WestPoint · Cameras · Pelco
Pelco is already fitted across half the city. And that is worth money.
North American, a classic of CCTV and today inside the same group as Avigilon. A good part of its value is in the outdoor mechanics and in not throwing away what is already fitted.
What kind of manufacturer it is.
A surveillance house of the old school, with everything that is good about that.
Its thing is outdoor mechanics: domes and motorised cameras that turn all day for years without going blind in one eye, with housings that stand sun, salt and ice. A motorised camera is the one that breaks down most in an installation, because it is the only one with motors, and there are big differences between manufacturers there that show up on no data sheet.
The second thing is continuity. There is a large installed base of this brand in local authorities, transport and industry, and the manufacturer has taken care that the new lives with the old. For anyone with forty of its cameras spread across a city, that is worth more than any novelty.
What it sacrifices is breadth and push. The catalogue is narrower than that of the big houses, in analytics inside the camera it is not out in front, and there are fewer people on the market who know how to configure it — which is something to bear in mind when choosing, not a fault of the equipment.
Where it behaves well.
In urban surveillance and in hard outdoor conditions: junctions, entrances to a town, ports, beaches, industrial estates, heavy industry. High points, with a motorised camera that moves a lot and has to still be there in winter.
And in renewing installations that are already its own, which is the most frequent conversation with this brand: changing the cameras while keeping brackets, conduit and in some cases the cable, and moving to modern recording without digging up the street. It is the difference between building works and an upgrade.
It is worth knowing what is fitted before touching it.
In this house's old installations there is a lot of coaxial and a lot of motorised cameras governed over a separate data cable. A good part of that can be used: the conduit almost always, the coaxial often with the right equipment, and the bracket if the structure is sound. It is checked unit by unit and cable by cable, it is not promised over the phone.
What does not improve by changing the head end is the image: an old camera recorded on a new system still gives the image of an old camera. We say which ones are worth keeping for a few years and which ones are giving a sense of coverage that does not exist.
Where we would not put it.
In a small or medium new installation bought from a catalogue and on price, where what people want is twelve ordinary cameras and an application. There are cheaper options there and ones that are easier to replace.
And where what is expected is that every camera comes with fine analytics as standard. If the project stands on that, there are houses that have worked on it more, and it is worth saying so before signing.
The analytics it carries inside, and where they stop.
The current range brings what is reasonable: movement with judgement, intrusion into zones, simple counting and, on the motorised ones, automatic tracking of what moves. On a perimeter with few people that works.
With a motorised camera there is also a limit that is not one of analytics but of physics: while it is looking right it does not see what happens on the left. A camera that turns does not cover its whole sweep, it covers the piece it is on at that moment, and that always has to be spelled out.
What comes now is a recommendation with an interest of our own, so it is declared: in the same house there is IRIS Neural, the NVMS from Infinity Neural, the other company in the group. It is our own product. We would rather you knew it by reading this line.
What it brings is understanding the scene and relating several cameras, which is exactly what lets you tell a motorised camera where it has to look instead of waiting for it to get it right. And if a zone alert solves it, nothing else is needed.
What we do.
- The inventory of what is there: models, years, cables, brackets and real condition. Without that no renewal quotation stands up.
- The choice point by point and, on the motorised ones, the sweep: what it looks at, how long at each place and what position it goes back to when nobody touches it.
- The installation and the outdoor bracket: rigidity, sealing, surge protection —a high point is a lightning rod— and access for maintenance without hiring a crane.
- The setting up at night and at the hour of low sun, with the scene as it is and not as it was on the day of the visit.
- The maintenance with what a motorised camera really needs: checking sweeps and positions, cleaning the bubble and going over the field of view of the fixed ones.
The angle and the height are not decided at fitting time.
With a motorised camera there is a detail you only learn by suffering: if it is not left a home position to return to, within a month it is looking at wherever the last person who moved it left it, and on the day of the incident it was pointing at a wall. The home position is decided in the project, just like the height and the angle of the fixed ones.
That is what decides for good what will be possible with that image, and it is the cheapest part of the installation: afterwards it is only corrected by paying for the labour again and, at a high point, the machine to get up there.
Where to go next.
The area covers what does not change with the brand: what detail is needed at each point and what gets checked at every inspection.
Get started
Do you have an old installation of this brand?
Then the first useful conversation is what can be kept and what cannot. Tell us how many cameras there are, from what period and how they are cabled, and we will tell you what gets renewed now, what will last three years and what is only covering in appearance.