CCTV Video Recording and Storage 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the primary risk of storing all CCTV footage solely in the cloud?
- Higher video resolution is required
- Dependence on continuous internet connectivity and upload bandwidth (Correct answer)
- Cloud providers cannot store video longer than 30 days
- Cloud storage cannot support H.264 video
Correct answer: Dependence on continuous internet connectivity and upload bandwidth
Cloud-only storage requires a reliable, high-bandwidth internet connection; an outage or bandwidth bottleneck will cause recording gaps.
Question 2: Which recording mode uses the least storage while still capturing security-relevant events?
- Continuous recording at 30 fps
- Motion-triggered recording (Correct answer)
- Time-lapse recording at 1 fps
- Audio-triggered recording at full resolution
Correct answer: Motion-triggered recording
Motion-triggered recording only saves footage when activity is detected, dramatically reducing storage use compared to continuous recording.
Question 3: What does 'forensic integrity' mean when handling CCTV recordings as evidence?
- Enhancing video quality with AI upscaling before submission
- Preserving the original file unaltered and documenting the chain of custody (Correct answer)
- Compressing footage to a standard format for court compatibility
- Watermarking video with the operator's credentials
Correct answer: Preserving the original file unaltered and documenting the chain of custody
Forensic integrity requires that original recordings remain unmodified and that every person who accessed them is documented to ensure admissibility in court.
Question 4: A security manager wants to reduce storage costs without shortening the 30-day retention period. What is the best approach?
- Switch from motion-triggered to continuous recording
- Lower the recording resolution and frame rate during low-activity hours (Correct answer)
- Replace all cameras with higher-megapixel models
- Increase the DVR's processing speed
Correct answer: Lower the recording resolution and frame rate during low-activity hours
Reducing resolution and frame rate during non-peak periods lowers daily data volume, maintaining the same retention window at lower storage cost.
Question 5: What is 'intelligent video analytics' (IVA) storage, and how does it differ from raw video storage?
- IVA stores only metadata and event flags rather than full video streams (Correct answer)
- IVA compresses video into a proprietary format unreadable without a license
- IVA stores video at double the normal resolution for analysis
- IVA requires a separate SAN array dedicated to analytics data
Correct answer: IVA stores only metadata and event flags rather than full video streams
IVA can store structured metadata (object types, trajectories, events) separately, allowing fast searches without replaying raw video.
Question 6: Why should CCTV recorders be protected by an uninterruptible power supply (UPS)?
- To boost recording frame rate during peak hours
- To prevent hard drive corruption and recording gaps caused by sudden power loss (Correct answer)
- To encrypt stored footage automatically
- To maintain network connectivity for remote access
Correct answer: To prevent hard drive corruption and recording gaps caused by sudden power loss
A sudden power cut during a write operation can corrupt the hard drive file system or lose in-buffer footage; a UPS provides time for a graceful shutdown.
Question 7: What is the significance of a recorder's 'total throughput' or 'recording bandwidth' specification?
- It defines the maximum number of monitors the recorder supports
- It sets the upper limit on the combined data rate from all cameras the recorder can handle simultaneously (Correct answer)
- It determines how far the recorder can be from the camera
- It specifies the maximum single-camera resolution supported
Correct answer: It sets the upper limit on the combined data rate from all cameras the recorder can handle simultaneously
Total throughput (e.g., 80 Mbps) is the aggregate incoming data rate ceiling; exceeding it causes dropped frames or recording failures across cameras.
CCTV Video Recording and Storage 5
What is the primary risk of storing all CCTV footage solely in the cloud?