Video recording is nothing without proper storage of the recorded footage. So what should homeowners know about video storage?

Martin Koch of Vedi Security says home­owners must ask what it is that they really want to record. It should not be your everyday hum-drum, but purely the incidence of suspicion.

This is where the trigger mechanism comes in, allowing for only pre- and post-recording of specific video footage. A homeowner would need to specify how many minutes footage he would want to record pre and post an incident; this would be factored into the programming of the recording device and the trigger mechanism.

While analogue CCTV systems rely on bulky cassette tapes for storage, IP-based surveillance systems are able to store video footage straight to hard disk. This process offers several key benefits, including vastly improved storage capacity, and greatly enhanced searching capabilities. Because the video images are stored digitally, users can quickly sort through archived footage by time and date, and can even add reference tags.

There are a number of factors to consider when calculating the amount of hard disk space required for your specific storage needs.

* How many surveillance cameras are you operating?

* Will the cameras be recording continuously or only at certain hours of the day?

* Will your IP cameras be set to record only when motion is detected?

* How long will the video footage be stored on the hard disk?

* What level of image quality is required?

Be storage-wise

* Long-term storage is not really needed for homes.

* Continuous storage can dramatically increase storage use (300% to 800%) compared to recording on motion only. For most homeowners, as long as you get one or two representative images, that is enough.

* High-resolution footage is generally not necessary in homes, as there is not a high turnover of people passing through as with a business.

Who installs – DIY or outsource?

Industry gurus agree that setting up a home video system requires special skill and is best left to the experts. Get someone in. They should do it within 3 hours.

If you are going to do it yourself, there are a number of factors to consider when setting up an IP-based surveillance system:

* Network cameras transmit data over your existing IP network, so optimising bandwidth is important.

* You will also need to think about storage: how long will footage be archived?

* What type of image quality do you require?

* Will recording be continuous or triggered by motion?

* You must consider network security and system scalability.</i>