CCTV Monitors

The importance of a good CCTV monitor in a system is often underestimated. If images have been captured by a high quality camera and storage media such as a DVR (digital video recorder), it is or course a waste to view the images on a screen which cannot render the detail of the images to their full potential. Yet so often this is an area where some CCTV system installers cut corners to save on cost.

The range of monitors available can at first seem bewildering. Colour or monochrome? Conventional CRT (tube) monitor or flat screen LCD or even plasma? Which is right for the job?

Although colour images provide additional picture information, if the highest possible picture definition is needed, only monochrome cameras and monitors can deliver this. Ultra-high resolution mono monitors can provide screen resolutions of 800 TV lines per inch, compared with 650 TVL for the best colour monitors.
And monochrome cameras still deliver the best night time images too, so if night surveillance is the primary objective, it makes sense to couple low-light mono cameras with a high-resolution monochrome monitor.

For most purposes however, medium resolution colour monitors will provide the best balance of performance and cost. They will also cope perfectly well with a mixture of colour and monochrome cameras displayed on the same screen.

Sometimes the choice between flat screen and conventional tube monitors is made by location. Elegant and space-saving LCD monitors will compliment the decor of a modern company's reception for example.

CCTV systems using PC based DVRs (digital video recorders) can utilise economical flat-screen LCD monitors with VGA signal inputs made for use with computers.

If the image surface must be very large so as to be seen from a distance, or by a large numbers of people, then a plasma screen is probably the only choice.
And of course larger displays, such as plasma, are needed where images from multiple cameras, such as a quad, are to be displayed on the screen and viewed at a distance.

Needless to say, whatever the circumstances we will be able to advise on the right of choice of monitor for the job.