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Video calculators are helping simplify the design and installation of CCTV systems

Many factors must be taken into consideration when designing and installing a surveillance system. Setting up a camera, an installer needs to know how much activity will be taking place and when it will be taking place within the camera's focus to determine what the subsequent storage requirements will be.

To help both end-users and installers in this process, many camera manufacturers now offer a range of video surveillance calculators free of charge on their websites. These calculators enable technicians to input all the relevant data including camera model, resolution and compression format, to see how much bandwidth the feed will take up.

"Our philosophy on our tools in general is we are looking to give our partners tools to allow them to accurately specify our products and accessories so that when they do an installation with our products, they are doing it with the right products so that they get the job done right the first time," said James Marcella, director of technical services for Axis Communications. "We also, through our tools, offer guidelines on how to implement our products into a total solution or a system since Axis is really just manufacturing one component of a total solution."

The Axis Design Tool, which is available both online at the company's website and on DVD, is a bandwidth and storage calculator for Axis cameras. Marcella said the tool allows users to select any of the company's cameras that are currently available and then set different parameters for them like frames-per-second to view and record video, compression format (H.264, MJPEG, MPEG-4) and scene requirements (how much motion will be taking place within the camera's field-of-view).

"This calculator is a very powerful tool that allows you to select which cameras you are using, determine how much frame rate you are going to be viewing and recording at, and what type of compression to use and it's basically going to spit out a report to you that says 'hey, you need this much bandwidth to deliver this solution and you are going to use this much storage space,'" he said

Marcella added that the design tool has been in use for about the last three years and indicated that they have thus far received positive feedback about its capabilities.

"The feedback that we have received from our partners has been that (the design tool) is conservative for the most part. Most people find that what we say you are going to need for storage and bandwidth is a little bit higher than they actually need in real life and we feel that is a smarter approach than doing the reverse. In some respects, it is ok to over-engineer a project, it is never ok to under-engineer a project," he said. "We have also gotten feedback that the image scenario piece is a great addition because most tools we have seen and heard of don't give you that capability."