CAD (Computer-aided design) and CAE (Computer-aided engineering) software is used widely in all areas of engineering. Out of question, there is special CAD software for CCTV as well. IP Video System Design Tool is an easiest CAD /CAE  tool for CCTV and IP Video design.

Our CCTV CAD CAE program offers 2D and 3D modeling of  video surveillance systems and helps the designer to find optimal places  for security cameras on the site plan,  check coverage of all cameras,  choose proper camera lens, and get estimations of required hard drive storage space and network bandwidth for IP cameras. The user can draw or import a site/floor plan in BMP/JPEG format and then place test 3D models  like cars or men and obstacles like walls and buildings to see what security system operator will see on his/her CCTV monitors.

IP Video System Design Tool is widely used as CCTV CAD software by security system designers, installers, network administrators and DIYers from more than 60 countries.

Our CCTV CAD software lets the user:

• Switch between two-dimensional (2D) site plan or floor plan and three-dimensional (3D) views.
• Change any parameter of a security camera: When one parameter changes, related parameters are automatically recalculated.
• Zoom in and out the site plan with mouse wheel for close-up and distant views.
• Rotate cameras, change camera height to view them from different perspectives.
• See the result in a small 3D preview window and in a large 3D view window (3D view tab).
• Get estimations of required HDD storage space for different compression and recording options.
• Export two-dimensional (2D ) camera layout, 3D mockups and tables to other software to prepare video surveillance project documentation.

We developed our software to be as easy to use as other popular software packages used by security systems engineers like MS Visio or AutoCAD.

No special PC hardware is required for JVSG CCTV CAD  tool. However, in case if you plan to import large site plan/floor plan images or work with large CCTV layouts it is recommended to use a modern graphics card with more than 256 MB or RAM.

Please feel free to download a 45 days trial version and  read user comments .  In addition there is a special offer for bloggers and do-gooders to receive a serial number for this CCTV software for free.

To help design CCTV video surveillance systems it is always good to use special CCTV project planner software.

CCTV project planner software typically includes:  bandwidth and storage estimator, CCTV lens selector, field of view calculator, focal length calculator. Many manufacturers offer a product selectors to choose a proper model from the list of equipment (like lens or cameras) they offer.

The usage of a project planner software can help to ensure you are investing optimal amount of money in your CCTV equipment and your future CCTV system is going to fulfill all project requirements.

You can save your money on optimal choice and placement of CCTV cameras and proper volume video storage.

In case if you digitize a signal from standard CCTV camera you can get a digital stream with more than 150 Mbps (Mega bits per second). But in fact such a stream contains a lot of  redundant information.

All image compression algorithms are divided in two groups: lossless and lossy.  Most CCTV compression algorithms used in CCTV are lossy compression, because such algorithms offer higher compression ratio (the ratio of the resulting video file size compared with the original file size).

Video compression algorithms are divided in two groups:

• Frame based compression (JPEG, Wavelet, JPEG 2000)
• Stream based compression (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, MPEG-7)

Usage of stream based compression algorithms enables greater savings on storage space and network bandwidth but these  algorithms require higher computing performance.

Three of the most common type of compressions widely used in CCTV are:

• Motion JPEG
• MPEG-4
• H.264

IP Video System Design Tool can help you to see how choosing of compression methods can affect required network bandwidth and cctv storage space, so you can clearly see the difference in terms of compression ratio.

Motion JPEG is very popular compression format. MJPEG fits very well for video archives because of its frame based nature.

MPEG4 can be 3 times more efficient in terms of compression ratio in compare with Motion JPEG.
But MPEG4 is a bad choice for systems with frame rate less than 5-6 frames per second.

H.264 can be 50-100% more efficient in compare with MPEG-4
MPEG-4 and H.264 are ideal for CCTV  systems with limited but stable bandwidth.

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