Spec me a CCTV System

Soldato
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Indeed that is lovely quality and I'm glad that it seems to have worked out for you :)

How I wish that HD type CCTV cameras had been more affordable at the time of my installation, as the obvious quality advantage is stunning. However it could still prove to be too expensive for the many cameras that I would have needed, and for the 24/7 recording.

Great result.

There is some information here about neighbours privacy and the use of CCTV when installed in domestic property...

http://www.problemneighbours.co.uk/cctv-privacy-and-the-law.html

... I did read recently that there is proposed guidance being introduced by the government which will now include the installation of CCTV on domestic property.
 
Associate
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That quality looks really good!

Currently we have a 2 cam outdoor setup, but the quality is average at best. Now I have one of the AsusStor NAS's so I'm seriously thinking about getting 2 of these cameras, a couple of PoE switches (there's a reason why I want 2 switches), and ripping out the current setup. These cams aren't listed on the AsusStor compat. list yet, but I can't see why they wouldn't work.

Any idea how much storage you use on a 7 (or even 30) day loop? Having asked that, you're not recording 24/7 are you? Currently we record 24/7 and the system rotates about every 35days.
 
Man of Honour
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What's the max number of cameras you can connect?
What PoE switch are you using?
How much disk space does it utalise recording at 2048x1536 resolution at 20fps over a 7 day loop period?
The same for 1920X1080p 30fps?
What recording software are you using?

Thanks

P.S stunning quality pics.

I'd also be interested in the answer to the bold question.
 
Soldato
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^^^ Ditto, as well as any of the other questions asked :)

Also what compression / quality settings etc and do you have similar features to the software that I use...

Motion detection / record
Video Blind and alarm (or email etc)
Video Loss and alarm (or email etc)
Disk errors / full etc...

Also does it allow you to search by camera / type of recording and then highlight in red (on a time line) all the motion detection....



....the above makes it easier to find motion detection triggers on a large time line file, as they are marked in red.
 
Soldato
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sorry for thread hijack, but can you get wireless CCTV? or is it wise to get wired?

also whats the cost of that system (if you don't mind me asking)
 
Associate
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You may laugh, but it really is hugely frustrating for a CCTV system to capture an incident yet be such low resolution that you can't identify anyone and even if you could it wouldn't be enough for a court to agree.

I can tell you whats far more frustrating: my CCTV working and showing the direction they went in, but the 8 (no typo - EIGHT) council operated cameras they passed on their route home were all turned off. After the 4th or 5th visit from the scrotes I folllowed them, and next time bikes were nicked I gave them the address and suprise suprise, my bike was found there.... lad got a court appearance for handling only (as the cctv had him wearing a mask), and he even got off on the handling....

Whats the point in spending ££££s on council cctv if it's never switched on?
 
Soldato
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Vimes

I recognised the location of that youtube vid you linked to and also been in shop and bought some CCTV stuff. - Was a few years ago but it's good to see they are still trading.

I have bookmarked a few of the links posted so thanks to those that have.

Best CCTV post I have read so far.

Dave
 

v0n

v0n

Soldato
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sorry for thread hijack, but can you get wireless CCTV? or is it wise to get wired?

There is no such thing as wireless CCTV, since even if the camera use Wifi to transfer footage, it still needs to be hard wired to power. The off the shelf high street store Wifi CCTV solutions are actually completely pointless, since you are trading very neat and small RJ45 connector that provides both fast network connection and PoE (power over ethernet) to the camera for bulky, ugly chinese brick power supply that you need to find a plug for in a loft and constant weak signal/connectivity issues in all weather to your in-house wifi.
 
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^^^ Ditto, as well as any of the other questions asked :)

Also what compression / quality settings etc and do you have similar features to the software that I use...

Motion detection / record
Video Blind and alarm (or email etc)
Video Loss and alarm (or email etc)
Disk errors / full etc...

Also does it allow you to search by camera / type of recording and then highlight in red (on a time line) all the motion detection....



....the above makes it easier to find motion detection triggers on a large time line file, as they are marked in red.

