In this paper, we address the design of data processing and error control strategies for a wireless sensor network for video-surveillance applications, so as to optimize its performance in terms of energy consumption, information delivery delay, and information quality. First, we suggest a video coding strategy based on intelligent distributed processing, which yields very low power consumption. Then, we investigate the interactions between energy consumption, quality, and delay, and analyze the system performance when ARQ- and FEC-based error-control techniques are applied. As a result, we propose an optimal configuration for wireless video-surveillance networks which adapts to the radio channel state by effectively implementing FEC and ARQ techniques.