This question was submitted by one of our readers, Ken Mills, who wanted to know if all home surveillance systems record all the time.

Video surveillance recording depends on whether your surveillance system has a video recorder (an old analog type video recorder or newer digital video recorder, which is also known as a DVR for short) and how it is setup.

If  your security cameras and system are just connected to a monitor which displays the area under surveillance in real-time, then your surveillance system won’t record video of events at all for playback.  This means that someone needs to be sitting at the monitor continuously watching the screen to actively perform surveillance.  If an event happens and someone didn’t see it occur in real-time while watching the monitor then there is no way to go back and see the event again.

If your security camera system does have a video recorder then you will be able to play back events for review.  This is for both analog video recorders and digital video recorders.  Analog video recorders use tapes like your standard VHS to record the view displayed on your cameras.  Digital video recorders record images from your security cameras onto a file on a computer hard drive which you can view to playback events in the camera views.

The longer your video recording system is set to record, the more VHS tapes you will need in the case of analog video recording, and the more hard drive space you will need for digital video recorders.  So if you set your system to record 24 hours a day and you want to archive the videos captured for long periods of time you’ll need a lot of tapes or a large hard drive space.

Most security camera video recording systems allow you to record only during certain times of the day.  So for example you can only have your surveillance system record between 10:00pm at night to 8:00am in the morning every day.  Also, in more advanced security surveillance systems, you can setup the system to only start recording when there is some sort of movement in the camera’s field of view.  With this type of setup you’ll have smaller video files which will also save on storage capacity space.

So the answer to your question is “No”, not all home surveillance systems record all the time.

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In the beginning of this month, IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) announced it handed out the last pool of IPv4 addresses to the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs).  IANA is the organization responsible for controlling and assigning IP address blocks across the world to the various Regional Internet Registries, who in turn allocate the assigned blocks of IP addresses received from IANA to various technology companies in the region of the world they oversee.

The five RIRs, with the regions of the world they oversee, include:

1. AfriNIC (http://www.afrinic.net) – responsible for assigning IP addresses in the continent of Africa
2. APNIC (http://www.apnic.net) – responsible for assigning IP addresses in the Asia Pacific region
3. ARIN (http://www.arin.net) – responsible for assigning IP addresses in the United States, Canada, and Caribbean/North Atlantic islands
4. RIPE (http://www.ripe.net) – responsible for assigning IP addresses in Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia
5. LACNIC (http://www.lacnic.net) – responsible for assigning IP addresses in the Caribbean and Latin America

In accordance with a global policy for the allocation of remaining IPv4 address space, which was agreed upon by the five Regional Internet Registries, when the pool of IP addresses reached the last five remaining /8 blocks, each RIR would be assigned one of the following remaining /8 blocks, with each block consisting of 16+ million IP addresses. This final action, which took place in the beginning of this month, depleted all free IPv4 addresses.

What will the effect be on Guam because of this?

The short answer.  Not much.  The group of organizations and stakeholders who are responsible to ensure the Internet runs smoothly have known about this issue for quite some time now and a new standard called IPv6 has already been developed and is currently being deployed around the world.  As long as technology is able to adapt to this new standard of IP addresses within the next few years there shouldn’t be any major issues because of the depletion of IPv4 addresses.

The island of Guam falls under the jurisdiction of APNIC (http://www.apnic.net), and all technology companies on Guam, which include ISP’s and telecommunication carriers like GTA TeleGuam, MCV Broadband and docomo Pacific receive their IP address blocks from APNIC.  Because APNIC was just assigned the last /8 block of free IP addresses from IANA this means it still has 16 million+ IP addresses available to handout for use by technology companies in the Asia Pacific region (which includes Guam).  This could last the Asia Pacific region a few years before our regional registry APNIC completely runs out of IP addresses it has authority over.

The event is historic and marks a major change in the history of the Internet.  It also shows how vital it is for corporations to start adopting IPv6 technology and standards.

