Home Video Surveillance In The 21st Century: Wireless Security Camera Systems

People always go on about how the world’s getting more complex - as if the pre-IT world was nothing but building blocks to the bricks and mortar world of today. Jobs are more abstract, education takes longer, salaries are lower and the economy never really seems to make any sense. But there are a few things that have gotten simpler. Home improvement is one such thing. As far as buying and installing your own home video surveillance system goes, well, it’s become almost stupidly easy these days. Manufacturers, motivated by consumers who just don’t have the time to work out complicated, quirky systems, have developed products that the average schmo can install with little more than a standard toolbelt.

After you’ve gone through a few internet tutorials on this subject and installed your window and door alarm sensors and PIR motion detectors, and have thought about the kind of wireless security cameras you want to install, you’ll have to face up to the most complicated part of the entire process, a step which is still, you guessed it, rather easy. You’ll need to decide on the type of data storage system you plan to use, and how much of your home video surveillance system’s footage to you plan to keep.

The Options

1. DVR (Digital Video Recorders): Still the first choice of many professionals, DVR’s arrange all your footage in one, general purpose machine. They only take inputs from analog cameras. This is the reason why, if you haven’t got a DVR installed already, you’re going to want to go with one of the other options.
   
2. HDVR’s: These are DVR’s that have been upgraded into hybrids that can take feeds from IP cameras. The reason for the migration of many DVR users is simple - without a lot of complicated assemblage, you can’t make analog cameras wireless. HDVR’s allow you to have a truly wireless system, thus freeing you up from needlessly complex wiring issues when setting up your home video surveillance system.
   
3. Using IP Surveillance Software: This allows you to store your footage on your PC. It works very well, and is a good choice if you don’t mind using up a good amount of memory - try a couple of terabytes.
   
4. Using A Storage Cluster:  Storage clusters are run via websites with which you register and, for a small rental fee, store your footage on, streaming it continuously into storage-optimized disk-space. As a home security option, they’re pretty much infinitely scalable, and thus are probably the best option if you’re not certain how far you want to take this whole home video surveillance system thing.