These days, our needs for knowledge, information, everyday necessities and novelty materials can be found just with one single click on an internet website. It’s no surprise that people prefer to surf the WWW rather than go to a library or shopping center to look for or buy what they want. More and more people use search engines like google to help them go directly to the website that contains what they need.

This trend sparked a revolution in internet marketing strategies. Web masters of vendor sites compete with each other to place their websites in the top 10 search results of a user’s searches. Various software utilities were created to boost the chances of high SE rankings. Some of these utilities even manage to cheat a high ranking out of a search engine even when the website itself contains nothing of interest to the user.

As more and more web masters arm themselves with rank boosting software, the effectiveness of their efforts begins to plummet so much so that they find themselves back to where they started. A new avenue for increasing their rankings became necessary. One of these ideas is the saturation of keywords on a single article. The entire philosophy of keywords hinged on their relevance. In searching for a Ford truck, what search strings would the customer use? How many of those search strings will match the keywords? The more a search string matches your site or article’s keywords, the higher you place on a search engine result page. Keywords have gotten to be such a major concern that private enterprises which offer search engine optimization (SEO) services are now making a killing in the internet economy.

The first result that comes out of a search engine is usually the website that contains the most similar number of keywords in the exact same order as the search. For instance, if I used “DIY Wi-Fi antenna” for my search string, the search engine will look for the exact same words and word placement. Now, if I type the word “ask” and perform my search using google, the common result would be ask,com. Notice how the search engine immediately went for the website with the domain name (ask,com) that matched my query. On the other hand, if I type “asked”, google still comes out with the ask,com webpage as its top search result. It’s all about relevance.

To be able to fully utilize your website’s potential as a top search result item, you need to orient your website towards the product or idea you want to promote. If you cannot have the ,com name, you can rely on keyword optimization to help you with your search engine rankings.

You do not need to consult a private enterprise to tell you which keywords to use. All you have to do is think about your product or idea and think of how you would look for it in the internet using a search engine.

Keywords will not work for you if you keep them generic. Most customers log onto the internet already knowing what they need or want. Remember, these shoppers can’t hold or examine the merchandise so they want to find out about them fist hand before they actually buy. When they do decide to buy, they have a specific idea in mind. They will use this idea as their search string in search engines. Ergo, if you have multiple products, you need to be able to generate a fair amount of literature containing relevant keywords for each of your merchandise. If you choose to limit your business to a certain area, be sure to include the name of your chosen location into your keyword base.

You also need to take care of the literature or articles you produce for your business. Make sure that they contain the necessary keyword count. Do not sacrifice the quality of your articles for the sake of keywords. Always present a detailed, literate and informative article.

It is only natural that webmasters continuously crave higher search engine rankings. After all, the closer your site is to the first entry in the search engine results page, the more chances you have of bringing on surfer traffic to your website.

The choice between proper website content composition and keyword saturation is a continuing dilemma that many web masters and internet marketers continue to mull over. Should the page of the site be designed specifically to enhance search engine results ratings or should the site’s pages contain proper and relevant content with regards to its existing purpose?

To be given a high search result ranking, the website must contain relevant information or content. This means that you can’t just jumble keywords together in a haphazard manner. You need to have quality content written down to describe your website and its contents. The search engine examines your website and all that it contains. The search engine will try to figure out if the keywords contained in your web pages are relevant to the user’s search parameters. For example, a user searches for the word “bird”. The search engine finds two websites with the word bird in it. The first website adds descriptions and additional information about the word bird.

The second website has the word bird, but it also contains other words like tiger, lion, zoo, seal all jumbled together in no particular order. Armed with this information, the search engine uses algorithms to determine which of the 2 sites has more relevance to the user’s query. In this case, the first website which has a descriptive article about “birds” is prioritized by the search engine. In addition to being ranked higher by the search engine, the user is directed to the first website and finds exactly what he is looking for.

Already, you can see that there need not be a conflict between search engine optimization and keyword placement.

