Faq's

Whether you want to keep track of what's going on at your home or business, a video surveillance system can help you do just that. Let's say you want to keep track of when your kids are getting home from school, a sleeping baby, or you need to check in on your home or business while on vacay, a surveillance system from DHS is the perfect solution! Most people have either seen footage on the news or has had some kind of experience with what a good surveillance system can do. Our local Police Department has relied on footage from home or business camera systems to help capture bad people in our community. Why wait until something happens to your property or loved ones to take action. A complete system, depending on your needs, can cost as little as $700 installed from DHS!! And keep in mind that its a one time charge for this investment and protection.

A surveillance system is typically operated and viewed solely by the owner of the system. Its usually some sort of camera system that you monitor yourself from your smart device, computer or maybe even on your big screen at home. There are no monthly fees. Most systems can be setup to send a message or email to the recipient if it detects motion or something unusual.

A security system is typically monitored by a company of your choice (hopefully Vivint, LOL) and comes with some sort of monthly fee for monitoring. Usually these systems cover your doors and windows with sensors, along with a motion or glass break sensor in the home. In the event of a break in, fire, accident, or other issue, the proper authorities would be notified and dispatched to the location. Depending on your budget and lifestyle you may employ both a security and surveillance system for complete protection and piece of mind.

Camera systems have come a long way as is the case with most electronic devices. At DHS we do not provide our clients with anything less than HD resolution quality cameras. Even our basic system still incorporates a great level of clarity for the price. We do have a great selection of cameras and the type we choose toge will ultimately be based on what you intend to use the system for. For example, if you're using the system to monitor the interior of your home and to see what your kids are up to, you may not need as sensitive a system, while a camera mounted on your front door may need a clearer picture to give you the details of a potential burglar's face.

The Field of View of the cameras is equally as important as the resolution. Most residential locations can get away with a 2.8mm-4mm camera. This usually translates to about 75-100 degrees of vision. A commercial application might need a smaller field of view to "zoom" in on a specific area. Maybe you just need to see license plates or something specific thats more than 100ft away. Well then your application may need something in the 6mm-12mm range.

This type of flexibility is where having a FREE Consultation from DHS comes in handy. We can tailor each specific camera in the system to do and capture what we need not to. A store bought DIY system may not be the best choice for your application.

Most systems on the market are still hard wired systems. This means running and concealing, where possible siamese cabling or ethernet (Cat5) cable. This is still our preferred method because we know that it simply just works and to best of its ability. But we also understand that not all situations and installations for us are copy and paste. We also have wireless systems that are available which are awesome as well and gives us the flexibility we need to provide great installs and customer experiences. Again, depending on your application this may not be the best option for you. If its something you plan on doing yourself pay close attention to manufacture recommendations based on the size of your home and maybe the type of walls/barriers you have.

When it comes to Surveillance Systems, one of the benefits is the ability to watch the footage again later in the case of a break in. Most of the systems that we provide at minimum come with a 1TB hard drive. With increasing technology features we are able to get you at least a month of recordings for you to go back and pull up anytime you want. This is the benefit of having a "traditional" recorder and camera system vs. a cloud based system which just gives you 30sec clips of an event like Ring or Arlo. The bigger the hard drive the more storage and the further back you can go. Greater compression technology also gives us even more flexibility when it comes to storage solutions.

Most people today view their surveillance systems from their smart phone or tablet. For the most part its always in your hand and it gives you the ability to playback recordings and take snapshots and video that you could text or email immediately. We could also setup a small monitor that'll give you a quick view of all the cameras as well. Computer viewing is also available.