Posted by Arowosegbe Olawale in General

System integration should be considered during the project planning and design phase. This applies to a variety of projects that may have an effect on the CCTV system, including:

• New CCTV equipment;
• Acquisition of existing structures or expansion of an existing CCTV system
• Recently designed and constructed structures;
• Improvements to related parallel systems;
• Integrating innovative technologies into an existing CCTV system; and
• Development of cameras (renaming cameras across stove-piped platforms could be a problem).

Organizations must ensure that all new projects include a commissioning procedure to ensure the integration of CCTV components and enterprise systems.

Valuable visual tools, such as camera feeds, maps, facility blueprints, and alarm logs, are available in a monitoring facility for assessing and determining the optimal response or course of action. Monitoring facilities can range from a small room with a single operator to a sophisticated emergency operations centre with numerous pods of workstations, interdisciplinary operational and planning experts, computers, printers, phones, and a video wall. Listed below are considerations for the overall monitoring facility.

Room Configuration – Size, lighting, climate control, and a number of other factors are crucial to the overall effectiveness of the personnel monitoring a CCTV system, as well as the functionality of the equipment. A well-designed monitoring facility's size is dependent on the number of monitors, screen sizes, personnel workstations, and other factors. It is typical for a traditional monitoring room to contain at least 20 monitors. New techniques in digital video analysis are helping to reduce the need for a large number of monitors, but it is still important to position the user at a specific distance from the monitors. Large wall-mounted flat screens expand the design possibilities of a facility.

Lighting – The placement, nature, and intensity of lighting in a CCTV monitoring facility are crucial. The placement of light sources should minimize reflections of direct light from monitor screens. The lighting should be indirect and reflect off white walls or ceilings, or be placed behind the monitors. Fluorescent lighting should not be used due to its 60 Hz flicker and the possibility of electromagnetic interference (EMI) with the video system. The brightness of the room's lighting should be adjustable to reduce eye strain and be low enough for personnel to view monitor images in fine detail. Lower room lighting enables monitors to be adjusted to lower levels of brightness and contrast, extending the life of certain monitors. Electronic handheld test pattern generators are used to achieve a good balance between the intensity of the room's lighting and the monitor's brightness and contrast settings. Another environmental issue is flickering images, which are particularly noticeable in the peripheral vision of an operator. Some manufacturers reduce flickering by increasing scan rates.

Climate – Monitors and other CCTV system components produce heat. Ventilation space should be allocated around each piece of equipment. The central monitoring facility must have a sufficient air conditioning system to ventilate and cool equipment and provide personnel comfort. Since static electrical charges on monitor screens attract dust, ventilation systems for the room should be filtered. To protect equipment from tobacco smoke's particles and oils, smoking should be prohibited. Temperature regulation and ventilation can significantly extend the life of numerous CCTV components.

Ergonomics – An ergonomically sound design in a monitoring facility is crucial for the health and productivity of personnel. Ergonomic compromises may result from constructing a monitoring centre in an area originally intended for another purpose. Comfortable and adjustable chairs, workstations with variable heights, live plants, bottled or filtered water, and easily navigable consoles increase the operator's alertness and decrease fatigue. Monitors, keyboards, and other components should be positioned at the proper heights and angles to maximize employee productivity and prevent repetitive stress injuries.

Staffing – When planning for the staffing of a CCTV system, the number of monitors an operator can simultaneously view and comprehend for a given period of time is a crucial factor. In facilities with a large number of monitors, more than one operator may be necessary for effective coverage.