What are the pitfalls of upgrading from analogue to digital CCTV?
Date:[2008-08-01] Read:[1]
13th, May 08 As upgrading from analogue to digital CCTV is now such a large part of installers' work it may seem that analogue is in its twilight years.
But what are the pitfalls of upgrading surveillance systems? Here Mika Loponen of Mirasys gives his personal take on the switch-over ˇ
In the last few years, it has become a clich¨¦ of the security industry to declare ? practically in every surveillance related speech or article ? that analogue technology is dead.
Though this is true on a broader sense, as analogue technology is certainly reaching its twilight stage, the doomsday visions of the most fervent digital prophets are over-exaggerated to say the least.
True enough, there has been no reason to invest in analogue technology in the last few years ? analogue surveillance cameras lack in quality compared to even the most basic of IP cameras, and analogue video recorders have been obsolete purchases for over a decade.
However, though the salesmen of purely digital solutions preach otherwise, the situation is not hopeless for those who have already installed analogue systems and are worrying about the expenses and problems of upgrading them to the digital age.
Today, most surveillance solutions are sold as purely digital and manufacturer dependent. These solutions have major downsides. Firstly, upgrading from an analogue system to a purely digital one can be an extremely expensive project due to secondary costs; not only do the cameras need to be replaced, but the whole infrastructure starting with cabling will need upgrading