You need to properly define your keywords in terms of relevance. The criterion for keyword relevance is based on how you think a searcher will write down his query. If he is looking for a pair of shoes, will he use “size 9″ or “black size 9″ or “Nike”? The best way to figure things out is to be a customer yourself. Go to a search engine and search for a single specific topic or product by using different words. Take note of the search strings you use and how relevant they are to your target.

Say, you want to buy a CD of Eric Clapton so you are also searching for a store to buy it from. Do you type in “buy Eric Clapton” or is it “Eric Clapton CD”? As a searcher do you have a specific album in mind? Are you searching for Eric Clapton’s unplugged album? If so, how are you going to search for it? As the keywords get more specific, the more relevance it assumes. This is actually a trade-off. Keywords or phrases that are specifically relevant to the topic at hand tend to bring in the correct kind of web traffic that you are looking for.

However, because of their specificity, your website will only be used as a search result if the user’s query specifically matches your keywords.

Writing content is not as easy as jotting down a sentence or two. Think of the search engine as an artificial intelligence that needs to know everything. The more it can read, the better it can judge the relevance of your content. That being said, a lot of internet marketers write keyword, rich content articles with a minimum of 400 words per article. To put it in simpler terms, a search engine is slow to grasp the whole point.

Having good content in your website is a blessing not only for search engine optimization, but also for usefulness to the person browsing your site. If you can make your site useful to me, I will certainly return to your site to find out if I can use something else again. People love useful and convenient things.

The discussion among security and surveillance video manufacturers, systems integrators, and end-users about the relative advantages and indications for different kinds of video installations is easy to oversimplify. Simplification aids end-user decision-making and furthers the business interests of equipment manufacturers and systems integrators. Industry writers also have good incentive to simplify information. The many motives include making a larger point, supporting a specific-case argument, and getting and keeping readers’ attention.

Simplification most often leads to statements like “IP video is more expensive than analog video,” which are true with so many exceptions that they are not actually true at all – studies sponsored by interested parties have shown the opposite to be true, and editors and bloggers have covered the studies’ findings widely. In fact, oversimplification often leads to an assertion and its opposite both being true.

Another manifestation of oversimplification is the argument that each installation is so unique that no useful rules-of-thumb can be developed.

In this paper we provide as simple as possible an explanation of the factors which indicate analog, IP, and hybrid IP/analog video systems respectively. This paper seeks to provide a reference for editors, end-users, and integrators who may need to evaluate a specific case or understand the general principles.

Indications for choosing a pure IP camera system

Ability to use an existing IT network – In some cases, digital video video systems with IP cameras can be plugged into the existing IP infrastructure. And other times the cost for the upgrade to the network to make it viable for video is easily managed. A user with an existing Ethernet network which is able to handle large amounts of data, who just needs a few cameras or plans to record low frame rates or low resolution, is a good case for a pure IP system. Recording at the “edge” of the network with only occasional requests for video over the main network may also provide a way to implement IP video on existing infrastructure.

Quick and easy data protection – In many mission-critical recording environments, lost or missing data is not acceptable. IP systems can shorten response times and speed up DVR reassignments. In cases where a DVR goes offline, the user can use software to reassign the camera to a different DVR without making any wiring changes. Response times recording problems are also fast, since the recording systems are monitored at the IT network management level alongside all the other servers, routers, switches, and network applications.

Ability to move and add cameras easily – Users with fluctuating camera counts and locations can avoid the need to power down recording servers to add, move, or remove cameras. This means seamless, pain-free recording from existing cameras, rather than scheduled downtime with alternate-server recording or missed recording.

Ability to collect megapixel images – Users who need really high-resolution imagery want the ability to selectively deploy network cameras providing images with resolutions at least four times higher than analog images – which means much more detail than an analog camera (which is limited to standard image dimensions that do not exceed 704×576 pixels (PAL) or 720 x 480 pixels (NTSC) image after the signal has been digitized in a DVR or a video server). Megapixel cameras can collect so much information that you can zoom in to catch the smallest, subtlest detail of a video frame. Megapixel IP cameras can provide superior, unambiguous images of point-of-sales transactions and other events that can be used for business intelligence, loss prevention, and security.

