Glossary Term: Guard Patrol or Auto-Touring
When you’re looking to cover a wide area, or multiply entry and exit points in a security camera installation, often it’s either impractical or too expensive to install multiple single-view cameras. This is where PTZ-capable cameras come in.
A PTZ camera can be set to take in a number of set views or ‘presets’ and sequence through these views in a timed schedule. This means that many different areas of coverage can be viewed and recorded.
In conjunction with alarm triggering with PIRs, panic buttons, contact points or motion detection the auto-touring camera can be made to pan immediately to the appropriate preset position for the alarm for recording of the event, returning to its auto tour after a set period of time.
[...] Surveillance cameras with PTZ capability will often also support user defined preset positions which will allow the user to specify a number of positions that they can easily monitor. Preset positions can also be used with alarm triggers, so for example when a camera detects motion it can be directed to move to a specified preset covering an entry/exit point or a valuable object in the room. Some cameras also support guard patrolling and auto panning features which will allow the camera to move automatically between user-defined preset positions providing remote surveillance of a wide area with no user input. In conjunction with motion detection some cameras can even use their pan-tilt functions to follow moving targets. [...]