Home security surveillance systems have come a long way in the past twenty years and, as the frontline of technology has moved, so the prohibitive price tags on their more sophisticated components have fallen away. Things like nanny cameras have come out of the domain of the rich and famous, and become affordable for ordinary people with day jobs. The same is true of motion detector alarms and door and window alarms.

Indeed, the last of these now cost about as much as a packed lunch. You'll be able to find contacts, the twin magnetic components used to make door and window alarms, for under $4 at most hardware stores. Magnetic alarm contacts form a circuit, which is broken when a door or window is opened, a disruption which in turn signals for your alarm sirens to sound and the police to come a-running. Door and window alarms are so easy to install, you might just as well take the task on as a DIY project - a little silicone and some wood glue and you'll be feeling safer in no time at all. Alternatively, most security companies will provide this most essential part of any home security surveillance system for you relatively cheaply (provided you've agreed to sign a security contract with them, of course).

Since contacts guard your doors and windows, you should consider them the first line of defense for your home security system. Next on the list should be motion detector alarms. These, too, are relatively cheap. There are a few different technologies that allow for motion detection. Ultra wideband radar (BWR) detectors emit an inaudible signal over a fixed range. If that signal bounces back sooner than expected, the BWR detector knows that something has moved across its view, and trips the alarm.

PIR motion detector alarms, on the other hand, are sensitive to the infrared or 'black body' radiation emitted by the objects in their cone-shaped field of view. These devices are very effective and have become a staple of home security surveillance systems across the globe. Simply put, when an object of one temperature moves past an object of another temperature, disrupting that object's infrared emissions, a PIR motion detector alarm will read this change as motion. The term 'PIR' stands for Passive Infra-Red, as PIR detectors don't shine an infrared beam like those hi-tech security systems in the movies - you'd have to shell out significantly more cash for one of those babies.

Out of all home security surveillance system components, nanny cameras are probably the devices that have evolved the most. From the fuzzy, pixilated footage of yesteryear, these devices are now more sensitive than most human eyes and can be easily rigged to stream their footage to your very own secure website, allowing you to check on your baby even if you happen to be a continent away with nothing but a cellphone.

The data from your nanny cameras can be streamed to an online storage cluster, and stored for days, weeks or months (depending on how much you're willing to pay for the privilege), allowing you to review incidents long after they transpire. Of course, online storage is only cheap up to a point - a serious home security surveillance system might call for many terabytes of storage space, assuming that you're recording every minute of every day from multiple cameras.

The smart way to circumvent the need for vast quantities of disk space is to have your door and window alarms and your motion detector alarms activate your home security surveillance system. Numerous brands of nanny cameras and home security cameras actually come with motion detection software or hardware pre-installed, so shop around to see what's on the market before you dive in to using software to integrate your door and window alarms with your cameras.

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