Video surveillance for home: street and indoor

Video surveillance system is a powerful tool for protection of residential premises and adjacent territories. Installation of outdoor cameras allows you not only to monitor what is happening in the area, but also to record the fact of illegal entry of intruders and various incidents at the facility. Often, video cameras have helped in identifying and catching criminals, perpetrators of accidents and other violations. Internal video surveillance makes it possible to timely help elderly relatives and respond to pet shenanigans.

If you want to install video surveillance systems, then before you buy equipment, we recommend to study the issue thoroughly, because cameras for indoor use are not suitable for outdoor installation and vice versa; not all cameras can be connected to the alarm system, not all cameras are equipped with night vision system, etc. To make the choice easier and to buy the right equipment, we offer you this material in which we review the features of outdoor and home surveillance cameras.

What is video surveillance

Nowadays, video surveillance systems have long ceased to be a luxury. Prices for ip cameras for home are available to most Ukrainians, and the simplicity and versatility of video equipment allows you to use it yourself, without resorting to the services of security agencies.

All video surveillance equipment differs from each other in many ways, including installation and operating conditions. Indoor ip cameras for home have more compact size and do not need light and color filters. Their price may be cheaper than for outdoor surveillance equipment. Outdoor models are more protected from moisture and dust, they have a larger housing, powerful infrared illumination, it matters the width of the range of intensity of the light being recorded. Also many outdoor models are produced with vandal-proof housing, protecting against intentional and unintentional damage.

Most of today's ip video cameras are controlled as easily as possible using an application in a smartphone, which greatly facilitates the operation, allowing you to manage the video surveillance system when you are away from home.

Modern ip home surveillance cameras come in domes, rotating and cylindrical.

• Dome models are well-proven when it is necessary to organize panoramic surveillance. They also have compact dimensions and look very neat both indoors and outdoors.
• The rotary ones are equipped with motion sensors, which react to the appearance of a person within sight, and rotate according to the trajectory of his movement. Such equipment is mostly used for outdoor surveillance, but there are models for indoor surveillance as well.
• Cylindrical ones are also used for both outdoor and indoor surveillance. This type of camera is most often equipped with a vandal-resistant housing that reliably protects the equipment itself from impact and damage.

To be clearer in what cases it makes sense to buy a camera for street surveillance, and in what cases for indoor, let's consider their purpose further.

Equipment for indoor use

Modern alarm systems are often equipped with video cameras, for more effective protection. But indoor ip cameras for home can be used without having an alarm system installed. Capabilities of wifi ip cameras allow you to monitor what is happening online, storing the recorded information in the cloud service, so such equipment will come in handy in such cases:

• If there are elderly relatives at home who need visual supervision. It is very easy to do this with the help of installed video cameras with a built-in speaker and microphone. Thus, if necessary, you can not only see what is happening in the room, but also hear and give feedback;
• Another need for indoor video surveillance is the presence of children. So, you can keep an eye on the babysitter who stays with the little ones or schoolchildren who come to an empty house after school. You can monitor which friends come to visit your children, how they behave and what they do after school.
• Video surveillance comes in handy when there are pets in the room - cats, dogs, which during the absence of the owners can behave completely unpredictably. With the help of the speaker you can always give a command to your pet and stop any mischievous actions.

Modern wireless ip solutions, allow you to mount cameras indoors without any problems and the need to lay cables. The price of wireless equipment at first glance may seem higher than that of wired, but you should remember how much effort and money it takes to install and lay wires.

Outdoor video surveillance system for the home

The choice of control and security systems for external use is influenced by many factors, among which are important as the price and parameters of the equipment.

Organizing external video surveillance is not an easy task, because you need to carefully plan the location of the cameras, taking into account all the nuances that have a direct impact on the quality of the shooting.

Let's try to figure out how to choose the right option.

• First of all, you need to determine the tasks that video equipment is designed to perform. Where will the cameras be installed? In the courtyard of a private house, cottage, or at the front entrance to an apartment building, where the movement of people and cars is much more active than on private property.
• If the risk of intentional damage to video equipment is too high, we recommend paying attention to anti-vandal models, in which the body is made of the most durable and shock-resistant materials. Such housings are often found in cylindrical cameras, but there are also anti-vandal dome and pan/tilt models.
• When installing outdoor surveillance equipment, it is also necessary to take into account the change of illumination of the area during the day, as it has a significant impact on the quality of video recording. It is good if the camera will be placed in a place where there is no sudden change of light and no blackout, but if the equipment is exposed to shadows of trees, the sun shines at different angles, etc., then you should pay attention to models with WDR functionality, which can improve image quality regardless of the fall of shadows and light. The price for such models will be higher, so if this factor is essential, you can buy cheaper equipment, where the camera closes the usual visor from the rays of the sun.
• Installing video surveillance on the street makes sense if the equipment will work around the clock, which is achieved by the presence of infrared illumination in the camera itself. Pay attention to models with automatic switching modes and availability of ICR (Infrared Cut Removeable) function, which increases light sensitivity at night.
• Outdoor equipment must work without interruption, regardless of temperature changes, so we recommend buying video cameras that can withstand a wide range of temperatures, especially if your area is severely frosty or, conversely, too hot climate.
• Video camera for outdoor use should have a quality protective housing, which will not allow dust and moisture to penetrate and thus damage the equipment.

Of course, the more functions will have video equipment, the higher will be its price.

Recommendations from PIPL specialists

For those who do not want to bother with complicated technological solutions, the developers of video equipment were released as easy to use ip kits, which are suitable for video surveillance in the house and on the premises. The most popular among such solutions can be called ip surveillance cameras Ezviz and IMOU.

EZVIZ cloud ip video cameras, a subsidiary of the manufacturer Hikvision is a cost-effective solution for non-commercial use. The maximum ease and affordability of installation of cloud equipment allows you to quickly install a video surveillance system in your home, without special installation tools.

In this case, easy and understandable is not only the installation, but also the management of the device, which is done using a standard smartphone and installed on it the application.

The efficiency and availability of high resolution HD and Full HD shooting, regardless of the camera used - PTZ, cylindrical or dome, are the undoubted advantages of video equipment EZVIZ.

We also recommend for home use to consider video surveillance kits IMOU, from the Chinese manufacturer Dahua Technology. This equipment has a number of advantages that make IMOU models even more attractive:

• low price, relative to other cloud cameras;
• compact size, allowing the equipment to be placed even in hard-to-reach places;
• additional functionality - hardware motion sensors, the ability to integrate with alarm systems, zoom capabilities, motion sensor, etc;
• robotic wi-fi cameras capable of rotating and tilting at the required angle, which allows maximum coverage of the surveillance radius, eliminating the presence of so-called blind spots;
• the possibility of remote control with the app installed on your smartphone.

So still, which surveillance camera is better to choose for your home? If you doubt the choice and do not know which model is better to buy for outdoor surveillance and which one for indoor, ask for advice to PIPL specialists. We will help you to choose and buy the most suitable for the price and functionality variant which will solve all your problems.