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Some exciting news was recently released which states local Guam telecommunications company IT&E was awarded $8 million in funding by the federal government to improve and provide more broadband internet services around the Mariana Islands.  The funding was part of the national recovery act and was provided by the U.S. Department of Technology Opportunities Program.  According to the news IT&E will use the funds to improve the company’s network infrastructure and backbone connectivity so access to the rest of the Internet around the globe from within Guam will be greatly improved.

Improvements to Guam’s network connectivity to the rest of the world and Internet is something everyone on Guam will benefit from because it gives residents of the island better access to streaming content, interactive media, real-time video applications and much more.

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With the transition to digital television just around the corner for Guam, along the rest of the US, all old analog televisions will not function with the new digital signal coming from Marianas Cable Vision without a converter box to change the signal from digital to analog and vice versa. In addition, many Guam residents will probably use this time as an excuse to shell out some cash to purchase that new digital television they’ve been dreaming about for quite some time, and we thought providing some helpful information on how to choose a new digital tv would be a great idea.

There are many quality levels of digital television programming. The most common are:

Standard Definition TV (SDTV) – SDTV is the basic level of quality display and resolution for both analog and digital. Transmission of SDTV may be in either the traditional (4:3) or widescreen (16:9) format.

Enhanced Definition TV (EDTV) – EDTV is a step up from Analog Television. EDTV comes in 480p widescreen (16:9) or traditional (4:3) format and provides better picture quality than SDTV, but not as high as HDTV.

High Definition TV (HDTV) – HDTV in widescreen format (16:9) provides the highest resolution and picture quality of all digital broadcast formats. Combined with digitally enhanced sound technology, HDTV sets new standards for sound and picture quality in television. (Note: HDTV and digital TV are not the same thing — HDTV is one format of digital TV.)

When you purchase a digital television look for a sticker on the screen which will tell you the quality of the digital television: SDTV, EDTV, or HDTV; or you can ask the salesperson for some help if your unable to find this information labeled on the digital tv. If your looking for the best picture quality to play high-definition DVD’s (Blueray discs) or to take advantage of programs broadcasting in high-definition you will need to purchase a HDTV. The other digital formats (SDTV and EDTV) will still work with high-definition DVD’s and broadcasting but you won’t get the best picture quality like on a HDTV.

Pricing on digital televisions depend on the quality of the digital television and the size the screen your purchasing. SDTV quality televisions would be the cheapest priced, HDTV the highest priced, and EDTV somewhere in the middle; and of course the larger the screen the higher the price goes up.

If your out to get a new digital television we recommend you skip the SDTV and EDTV quality televisions and spend a few extra hundred bucks to purchase a HDTV for the best picture quality. If you don’t have enough to purchase an HDTV today it would be better for you to wait until you can afford one, rather than purchasing a SDTV or EDTV television. Today’s television sets last a lifetime and once the conversion from analog to digital signal takes place it’s safe to say there won’t be another huge change in technology in our lifetimes which will require us to purchase another television set.

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In a little over a year all television broadcast stations within the United States, including the television broadcast station (Marianas Cable Vision) on Guam, will be required to completely switch over their television broadcast signal from an analog signal to a digital signal. The exact deadline for this cut-over as specified by the FTC is set to be on February 17, 2009.

What does this mean to the average consumer who has a television in their home? The biggest issue related to the conversion of analog to digital in 2009 will be the effect on older television sets that can only receive analog signals. Once Guam’s television broadcast stations transmit completely in digital these older analog televisions will cease to function, unless a digital to analog converter box is purchased that will receive the digital signal from your local television station and convert it to an analog signal that your television will be able to understand.

The FTC has required all television set manufactures to produce televisions that are compatible with digital signals as of March 1, 2007. So most new televisions that are on store shelves today are compatible with the upcoming transition to digital television. Just to be safe, if you are unsure of how to tell whether a television set will be compatible it would be best to speak with one of the sales people and verify this information before making a purchase. There may be some retail locations still selling old “analog only” television sets, but they are required by United States law to display a sign in front of television equipment. The text would read:

Consumer Alert
This television receiver has only an analog broadcast tuner and will require a converter box after February 17, 2009, to receive over-the-air broadcasts with an antenna because of the Nation’s transition to digital broadcasting. Analog-only TVs should continue to work as before with cable and satellite TV services, gaming consoles, VCRs, DVD players, and similar products. For more information, call the Federal Communications Commission at 1-888-225-5322 (TTY: 1-888-835-5322) or visit the Commission’s digital television website at: www.dtv.gov.

