Testing Methodology

When it comes to Home and SOHO video-based surveillance systems there are main underlying themes that you have to get right or the system will be a failure. These themes can be messily summed up under the headings “Ease of Installation”, “Ease of Use” and “Transparency / Performance”. To fairly test the NVR 1012 system, we installed and then uninstalled the NVR 101 and its two IP cameras 4 times in 3 different locations using 4 different computers. This was done over a period of 2 weeks. We tested the IP cameras in both wired and wireless modes. For wired setups a D Link DI 604 router (used solely for DHCP) and a 5 port Freedom9 FreeConnect 500 10/100/1000 switch all over Cat 5e shielded cable was used. In wireless mode we used a Linksys WRT54GL wireless G router and the 5 port Freedom9 FreeConnect 500 10/100/1000 switch were used.


Ease of installation

The easier a system is set up and the easier it is to “tweak”, the easier it is for the owner to take full advantage of the system. We say Owner because in a home or even SOHO environment the chances of having a professional security expert on staff is unlikely and so are the chances that a professional installer will be hired to install said system.


Ease of Use

For many people, Ease of Use and Ease of Installation are one and the same, but in reality one relies mainly on the hardware (installation) and the other is heavily influenced by the user friendliness of the software. While it is true that in order to use the system you may from time to time move the cameras but usually once they are set up, they are then left in place; whereas people will want to access the system from wherever they feel like it and being tied to one main operating location is not an optimal solution.


Transparency/Performance

On the surface the second part of the term “Transparency/Performance” is fairly self explanatory; however, when it comes to surveillance systems, a system has to be able to not only perform under a variety of conditions but be able to do so without any user intervention, besides basic setup parameters. Think of it this way: when you surf the internet you don’t think about how the information gets from one place to another, you simply tell the system a basic command like “open Firefox.exe” (via a double click on the icon) and “go to hardwarecanucks.com” (via typing it in the address bar) and not detailed instructions on how the hardware & software is to do that. You just take it as faith that it will do all that for you. That is not only good performance but transparent performance. Same holds true for video surveillance especially Small Office / Home Office and Home centric systems.