Closed Circuit Television

Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) surveillance remains a growing industry in response to increased security threats, and whilst new developments have brought clearer images, digital recording and high speed data transmission, effective security systems still rely upon proper specification and installation by engineers with an in depth knowledge of CCTV principles and technology. The third edition of Closed Circuit Television provides a thorough technical guide for all those involved in the design, specification, installation and maintenance of CCTV systems. Fully dual-standard for PAL and NTSC systems, the book covers the essential equipment and topics of relevance to practitioners, managers and students on vocational and industry training courses. Extended coverage of flat screen devices, digital recording, and a new chapter on networking principles, bring this popular guide up to date with the latest developments in the field. Joe Cieszynski is a well-known technical writer with a wealth of experience in the security industry. After many years of college lecturing on TV, video and security topics, he currently acts as City & Guilds’ Chief Examiner for security systems and provides independent CCTV system consultancy. *Demystifies CCTV technology for installers and managers *Concise, accessible text ideal for hard-pressed practitioners and students *Fully dual-standard coverage for PAL and NTSC based systems

The rise of CCTV camera surveillance in Britain has been dramatic. Practically every major city now boasts a CCTV system aimed at, among other things, preventing, detecting and reducing the fear of crime. Increasingly these developments are mirrored in villages, shopping malls, residential estates, transport systems, schools and hospitals throughout the country. In short, for the majority of citizens it is now impossible to avoid being monitored and recorded as we move through public space. Surveillance, CCTV and Social Control represents the first systematic attempt to account for this phenomenon. It brings together leading researchers from the fields of anthropology, criminology, evaluation, geography, sociology and urban planning to explore the development, impact and implications of CCTV surveillance. Accordingly attention is directed to a number of key questions. How does CCTV fit with the trends of late modernity? Does CCTV reduce crime or merely shift it elsewhere? How should CCTV be evaluated? What is the significance of CCTV for women's safety? How adequate is the regulation of CCTV? In the light of recent technological developments what is the future of CCTV surveillance?

The use of Closed-Circuit Television, or CCTV, has dramatically increased over the past decade, but its presence is often so subtle as to go unnoticed. Should we unthinkingly accept that increased surveillance is in the public's best interests, or does this mean that ‘Big Brother' is finally watching us? This book asks provocative questions about the rise of the maximum surveillance society. Is crime control the principal motivation behind increased surveillance or are the reasons more complex? Does surveillance violate peoples' right of privacy? Who gets surveilled and why? What are its implications for social control? Does surveillance actually reduce crime? What will developments in technology mean for the future of surveillance? What rights do individuals under surveillance have? How is the information gathered through CCTV used by the authorities?Based on extensive fieldwork on automated surveillance in Britain over a two-year period, this book not only attempts to answer these vexing questions, but also provides a wealth of detailed information about the reasoning behind and effects of social control.

Video surveillance systems, often referred to as closed-circuit television (CCTV), have become a defining feature of modern life. Their widespread use by many different agencies for a range of purposes is no longer surprising, and is generally accepted in most European countries. Although broad academic interest accompanied the proliferation of CCTV in the mid to late 1990s, issues of governance and public policy are rarely explicitly addressed by social scientists and many of the concerns raised during the debate which followed the video surveillance revolution remain unanswered, and are as pertinent today as they were then. This book brings into focus the ways in which the implementation of cameras and systems, and their operation and technical features, are the product of decisions and policies made in a variety of contexts and by a variety of authorities and interested parties. It examines the cultural context in which cameras are deployed and explores how this context can shape their diffusion and use. The book places particular emphasis on studies of video surveillance in different national, institutional, cultural and linguistic settings. The book is divided into two parts. The chapters in part one are theoretically informed contributions from a variety of academic disciplines. Part two consists of five case studies, which are less theoretical and more descriptive, but which offer important insights for the governance of video surveillance cameras. Providing a fascinating study of the wider implications of video surveillance and its pervasive use, this book will be of interest to all those interested in how this phenomenon affects all of us in society today.

This work focuses on the design and installation of electronic access control systems. It provides practical information needed by system designers and installers and information required for level 3 NVQs from SITO/City and Guilds.

This book reports the result of research carried out in a busy London police station on the role and impact of closed-circuit television (CCTV) in the management and surveillance of suspects - the most thorough example of the use of CCTV by the police in the world. It focuses on the use of CCTV in a very different environment to that in which its impact has previously been studied, and draws upon the analysis of CCTV footage, suspects' backgrounds and extensive interviewing of both police officers and suspects. The research is situated in the context of concerns about the human rights implications of the use of CCTV, and challenges criminological and social theory in its conceptualisation of the role of their police, their governance and the use of CCTV. It raises key questions about both the future of policing and the treatment of suspects in custody. A key theme of this book is the need to move away from a narrow focus on the negative, intrusive face of surveillance: as this study demonstrates, CCTV has another 'face' - one that potentially watches and protects. Both 'faces' need to be examined and analysed simultaneously in order to understand the impact and implications of electronic surveillance.

Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras are a prominent, if increasingly familiar, feature of urbanism. They symbolize the faith that spatial authorities place in technical interventions for the treatment of social problems. CCTV was principally introduced to sterilize municipalities, to govern conducts and to protect properties. Vast expenditure has been committed to these technologies without a clear sense of how precisely they influence things. CCTV cameras might appear inanimate, but Opening the Black Box shows them to be vital mediums within relational circulations of supervision. The book principally excavates the social relations entwining the everyday application of CCTV. It takes the reader on a journey from living beneath the camera, to working behind the lens. Attention focuses on the labour exerted by camera operators as they source and process distanced spectacles. These workers are paid to scan monitor screens in search of disorderly vistas, visualizing stimuli according to its perceived riskiness and/or allurement. But the projection of this gaze can draw an unsettling reflection. It can mean enduring behavioural extremities as an impotent witness. It can also entail making spontaneous decisions that determine the course of justice. Opening the Black Box, therefore, contemplates the seductive and traumatic dimensions of monitoring telemediated ‘riskscapes’ through the prism of camera circuitry. It probes the positioning of camera operators as ‘vicarious’ custodians of a precarious social order and engages their subjective experiences. It reveals the work of watching to be an ambiguous practice: as much about managing external disturbances on the street as managing internal disruptions in the self.

Closed circuit television (CCTV) is experiencing a leap in technology using digital techniques, networking and the Internet. The new edition of this high-level professional reference retains the particulars that made the first edition a success, including the details of CCD cameras, lenses, coaxial cables, fiber-optics, and system design, but it is expanded to cover all video compression techniques used in the ever increasing assortment of digital video recorders (DVRs) available on the market today. This new edition of the book CCTV demystifies DVR technology. It also serves to clarify the technology of data networking. The theoretical section explains the various compression techniques. Networking is also a new and unknown area for many CCTV installers and this is explained in a brand new section. New edition more accessible