Cisco Meraki is an IT company located in San Francisco, California. Meraki’s core solution allows you to manage your organisations entire network from a centralised, cloud-enabled dashboard. This includes WiFi, routing, security and more. However, today, we will be focussing on the Meraki CCTV aspect of their product portfolio, and more specifically, the new Meraki MV12 camera.

Until recently the camera models available for Meraki CCTV were the MV21 and the MV71. These were extremely similar in specifications apart from the MV71 could be deployed outside whereas the MV21 could not. In the last couple of month released the new Meraki MV12 model camera which is their most advanced piece of kit so far.

What is the Meraki MV12?

The Meraki MV12 is a HD 1080p CCTV camera, which means you will be able to see great detail whenever you need to check the recordings. It is wireless and stores everything it records direct on its 256GB integrated high-endurance solid state storage. It has a 73° horizontal field of view which makes framing a breeze.

Unlike many other security cameras, it also features a microphone which is obviously a great tool in investigating incidents. The camera may be small but it is packed with intelligent technology. It uses machine learning which means the longer it is operating the smarter it will get. The Meraki MV12 also has facial recognition technology which allows you to easily pinpoint where people are.

The full specifications for the Meraki MV12 are available here.

Investigating Incidents

When an incident occurs that needs to be looked into, there isn’t a better tool on the market than Meraki CCTV to perform this. The best way to understand how a normal investigation would be undertaken with Meraki CCTV is by watching the following short video:

Configuration and Installation

As you also saw in the above video, configuration and installation of Meraki CCTV is extremely efficient and straightforward. With just a few clicks of a mouse you can add new cameras. Installation is a walk in the park; these are the only real plug-and-play CCTV cameras available in the market today.

Setting the camera up is extremely easy as you can watch the feed on your smartphone while installing the device to make sure the angle is just how you would like it. There are several mounts available which allow you to install your cameras almost anywhere in your environment.

Licence Benefits

As with any Meraki product, you are required to have a licence while using them. However, this licence is well worth its cost as Meraki are constantly coming up with new improvements and new features which are automatically pushed out to all of your devices. This licence also gives you outstanding 24/7 tech support from Meraki in case you ever have any issues or need help.

There’s no need to worry about keeping up to date with licences as the Meraki dashboard has a licence management section built in for all of your Meraki products. They will all possess the same license expiration date which means confusion is easily avoided and network administration is simplified. For tracking other Cisco products we highly recommend Cisco Smart Collector as a solution to this problem.

Testimonial

Here is a testimonial video that helps visualise how a Meraki CCTV system works in a real-life example:

If this article has sparked your interest in Meraki CCTV or the Meraki MV12 and you’d like to find out more, please get in touch with us and we can have a more in-depth conversation and answer any questions you may have.

Meraki also have a number of regular webinars which introducing differing products from their range. You can sign up for the dedicated Meraki CCTV webinar here and view the whole range of Meraki webinars here. You can even earn yourself a free Meraki Access Point for attending certain webinars!