Care and Maintenance
Care and maintenance of video surveillance system is key to longevity and success of the system. With some small guidelines and tips you can ensure your system keeps on performing as desired. This section discusses few vital points:
General Maintenance
Preventive measures have to be taken to ensure your cabling and equipment from birds and rodents. Since birds, rodents, and insects can all detrimentally affect security video deployments. Small birds and can find cable insulation to make good nest material and rodents can damage them without you noticing it. Besides this, spiders often like to build webs over the camera housing's faceplate. Wasps and bees have also built small nests in fixed camera housings. In winter, cameras can be a nice place to get warm.
Outdoor camera and housing require regular inspection and cleaning. Dirt or dust on a PTZ dome can cause the camera's autofocus function to focus on the dome itself, which often blurs the image. Light from internal camera infrared illuminators (usually a ring of infrared LEDs) is reflected back into the camera's sensor even by very light accumulations of dust or dirt on the camera's dome or housing faceplate.
Thus, the dome of the camera must be cleaned inside and out at frequent intervals, as dust or dirt on either side will reduce the clarity of the image. These cleaning tips also apply to indoor cameras, although they generally don't get as dirty as outdoor cameras:
If there is a significant amount of dry dirt or sand on the outside of the camera housing and/or dome, use a dry soft brush to gently brush it; or use a can of compressed air to blow the dust off, being careful not to be too close to the camera as too much air pressure can push the dirt into the dome, creating scratches.
Remove the dome (or open the housing) to access the inside of the dome and use a micro-fiber cloth to remove any dirt or dust buildup.
If there is a significant accumulation of dirt or grease on the dome, wash it in warm soapy water and dry it with a micro-fiber cloth (do not use paper towels which may scratch the dome). Clean the rest of the camera, inspecting closely for insect eggs or spider webs.