Light reading

SI: Is lighting really needed with modern cameras?

DL: Yes; all cameras need light to achieve good pictures. Even higher performance cameras provide much clearer, sharper pictures when they have more light to work with. To deliver best results a camera requires a purpose designed lighting system. Whilst camera sensitivity has increased in recent years, all cameras benefit from purpose designed abundant lighting, and this will always be the case. Effectively, the higher the camera sensitivity, the greater distance and higher quality images it will achieve with CCTV lighting.

SI: What do you think are the biggest challenges our industry faces with regards to effective night time CCTV performance?

DL: Industry wide, the main challenge at the moment is the demand for cost savings coming from end users. Often the tendency is to look at the purchase price of the system and to ignore the longer term running and operational costs. Consequently, installers are sometimes forced into specifying lower performance equipment to meet the budget restriction, and often compromise on lighting to save costs. It must be highlighted to all end users that this is a false economy. Most crime happens at night and this is when a system needs to provide peak performance. Good lighting can provide a significant return on investment for end users and they must be reminded of this.

SI: What are the key issues for CCTV lighting?

DL: There are several key issues currently facing installers with regards to improving the night-time performance of their CCTV systems. The most important are new legislation and its impact on CCTV lighting, how to achieve easy specification and installation, reliability to reduce unplanned maintenance, how CCTV illumination can be used with domes and earning additional revenue from CCTV lighting.

SI: What can be done to improve the standard of CCTV lighting?

DL: The CCTV industry should continually strive to increase standards. We believe every CCTV system should pass an industry MOT which includes an evaluation of lighting.

We have introduced a free IQ (Illumination Quality) test to allow our customers to bench mark their lighting system against set guidelines. A new industry standard, BS8418, states that CCTV systems should have "sufficient light (day and night) to illuminate the camera's fields of view". This should emphasise how critical effective and suitable lighting is to the success of CCTV systems. Installers should also be made aware of the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 which calls for a reduction in light pollution.

SI: Given this Clean Neighbourhoods Act, how important is light pollution for modern CCTV systems?

DL: Following recent legislation covering nuisance lighting, the importance of light pollution cannot be underestimated. Infra-red is the perfect low pollution option for monochrome or day / night cameras but for colour cameras white light is needed. However, until recently, the CCTV installer has had little or no choice of suitable products to provide illumination for colour systems.

SI: What should installers look for in a CCTV lighting system?

DL: The main considerations are flexibility, reliability and ongoing operating costs. Reliability is essentially the expected lifetime of a product while operating costs include electrical consumption, maintenance and repair costs. The best solution is an LED based illuminator. LEDs are intrinsically long life devices with an operational life greater than 50,000 hours (more than ten years) that require no ongoing maintenance. They also have an extremely low electrical consumption.

SI: A recent problem is fitting lighting to dome systems. How can CCTV lighting be used with domes?

DL: The problem with domes is that the lighting cannot be fitted to move with the camera. On traditional PTZ systems the infra-red was always attached to the pan / tilt head and would be directed wherever the camera was pointing. With fully functional domes the illumination is static and therefore it must cover as wide an angle as possible.

SI: What opportunities are there for installers within CCTV lighting?

DL: Well designed lighting will always add to the overall effectiveness of the system - requiring extra investment for the customer, but providing a significant return on the investment, and extra revenue for the installer. Significantly, lighting also provides revenue opportunities to the CCTV installer which may previously have been lost to electrical contractors.

SI: What applications should CCTV lighting be used for?

DL: Essentially all CCTV systems need professional lighting. Most crime happens at night so it is not acceptable to provide inadequate pictures during darkness. Night time performance should be a design priority. Installers should not rely on ambient or street lighting which provides contrasting light and dark areas within the image. Professional CCTV lighting should always be installed. In addition to standard installations, number plate capture systems also benefit from CCTV lighting, particularly pulsed infra-red light.

SI: How do you see the future of CCTV lighting?

DL: The current trend is towards LED lighting. LEDs offer longer life, more efficiency and lower running costs. We can expect LED technology to dominate the future of CCTV lighting in the way it will dominate automotive and domestic lighting. However, not all LEDs are equal. To achieve the best performance and longest life, installers should look to use surface mount LEDs, a newer more stable LED technology. Installers should also look at manufacturer warranties to check confidence in their products.