As the title says, in this article, you will get to learn about the most severe and frequent mounting errors that occur when the person who installs the maritime surveillance systems has yet to experience in the field. There can be many assembly errors, but the ones presented below are important for two reasons: they are ubiquitous and lead to the uselessness of the video system or serious malfunctions. This material will be of great help to 2 categories of people: those who choose to install the surveillance system purchased online on their own and beginner installers who need experience or solid foundations in the field.
This article is meant to help, not to condemn, so anyone who reads this advice will learn something. Along with each listed installation error, you will have different tips to avoid or correct that error. The mistakes presented are not according to importance or frequency of occurrence. All are situations to avoid, which experts in the field often encounter when they are called to review systems installed directly by the system owner or installed by a “professional” who can no longer be contacted by phone. Let’s begin.
Maritime Surveillance Systems and Their Position
To fix surveillance cameras in positions where certain bodies or objects obstruct the infrared radiation emitted by the cameras at night. The outcome? It is not a good idea. Objects reflect IR lighting and the blinding of the room by infrared radiation. Here are some concrete examples: This phenomenon can happen with any maritime surveillance system that uses infrared for lighting at night, regardless of whether it is about an outdoor or indoor camera. Problems can only be avoided by careful and correct planning of the position and orientation of each room. Of course, the planning of the camera positions is done before the cables are laid.
Most of the time, however, because the installation of a surveillance system is done during the day, an inexperienced installer will not consider the conditions in which the cameras will work at night and will choose the positions of the cameras based only on what he sees in the light of day. Everything will be fine and beautiful during the day and disaster at night. Camera images will become useless. The effects of this installation error only appear at night, when the camera’s integrated infrared projector becomes active to provide illumination.
Any object near the camera will block the infrared radiation from its path to good distant lighting and reflect it into the camera lens, blinding the camera. One example can be the wall on which the camera is mounted when that wall or wall takes up too much of the room. If more than 20% of the camera frame is occupied by the wall on which the camera was mounted, that wall will reflect a lot of IR radiation into the camera lens. The solution? Orient the maritime surveillance systems correctly.
Pay Attention to How You Place Your Surveillance System
Trees and tall vegetation near the room can create a visibility problem. It can be a large tree 2-3 meters from the camera or a single branch with leaves hanging 10 centimeters in front of the camera. The solution? Either the branch is cut, the tree is cut, or the camera is moved to a point where that tall vegetation will no longer be in the foreground. Another problem can be glass windows or doors too close to an interior room. Any glass reflects IR radiation. Do not try to mount cameras inside with the idea of seeing through the window at night.
The solution? Orient the camera correctly so that the glass is not the main target of the IR radiation. The IR radiation is strongest in the center of the image. So, make sure that that window is not fixed in the center of the image. The second option (if you have this function available) is to use the SmartIR function of the maritime surveillance systems to reduce the IR intensity of the projector to the point where the reflection from the glass is no longer disturbing. The SmartIR function is not available on all surveillance cameras.
An experienced installer will know how to choose the correct position to install a camera so that the visual field of the camera is not obstructed by something massive located a few meters away. An inexperienced installer will be overwhelmed by the requests and vast knowledge of the customers. The solution? Or move the camera to a position where the IR radiation can pass that obstacle. Or, if there is no option to reposition the camera, you will have to install a second camera to monitor the surface behind the obstacle.
The Surveillance Camera Pointed Too High
For a wrong horizontal adjustment (left-right orientation), you can encounter infrared lighting problems at night. Maritime surveillance systems oriented too left or too right risk capturing too much of the wall on which the camera is mounted, and the IR radiation will be reflected from the wall, and it will not illuminate what is needed. For a wrong vertical adjustment (that is, the up-down orientation), you can encounter lighting problems at night and an inferior depth of detail day/night (that is, you will need help to recognize details at a distance).
A camera oriented too high will capture in the frame a surface outside the optimal coverage radius of the respective camera so that it will provide little detail. The same camera oriented too high at night will not be able to provide efficient lighting because the IR radiation will be lost in the shadows instead of illuminating the area that interests you. The mistake of cameras oriented too high occurs when an unskilled installer or an uninformed customer wants to cover a considerable distance using a single camera with insufficient performance.
A camera oriented too high will only provide precise details if the camera’s resolution increases proportionally to the distance you want to monitor. The linear distance for which a camera is meant to provide essential details should be addressed. Either orient the maritime surveillance systems so that they cover the distances for which they were built. A camera oriented too high will provide ineffective lighting at night. The infrared radiation will be lost in the distance and will no longer illuminate the area that the camera was supposed to follow. The solution? Same solution as above.
