My Account | View Cart | Go to Checkout

Technical Publications

CCTV VIDEO, WHATS IN YOUR TOOLBOX? All CCTV installers have a basic set of tools they have accumulated over time to help them do their job quicker and easier. Often a $1.00 item on hand in your toolbox can save you dozens of hours of work and thousands of dollars over time. This article will discuss some of these low cost items and how to use them.

Four Factors that Control High Resolution CCTV Picture Image When designing a CCTV system there are four factors that control the maximum image quality that can be obtained. One or more of these factors can degrade the system like a chain with a weak link the weak link in the system limits the quality of the image. One or more of these factors can be responsible for a reduction in picture quality particularly if the system components are not well matched from a quality standpoint.

IP VIDEO AND THE ETHERNET EXPANDER The use of IP video is on the rise, and with it comes new products to make maximum use of this new digital technology. One such product is called an Ethernet Expander. As the name implies it expands the use of your 10/100 BaseT Ethernet wire connection. These additional signals can be analog or digital signals of any type. As an example you can add two UTP analog cameras to an existing IP digital cable, or run alarm contacts and control signals on the same cable with your IP camera. Use it to carry RS-422 and RS-485 signals on the same cable or retro-fit old PTZ control systems with new IP cameras running the PTZ data on the same cable. You can add AC or DC low voltage on your IP cable to power analog or digital equipment. Use it for door access and alarm contacts on the same IP camera cable.

HOW TO USE SOUND TO MAXIMIZE SECURITY All moving objects generate sound when they move, unless you're in a vacuum. When any person moves inside a security zone they are disturbing the air and creating sound waves. These sound waves may be undetectable to the human ear but never the less they are created. A microphone placed in the security zone can detect these movements and report the unauthorized movement.

WHY YOUR CCTV IMAGES ARE NOT AS SHARP AS THEY SHOULD BE All cables introduce some loss of picture brightness and clarity. The longer the cable run the greater the loss. The loss of picture clarity is usually more noticeable than the loss of brightness as the cable length between the camera and the monitor becomes greater. Picture quality is often measured in terms of “Lines of Definition” on camera and monitor specification sheets, but coaxial cable and CAT-5 twisted pair wire are not rated in this way because the “Lines of Definition” rating of the cable varies with the length of the cables.

BESSEL NULL FM DEVIATION MEASUREMENT The BESSEL NULL FM deviation measurement is an extremely accurate way to obtain a precise deviation setting on any FM modulator operating at any RF frequency. This test requires a Spectrum Analyzer, Sine-Wave Generator, Audio Frequency Counter, and an accurate dBm meter to verify audio levels.

VIDEO LUMINANCE MEASUREMENT AND THE I.R.E. FILTER Color video measured on a wide-band voltage basis like the old black and white TV signal actually measure 1.142857143 Volts peak to peak with maximum color saturation instead of the normal 1 Volt peak-to-peak. If this signal is set to 1 Volt peak-to-peak your actual video level will be 20% too low.

SUBCARIERS IN MICROWAVE AND SATELITE SYSTEMS In the early days they were called Diplexers, alluding to their main function at that time, to place a second channel (TV audio) onto the same base-band signal as the television video signal for TV studio-to-transmitter (STL) microwave links. After a while, two or more channels were multiplexed onto the STL systems, so the term Sub-carriers came into prominence. The term Sub-carrier is now applied to a host of multiplexing processes that are carried in the frequency band above video, typically ranging from 4.5 – 10 MHz.

THE "F" CONNECTOR AND THE FUTURE OF CCTV What is it that the (CATV) Cable TV Industry knows about connectors that the (CCTV) Closed Circuit TV Industry needs to discover? The answer is the low cost, water tight, easy to install, connector used in the CATV industry. The CATV industry uses the "F" type of connector by the hundreds of millions.

