home alarm systems monitoring
More recently, decentralized IP cameras, perhaps equipped with megapixel sensors, support recording directly to network attached storage devices, or internal flash for completely stand alone operation. The earliest video surveillance systems involved constant monitoring because there was no way to record and store information. The development of reel to reel media enabled the recording of surveillance footage. These systems required magnetic tapes to be changed manually, which was a time consuming, expensive and unreliable process, with the operator having to manually thread the tape from the tape reel through the recorder onto an empty take up reel. Due to these shortcomings, video surveillance was not widespread. VCR technology became available in the 1970s, making it easier to record and erase information, and the use of video surveillance became more common.