Methodology & sources

Source hierarchy

1. Published standards and official standards-body material.
2. Primary technical documentation from equipment and protocol vendors.
3. University or public-agency technical references.
4. Independent technical references used only when stronger primary material is inaccessible.

Vendor material can accurately describe a method and still reflect a product context. Camera Ledger names that context rather than presenting it as neutral consensus.

Storage and time units

Network bitrate uses decimal megabits per second. Storage results use decimal gigabytes and terabytes, matching drive labels: 1 TB = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes. Some systems display binary tebibytes, so the same byte count can appear numerically smaller.

video TB = aggregate Mb/s × recorded seconds ÷ 8 ÷ 1,000,000

Container/filesystem overhead, RAID protection, and working free-space reserve are separate adjustments. Keeping them separate makes the plan auditable.

Optical model

The FOV tool uses a rectilinear thin-lens approximation: scene width = distance × active sensor width ÷ focal length. It assumes a perpendicular target plane. Real lenses, distortion correction, digital crop, focus, and perspective can change the usable field. Density is a planning signal, not a guarantee.

Defaults are examples

Initial values make a tool immediately testable; they are not product recommendations or universal norms. Replace them with exact configured values. Where an input is uncertain, calculate multiple scenarios.

Calculation boundaries

• No device compatibility database or product endorsement.
• No legal, code, evidence, electrical, or cybersecurity compliance determination.
• No promise of retention or image-task performance.
• No project data upload; planner persistence is browser local.

Core references