Infra red lighting, heuristic or logical design

For many years Infra red (IR) lighting has been used with closed circuit television (CCTV) systems to provide covert lighting of a scene. Whilst much development of IR sources has been carried out to provide the most efficient IR illuminator, with a long lamp life, little research has been done on measuring the density of IR flux in the field, and using this to design IR lighting schemes. This paper will discuss results of the work carried out by the Security Equipment Assessment Laboratory into the use of similar design techniques to those used in Visible lighting schemes, to enable standards to be set. The aim of this work is to provide better quality IR illumination for sites where the additional cost of an area lighting scheme is vindicated by the enhanced image quality attained, and to look at the design techniques that can be used.<>