Considered to be the benchmark of effective business security and surveillance by most, CCTV is used by many businesses as their primary form of incident recording and security. CCTV is usually bought as a one off cost, and although a well installed and maintained system should last years, they should also be regularly reviewed against changing business needs. Not to mention, they should be measured against new technology and markets.
Over the past years, the breakthrough of HD and IP CCTV has drastically changed the industry. This makes system upgrades more pivotol than ever when it comes to business security. As a provider of technical security services for over a decade, we’ve supported many clients with system upgrades.
In fact, we have vast experience in not just replacing outdated equipment, but also leveraging existing equipment and assets to incorporate them into new systems. This often results in dramatic cost savings for our clients. Moreover, it gives us a clear view of the numerous benefits that come with upgrading CCTV systems. Here are some of the best reasons we’ve found as to why you should upgrade your CCTV system.
Better quality
One of the biggest reasons why you should upgrade your CCTV system is to maximise its footage quality. As discussed above, high definition cameras are now commonplace across the industry. HD CCTV allows dramatic jumps in the quality of both live and recorded footage. This boost in visual quality can allow users to even pinpoint details such as license plates and faces, without specifically tailored cameras. This helps increase users chances of achieving a valid result when it’s really needed. Similarly, with such high resolution, one fixed camera can achieve the same results of older PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) cameras, as users can zoom into footage digitally and on recordings.
Upgrading to higher quality HD CCTV can help make processes quicker and more efficient, thanks to the upgrade in visual quality.
superior system Integration
Many companies previously used to have numerous different systems to cover different purposes. This included separate systems for CCTV, access control, barriers and gates along with signing in & out. However, it’s now a much more frequent occurrence to make everything more open and interoperable. Systems such as VideoXpert allow simple integration with access control systems, so when reviewing CCTV footage, one can easily view it alongside the user access data derived from door entry systems.
Vice versa Paxtons Net2 system allows viewing of CCTV footage from their access control interface. This means staff only have to accustom themselves to a single interface to view multiple systems. This essentially means that they can gather the information they need quicker. This reduces staff training costs and time spent reviewing incidents.
Lower cost of ownership
Many businesses avoid upgrading their CCTV systems because they fear the initial hefty costs. However, in most cases businesses actually stand to profit off upgrading their CCTV systems. This is due to the increased integration ability that they have with other systems. For example, older Legacy systems often relied on specific CCTV lines for remote cameras, with things such as ISDN or ‘red care’ BT lines in order to cope with alarm receiving.
However these features are often not needed on modern systems, and in fact many remote cameras can be accommodated over standard consumer broadband, even for large sites. IP cameras leverage this even more, by using existing IT network infrastructure rather than the old purpose fitted coaxial cable. It allows large sites to use existing assets, or obtain better purchasing power by having the infrastructure fitted and maintained by one business.
Even though they initially require some investment, most system upgrades actually serve to be highly profitable in the long run.
Existing equipment can easily reach it’s end of life
One of the most compelling reasons as to why you should upgrade your CCTV system is because your existing one could be close to obsolete. Even high end manufacturers like Pelco and Bosch will often class anything more than 10 years old as end of life. For smaller brands it can sometimes come as quick as 2 years. This means that any software upgrades will be stopped and technical support may cease. This may lead to its hardware becoming more expensive or even unobtainable.
The upshots of this can be slow and laboured equipment repairs, causing difficulties within your business. It also means any new features released for the newer systems will not be available to owners of the older systems. This essentially results in businesses spending more to keep a system with less features.
Once your CCTV system has reached end of life, finding technical support, upgrades and repairs can prove a difficult task.
There you have it- some compelling reasons as to why you should upgrade your CCTV system. We’ve been carrying out CCTV & network upgrades for clients for over a decade now. So if you are considering a network/surveillance overhaul, get it touch!
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