CCTV for Dummies

[CameraMan]

I'm looking to start carrying books on CCTV for end users to buy. What titles would you guys recomend? I have CCTV for Security Professionals By Alan R. Matchett, but that's it.

[integrator97]

I'm looking to start carrying books on CCTV for end users to buy. What titles would you guys recomend? I have CCTV for Security Professionals By Alan R. Matchett, but that's it.

Can you get the CCTV for Dummies? And in case that's over someone's head, the CCTV for Idiots? :D

I don't know how much is out there for end users. If I think of anything I'll let you know. Maybe I should write a boot in laymens terms. :)

[MetzLyov]

How about "CCTV made easy" or "CCTV explained" or "CCTV for everyone" or "CCTV to go"... :cool:

Dependent who your audience may be, you can have a lot more options.

[CameraMan]

Do you have any specific titles? I want to start selling books soon. Unless you could have something written and published asap.

[Rooney]

I have recommended "CCTV" By Vlado Damjanovski. His 2005 edition includes IP cameras and networking. It is not for "beginners" but is a good book.

Here is a link to a place where you can purchase it. As well as other books on the subject. (I do not endorse one way or the other this company)

http://www.polarisusa.com/Books_on_CCTV_and_Surveillance.html

[Bluevelocity]

The best place to seek information that I've found is Stam CCTV. They have a pretty nice online training session.

http://www.stamweb.com/cctv.htm

Erron S.

[SecTrainer]

You might look at this one to see if it's something you'd like to carry in your selection of books: Lighting for Digital Video (http://www.amazon.com/Lighting-Digital-Video-Television-Second/dp/1578202515/). It's geared toward television production but I have it in my library because it really does explain a lot of the lighting issues that many CCTV folks don't get and that sometimes result in the rotten (useless) CCTV images that we often get from these systems. (Sometimes attention to lighting is a better and cheaper solution for crummy images than expensive camera gear.)

Also look at Harwood's book: CCTV: A Guide for Security Professionals (http://www.amazon.com/Digital-CCTV-Security-Professionals-Guide/dp/0750677457/) - certainly not too deep for many consumers (she quotes from Webster's dictionary in defining compression) although she seems to wander around a bit (for instance, bringing in unneeded history concerning Shannon's theoretical work and Morse Code in relation to compression).

Also, a number of books on "smart home technology" have sections on CCTV - often in conjunction with distributed video systems. These range in depth from consumer-targeted books to people preparing for the DHTI (Digital Home Technology Integrator) certification exam. Browse some of these books on Amazon to see if there's one that you'd like to carry, especially for folks who might want to know about wiring/cabling issues now and make good decisions in the event that they would like to start with CCTV and then upgrade later to other signal distributions (alarm, audio, LAN etc.) without redoing the wiring.

[CameraMan]

So, here's the list I came up with:

Intelligent Network Video: Understanding Modern Video Surveillance Systems, by Fredrik Nilsson. CRC Press, ISBN 9781420061567

Asset Protection and Security Management Handbook, by James Walsh. CRC Press, ISBN 9780849316036

CCTV for Security Prefessionals, by Alan R. Matchett. Butterworth-Heinemann, ISBN 978-0-7506-7303-7


Digital CCTV: A Security Professional's Guide, by Emily M. Harwood. Butterworth-Heinemann, ISBN 978-0-7506-7745-5


Loss Prevention Threats and Strategies: How People Steal From Your Business and What You Can do to Stop It, by Thomas N. Monson. Advantage Source, ISBN 978-0974383019

The majority of my cusotmers are small business owners, so I compiled the list based on that.

BTW, I highly recomend Nilsson's book.