A nearby city has scheduled electricity outages lasting about two hours every day. I'm wondering what happens to security cameras in stores when the power goes out. Some public-facing monitors show a black screen with text during outages—does that mean the cameras have stopped recording, or could the system still be operating through a backup power supply?
4 Answers
If the recorder is powered but a camera isn’t, the monitor may show a black screen with a label saying the camera is offline. In that case, the recorder may still be working, but it isn’t receiving video from that camera. The text on the screen alone doesn’t prove whether anything is being recorded.
It depends on how the store’s system is set up. Some businesses use batteries, uninterruptible power supplies, or generators to keep the recorder and cameras running during an outage. However, backup systems can fail or may only power essential equipment.
A store might keep its security system on backup power even while other equipment, such as screens or lights, shuts down. Some systems also turn off the display during an outage to save battery power while continuing to record. There’s no reliable way to tell from outside whether a particular store is still recording.
With network cameras, the recorder needs power and usually has to keep the network equipment and Power over Ethernet switch running too. With older cameras using separate power adapters, the cameras may stop working as soon as those adapters lose power. Some newer cameras can also record locally to internal storage even if they lose connection to the main recorder.
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