sensor 10 could be either an analog camera system in combination with an analog to digital converter or a digital camera imager which employs an integral analog to digital converter where greater resolution is desired direct digital imaging is the preferred mechanism a variety of high resolution digital imagers are currently available such as the vca1280c from symagery microsystems or the pcs2112 from pixelcam inc as shown in fig1 the local camera processor 16 may also be utilized to incorporate various sensor systems into the camera unit for example a microphone 28 digitizer 30 and audio processor 32 provide audio acoustical data collection and transmission the audio signal thus generated may also be used as a triggering event for activating the camera system into a transmission mode and or alerting a server or monitoring station other sensors may be incorporated as well including a panic button or other manually activated trigger 34 a smoke detector 36 various external sensors 38 a fire detector 40 a glass breakage detector 42 a motion detector 44 a badge reader 46 and the like where multiple multimedia sensors are incorporated into the camera system a multiplexer 50 is desirable in advance of the processor 16 for merging the various data signals any one or combination of sensors may be utilized a triggering event for activating the camera into the transmission mode an alarm output 48 may also be provided in the form of a contact closure or opto isolated switch controlled by.