AUDIO DE-EMPHASIS RESPONSE TABLE In the transmission of FM modulation there is more noise at the higher audio frequencies than there is at the lower audio frequencies. To compensate for this unbalance and make the noise more uniform over the audio spectrum, the Broadcasting industry developed some standards for Pre-emphasis and matching De-emphasis.

CARSON'S RULE, CALCULATING FM MODULATION BANDWIDTH A formula is used to determine the RF Bandwidth or occupancy for an FM signal. If you are designing an FM system on microwave or satellite, you will need to take care that your signal does not cross-talk into other signals on the system.

CCTV VIDEO GROUND LOOP PROBLEM SOLVING This article will discuss video ground loop problems in CCTV installations. The cause and how it effects picture quality with solutions to eliminate the problem.

CLEARER, SHARPER, PICTURES, EVERY TIME All video cables in CCTV systems cause some loss of brightness and picture detail. The longer a cable is, the greater the loss. Even a few hundred feet of cable will measurably degrade a picture, while a thousand feet or so will seriously reduce picture detail and brightness. There is a way to reduce cable loss to ZERO on any length of cable and completely eliminate this source of picture impairment!

HOW TO USE CCTV VIDEO DI-PLEXING The term "Di-plexing" refers to the combination of two signals into a single signal stream usually for transmission between two points. "Video Di-plexing" is the combination of two full frame real time video signals onto a single cable or twisted pair set of wires.

NTSC VIDEO PRE/DE-EMPHASIS NETWORK LOSS Video Pre-Emphasis and De-Emphasis is used with Frequency Modulation (FM) transmission systems. It is used to offset the triangular noise distribution created by FM transmission systems. FM Fiber, Satellite and microwave transmission systems exhibit this kind of triangular noise pattern.

PICTURE QUALITY TESTING OF CCTV SYSTEMS Picture quality can be defined by many different parameters, but the most important from an observed picture detail point of view is the LINES OF DEFINITION as observed on a Monitor. The larger the "number of lines" that can be distinguished, the greater the detail in the picture.

REMOTE CONTROL OF COMPRESSED NTSC VIDEO OR WHAT HAPPENED TO MY VERTICAL INTERVAL? The Vertical Interval (V.I.) is the part of the video signal that tells the monitor to start drawing a new screen. It is made up of special SYNCHRONIZATION pulses with no picture elements. This part of the video allows special command and control signals to be added in a way that does not conflict with the picture information.

VIDEO FIBER TRANSMISSION PROBLEM SOLVING Have you ever installed a fiber optic video transmitter / receiver and discovered that you were not getting a good signal output and you knew you were putting in a good video signal but you were not getting the same good signal out. The video image would roll or appear darker than expected. Then when you used the AGC (Automatic Gain Control) or the Iris on the camera to make the picture brighter, the response was not what you expected.

WHY AND HOW TO MEASURE CCTV OUTPUT IMPEDANCE In the past, CCTV cameras could be counted on to have proper 75 Ohm source impedances, but recently there have been a rash of cameras showing up on the market that do not have a 75 Ohm source impedance. In fact they exhibit almost zero output impedance even though the specification sheets that come with them specify 75 ohms!

HOW TO SHOOT A LICENSE PLATE WITH A CCTV CAMERA When your customer asks you to set up a camera to grab a shot of a license plate on a car, here are a few things you will want to know.

HOW TO MAKE MAXIMUM USE OF YOUR VIDEO SIGNAL The Vertical Interval (V.I.) is the part of the video signal that tells the monitor to start drawing a new screen. It is made up of special SYNCHRONIZATION pulses with no picture elements. This part of the video allows special command and control signals to be added in a way that does not conflict with the picture information.

FM MULTIPLEXING WHY, WHEN AND HOW TO USE IT. First of all, what are the advantages of FM Multiplexing over SSBSC? As with all comparative discussions, we must put equal constraints upon the processes to be compared. In this case, we constrain power density but require greater Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) than the available power density will permit.

