The most valuable way to spend the extra hour you’re gaining this weekend? Ensuring your CCTV system time is correct!
With the clocks going back this weekend you may be celebrating the extra hour of sleep you’ll be gaining and be looking forward to an extra-long Sunday lie in. While most of our day-to-day technologies like phones, laptops and smart watches will automatically update to the correct time there’s still a few manual changes you’ll need to make. The incorrect time on your oven or in your car may not make much of a difference, but it is integral that the time on your CCTV systems is correct.
Video surveillance for security and monitoring is relied upon to increase safety around your property by both deterring potential intruders and by providing accurate evidence if those intruders do enter your premises. However, if the timestamps on your CCTV recordings are incorrect or missing that could result in at best, misunderstandings, and at worst unreliable evidence causing you a unexpected and unnecessary problems.
Keeping an eye on your CCTV systems time is beneficial to keep track of what’s happening on your property for your own records and for peace of mind. Not only that, but if a crime were to happen on your property and you can’t prove the time of the CCTV recording is correct, your evidence becomes useless. This may result in an offender not being convicted, and you could end up suffering financial losses. The correct time will help you address the issue faster and more efficiently, and will be much more convenient for the police to investigate fully.
Various requirements are necessary for CCTV recordings to be admissible as evidence in court, such as verifiable audit trails, controlled access to the recordings, and digital encryption to protect against tampering. The first step to ensuring your security system is up to task is making sure you’ve chosen a reputable manufacturer, product and installer to meet the above requirements. The second step is to ensure that all the settings, including time, are correct through regular maintenance.
These days most CCTV security camera systems (IP or analog) or even standalone IP cameras will display the time and date automatically by default, however some will need to have this setting enabled manually. When setting up or checking your time, make sure that you’re using the right Network Time Protocol server for your timezone and it will sync automatically. The NTP servers are used around the world to synchronize the date and time on various devices.
As part of your regular maintenance, it is good practice to double check that your time is syncing correctly, and this time of year is the perfect opportunity to do that! So, we recommend that on Sunday 29th (or first thing Monday morning if you’re busy making the most of all the extra time you’ve got over the weekend!) check in on your CCTV systems and ensure the right time is showing. If not, it is easy enough to re-sync with the NTP server, or to contact security maintenance experts like ASM for help and advice. You could even schedule a regular full security system maintenance review every October and March to make sure everything continues ticking along smoothly and reliably all year round.