DoorSpEYE

April 23, 2010

About a year ago a family friends house was burgled. He had a CCTV system which we had installed for him and due in part to the evidence from this system the offender was caught. The intruder in question actually walked by a camera which was positioned at the front door. While this particular CCTV installation was expensive to install it now more than ever provides a sense of security for the owner of the house.

Since then there has been some other minor incidents and some vandalism in the area and while my mother lives quite near I thought a similar system would add an element of security for her. A traditional CCTV system which you see in small shops and business would not really suit, mainly as the cost of such digital video recorders are prohibitive when all you really want to do is see who’s at the door before you open it.

For a while I experimented with cheap cameras and the like but never found anything to give an acceptable picture quality. In the last year technology advancements have resulted in recording units and cameras with high quality optics falling in cost which meant the raw materials were there to put a systems together which is within the reach of most pockets and provides a quality picture.

I started by asking what part of your house do you most need to see? The answer was simple, the front door. Straight away there was a problem, traditionally coax cable is used to transmit a video signal from a camera and that needs to be coupled with a power lead. This combination of wires are unsightly and are not always easy run. Wireless would not work as there were too many walls in the way and with wireless doorbells and wireless internet the chances of interference were too high.

I needed a cable that was discrete. A traditional telephone wire is small, easy to clip and easy hide along the skirting board. With existing technology it is possible to transfer video and power down a telephone line without interference. So I tucked behind architrave, clipped along the top of skirting, dropped behind presses and ended up with a barely noticable cable run from the front door to the TV.

The result was a system that allows my mother to switch to a specific channel on her TV when a knock comes to the door and see who is there before opening it. Next I needed some way of recording.

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Photo from the recorded unit.

I’ve since found a supplier that has a simple and cost effective recorded that takes a photo every time someone walks into view of the camera. The photo is recorded onto a digital camera card and can be viewed on the TV, taken from the unit and viewed on a computer or brought to you chemist and have specific photos printed.

The photos are not always perfect, you need to take some time in positioning the camera to get an optimum view. If you are trying to catch too much you won’t get any detail, so a bit of experience here helps. Since I set the recorded unit going there is a cat that 3 to 4 times a day walks past the camera leaving me with 20 to 30 photos daily, at least I know the system is working!

While happy that my mother now has an added sense of security I immediately saw an opportunity to try market this system. So after some direction from the local county enterprise board we’re in the process of launching the DoorSpEYE camera system.

The price range is within most households and we’re starting with demos at local based Community Alerts. I might be biased but I feel this is a good product, at a price range everyone can afford.

Further details can be seen in our CCTV section.

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The Dangers of 3D TV

April 16, 2010

Before you splash out on a new 3D TV consider you and your family’s safety! Is you TV near a stairs? Are there cables or other dangers near where you have your TV. Samsung, who will be releasing 3D TVs in the coming months have set out some safety notices to bear in mind when viewing 3D TV.

The Business and Leadership website have a great article on it here, with a link to the Samsung recommendations.

Some of my favourite ones are; no drinking and watching 3D TV, has anyone told Sky this? DO NOT place you 3D TV near stairwells, balcony or cables. No cables may be a problem! But the one that I’ll warn everyone who gets 3D TV is that if you suffer from convulsions you should stop watching TV.

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Sky HD

April 15, 2010

You wouldn’t believe the amount of calls we do to people who have a Sky HD box but are not watching HD channels in HD.

To view HD broadcasts in HD quality you need 3 things; firstly a HD TV. Secondly, some form of HD broadcast. The HD broadcast can come in the form of a Sky HD box, a Free to Air HD box or a BlueRay player. ( Some computers and media streams also transmit in HD. ) The third item needed is where most people running problems, you need a cable connection capable of carrying a HD signal, typically a HDMI lead.

We see a large amount of customers who have scart and HDMI connections between their HD box and TV and are viewing HD programming through their scart connection. Since scart connections are not capable of carrying HD signals these people are looking at HD broadcasts in standard definition.

All Sky boxes and almost all DVDs and VCRs have a feature that activates the AV channel on the TV when switched on. So what is happening with the Sky HD box is that as you turn it on the box sends a message to the TV via the scart connection that there is signal on this connection and the TV turns on this channel. The TV will bypass the HDMI connection in this case and show the AV, standard definition channel. There is no need to use a scart cable to connect a HD box to a TV as the HDMI cable will carry the standard signal as well as the HD signal.

The BBC technology website wrote a great article lately on the same subject, which can be found here.

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