WHAT IS RETURN LOSS, AND WHY SHOULD I MEASURE IT Once upon a time, "Return Loss" was a somewhat arcane term and used mainly with regard to high frequency transmission lines and the impedance transformations that could be the result of these reflected signals. Now however, with the advent of high speed Data transmission such as the various digital television standards, Return Loss considerations are experiencing renewed interest.

WHY CATV CABLE DOES NOT WORK ON CCTV SYSTEMS When pricing out the cable to use to build a Closed Circuit Television System (CCTV) to connect cameras to a central monitor location, many system operators are seduced by the much cheaper price of CATV cable. After all the specs quoted about the transmission at, say 300 MHz look really good, so after all that cable should work really well for video transmission, right? ---- No, wrong!!

CCTV CAMERAS AND THE POLARIZING FILTER Have you ever installed a CCTV camera that had a glaring “hot spot” or bright white area on the monitor, and around that bright spot the picture seemed to be out of focus or blurry, with poor picture detail? Or perhaps you had a camera looking out a window or doorway that had reflected light glaring at the camera during some part of the day. This glaring can come and go, like the reflections off car windshields in a parking lot. If your customer complains that during a certain time of day they get a failure of the video signal, you may be getting a reflection or hot spot at that time.

A/B SWITCHING IN A DIGITAL WORLD The word digital seems to carry with it an aura of invincibility, the thinking of the day is, if it’s digital it must be perfect. This type of thinking can give an engineer a false since of security. If all the equipment used in the system were perfect, I would agree that the signal would arrive at its destination exactly the way it started out. Unfortunately no electronic equipment is perfect.

ALIGNING A CCTV TWISTED PAIR SYSTEM FOR MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE A PROPOSAL TO ESTABLISH A SYSTEM QUALITY MEASUREMENT STANDARD This article defines a procedure that enables a CCTV installer to obtain the best possible picture that any given Camera can send over Twisted Pair wires to any given Monitor. When the Camera and Monitor are connected together "on the Bench" with short wires, what you see on the Monitor will be the best picture that this Camera and Monitor can produce. No additional equipment can improve on that picture, baring that there is no defect in either the Camera or Monitor. Good Monitors will display all of the Lines of Definition that the Camera can produce.

GETTING THE HIGHEST PERFORMANCE FOR YOUR CCTV SYSTEM DOLLAR Getting more performance on a CCTV system usually involves at least two different parameters and usually two are at odds to each other, the more of one, the less of the other. The two parameters in this case are PICTURE QUALITY and DISTANCE between the Cameras and the Monitors. Usually the greater the distance the poorer the quality and the greater the quality required the shorter the distance that can be covered. We will see that that there is a way to get the highest quality picture and the greatest distance for low dollars. But first some needed technologies.

WHAT CAUSES CCTV GROUND LOOP PROBLEMS AND HOW TO FIX THEM The annoying horizontal bars that occasionally show up in CCTV video monitors are the result of load unbalance in 60 cycle power distribution in the vicinity of a particular CCTV system. As such they may exist in one CCTV installation, but not in another essentially similar one. In fact, the "60 cycle picture bars" may come and go as heavy power loads turn on and off over time.

PERFORMANCE TESTING FOR CABLE FIBER AND TWISTED PAIR INSTALLATION This guide will lead you through the test procedure for verifying operation of installed CCTV cable, twisted pair and fiber video transmission lines. Coaxial Cable and Twisted Pair video use the same procedure to measure the transmission capability of the video line. The fiber lines are tested in the same way except that they may have adjustments to compensate for video levels, we will also discuss the adjustment of those controls.

CCTV UPS TROUBLE SHOOTING TIPS Many CCTV Closed Circuit TeleVision systems use a UPS Un-interruptible Power Supply to provide guaranteed continuous power to operate a surveillance system. The UPS also provides down stream voltage regulation that protects equipment in the event of under or over voltage swings that occur during “brown-outs” or brief power outages. The UPS will also protect equipment from voltage surges or spikes coming from the Main Power Line. Using a UPS to power your CCTV system is a good idea if you have a budget for it.

