Using a broadband connection, it is now possible to monitor remote sites covered by CCTV from you office, home, or any location in the world where you have broadband internet access.

Combine this with a VOIP phone service and you have free calls between all your locations using your broadband service.

It is now possible to manage offices remotely using CCTV and VOIP on a broadband connection. You are able to watch and talk with staff or customers at the same time using only your broadband service on a single telephone line.

Air-Net Broadband specialise in this area and work with many CCTV installation companies providing them with broadband services, routers, and expertise. This allows them to focus on their core business and customers, and we take care of the remote access provision for them.

All of Air-Net’s broadband packages are unlimited so CCTV cameras can be monitored around the clock. Other providers will limit the amount of data which can be downloaded each month and therefore limit the amount of time that cameras can be viewed.

There is a lot of marketing from Broadband companies about the benefits of faster download speeds. Customers are encouraged to get faster connections to speed up the camera pictures. However with remote CCTV monitoring it is the UPLOAD speed at the camera site which is the most important element . This is the speed pictures can be sent from the CCTV unit across the internet to your home or office. Typically this is 256k, but depending on line conditions and distance from the local phone exchange can be up to 512k with ADLS MAX.

Therefore a download speed of 512k is sufficient for CCTV monitoring. This will provide good quality live images and playback images depending on the number of cameras and picture quality settings on the CCTV unit.

Where available Air-Net recommends the use of a Symetrical Broadband service offering the same upload and download speeds. A symmetrical 1mb connection for example will provide near full motion quality images. Currently these connectins can only be provided through Firxed Wireless and SDSL services.

We use Draytek Vigor Routers for all our installations. We have found these to offer the best quality service in their price range combining an excellent Firewall and optional VOIP connections for sites where an internal private phone line is required.

Examples of our innovative approaches.

Pub/Restaurant

Our client operates a busy Pub/Restaurant and needed the ability to monitor his premises from his home and from the car-park of the premises.

The Pub and our client’s home were in an area where our Fixed Wireless Broadband service was available and we provisioned a 1mb symmetrical service at each location.

We then added a Wireless Router at each location, also connecting the router in the Pub to the CCTV unit by Ethernet cable.

This innovative solution gave our customer quality real-time images from the pub from up to 32 cameras via the Fixed Wireless broadband service. He was able to connect wirelessly using his laptop anywhere in his house to view the pictures. The wireless router in the pub allowed him to check on staff and premises from the proximity of the car-park while in his vehicle.

Retail Outlet Chain

Our client has eleven Butchers Shops and a Head Office. He had installed CCTV units with varying numbers of cameras in these locations over the years and was using dial-up connections to check on them periodically, but this was proving impracticable.

Air-Net provided him with an unlimited broadband service and Fixed IP address at each retail location, and the Head Office. We then installed VOIP enabled routers at each location and set up a VOIP connection between each location and the office.

He is now able to monitor all 11 sites at the same time, and can switch between locations with a mouse click. A speed dial plan allows him to call each office as he is watching the cameras and talk to staff in real-time. This is all happening over a single telephone connection cutting down on the need for a second phone line to each site.

This solution has offered our client true remote office management on a scale that was previously unavailable or too costly to implement for SME’s.