Glossary For CCTV Surveillance

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Factory Defaults : This term refers to the initial menu settings of a device when it was shipped from the factory. When problems are encountered after changing menu settings it sometimes helps to restore the factory settings and start over.

Factory Representative : This refers to the individual(s) or the firm that represents a manufacturer’s products within a selected territory. This is an indirect sales method and part of the overall distribution process.

Fiber Optic : This refers to a communication hardware method using fine fiber optic tubes to transmit light pulses. Standard data communication methods can be converted to fiber and back again at the receiving end. This can be pricy but very effective over miles of distance.

Fiber Optic Backbone : This refers to an infrastructure of fiber connections within a campus, area, city or country. A fiber backbone provides a great method for sending very large amounts of data (video, etc.) over long distances. The best example of this is in mainland China. We don’t have much of it in the US yet.

Field : Each complete video image in NTSC/PAL (frame) is composed of two fields. One field consists of the odd numbered lines in the frame and the other field consists of the even numbered lines. The viewed together in rapid succession forms the complete frame image. The NTSC and PAL formats called for double scanning fields to reduce the visual flicker that was common on early TV monitors. Monitors got better over time but the “standard” did not change. Each individual field independently forms a picture. A CIF image is typically derived from a single field. 4CIF (and D1) images require a full frame. Field of View: This is the entire visible area of the image produced by the camera/lens.

Flash Drive : A small USB memory device. Connect it to a USB port to import and export files. These devices are commonly used to export video from a DVR, upgrade firmware, etc. These are also called Thumb Drives.

Focal length : The distance between the secondary principal point in the lens and the plane of the imaging device. The longer the focal length, the narrower is the angle of view.

Frame : The combination of two interlaced fields. The frame frequency is half the field frequency. FTP: (File Transfer Protocol): Transfer documents between different types of computers.

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