CCTV (closed circuit television) is an on premises video surveillance system. CCTV employs a video camera, or a series of linked cameras (cameras can be fixed or have pan, tilt, and zoom (PTZ) capabilities) to record images. These are then transmitted using cable, wireless transmitters/ receivers, or the internet to be viewed via monitors and/or recorded using a VCR or DVR (digital video recorder).

Most CCTV systems are Digital. Digital Surveillance uses current PC technology to digitize camera images, compress them into a PC friendly format and store them on a PC's Hard Drive allowing you to save a large amount of footage and access images very easily and quickly (instead of an analog system which requires a WCR per camera). By using a DVR, CCTV images can be captured in high resolution and real time.

An IP (Internet Protocol) Surveillance system creates digitized video streams that are transferred via a wired or wireless IP network, enabling monitoring and video recording through the internet, as well as enabling integration with other types of systems such as access control.