To save money or budget funds when purchasing a school bus video camera system, follow the following guidelines:


DVR Technology considerations;
Invest in an AHD DVR technology( Analog High Definition).
The DVR is the recording heart of the school bus video camera security system. This is the device that integrates the camera head video streams and records the video streams and Metadata on the memory storage device.
There are many technologies that can be incorporated into the DVR. Still, the one that will offer the most flexibility, backward compatibility, and industry-standard CCTV connectivity is the “AHD” (Analog High Definition) DVR.

AHD DVRs offer Backwards Compatibility by their ability to make use of older Analog Technology common in the School Bus Surveillance Camera Markets and integrate that with the new high-definition technology found in School Bus Stop Arm Camera systems where typically they will have HD 1080P cameras outside the bus to capture passing cars while children and loading or unloading the bus. Those seeking Low Cost School Bus Stop Arm Cameras are well served by getting AHD DVR technology so they can incorporate older technology cameras if they wish.
By selecting a Low Price School Bus Video Surveillance Camera with AHD DVR, you are much less likely to be held hostage by your supplier, who may prefer to sell you their propriety technology or non-standard CCTV connector hardware. When you are forced into a proprietary camera cable connector solution employing a propriety plastic plug and pin configuration, you have lost the freedom to integrate industry-standard CCTV connectors and cameras.




Camera Resolution considerations;
Camera resolution has advanced significantly to the point the Human eye is extremely hard-pressed to gain much visual clarity beyond 1080P+ resolutions.

For example, the confines of a Police Prisoner Transport Video Surveillance camera system application are often in small tight compartmentalized Suspect in Custody Police Paddy Wagon Camera equipped vans, where the prisoner is only 1 to 2 feet from the camera. There is no need for a resolution higher than 1080P in this close-confined application, as even an Analog camera can document what is happening. This is an application where a 720P or Analog camera can be used at a much lower cost.

In addition to the smaller and smaller optical clarity realized by the human eye in the higher resolutions, there is a considerable penalty in employing 1080P, 4k…. resolutions as they create a massive need for memory storage within the DVR.
To illustrate this difference, a School Bus Stop Arm Camera application does require higher resolution, so for them, the 1080P or higher resolutions would be advantageous. Even certain applications for Industrial Fork Lift Truck Operator Safety Camera Recorder would make good use of the higher resolutions, particularly in the container lift applications or crane operation cameras as the wide-open environments they operate in would lend themselves to the higher resolution cameras.

Conversely, the Medicaid Para Transit Vehicle Cameras and those used in the NEMT Non-Emergency Medical Transport Camera applications simply do not need the highest resolutions available as the cameras are aimed inside the small shuttle vehicles.

Once you go beyond 1080P, you will be encouraged to sacrifice the 100% Solid State technology memory storage and go back to the antiquated fragile Hard Drive based DVR memory storage devices that are no longer reliable enough to send kitten memes, as no reputable communication device company I know of would even consider putting a fragile hard drive in a mobile device any longer. Yet many offering the below application equipment still offer fragile antiquated Hard Drives when they could be offering state-of-the-art 100% Solid State Drives, as does American Bus Video inc.:


Number of Cameras Needed For Vehicle Coverage;
There is a reason the high-pressure salespersons keep pushing customers to buy 5, 6, 7, or 8+ cameras per vehicle.
They are commission-based salespersons, so the more they get you to spend, the fatter their percentage or commission.
Often they do not view your specific needs through your eyes; they view what they want you to spend through their eyes, as that is what makes them the most money in a commission.
Several Private Contractor Charter School Bus Camera application customers have told me their existing Fleet Vehicle Video Camera Solutions provider recommended up to 16 cameras for each bus. That is the point they realized they were getting soaked and taken advantage of. When they suggest an 16-camera system for a Cannabis Transport Vehicle Camera Recorder that is not much bigger than a standard van, you know you are getting hosed by a greedy salesman.

Perhaps in a Cannabis Transport Vehicle Video Surveillance Camera Solution where you have a shuttle that transports state-lawful Cannabis products and the massive amounts of cash they transport from site to site, I believe the systems we quoted for both inside monitoring and outside the vehicle 360-degree coverage was justified, but still, that was 7 cameras, and 4 of them were outside the vehicles, not 16 in a single-vehicle.

When a high-pressure salesperson is so overtly greedy they think they can dupe a potential customer into believing they need 16 cameras to record what happens inside a single bus adequately, it leaves a very bad impression of just how dumb and gullible the greedy salesperson thinks the customer is. This s why they were now shopping around for a supplier who respects their needs and listens to their concerns and offers what they need, not what he wants to unload on them.



Questionable Bells & Whistles Considerations;
There are many highly promoted accessories or optional equipment offered by suppliers and in the end, it is the customer’s view of their value that is important.
Value is subjective and each person views the utility and thus the perceived value of those accessories or features through their own perspective, as they alone can make the best judgments for their own utility and value considerations.