Ability to use facial recognition analytics – Facial recognition software depends on high-resolution images to be effective. Any camera being filtered for facial recognition should have more than the 704×576 pixels (PAL) or 720 x 480 pixels (NTSC) provided by an analog camera.

Minimum disruption and installation expense – Even in cases where a new Ethernet network needs to be installed to handle video traffic, pure IP surveillance systems are less disruptive to install than their pure analog counterparts. Unlike IP systems, analog systems require the installation of a direct coaxial, Fiber, or UTP cable running from every camera to a DVR, as well as additional encoding hardware to be installed on the DVR itself. IP systems can also distribute the power and HVAC loads to help users avoid expensive and disruptive site modifications to HVAC and other site features.

Need for video transmission over wide geographical range – Putting video on the IT network makes it possible to use switches, hubs, and routers to expand the network to a broader range. Analog cameras have significant transmission limits over wide surveillance areas, and they are not appropriate for some wide-area installations due to their need to be physically cabled to a DVR.

Need for advanced features like digital zoom, which are not available in analog cameras – Many new IP cameras have on-board encoding and analytics as well as sought-after features that certain users need to successfully implement their surveillance plan.

Need for camera-level redundant recording – Some IP cameras can provide redundancy by recording onto built-in memory cards.

Indications for choosing a pure analog system

Analog can meet user’s recording needs for a lower cost – There are many lower-end, low resolution IP cameras that are low in cost. But high-end IP and megapixel cameras are very expensive, and the disk capacity required to store the higher volume of video data is a very significant increased expense. Across a network array of hundreds or thousands of cameras this cost can be prohibitive. A large network of IP cameras will usually require the installation of a separate network so traffic doesn’t exceed bandwidth. An installation of just 40 cameras of 1000 Kbps-1 Mbps each will overtax many existing corporate networks. Many high-end analog cameras, though limited in resolution to 704×576 pixels (PAL) or 720 x 480 pixels (NTSC), use image processing, automatic back focus and imager sensitivity to produce images that are superior in quality and clarity to a similarly or higher-priced IP camera.

The cost advantage of analog recording is especially true for users who already have a legacy coaxial or UTP wiring in place and do not need to install a large number of cameras (analog cameras require a lot of wiring, which can be expensive and disruptive in terms of site modifications).

Network traffic exceeds the user’s existing capacity – IP camera recording and viewing will increase network traffic, especially with lots of IP cameras or with or megapixel cameras. If recording will exceed the existing network capacity, a user will need to add the costs of installing an additional network for the video to the operational and equipment costs of pure IP when comparing it to analog and analog-IP hybrid options.

Ability to avoid hardware upgrade expenses – IP cameras tend to rely on the processing power of the CPU. Many analog systems use additional processors to share the video processing with the CPU. But an IP camera stream comes into the network port and requires the CPU to be recorded and viewed. This limits the number of IP cameras that can be added the load the server systems are able to process. These factors depend on bitrate and video encoding format (MJPG, H.264, MPEG). And most IP cameras send large files (MJPEG) to the server to process and store. These files provide a good image but are very large and consume large amounts of storage very quickly. Newer compression formats on the horizon for IP cameras will help address this issue.

Need for minimum latency – Latency is defined as the time it takes for an image captured at a camera source to be presented to a system user. Every camera has latency to a degree, because the data travels from one location to another. It is much greater for IP systems, however, because their signals need to be encoded at the source and then must travel through the network to the decoder in order to be presented to the user. Because analog signals are point-to-point (camera-to-monitor), they don’t have the additional latency caused by network routing and the encoding and the decoding process. Because of this they are typically preferred in industries such as gaming and corrections.

Need for system to suit staff abilities – Many businesses operate without complex or extensive computer systems and do not have a need for the dedicated IT professional(s) required to provide timely and effective response to network emergencies on a system of any size or complexity.

