Wireless CCTV Systems

A step by step guide to help you understand the differences and limitations of wireless cameras.

Contents

• What do I need to know about wireless cameras?• What types of wireless systems are available?• Analogue wireless camera kits• Digital wireless camera kits• Transmitter and receiver packages• Recording options with wireless cameras

What do I need to know about wireless cameras?

In this slide we will talk about things you need to know about before you consider using wireless cameras.The main thing to bear in mind is that wireless cameras still require power. This can come from the included mains adapter or from an additional battery pack. None of our wireless cameras come with a battery so bear this in mind.

The other thing to consider is the wireless range, our standard wireless cameras will go 50 metres in clear line of sight. This means no obstructions at all, even trees will impact the range of your wireless camera. A standard brick wall can lower the range of a wireless camera by 50%. In a normal sized 3 bedroom house, the range should be around 15m through 1 or 2 walls. Our professional and digital wireless camera kits can go up to 400m but again that’s in clear line of sight. Please consider the wireless range of the cameras when picking a location.

The final thing to consider is wireless interference, this can come from many different sources including WiFi Routers/computer networks, DECT cordless telephones and even power lines. The first thing to do is check how many WiFi computer networks are in your area, you can do this on your phone or laptop. If you have 5 or 6 WiFi networks in the area then perhaps wireless isn’t a good idea for you, as you are likely to have lots of interference. If you have 2 or 3 WiFi networks then it’s probably going to be ok to use wireless cameras. If you are suffering from interference there isn’t really a great deal you can except swap to a wired CCTV system.

What types of wireless systems are available?

At SpyCameraCCTV we sell a range of wireless cameras, below we go through the different options:

Our standard wireless cameras are analogue 2.4GHz. These kits are available in an infrared camera, pinhole camera or bird box camera. With single and multiple camera packs available. Analogue cameras are quite susceptible to interference and are basic quality at 380 TV Lines. With an analogue system the maximum number of cameras you can use is 4.

We also offer a professional level digital wireless cameras. These come with a standard AV receiver or even with a 7” colour screen and SD card/USB recorder. Again these kits come in 1 or 4 camera packages. Digital wireless cameras avoid interference by pairing with the receiver, they look for available frequencies and avoid 99% of interference. That said, even digital wireless can suffer interference from power lines and in areas with lots of WiFi networks (such as a block of flats for example).

Analogue wireless cameras will give you around 50m range, digital wireless will give you around 100m range. Our professional kits can be upgrade with 7dB aerials to give you a bigger range of up to 300 metres.

Analogue wireless camera kitsWe offer our analogue camera kits in 3 main forms:

Infra-red night vision outdoor camera

Indoor Pinhole spy camera

Infra-red night vision bird box camera

These cameras are also available in packages with multiple cameras.

Digital wireless camera kits

10m Infra-red night vision outdoor camera

5m Infra-red night vision outdoor camera with colour 7” LCD screen and PIR sensor.

15m Infra-red night vision outdoor camera with colour 7” LCD screen and PIR sensor

These digital kits are also available in 4 camera packs.

Transmitter and receiver packagesWe also offer 2 wireless transmitter and receiver packages. These packs will turn a wired camera into a wireless camera. This is great if your are after a specific camera, but can’t wire it. We use these transmitter and receiver packages in many of our 4 camera and long range camera kits.

Our digital TX/RX kit has a range of up to 400m when used with our 7dB aerials. We use this package in our digital horse foaling kit. We also offer an analogue package that will give a range of up to 300m with bigger aerials, but again these are susceptible to much more wireless interference.

If you wanted a high quality or low light wireless CCTV camera, then using one of our transmitter and receiver packages and a wired camera is the best solution.

Digital Wireless transmitter and receiver package.

7dB outdoor aerial.

Recording options for wireless cameras

We have several recording options available for wireless cameras and we even offer packages with a wireless camera and recording system. The 2 most popular recorders are a USB PC based recording system and a single channel SD card recorder.

The USB based recorder can be purchased separately or in a package with any of our standard analogue cameras. It plugs into a PC with a USB connection and records to your computers hard drive. It is very simple to setup and operate, we even have a Mac compatible USB package.

The second option is a standalone SD card recorder. This system is even easier to setup and operate. This recorder plugs into your television and all the setup options are accessible via an onscreen display. The unit records to a standard SD card up to 32GB in size.

Almost all of our wireless cameras can be connected to standard 4 channel DVR’s too, so if you wanted a 4 camera system it’s very possible.