What type of surveillance camera do I need?

Are you thinking of having an area guarded? Is it interior or exterior? Do you already know if you prefer an IP surveillance camera or an analog one? Have you decided on the vision points? Today we offer you a perfect article to plan your future monitored area. We present a CCTV help guide so you know what elements you should take into account when planning your video surveillance.

What type of lens to choose for my surveillance camera?
The focal length determines the field of view. It is a measure in degrees that determines how wide or narrow the capture angle of the cctv security cameras is. Therefore, it is important to raise the situation of the cameras and the elements to be monitored on the ground.

Infrastructure of your surveillance system
It is always interesting to make an outline of the different elements to connect. You may need other IP Video Surveillance elements to transmit the signal such as everything related to IP network electronics (switches with functions such as PoE or AutoSurveillance VLAN, Wireless access points), video servers and NVR / NAS / SAN storage systems .

In D-Link they put at your disposal a free online tool "Surveillance Floor Planner Pro" that will allow you to study on the real plane the placement of each camera and analyze its visual coverage. In addition, it will allow you to present the project professionally.

How to visualize all the images?
With IP surveillance cameras, you can view from a single interface locally or remotely via the Internet:

to. Real-time images of your video surveillance zone.

b. Videos saved on your video servers or in the local MicroSD memory of some cameras.

c. The configuration of your cctv security cameras.

The eternal question are so many Megapixels necessary?
Like everything in life: it depends. Ask yourself what minimum quality you need and where you are going to visualize the images.


Frame rate of a video surveillance camera.

It is basically the number of images taken every second by the surveillance camera. To choose well, you must consider what objects you are recording and how fast they move. For example, if you are recording in a casino, where you must detect the slightest movement of hands, you will choose at least 30FPS.

And where to save so much video?
Thanks to video management software (VMS) you can save the images taken by the camera on one or more discs of one or several external servers or on external NAS / SAN.

How much bandwidth will I need?
As happens in domestic equipment, we must adjust the image quality of the video to be saved, so as not to eat the space we have quickly. We must also take into account that, with more video quality, we will also need more bandwidth in the network to transmit in real time. You can calculate the necessary bandwidth with our free online tool "Bandwith Calculator". To access it you must be a registered partner of our Smart Installer channel program.

And finally, where do I put my surveillance cameras?
Choose well the places you want to have watched, for example the entrances and exits of your enclosure.

This post summarizes all these points so you don't miss them. You will also see all our models of surveillance cameras and accessories so you have a choice. We have created it so you can have more information about all types of video surveillance cameras that exist in the market.