Support - CCTVs.

CCTV stands for "Closed Circuit Television System". It is a reading system where the material you want to read, is viewed by a camera and presented on an internal or external monitor.

This viewing is "live" which means that the image on the screen will change the moment you change / move the image.

CCTVs can be used from viewing small notes and photos to reading books, depending on the CCTV.

Generally speaking for viewing photos the magnification should be as small as possible, but for reading of texts, depending on your eye condition, the magnification could go up to above the 35x. The bigger the magnification needed, the more you need to move the text and the better it is to have a big monitor. On the other hand, the bigger the monitor, the less portable the unit is and not everybody will be helped with a big monitor, for example people with tunnel vision.

It is important to orientate and test which model is best. Read more on magnification and overview.

You can choose a pocket CCTV with a built-in screen that fits into a pocket: of course the screen is small here, but it is really handy to take along.

A portable CCTV is either meant to read during travel (built-in batteries), or to easily take along to a different location and connect to a television or monitor and is bigger than the Pocket CCTV.

There are CCTVs that use the display of a (laptop) computer as display - very handy if you need a laptop and also want to read print / notes.

There are Transportable CCTVs with a 15" or relatively big 17" WideScreens that still can be taken from A to B.

Finally, there are desktop CCTVs. These are not meant to move around, but do offer the ultimate in reading comfort if you want to read volume, like big books. The screens are generally speaking large (19" or larger).

CCTVs and magnification

All big CCTVs can magnify more than 35 times or more. Some even go to 100 times. But: why is a small magnification important for a CCTV?

• One simple answer is overview. The more you can see of a newspaper or other document, the easier it is to orientate. Though you might not be able to read it, a good overview will show you where columns, graphs and photos are. 
• Some people like quite a few people with tunnel vision don't really need the magnification, but a good contrast and low, well readable magnification.
• Finally, to look at photos, maps and graphs, a good overview mode with a low magnification is valuable because it shows you more of the photos and maps.

Important is how much of the text will show on the screen , because the more text that is on it, the better the overview is. If a magnification is 4 times for example on a 14 inch monitor it will show the same amount of information on a 28 inch monitor, but only twice as big.
If you put a ruler underneath the camera, you can see how many centimeters show up on your screen. In the minimum magnification a good system shows at least 11.5 cm, but preferably closer to 12 cm or even more. This way of measuring is independent from the screen size, and even more important, independent of the "creative specifications" of some manufacturers.

How can I measure the magnification?
As some manufacturers are quite "creative" in their magnification figures, it is good to measure the magnification. If you want to do this, measure the width of your screen (the actual visible part) and put a ruler underneath the camera. Divide the screen width (say 38cm) by the amount of visible centimeters you see on the ruler (say 3.8cm) this gives 38/3.8 = 10x magnification.

Magnification and monitor sizes
If the monitor is bigger, the magnification is too. This means that if you have a big monitor, your system will need to magnify less than with a small monitor. So you can decrease the magnification and more of the line of text you are reading will show. The more text, the less you have to move the reading table and the quicker you can read. This means a 19" monitor and certainly a 22" WideScreen monitor could make your reading much more comfortable and faster than a 15 or a 17".

Monitors with colourshine or reflective screens

TFT or LCD screens nowadays tend to be so called colourshine only. The disadvantage of colourshine is that it is a highly reflective screen.

The user and anything behind the user such as windows, lights, walls will reflect in the screen, thus making it harder to read, while it is important to make the reading as easy as possible. We can get laptops and CCTVs with non-reflective screens. Please contact us for more information.