#video surveillance

Connecting surveillance cameras with mobile phones: 4 possibilities resulting from it and a note on security

The combination of surveillance cameras and mobile phones extends the portfolio of video surveillance

In the past, video surveillance was either 'high end' and therefore hardly affordable, or available at an attractive price but of very limited quality. Thanks to new materials and modern production methods, this has changed in the 21st century. High-quality video surveillance systems no longer have to be expensive. Private households and small to medium-sized businesses benefit from this. In these cases, there is no person sitting in front of a screen 24/7 to look at the monitored areas of the company or house. Instead, the 'surveillance in between' can be provided by a mobile device. Our expert Harald Buchholz presents 4 possibilities of video surveillance by mobile phone.

By the way: do you have security concerns with this topic? We can understand that. However, connecting a surveillance camera to a mobile phone has the same security requirements as other methods. Come and find out more on this topic here.

1. You can monitor from any location

This advantage is probably the most obvious one. However, it requires some creativity to fully understand the potential. Connecting surveillance cameras with mobile phones means that the camera can take on a lot more tasks, i.e. 'concentrate' on security purposes:

Mobile surveillance of inventory
Mobile surveillance of the vehicle fleet for companies
Mobile monitoring of the customer volume or the personnel requirements in shops
Mobile monitoring of the free capacity of jetties and parking spaces
Mobile surveillance of animal stalls and feed stocks
Mobile monitoring of water levels in tanks and basins
Mobile surveillance in nature protection zones combined with a motion detector
Mobile surveillance of delivery or loading areas

These tasks are always situations in which a camera for panning is useful, but a high panning speed is not required. In this case, the camera does not have to take pictures for evidence and follows an intruder, but only to observe.

2. Video surveillance, alarm systems and mobile devices can be linked to one system

For a relatively long time, it has been possible for alarm systems to send an alarm message to the owner's mobile device. It is only logical that you can now access your video surveillance with the same mobile device. In case of an alarm, the owner can thus look: is there a window or door open? Has something been damaged on my property? Is someone on the property? Is my car still there?

The possibility to check the status of the property at any time gives many people a great sense of security.

Modern recorders also have motion detection. If something happens in the monitored area, you can get this as a push message on your mobile phone. There are models which only allow an e-mail message. However, e-mail apps usually feature the possibility of sending a push message to certain recipients. In this case, you can simply set up the camera to send you such a message when you receive an e-mail through the camera. With a clever configuration, you could have a notification sent to your mobile phone when someone is at your mailbox.

3. You can configure the recorder remotely

With the mobile device, you access the recorder instead of the camera itself. The coaxial-based system allows you to change the settings of the recorder from any distance, e.g. recording intervals or memory settings.

In network-based systems, you can even remotely access the recorder to change some of the settings of the camera, e.g. the image brightness.

4. You can access the camera images from several mobile phones simultaneously

Both in the private sector and in the commercial sector, e.g. for shop owners, it is convenient if more than one person can stream the images from the cameras. One person can access an outdoor camera from any location, while another person in the building can access the camera for the indoor area or warehouse, or both can access the same camera. We admit: for this, it requires a good data transmission rate.

Video surveillance systems that are used via mobile phone are just as secure as other systems

The mobile device never accesses the camera directly. You would need to be in the same WLAN as the camera for this to work. The camera sends to the recorder, the recorder makes the information available to an Internet service in encrypted form. The mobile device accesses this Internet service which acts as a distributor. This distributor is responsible for informing the mobile phone or tablet at which (IP) address the corresponding recorder can be reached at home. To do this, the recorder in the home network must be connected to the Internet. The control works on the mobile device via app. The intermediate Internet service takes care of the authorisation. This is done via the serial number of the recorder as well as user name and password. This ensures a secure connection between recorder and mobile device.

However, it is important that you change the default password and default user name at the beginning. Please note the typical password standards: do not use the name of a relative, your house number or similar words which can easily be guessed.

Conclusion: if video surveillance is mobile, the field of application expands considerably.

Mobile devices make video surveillance more convenient and, above all, suitable for most versatile applications. Previously, surveillance systems were reserved for sensitive security areas, mainly because they were simply too expensive. Today, surveillance cameras are available at such an attractive price they can facilitate a variety of processes. In combination with mobile devices, surveillance cameras conveniently replace one or more pairs of eyes and there is simply no need to go to the warehouse or make time-consuming inspections.