I need advice...camera survelliance systems

[bearhawk]

My wife did some research on Barn Cams and we went with one from SuperCircuits. We used a High Resolution Color IR Video Surveillance Camera and hooked it up with a gizmo that converted it to a webcam of sorts.

I needed to add a security system where I work for the same reasons as you have. So I contacted SuperCircuits again and they helped me spec out a two camera system.

It involved a PCI card in an existing computer that will support 4 cameras and 2 150ft IR cameras. I used these Color IR Security Cameras but you can spend a lot more.

I was able to purchase the 100' cables that included a power lead so I was able to put the computer and the Cameras on a medium sided UPS. No worrying about power near the cameras.

I think I was under 700 bucks for everything except the computer.

 

[jinjimbob]

My wife did some research on Barn Cams and we went with one from SuperCircuits. We used a High Resolution Color IR Video Surveillance Camera and hooked it up with a gizmo that converted it to a webcam of sorts.

I needed to add a security system where I work for the same reasons as you have. So I contacted SuperCircuits again and they helped me spec out a two camera system.

It involved a PCI card in an existing computer that will support 4 cameras and 2 150ft IR cameras. I used these Color IR Security Cameras but you can spend a lot more.

I was able to purchase the 100' cables that included a power lead so I was able to put the computer and the Cameras on a medium sided UPS. No worrying about power near the cameras.

Which model IP encoder did you use? Did it have motion detection?

 

[bearhawk]

Which model IP encoder did you use? Did it have motion detection?

I used the Pro Series 4 Channel Analog Capture Card DVR

You can upgrade the software to work with IP cameras, but I use analog ones. It has motion recording and the ability to block part of the picture to avoid a constantly moving object like a flag or tree branches.

The interesting thing is that it is listed as a 30 frame per second card. That speed is "combined" so my two cameras record at 15 fps each and it works well for me. You have to pay more for 30 fps for each camera.

I bought this one after wasting 60 bucks on one from ebay.

 

[MossRoad]

Out system at work has 4 dvrs with a 64 camera capability (16 per dvr). It records everything all the time but puts motion time stamps when there is activity. The nice thing about that is you can search by events in a time frame. So if you know something happened sometime between Monday and Wednesday, you just search for events on those days. It can play in normal time or be sped up to play in 2x, 4x, 8x and 16x so searches go pretty quick. It is only limited by the quality of the cameras. We have a few color cameras but most are B&W. For our purposes, they work fine.

Most are indoors but we do have a few in weatherproof enclosures outdoors. We also have one mounted on a building a block away at our parking lot. The signal goes over wireless 2G system. We can control pan tilt and zoom on that one.

Be careful about recording sound. In some areas that is illegal, so check.

I forgot to mention it is made by
[FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Dedicated Micros[/FONT]

They have units from 4 channel on up and a price range of about
$700.00 for their basic units on up to $10K+.

Do a search for the eco4 model. I have seen them for the $700 mentioned. Ours are 16 camera units and have been extremely dependable.