PRODUCING HIGH PICTURE QUALITY ON LONG CCTV CABLES Long Coaxial and Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) cables are a major cause of picture quality loss on Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) systems. No matter how sharp the picture a Camera can produce, or how clear the Monitor, the cables connecting them can appear to "defocus" the resulting picture to the point that faces are hard to recognize. This article describes exactly how to overcome this limitation to CCTV system performance and how to estimate under which conditions these techniques should be employed to obtain specific performance results.

ALIGNING A CCTV TWISTED PAIR SYSTEM FOR MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE & A PROPOSAL TO ESTABLISH A SYSTEM QUALITY MEASUREMENT STANDARD This article defines a procedure that enables a CCTV installer to obtain the best possible picture that any given Camera can send over Twisted Pair wires to any given Monitor. When the Camera and Monitor are connected together "on the Bench" with short wires, what you see on the Monitor will be the best picture that this Camera and Monitor can produce. No additional equipment can improve on that picture, baring that there is no defect in either the Camera or Monitor. Good Monitors will display all of the Lines of Definition that the Camera can produce.

PRE-DIGITAL CONTROL WHAT IS IT AND WHY IS IT NEEDED The digital revolution has brought about many changes in the way signals are stored and transmitted. With this new age of DIGITAL SIGNAL TRANSMISSION come new problems that must be solved.

HOW TO CREATE SUPERIOR QUALITY CCTV PICTURES ON UTP & HOW TO PROVE RESULTS WITH THE 40-40 QUALITY TEST Very high quality video pictures can be sent over Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) wires, provided that suitable cable slope equalizers and amplifiers are provided to completely off-set the losses incurred when the video signal traverses the UTP cable pairs.

DIGITAL VIDEO RECORDER PROBLEM SOLVING The new digital revolution has brought us many new and exciting products for the CCTV industry. The DIGITAL VIDEO RECORDER or (DVR) may be one of the most important upgrades that can be made to any CCTV system.

ANALOG vs DIGITAL AUDIO TRANSMISSION SYSTEMS Good digital disc players can play back recorded music with fidelity unrivaled by any other home type tape or record system. In fact the improvement over LP discs or commercial tapes borders on the spectacular. No wonder then that many people are lead to believe that if it is digital, it is necessarily better and that it would follow that if digital recording is better, then digital transmission must also be better than analog transmission. But is this really so, are recording and transmission considerations the same?

CCTV VIDEO CAMERA FOCUS PROBLEM SOLVING Have you ever wondered why Auto Iris cameras seem to go out of focus at night. Many installers have had to return to the job site at night and reset the focus of a camera to solve this problem.

CCTV CAMERA FOCUS PROBLEM SOLVING This article will discuss video ground loop problems in CCTV installations. The cause and how it effects picture quality with solutions to eliminate the problem.

CAMERA MASTER - THE DIGITAL VIDEO MEASUREMENT SYSTEM FM SYSTEMS INC. has developed a new measurement technology in the CM-1 CAMERA MASTER. This meter displays video SYNC. amplitude (Video Level), White amplitude (Iris Setting), Composite amplitude (Video Peak to Peak Level), and Color Burst amplitude (Slope Equalization) in I.R.E. Units, as well as the Optimum camera Focus setting.

CCTV LINE-LOCK PROBLEM SOLVING TIPS Someone once said "Timing is everything". The same thing can be said about Line-Lock CCTV camera installations. The Line-Lock feature is available on most CCTV camera's, and is used to prevent picture rolling on the monitor during switching from one camera to another.

A NEW WAY TO SYNCHRONIZE VIDEO CAMERAS Someone once said "Timing is everything". The same thing can be said about Line-Lock CCTV camera installations. The Line-Lock feature is available on most CCTV camera's, and is used to prevent picture rolling on the monitor during switching from one camera to another.

