Technology

As with all technical products, there has been considerable ongoing development in the field. Technological advances have spurred competition, making security equipment both cost-effective and reliable. CCTV and Access Control will continue to be the strongest and fastest-growing segment of this market, due partly to the technological advances and partly to the increased threat to personnel and property.

Award winning projects such as the Harbourside (@Bristol) development in Bristol have made use of this new technology to provide comprehensive site wide coverage. Designed and installed by Leigh Visual, the CCTV system consists of over 100 cameras, a number of which are dome cameras. These are discrete small cameras with high quality zoom lenses that are able to move very quickly in any direction. Liaising with the project architects Leigh Visual produced a system that blended into the site without compromising its primary function.

All cameras at the Harbourside are recorded onto hard disk. One of the key recent advances is the shift from conventional magnetic tapes to digital technology. In the past recording has been mainly done using the VHS tape format similar to that found in most homes, but this is now being superseded by technology that allows video to be recorded onto computer hard drives of sufficient capacity that the need for a separate back-up device is removed. These hard drive units have the advantage of being able to record a much higher quality of image for much longer, consequently reducing VCR or DAT tape equipment maintenance costs.