Even though wireless surveillance can solve some unique problems, it could be riskier to deploy and use than wired surveillance system. In view of this, it is critical to understand when to use wireless network. The financial benefits of wireless network can be quite significant if used prudently.
However, unless wired networks costs are significantly higher, you should avoid using wireless networks. This is because deploying and maintaining wireless networks is more risky and expensive than it is for wired surveillance networks. Some of the problems you might have with wireless are constrained bandwidth, signal obstruction, higher maintenance cost and scalability restriction.
Before you decide to go for wireless system, you must consider these key elements
• How much bandwidth is available?
• How far away can the wireless cameras be?
• How many cameras can be deployed?
Wired networks have higher bandwidth than wireless networks. Wireless surveillance network are much more prone to effect from environment than wired networks. Wireless system will only achieve their maximum if the strength of signal (signal to noise ratio) is sufficiently high.
If there is partial obstruction or if the antenna shifts slightly, the bandwidth from wireless will drop. It is also quite difficult to setup long distance links to wireless surveillance cameras. A number of factors including obstruction, limitations and installation precision drive this. You are constrained in how powerful your signal can be, significantly reducing the distance from the cameras to the monitor.
Neighbors within the frequency range of the transmitter can pick the signals as well. These obstacles are a very serious problem for wireless surveillance systems. Secondly, if you want to place the cameras 100 meters away, but there are walls in between, the signals will be absorbed and will be significantly reduced.
However, the only prudent practice is to use both wireless and wired networks, with the wireless portion minimized to only monitor the specific locations where deploying wired connection could be very expensive.
Finally, choice and resolution are key factors in the number of cameras that can be supported in any of these approaches. This is a dramatic and often over looked aspect of wireless surveillance systems.
Irabor Mark is a chief science technologist and head of Audio Visual Unit in the department of Biomedical Communication Centre, College of medicine, university of Ibadan
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