A Brief History of CCTV

Cameras are now a major influence on our lives especially in the UK where we have embraced the technology to a greater extent than any other country. It has reached a stage now where almost every trip you make you are being watched or recorded. A simple trip to your local town centre is likely to result in your image being recorded thousands of times. It has obviously not always been like this, thirty years ago you could probably have travelled the length of the country without being recorded.

There are a number of factors that perhaps make our country differ from some of our European neighbours. A long standing terrorist threat and the introduction of the “nanny state” meant there was a lead from government to introduce CCTV that left the data protection act and the civil rights campaigners playing catch up. Whatever your thoughts about the intrusiveness of camera systems it would seem that they are now an everyday part of our lives and need to be considered when we are giving advice to our clients. Moreover with the deskilling of these systems they may even now be considered a viable product range.

CCTV products were originally a spin off from the broadcast industry. Unfortunately this presented a number of major disadvantages. The broadcast industry could boast well lit studios and a very stable environment. It was could afford highly qualified technicians who were skilled at setting up the often temperamental old fashioned tube cameras. As a result the only CCTV systems were in very high security installations, generally with big budgets and lots of light.

With the arrival of the CCD (Charge Coupled Device) everything began to change. Now an image could be focused directly from the lens onto the device and the signal processed by microelectronics to create a half decent image. Originally the chips were large and expensive but you may have noticed that over the years camera specifications have gone from 1 inch down to ¼ inch and with the reduced size came a reduction in price. An increase in the ability to process the signal, reduce noise (unwanted signal) and amplify the good bits resulted in better pictures and a far better low light ability. The CCTV industry expanded alongside the camcorder industry and finally left broadcast behind to become an industry in its own right. Neither could match the quality of the broadcast industry but this was more than made up for with the continually falling costs and the ease of installation and operation.

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