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CCTV, also known as closed circuit television, is a system of video cameras transmitting signals to a limited set of monitors. The system is closed and independent, and access to the system is limited. A CCTV system is composed of certain basic components that remain the same throughout systems in different places. It includes a camera with a lens, cabling, a digital video monitor, and a digital video recorder. The system relies on the placement of cameras in strategic places; the cameras communicate to viewers with monitors across coaxial cable runs as well as wireless links of communication. Documented use of CCTV can be dated back to at least 194 in Germany, where a system of video surveillance was designed by engineer Walter Bruch to monitor V-2 rockets – the world’s first ballistic missiles designed for long-range use and launched from moving platforms during the Second War II. Bruch’s system of surveillance was only set for livestreaming and not recording; the technology for recording was not developed until later. It was in 1949 that the first CCTV systems that were commercially available were manufactured by Vericon, an American company and contractor selling live monitoring technology applications. Modern day CCTV have a variety of purposes, including maintaining area perimeters, observing incarceration populations, monitoring traffic, looking over hazardous areas such as places that are radioactive or toxic, and more.
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