This means that you, as a home owner, are having to become more responsible for your own homes security and the trend doesn’t appear to be changing any time soon. The good news is that home security systems have continued to become more reliable and sophisticated and also they have become far more affordable. Home security systems began to become readily available during the late nineteen-sixties and the early nineteen-seventies and back then they were basically trip switches on doors and windows connected to an alarm.

For anyone with any knowledge of the systems basic functions, they were quite simple to disable, so they were very unreliable. So many things have changed in home security systems since those early days and what is used now to protect homes, would be hardly recognizable to an installation technician back then. Trip mechanisms for widows and doors are still employed as components of modern alarm systems but they are far more secure and reliable.

Even then, motion and body heat detectors are also another component of every complete home security system in this day and age. The level of technology that goes into these newer components is truly astoundinmg and not only have they grown smaller and more easy to conceal but they have also become far more sensetive and reliable. Motion and body heat detectors have the capacity to differentiate between man and animal now, such as cats and dogs. This means that false alarms triggered by pets are virtually non existent.

In older alarm systems, the security blanket on a home began at the front door and covered the house only but now due to the advent of these modern heat and motion detectors, a homes span of security now stretches beyond the dwelling and into the outside perimeter of the home. It is now not uncommon for a home to have a thirty-five foot exterior security perimeter that protects the home and its inhabitants with concealed body heat and motion detectors that wrap completely around the home.

Arming and disarming home security systems has now become so much more convenient also. Now home owners can set their home alarms with a quick click of a button that is held on their hey chain just the same way as their car alarm is set and its also disarmed the same way when they return home. Even voice recognition technology is now available that allows a home or business owner to arm or disarm an alarm system by using voice commands.

These items which have taken years to acquire could be lost within minutes. By not taking your home security seriously you are risking virtually everything you have, including you and your familyâ??s safety at home. Donâ??t wait until it is too late â?? act now and secure your home. So what exactly do you need to do to protect your home from the burglar?

There are many, many security products on the market today and it is a minefield knowing exactly what to do. In fact, your first step to improving your home security doesnâ??t involve much cost at all. Make sure doors and windows are securely locked when leaving your home. Purchase timer light switches so that your lights switch on and off at various times throughout the evening for when you are not at home.

Install an external security lamp with movement detector. These have been proven to be extremely effective at deterring the burglar before they even enter onto your property. Be sure to secure all garages, sheds and outbuildings as you probably have expensive gardening equipments and the like in these exterior buildings.

Prune back overgrown, trees, shrubs and bushes that are in your yard as these provide the ideal cover for the burglar â?? you donâ??t want to make it easy for them. You could even plant prickly or thorny bushes right underneath your windows. This is will make it difficult for a burglar to get close access to your window to see in. Put down some gravel around your property as this will make a loud crunching noise when trodden on. If the burglar walks on this you will know about it.

Once you have looked into all of the simpler, inexpensive measures that can be taken to improve your home security then its time to look at some highly effective options to significantly improve the security of your home. A burglar alarm system is the obvious first choice when it comes to choosing security equipment. A wireless alarm system can be installed by the keen DIYâ??er and are far cheaper than they were a few years ago. Installation costs are virtually zero and such systems can be expanded in the future.

If you want to catch an intruder on film them a security camera is the way to go. These days security surveillance cameras record digitally onto DVRâ??s so hundreds of hours of footage can easy be stored and played back if required.

While you may be handy and are tempted by a cheaper do it yourself installation option, there are important factors to consider. What kind of protection is that system offering you? Is it just an alarm that sounds when an intruder invades your home or is it connected to a monitoring center that will alert police when the alarm is triggered? Another important consideration is how complex the installation is. If there are multiple components that work together to provide home security, it is vital that all of these components are working in tandem and are properly connected in order for the security system to function properly. Do you have the type of expertise that is required to make sure all of this is accomplished?

Security experts agree that professionally installed home security systems are the much better route to go if you want to be sure that your home is completely covered in the event of a break in. Today’s home security systems employ advanced technology that work to protect your home. This technology ranges from super sensitive sensors that can be placed on doors, windows and other vulnerable entrances to your home to motion detectors that can be programmed so they can detect prowlers but not trigger the alarm if they sense small children or animals. This technology works together to provide total protection for the home and is centralized with the home security system. Making all of these elements work properly is the job of the professional installer.

A professional installer has experience in installing home security systems in homes just like yours. They can make suggestions as to where to strategically place the sensors and the motion detectors. They install the digital keypad that connects the sensors and motion detectors with the high decibel alarm and with the monitoring center. Professional installation can make sure that all of the technical components are working together in a proper fashion to provide the best home security option available.

Professional installers will install your home security system in a fashion that is least invasive to your home’s infrastructure. They will also test your home security system to make sure it is properly functioning and is connected to the monitoring center. They will then instruct you on how to arm and disarm the system and how to interact with the monitoring center. One final thing they will do is place signage around your property that states that your home is now protected by a twenty four hour monitored home security system. This signage is important because it can act as a deterrent to criminals.

When it comes to home security, the best investment you can make is having your home security system professionally installed. Choosing a company that offers professional installation is a wise move and demonstrates their commitment to keeping your home safe and secure.

Closed Circuit Television Systems (CCTV) and video monitoring and surveillance systems are becoming more common in offices, homes, city streets, banks and shopping malls. So where did these all-seeing monitoring, recording, access tracking security systems originate and why do we need them, and how does digital technology play a part in monitoring and surveillance?

CCTV actually dates way back to the 1950s but advancements in the 1970s gave rise to analog recording systems together with solid state cameras. There were no wireless systems back then so cameras were connected via cables to a multiplexer. The signals would then be fed to a recording device (usually a VCR) and/or monitor(s). A multiplexer is a device that allows the operator to cycle through each camera on the system one by one. There are several disadvantages with this type of system. The fact that a monitoring system is often centralized lends itself as being a single point of failure with the infrastructure. As all CCTV cameras were cabled in, if they needed to be moved often a new cable run was needed. Back in the control room magnetic media was the medium of which the images were stored and were susceptible to magnetic discharge or static electricity discharge. Also, for the system to run successfully a lot of human intervention is required for carrying out tasks such as physically changing the tapes, monitoring and recording the sessions etc…..

Second generation systems consisted of UTP enabled cameras which are IP addressable. Although these systems were able to run on the existing cable infrastructure they still may require expensive equipment such a tape libraries but the costs for the main monitoring station are reduced. However, there is still a risk of the main monitoring station to be the single point of failure. A multiplexer is still utilized to connect many cameras but this time using UTP cable with the popular RJ45 network connector, similar to the one that can be found in every modern computer today. Existing cameras that use coaxial (unbalanced) cable can have their signals converted to twisted pair (balanced) cable.

The latest generation of monitoring and recording systems are fully digital which utilize hardware such as Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) with IP based cameras and PC/monitors. These have many benefits over magnetic tape VCRs media libraries such as higher quality and definition and easily searchable and instant accessible recordings together with offering improved scalability and expandability. No longer do humans need to change tapes as backups can be automatically scheduled. More data can be recorded due to advanced digital compression techniques and storage is now moving to more reliable network based hardware such as Network Attached Storage (NAS) and SAN (Storage Area Networks) that can offer redundancy thus eliminating any single point of failure. One of the powerful benefits of digital CCTV systems is that the images can be viewed not only anywhere within an organization that has a UTP network connection, but anywhere in the world, via the internet. And images can be viewed simultaneously. IP addressable cameras can be placed anywhere on an existing IP network infrastructure thus reducing cost and eliminating the need for separate cabling systems.