Night Vision IR LED Equipped Cameras-
At this point in time, all cameras offered for Fleet Vehicle Video Camera Surveillance should come standard with “Night Vision capability built-in” or the system should be out of consideration as it does not meet the basic security surveillance standards for operation in low or no light situations.
In some applications like Police Prisoner Transport Video Surveillance Camera equipped vehicles the prisoners or suspects are locked in small compartmentalized areas of the vehicle with little or no lights for illumination.
Some cameras are extremely low light, and for 95% of the situations they encounter do not need the IR LEDs but understand in those situations those are the most likely environment where something can go wrong and the cameras can not capture the event. An example of this might be a Material Handling Forklift Camera Recorder system that operates in a well-lit warehouse, but even well-lit warehouses may have dark areas where the load they are moving may block the light for the cameras.

GPS Tracking in Cellular Systems-
This sounds like a really great feature of the Special Needs Wheelchair School Bus Video Camera system, as long as you do not force yourself to think like a bad actor, with a political agenda who might assault a bus with children in it.
Good people have a hard time understanding why bad people do the things they do. Those who specialize in training themselves to think like serial killers or radical extremists to better prepare for what they might do suffer greatly for the changes in their thought patterns, but it is a cost of understanding our enemies and anticipation their actions before they happen.
Our minds are prewired with compassion and empathy to others, that is in part what makes us civil enough to coexist in large groups in our society.
However, if you force yourself to understand the radical agenda of bad people driven by extremism, consider the following to understand why you DO NOT want your Vehicle Location System (VLS) tried in any way to your School Bus Safety Camera System. The same is true of Department of Corrections HVIT Prisoner Custody Transport camera systems which they may be a target for an assault to break a prisoner out of custody.
Should a bad person with ill intent get aboard a church bus in an application like Transportation Ministry Youth Activities Church Bus Camera System, one of the first things they will see is the cameras recording their every move?
Bad people typically do not want evidence of their contemptible deeds, so they will reflexively assault the camera head recording them. Then just because they’re bad, that does not mean they are irretrievably stupid, so after smashing the camera head, they will look for the DVR to disable and destroy that, as well as that is where the video files are stored.
When they destroy the DVR to make sure the video image files of them are not retrievable, they will effectively destroy all VLS ability as the GPS tracking was foolishly tied to the bus video camera system. This is an unintended consequence of a good person not being trained to think like a bad actor or extremist.
All VLS Vehicle Location Systems must be a third party completely separate and not known by the drivers that it is on the vehicle to prevent them from defeating it as drivers have occasionally been the bad guys. In this way, when the bus video camera system is disabled, the VLS will still function.

RFID Student Identity Tagging;
This is another accessory that is often promoted as an essential part of any student school bus transportation camera safety system.
The problem is the RFID tag is not attached to the child, it is usually in or attached to their backpack.
Again one has to think like a child who may not want to be tracked to imagine how secure and well-thought-out this device application might be.
We have seen many instances where children lost their RFID tags or swapped them with other children in order to fool their parents to thinking they are with someone so they can be with someone else. The only thing worse than a noneffective means to track your children is one that can give you a false feeling of security and control and still let the child do what they want.
A similar issue is presented when these are used for ParaTransit, Elderly Senior Day Care Transport Camera equipped vehicles as those under medication often are not aware of what they do or forget easily, so it creates much more trouble looking for and tracking down their RFID tags than they may save in time to validate the right person got on the right vehicle. Those seeking a ​Low Price School Bus Video Surveillance Camera system would be wise to avoid the higher-end features often promoted by the high-pressure commission salesmen whose primary focus is on their fat commission check and not necessarily on their customer's best interest.


Driver Event Marker Button;
There are both pros and cons in the applicational use of this feature. While this may assist in finding incidents of interest during playback, this can also take the driver’s attention off the road and might be considered a driver distraction. In a Head Start  Pre-K Pre-School Nursery School Child Safety Bus Camera Recorder systems application, you do not want the driver reaching for a button to mark an incident when they really need to be focused on driving safely.
It would be tragic if a device that was to save the file playback viewer a few seconds in searching for an incident ended up causing the driver’s attention to be diverted and actually contributing to an accident where someone got hurt.
An example of how this may also cause more confusion than it is worth might be 5th Wheel Camera Yard Mule truck trailer swapping vehicle applications where the driver who swapped trailers was instructed to press the Driver Event Marker Button each time the trailer was swapped, so the management could verify they were moving a certain number of trailers. The problem was there were so many button presses they could not tell what was going on as drivers were pressing on hookup and on un-mounting the moving trailers.
The same problems could occur if the application was Medicaid Patient Transport Vehicle Camera surveillance that would be used to assure the patients of safe transport.
A Similar issue might occur in the Special Needs Wheelchair Lift School Bus Video Camera applications, as some drivers might trigger the button on lift entry as well as lift exit operations.



Should you have any questions or concerns or require more information about Testudo Lifetime System Warranty Bus Camera Systems, various applications, or the Industrial Grade Charter Student Transportation Service Bus Cameras, we encourage you to let us know, and we will be happy to offer our 35+ years of market experience in sales and service of digital recording devices to respond to your concerns or questions.