The good news to consumers is that between January 1, 2008 and March 31, 2009 all households will be able to request two coupons towards the purchase of these digital to analog converters. Each coupon is worth $40 each and more information on obtaining these coupons can be found at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s website: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/otiahome/dtv/dtvcoupon.html

The transition to digital television is a great thing for consumers because more features and services can be provided with digital television than analog television such as on-demand services, greater interactivity, and a higher picture quality. So the small trouble to transition over to digital television will be worth it for most consumers!

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It takes some time and patience if your looking to order software or hardware for your computer from an online computer website because many of the websites don’t ship products to Guam.  We’ve decided to compile a list of online computer stores that ship to Guam making it easier for Guam residents to find that exact computer hardware or software they have been looking for.  To see the full list you can go to our dedicated page by CLICKING HERE.

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Guam has an opportunity to take advantage of it’s strategically placed location as the last US destination before reaching Asia when it comes to the Internet.  The opportunity is to become a network hub for Internet peering between Asian countries and the United States.

Building a neutral-carrier data center on our island could possibly attract hundreds of new technology jobs on the island as well as bring in technology-related business that will generate income for our island from mainland-based technology firms and international firms located in Asia.

The concept behind a neutral-carrier data center consists of Guam’s government or a privately-owned organization investing into building a facility to house the networking equipment and data center where major networks in the United States and in Asia could setup their networks to peer with each other from within the facility.  Building out the data center of course would include laying out underground fiber optic lines that could handle the large capacity of data traveling through the facility.  Some examples of carrier-neutral internet exchange points located in the United States include the New York International Internet eXchange or NYIIX, and the Los Angeles International Internet eXchange or LAIIX; both run by Telehouse.  Another publicly traded company that specializes in setting up data centers across the United States is Equinix which has a data center located in Hawaii.

In addition to offering peering services, network-neutral data centers could offer colocation services to companies for web hosting, rent space out to content delivery networks to place caching servers in the facility for faster streaming of media between the United States and Asia, and more.  With the growing dependency on the Internet as the medium of choice for various technologies which include telecommunications data, streaming media content, and the Internet, the need for connection hubs between the United States and Asia continues to grow.

Currently, the only two US destinations of choice for a last connection point closest to Asia are Hawaii and Guam.  Hawaii’s government has already started looking into the idea of becoming a technology network hub between Asia and the United States, and already has some major internet backbone networks traveling through the islands.  One of these networks is known as The Southern Cross Cable Network which provides most of the international bandwidth and traffic from Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii to the United States.  Guam could follow in Hawaii’s footsteps by looking into building out a technology friendly infrastructure on the island that will be able to support the growth of our technology industry.

In a future post I’ll discuss some of the roadblocks Guam would need to overcome for this to become a reality.

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CyberGuam Inc. has decided to provide a way for local residents of the island of Guam to receive free technology and computer consultation.  This will also provide some interaction between CyberGuam Inc. and Guam’s local community.  Local residents can now send in computer-related questions on issues they may be having with their computer, or general questions that they would like us to answer about anything technology related.  All you have to do is send an email to contact@cyberguam.com with the subject header “Question and Answer” and your question in the body of the email.  In addition, please provide your name.  Every week will select a submitted question and answer it on our blog.

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Hafa Adai and welcome to our official blog.  This blog will focus on the technology industry on the island of Guam and will discuss such things as recent local technology news and events, the current state of the technology and computer industry on our island, and new and emerging technologies.  Feel free to register on our blog so that you may write comments on our posts and offer your input to us and our readers.  We hope you enjoy our blog and keep coming back for more!

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