Security, as weve suggested before, can mean many things, and different measures bring a feeling of security to different people. But the core of security is controlling access to oneself (and by extension family or coworkers); to personal information; to portable property, or a physical location, or even, as in the case of stalkers, to proximity.
Monitoring is a fundamental component of every method of access control. You have to know whos there to determine whether or not to allow access. Peepholes in apartment doors, doormen or intercom systems, corporate security guards at gated facilities, and video cameras all serve the same purpose: monitoring to determine identity to permit or deny access.
Video cameras are, simply, the most cost-efficient system for monitoring and controlling access to any business. A mounted camera keeps a constant eye on a door or entryway, providing immediate visual identification. It can pan to observe a wider area than a single focus point. A single employee can monitor one camera or a series of cameras located at various access points, thus doing the work of several security guards. Best of all, the camera operates around the clock, never needing a break for coffee, lunch, or the bathroom.
Vertex Security offers a wide range of monitoring systems and components to meet every need.
Camera attributes include day and night, night vision, PTZ (Pan, Tilt & Zoom), spy cams (discreetly hidden from view), vandal-proof, weatherproof, and wireless.
Monitors range in size from 5 to 21, and are available in black & white or color, wall mounted, stand-alone, rack systems (for up to three separate units each), flat screen, LCD, etc. A small monitor can easily be placed on a receptionists desk.
Monitoring can be live only watching or it can include recording. Putting together the camera and the monitor can be as simple as directly wiring one to another, or as intricate as having up to sixteen cameras feed information to a multiplexer, which can integrate, monitor, and record ongoing views from that many access points.
Recording is not essential for all businesses, but for those that need it, video recorders are available for up to 24 hours of VHS tape for without changing tapes. For multi-camera installations, a digital recorder or multiplexer/recorder can record virtually endlessly, with as much as 1.2 Tb (1,200 Gb) of internal memory.
A small business can protect itself with a simple system: a standard mounted black & white camera wired to an inexpensive monitor with a secretary or receptionist keeping an eye on it. A corporate office with numerous elevators, spread over several floors, and with sensitive internal controlled access points, should invest in a sophisticated system: weatherproof, vandal-proof, and/or night vision cameras for outside doors, TPZ units for hallways and elevator banks, and spycams inside to protect file and document rooms. It will need multiplexers to channel and integrate the images in real time, as well as one or more digital recorders to maintain records of access.
The investment cost? It depends on what you need. As little as a few thousand dollars for a small nonprofit or walk-in realtors office, or tens of thousands of dollars for a corporate headquarters or high-security facility.
The investment value? Immeasurable.
Talk to a Vertex Security expert to determine what components will work best for you.
Originally published here: http://www.vertexsecurity.com/news.php?id=44
Andrew Reed grew up in Asheville, North Carolina. He moved to New York in 1970, and following his undergraduate studies at Columbia University he became a marketing specialist with National Broadcasting and other companies. He returned to the WNC mountains in 1993, where he works as an editor, freelance writer, and marketing consultant. He operates a web-based editing and marketing company, http://www.myowneditor.com, and specializes in writing for web sites.
