Frequently Asked Questions

Installation depends on what type of security camera system it is. BotX offers four different types of systems – Digital IP, Analog HD, Wireless, and Wire-Free. Digital IP security systems use a single Cat5e/Cat6 Ethernet cable to connect the NVR (Network Video Recorder) and security camera up to 300ft. This cable provides video transmission and power to the camera thanks to Power-over-Ethernet technology. AHD systems, on the other hand, use RG59 BotX BNC cables. This type of cable splits into two ends, one for video and one for power. To connect this cable, you will have to connect one end of the cable to the DVR (Digital Video Recorder) and the other to the included power adapter (which can be plugged in beside the DVR). You can then run the single BotX cable to the AHD security camera. Wireless cameras also use a DVR. They are installed by attaching the wireless transmitter to the BNC ports on the back of the DVR. Wire-Free cameras typically come pre-paired with the DVR. If not, you will have to pair the camera through the mobile app.

The distance that a security camera can be installed from the DVR or NVR varies. The BotX BNC cables used with analog DVR systems can be used up to 300ft. This set-up allows you to plug your AHD cameras in close to the DVR, since power for the camera is carried over the BotX cable. For cameras over that distance, you can still run a BNC cable up to 800ft, but the camera will need to be plugged in near the camera. It is possible to extend this video range further, but you may start to encounter some signal degradation. Similarly, IP cameras can be installed up to 300ft away from the NVR. For more distance, you will need to purchase a PoE switch, which can extend the range another 300ft. The distance for wireless security cameras and their DVR or wireless transmitter isn’t as strict as AHD and IP cameras. Factors such as building materials and the amount of other devices using the same wireless frequency (WiFi routers, cordless phone systems, etc.) can affect the strength of the signal significantly. As a general guideline, we state that in ideal conditions (outdoors, with a clear line-of-site) the maximum wireless range of wireless security cameras is 500ft. Indoors, on the other hand, is much less (around 165ft), since the signal will have to pass through walls and other materials. If more distance is needed (especially outdoors) BotX offers range extending antennas that can boost the signal up to 800ft.

PTZ stands for Pan-Tilt-Zoom. PTZ cameras come with the ability to look in virtually any direction and zoom in or out. These cameras typically have a 355° rotation, 90° tilt range, and rapid 100° per second panning speed. An important feature of PTZ cameras is the ability to be programmed with extensive monitoring tours. This means that you can manually program the camera to automatically cycle between one important area to another, including zooms. Some models even come with already programmed preset tours that will continuously move from location to location for maximum coverage. You can also manually adjust the field of view of PTZ cameras at any time from any connected smart device or the DVR / NVR PTZ settings.

The resolution of each camera is determined by the size of the image sensor. These sensors are classified by their number of megapixels (approximately one million pixels). For example, a 1080p security camera will typically use a 2MP image sensor (1920 x 1080 = 2 million pixels). 2K cameras are a little trickier. Since they are defined as having approximately 2000 horizontal pixels, 2K cameras can use either 3MP, 4MP, or 5MP image sensors. The video quality between a 3MP and 5MP image sensor is quite drastic though, even if they are both classified as 2K. Following suit, a 4K camera will have an 8MP image sensor at its core (3840 x 2160 = 8 million pixels).

There is no standard lens for our security cameras. Some varieties of security cameras will use one type of lens, while another variety will use a completely different type. In general, lenses can be classified as either fixed or varifocal. Fixed lenses cannot change their field of view while varifocal lenses allow for field of view adjustments within a range. A further important distinction between different types of lenses is the focal length. The focal length (measured in mm) determines the field of view. A shorter focal length will have a wider field of view while a longer focal length will appear more narrow and zoomed in. For example, our ultra-wide security camera uses a 2.6mm fixed lens. On the other hand, our motorized varifocal cameras can adjust their field of view anywhere between 2.8mm (wide) and 12mm (narrow). This allows you to choose either a wide angle view, which will let you see most of the scene in front of the camera, or a narrow, zoomed in view of one area in particular (like a cash register).

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. The purpose of HDR technology is to compensate for high contrast lighting issues (i.e. really bright areas and really dark areas in the same scene). The difference between the brightest section and the darkest section of the scene is referred to as the dynamic range. Cameras with this feature use a special HDR software to help balance these differences. A typical example of when this technology is especially useful can be usually found when using a security camera indoors. On one hand, the inside of the building will be appropriately exposed, but on the other hand, a window in the background will be completely over-exposed (or vice-versa – the camera will be able to see slight details outside, but the interior will be too dark). The HDR feature will try to compensate for this to allow for some visual details outside without affecting the interior lighting. It does this by creating different exposures – over-exposed and under-exposed. It will then combine these exposures to balance the lighting in both areas.