A NEW TECHNOLOGY FOR MEASURING THE STEREO CONTENT OF MUSIC An entirely new technology is described that accurately measures the stereo separation that resides within an audio program. This measurement is made with whatever complex waveforms happen to constitute the left and right channel. A computer cross-correlates the multiple frequencies, phases, and amplitudes comprising the left and right channel at any given time, then computes and displays the resident stereo separation in deciBels.

HOW CCTV TERMINATIONS AFFECT PICTURE QUALITY Why, where, when, and how to terminate video coaxial cables raises the basic question of what is a termination and why is a termination used in the first place.

CCTV VIDEO TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS Someone once said "Knowledge is the key to success". This rule also applies to the installation and maintenance of CCTV camera equipment.

WHY AND HOW TO MEASURE CCTV CAMERA OUTPUT IMPEDANCE In the past, CCTV cameras could be counted on to have proper 75 Ohm source impedances, but recently there have been a rash of cameras showing up on the market that do not have a 75 Ohm source impedance. In fact they exhibit an almost zero output impedance even though the specification sheets that come with them specify 75 ohms!

AUGMENTING CCTV SYSTEMS WITH AUDIO SURVEILLANCE Up until now, CCTV surveillance has been mostly a Silent World. Without sound, much of what you do see on the monitor screen provides considerably less security value than if you can also hear what is going on.

OVER-THE-COAX AUDIO FOR CCTV, A SOUND INVESTMENT Hearing and speech are one of mankind's most powerful tools. We rely heavily on the use of these faculties for our day to day living. Yet in the average security installation this audio information is not available to security personnel responsible for the safety and security of the facility.

REMOTE CONTROL OF CENTRALIZED VCR'S BY TEACHERS IN THE CLASSROOM Two-way remote control of centralized instructional VCR's is now possible over the same coaxial cable the sends the video base-band signal to the classroom.

Video Multi-Meters Find Niche In CCTV Market CCTV technicians can use upgraded technology to improve skill level, which can't be measured in price.

TV AUDIO DEVIATION: MEASURING AND SETTING IT Measurement and control of TV audio volume has always been with us, but other concerns have usually taken precedence.

TV AUDIO DEVIATION: MEASURING AND SETTING IT Measurement and control of TV audio volume has always been with us, but other concerns have usually taken precedence.

Standard and procedures for video level measurement Setting video levels would be easy if only the cable operator could call up a test pattern when he was ready to set levels. In that sense the broadcast engineer has it much easier.

RESTORING PICTURE QUALITY ON CCTV SYSTEMS The quality of a CCTV picture basically depends on the number of “lines” the camera can delineate and the number of “lines” the DVR can store and the number of “lines” the monitor can display. The component with the lowest “lines” capability thus sets the highest possible picture quality that can be observed “on the test bench”.

FM SYSTEMS' VVM digital video voltmeter Since the introduction of VideoCipher technology for satellite program security and addressable converter operation in systems, our industry has had to pay a lot more attention to baseband signals.

NBC News Channel Turns to FM Systems VM-771 If there is anything the major news gathering organizations have learned over the past few years, it is that coverage of world events is no longer purely prime time, but in fact, anytime

EXTENDING DATA SERVICES TO NTSC VIDEO TRANSMISSION The NTSC video signal format was originally devised to enable transmission of a good quality picture and the various special pulses necessary to synchronize the received picture with the transmitted picture.

WHY BOTHER WITH STEREO? Basically – Because your subscribers expect it! They are so used to their music and movies being in stereo, that if their TV programming is NOT in stereo – something seems missing. With more and more people investing “big money” into sophisticated Surround Sound systems, the demand for better quality stereo is only going to increase. Stereo creates a sense of involvement and intimacy for the audience, something that both programmers and advertisers strive for.