IP stands for Internet Protocol. An IP camera is another type of surveillance camera, like the CCTV camera. The difference is that the IP camera uses the Internet or a computer network to send and receive data. Web cams can perform this function, and the term IP camera is only applied when it is used for surveillance.
There are 2 types of IP camera – the centralized and decentralized. Centralized type of camera do not have built-in functionality so it requires an NVR (network video recorder) to manage the recording, video and alarm aspects. The decentralized camera can directly do the recording to flash drives or hard disk drives and other digital storage media.
There are many advantages of IP cameras over other surveillance systems, some of them include higher image resolution, remote accessibility and flexibility. These cameras are flexible that they can be moved around. One backside to this type is the higher initial cost.