BotX DVRs (for AHD cameras) and IP cameras both come with advanced Video Motion Detection (VMD) abilities that can spot any movement caught by your security cameras. By constantly analyzing each and every pixel that is recorded, the DVR or IP camera will know the moment that a group of pixels is suddenly different than before. You can customize the sensitivity of the VMD to suit your needs, so you are only made aware of larger movements, like people, and not moving branches in the wind, for example. You can also set up custom smart grids, which allows you to pick sections of the screen that you want your recorder to watch for movement. If movement is detected, you can program your recorder to send push notifications (or email alerts) with video snapshots to notify you. Our recorders and mobile apps will also keep track of all of these motion events for easy reference.

The length of time that your recordings will be stored for depends on your system and your settings. The most important factor is the size of the hard drive. Since our recorders are designed to constantly replace the oldest footage with newest footage, the size of the hard drive greatly determines how long recordings will be stored for. Other settings, such as the number of cameras, resolution, and frames-per-second rate, as well as scheduled and motion-triggered recording options, can also extend your recording times.

Yes. The hard drives within most of our newer DVRs and NVRs can usually be expanded in one way or another. The main things you need to know is how many hard drive bays your recorder has and the maximum amount of storage. This information can be found in the product documentation.

Yes, all of your security footage will be automatically compressed using either H.264 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) or HEVC (H.265) High Efficiency Video Coding. This will save you massive amounts of data and extend your recording times, without losing any noticeable quality in the footage. There is a big difference between the way analog and IP systems will compress footage, however. In analog systems, the video is compressed in the DVR while IP cameras will compress the data themselves before sending the data to the NVR.

H.264 Advanced Video Coding was a big part in making HD content accessible for television and streaming. It promised identical video quality but at half the bitrate (the amount of data required to encode the video). The main method of H.264 video encoding is called interframe compression. This essentially involves a comparison between previous and future frames to the current frame. If most pixels are virtually the same, then the data from the original frame is intercoded to the new frame. This means that only the pixels that have changed will be stored in the data. H.265 High Efficiency Video Encoding takes the process further by looking within the same frame for similarities (intraframe compression). It also uses more motion prediction modes and a greater intrerframe compression techniques to keep file sizes smaller without losing video quality. In the end, H.265 encoding attempts to do the same thing for 4K and 8K resolutions as H.264 encoding did for 1080p HD – identical video quality but at half the bitrate.

You can download video footage to a portable USB drive or an external USB hard drive. After inserting your USB media into the USB port on the DVR or NVR, right click on the live view to bring up the main menu (you may have to log-in at this point). Next, click on the “Backup” menu option. From there, select the channel and start / end time that you would like to backup. A list of files should then appear. Click the files you would like to backup and click start. Your clip(s) will then begin to download onto your USB media.

You can choose to save files as either .DAV or .ASF files or .MP4. To view .DAV files, please download the Video Player from www.botxindia.com/support. To view .ASF files, please download the free VLC Media Player (not supported by BotX) from www.videolan.org.

Absolutely. There are plenty of customizable options on both DVRs and NVRs. Configure general system options, scheduled and motion recording, network settings, display settings, and motion settings. You can also configure recording settings such as resolution and frames-per-second.

BotX security cameras typically use “Active” night vision technology. This type of night vision works by illuminating the area in front of the camera in invisible infrared light. The infrared light is provided by small infrared LEDs, usually found around the lens of the security camera. The camera, built to be receptive to this IR light, will then see the intensity of the reflected light on the scenery and convert it to a video signal.

Lux is a unit of measurement that gages the amount of light that falls on an object. In general, one Lux is equal to the light produced by one candle (one meter away). Most of our security cameras are 0 Lux, which means that they are capable of producing a visible image in total darkness with the help of their infrared LEDs. Without the infrared LEDs, BotX cameras will still typically be able to produce decent video footage without the help of the infrared LEDs with just 0.1 Lux.

Infrared light falls just outside of the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is within this visible portion that we see color. Infrared light has a longer wavelength, falling just outside of the visible spectrum (which is also why infrared light is invisible to the human eye). So in low-light situations, the camera cannot detect the visible light wavelength. Rather, it detects the infrared light wavelength, which is not part of the visible spectrum and is thus black and white.

Color night vision cameras need ambient light to produce full color images in the dark. CNV cameras use espeically powerful image sensors that are more sensitive to light. This means that the image sensor can absorb more light, which is how it is able to continue to see color at night. Without any ambient light (under 1 Lux), the security camera will rely entirely on its infrared LEDs, which will turn the footage to black and white.