When people think of home security they immediately imagine an alarm with a box on the outside of their house. Driving down almost any street it's hard to find a house without one fitted. In most cases it's fair to say that the box or alarm system has long since stopped working or the home owner stopped paying the often quite substantial monthly subscription fees some time ago. People usually dismiss alarms these days when they sound assuming it to be a false trigger. In theory a monitored alarm gets round the problem by sending someone out to investigate but usually by the time the police arrive any criminal has long since disappeared. The monitoring company have to verify any alarm first before asking for assistance. For these reasons home CCTV systems and home CCTV cameras have gained in popularity over recent years.

As a deterrent a good quality CCTV system can be worth it's weight in gold. Criminals tend to take the path of least resistance so if they see cameras are installed they tend to walk on and look for a softer target.

With CCTV you aren't dependent on a third party springing into action. Your CCTV system records the criminal so that when the authorities arrive at the scene you have the ability to identify the culprit. It also gives scene of crime officers an indication of where to search when looking for fingerprints, DNA or other evidence.

We are even working with community groups such as neighbourhood watch who pool resources from individual home owner's domestic CCTV systems to dramatically increase detection rates for crime. Rogue traders, motor vehicle theft, burglary, violent crimes, are all typical crimes that can be solved with surprising high rates using well planned good quality home CCTV cameras and systems.

Most people who fit CCTV at home buy a "CCTV in a box" solution. These kits rarely if ever provide a satisfactory solution. Cameras are often low quality with lenses that are not right for where they are going to be fitted. We see cameras that don't capture high enough levels of detail and recording devices which don't store the footage in a sufficiently high enough resolution.

The other thing we see time and time again is CCTV kits which use connectors unique to that particular system. This means if you want to change a camera you can't because you can't find one with the specific fittings which fit your cable or recording device. If an individual component within the system fails you end up having to buy a whole new cctv system because again you can't find a replacement part with the correct fittings. Everything we sell uses industry standard fittings.

Plan you domestic CCTV system carefully

The number one mistake people make when planning and installing CCTV systems is trying to machine gun an area with CCTV using wide angle cameras in an attempt to film every inch of the property. Unfortunately everything is just blob on the screen and so totally useless. If you haven't already done so have a look at our CCTV advice videos section which gives help in planning a CCTV system.

Try to think where someone has to go if they are going to get into your house or do damage and then zoom in on that area with a camera. That way you get useful detailed images. By all means have a general overview camera to track their movement but it's essential to be able to identify the person. Even with the general overview cameras don't waste valuable pixels filming walls or hedges, zoom in as much as you can whilst still covering the required area.

Don't try and do everything with 1 CCTV camera, think about using 2 cameras in conjunction with each other to increase the amount of detail you record. How would someone get round to the rear of your property? Is there a narrow passage where they would have to walk down which could easily be covered by a camera? Similarly as people approach your front door would it be worth fitting a camera there to capture facial detail as a person gets close to the camera. A camera fitted close to the door can be excellent when it comes to identifying rogue traders or confidence tricksters, (bogus water and electricity workers for example).

Aim to fit your cameras as low as possible so they film faces rather than the top of people's heads. Consider fitting the DVR recorder in a loft space safely tucked away. You can always run a Cat5 cable to link the DVR to your internet router so that the CCTV system can be accessed from any computer connected to your local wireless network.

What sort of CCTV cameras can be used on a Home CCTV system

The short answer is it will depend on individual circumstances but the following is some general advice. Avoid wireless CCTV cameras. The actual camera part tends to be lower quality, you will be limited in you choice of camera & lens combinations and they suffer from interference. Wiring is something that only needs to be done once and then you have the best way of joining CCTV cameras to a DVR recorder.

You will probably want cameras which work well at night. Make sure the electronics are sensitive enough to make good use of all available light sources including any built in infra red illumination. Traditional covered vandal dome cameras tend to have less powerful I/R than open faced vandal dome CCTV cameras and they are harder to position. For that reason we tend to recommend open faced vandal dome cameras and traditional day night cameras for home security systems.

We suggest you fit varifocal zoom lens CCTV cameras to maximise the effectiveness of your system. The 2.8 -11mm lens is very versatile in a domestic environment. 2.8mm gives a really wide angle of view, 11mm allows you to zoom in for more detail. For places where you are only dealing with a narrow passage like the side of a house it might be possible to save money and fit a fixed lens camera, possibly something like the 8mm small open faced vandal dome cctv camera or the K-series camera.

What cables can I use to join the CCTV cameras to the DVR recorder

You have a number of options. The simplest method is to use pre-made leads which come in a variety of lengths. The downside to them is that if you are pulling cables through holes or trunking they can get damaged and because the connectors are fitted you need to drill larger holes. Traditional coax cable or coax plus wires for power - called shotgun cable, is the traditional way of wiring a CCTV system professionally. The problem here is that you need some specialist cutting and crimping tools which you are unlikely to use again.

Cat5 cable is extremely easy to use and we sell specialist connectors which mean all you need is a small flat blade screwdriver. We have a specific topic in our FAQ section which explains what you need to do. Cat5 CCTV cables

Remote viewing a home CCTV system over the internet

If you have internet at home then why not plug your DVR recorder into your broadband router and view your CCTV over the internet when you are away from home. You can even see images from your cameras on a smart phone such as the iphone. Setting this up is slightly tricky as you need to do something called port forwarding on your router but we have devised a way of doing this for you without leaving the office. We can screen share with your computer at home and give you your own virtual IT techie to set everything up whilst you watch on in amazement.

If you have any questions regarding home CCTV systems and home CCTV cameras then feel free to call us for advice without obligation.