combination of digital and analog gadgets. So we also get a lot of questions about what really is the difference and why?  Most people have a basic understanding and sometimes it’s really all that’s needed but there are other times when the words IP, megapixel and analog all get dropped in the same sentence.

Analog is a basic form of video we see nearly everyday as we step into a convenience store and see ourselves on the big screen near the register.  So now that cable stations are broadcasting in digital and Blu-Ray players are becoming more popular, our movies and favorite shows are looking a lot better now.  So what about surveillance cameras and their seemingly antiquated analog signals?

Analog is still widely used in CCTV applications and is still the most cost effective when it comes to surveillance.  Analog has been good for us for decades, digital does produce some better video but their is a cost when it comes to a surveillance system.

Digital means more information and therefore requires more space when being recorded.  So that’s where compression comes into play and the newest MPEG-4  format,  H.264.   Digital video has its’ advantages and so does analog and the race between the two is still on.

B.Eaton