Wider camera variety and choice – There are a large variety of Analog cameras (for instance, mini covert cameras and pan-tilt-zoom cameras in various sizes and shapes) to choose from. With IP cameras, not every vendor has many varieties and not every vendor’s surveillance software supports others’ cameras. In many organizations, physical security staff takes care of the surveillance system administration as well as the overall security plan design and implementation, and there are no existing IT needs that require IT professionals.

Vendor relationships and support – Vendor relationships have the power to greatly enhance or greatly damage the user experience and dissolve the integrator’s margin. Integrators and users at installations that already have analog cameras have an existing relationship with the manufacturer, so support and trust in the product are already in place. If the camera or DVR manufacturer with whom a relationship exists doesn’t have/support IP cameras, a new relationship of trust and access to support must to be developed.

Indications for choosing a hybrid IP/analog system

(A hybrid system will provide many of the advantages of the pure systems on a per-camera basis. The following are true only of hybrid systems.)

Ability to add IP camera recording to existing investments in analog – Where there is existing analog infrastructure, the hybrid approach allows the user to avoid expensive replacement of their existing analog cameras and wiring. Instead, the user can add IP cameras to their surveillance resources and record from both analog and IP cameras in the same DVR.

The right camera for the each site – Hybrid recording allows the user to choose analog cameras or IP cameras according to the recording requirements and conditions of each camera site. A site requiring the lowest possible latency will call for an analog camera, whereas a site using facial recognition or other data-hungry analytics will need an P camera source.

Minimal retraining expenses – Surveillance operators familiar with an existing analog-system user interface will be able to manage new IP cameras without disruptive and expensive retraining. Using hybrid DVR/NVR recording allows integration of IP cameras with little change to the end user’s normal routine.

Choosing a DVR

For businesses that do not want to constantly change tapes, DVRs are definitely the way to go. While security VCRs usually offer a time-lapse mode that lets them for long periods of time, the resulting images are not a good record of events – they record only one snapshot every eight seconds. To get higher quality, you need to change tapes every day or more often. DVRs, on the other hand, can record for weeks or even months.

DVRs are more considerably more expensive than VCRs, which is their only major drawback. However, the DVR prices have fallen considerably over the last year and will continue to do so. Already, low-end DVRs and high-end VCRs are in similar price ranges, and most manufacturers have stopped introducing new VCR models. Despite the increased cost, we recommend video security system buyers purchase a DVR whenever possible.

Choosing a DVR
As part of your CCTV shopping preparations, decide how much quality you need out of your recorder. There is no magic number or spec here: you need to decide how “good” the recorded picture needs to be, either for your own use later or possibly to use in court. Once you decide this, you will be able to look at samples on the DVRs you are evaluating and see if they meet your standard. Vendors may be eager to throw compression settings, pixel counts, and other statistics at you – but those numbers are irrelevant if the picture itself does not offer the detail you need for legal or investigatory purposes.

The size of the hard drive will dictate how much you can record. On the low end, an 80-gigabyte (GB) hard drive will store about five to eight days of full-motion video from one camera. Most of the time you will not be recording full motion, so this is much more than it might seem. For most businesses, spending a little extra to get 120 or 240 GB is a worthwhile investment. Units expand up to 1.2 terabytes (1,200 GB), which can store many cameras’ worth of data for long periods of time.

Replaceable hard drives are a cheap way to boost storage capacity. With some DVRs, you can buy additional hard drives for as little as $150 and swap them in and out as you need. This gives you the advantage of being able to store your data separately from the main security system.

You will also need to consider how many cameras you want to connect to the DVR. Keep your future expansion needs in mind – buying a higher-grade model to get more inputs and more storage space can save you considerable money in the future. The DVR will also function as a multiplexer, putting up to 16 cameras on one display and allowing operators to call up any one image for closer inspection.

Also, if you ever have to use your security images – in court or in other ways – you will need to be able to export the video. This is an important consideration: some systems let you create industry-standard .avi files, which can be played on any PC, and burn them to CD. Others only allow you to export proprietary formats that can only played on the same brand player. Most DVRs do offer the option to connect a standard VCR – this allows you to simply tape the digital recording onto a standard VHS cassette.