Keep An Eye Out
Video surveillance systems help protect your business

Do you really know what goes on at your car-care facility when you leave? Do you know what your employees are doing? If you don’t know the answers to these questions, then you should look at a video surveillance system for your car-care center. Video systems allow recording, live viewing and remote-access viewing of the camera system. This type of video technology is not new, but the cost has dramatically decreased, making it readily available to all sectors of the car-care industry.

As carwash and car-care facilities have grown larger, it is much more difficult to monitor all aspects of the business, even if you have on-site attendants. Remote video-management systems can be a real asset to operators and investors who manage multiple sites. The ability to view live video from a variety of locations simultaneously and monitor employee and customer activities is now possible.

Video surveillance systems can be installed professionally or be a do-it-yourself project, depending on your budget and abilities. The main components are cameras, wire, power supply and the digital video recorder (DVR).

There are several styles and types of cameras available. The typical cameras used in the carwash environment are sealed bullet cameras, dome cameras, environmental-housed cameras and covert cameras. These are predominately color, but there are some applications where black and white cameras are used. A new trend is infrared cameras with emitters that project light at a wavelength only the camera will see. This will illuminate a completely dark area so a viewable picture can be obtained. Infrared cameras can be particularly useful in equipment rooms and office areas.

The wire that connects the cameras to the recorder and power supply is typically a coaxial wire and a pair of power wires in a Siamese cable. The video signal is sent along the coaxial wire, and the camera is powered by the attached power wires. These wires can be easily installed in attic areas or pulled through conduits. This wire can be from bulk rolls or pre-manufactured cables with termination ends already installed. There are also wireless cameras available, but installing them can be problematic if you are using other wireless technologies due to interference from other wireless devices.

The power supply for the security cameras is either 12 volts DC or 24 volts AC, depending on the type of camera used. Power supplies are available in various sizes and configurations but are typically wall-mounted panels. They use fuses or circuit breakers to protect the cameras from any short circuits in the event of a wire malfunction.

The digital recorder is the heart of a video surveillance system. It captures the video images and stores them onto hard drives. The recorder also can act as a Web server, allowing remote viewing of the cameras over a high-speed Internet connection. It will typically have a CD burner or another means of exporting saved images such as a USB flash drive slot. Some digital recorders operate on a Windows operating system, and some use a proprietary operating system. The Windows systems use a mouse and keyboard for user interfacing, while proprietary systems use panel-mounted buttons or TV-style remote controls. They can come in various camera channel configurations, from four to 16 cameras typically.

There are also units that can act as direct replacements for existing systems that may have older tape recorders. Most DVRs will allow the user to search and play back recorded video. DVRs capture images at certain rates, measured in frames per second (fps) for each camera channel. An acceptable rate per camera is 7 fps, and a higher rate will capture more images. For a baseline comparison, live television is approximately 30 fps. The higher the frame rate, the more hard-drive storage space you will need. A system should have a minimum of 160 gigabytes and can go up to a terabyte (1,000 gigabytes) or larger. The larger the storage space, the longer you can save recorded video. The video is compressed as it is placed onto the hard drive into a variety of different formats such as MPEG, JPEG, H263, etc. When the video is played back, it is uncompressed for normal viewing.

To connect to a DVR remotely, you will need a high-speed Internet connection of some type. This is usually a dedicated static Internet protocol address on a DSL type of service through the phone company. In some areas Internet access can also be obtained from a cable service provider or from a wireless DSL service operating from a transmitting tower.

Using a high-speed connection will allow your DVR to act as a Web site, broadcasting live video from your cameras to the Internet. This remote access is typically secured with a username and password to protect the system from unauthorized access. n Allen Hansen is with E-Vision Systems LLC, a Cumming, Iowa-based provider of digital video solutions. He can be e-mailed at info@e-visionsystems.us.

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