I don't use or wouldn't recommend solely relying on motion detection recording.

The reason for that is when my house was burgled and the Police took the DVR (because they didn't have a USB stick at the time :rolleyes:) they were able to see 40 mins before the incident a gang of 4 people were scoping out the house. This was used as crucial evidence when convicting those who were apprehended.

Something like a Redwall PIR can be used to detect motion triggers.
 
Soldato
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I do agree that Sirrel Squirrel's cameras are very clear and something I'd be interested in.

At first I wanted wireless cameras but now I think PoE will be better. I don't have easy access to power sockets where I would want the cameras but running some ethernet cable around would be easy enough.
 
Soldato
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I don't use or wouldn't recommend solely relying on motion detection recording.

The reason for that is when my house was burgled and the Police took the DVR (because they didn't have a USB stick at the time :rolleyes:) they were able to see 40 mins before the incident a gang of 4 people were scoping out the house. This was used as crucial evidence when convicting those who were apprehended.

Something like a Redwall PIR can be used to detect motion triggers.


I use 24/7 recording for all of my 7 CCTV cameras but I also have it set to "tag" motion detection events. That way I am not relying on the motion detection (not convinced on its reliability for sole recording) but I then find any motion detection "red marked segments" within a time line of recordings quite easily.

For the camera in our alley way (between the front and rear of the house) I have that set to a low sensitivity for motion detection and also to email me if and when any motion is detected. This I have found quite successful, as I rarely get any false triggers, and get a gmail to my phone etc when a motion event occurs.
 
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Soldato
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Quite a few questions here, I've answered the below.

What's the max number of cameras you can connect?
On my setup, I can have a maximum of 4 but that's just limited by the available ports on my switch.

What PoE switch are you using?
D-Link 1008P

How much disk space does it utalise recording at 2048x1536 resolution at 20fps over a 7 day loop period?
I've allocated each camera 500GB on my 6TB NAS (4x3TB Raid 6), the other 5TB is used as normal storage for my videos, music, documents etc. I've got the cameras set to record at 12Mbps, as I'm only recording when motion is detected I'm using about 20GB of storage a day per camera. Once the storage is full the camera automatically deletes old recordings.

The same for 1920X1080p 30fps?
You can set the bit rate yourself, anything from 4Mbps-16Mbps regardless of frame size and frame rate.

What recording software are you using?
I'm just using the software built into each camera for recording and scheduling, there is client software available and also a mobile app, which you can use to playback full res recordings or watch the low bit rate stream or full res stream live.

What was the total cost if you don't mind me asking?
The cameras were £160 each, switch was £60 and the Microserver and disks came to £500 but I didn't buy the server and disks solely for this.

What's the build quality like on those cameras?
Excellent build quality, they are metal bodied and feel pretty solid.

Also what compression / quality settings etc?
Bit rate on the main stream can be set from 4Mbps to 16Mbps, you can change the frame size from 1920x1080 to 2068x1560 and the frame rate goes from 1fps to 30fps (max 20fps at 2068x1560). There's loads of other settings for adjusting gain, sharpness, brightness, IR on/off, noise reduction, bw/colour etc..

Motion detection / record
Video Blind and alarm (or email etc)
Video Loss and alarm (or email etc)
Disk errors / full etc...

You can set email alerts for any of the above.

Also does it allow you to search by camera / type of recording and then highlight in red (on a time line) all the motion detection....

the limitation with the built in software is that you can only schedule one type of recording so if I had it on 24/7 recording I couldn't set a separate trigger for motion detection that would mark a warning on the viewer timeline, however the trigger does appear in the log so you can use that for reference. As I've got mine in motion detection only mode that doesn't matter to me, the motion detection is very good to and you can adjust the sensitivity, I found at night I had the sensitivity too high as it was being set off by the video noise.

Any other questions let me know!
 
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I use 24/7 recording for all of my 7 CCTV cameras but I also have it set to "tag" motion detection events. That way I am not relying on the motion detection (not convinced on its reliability for sole recording) but I then find any motion detection "red marked segments" within a time line of recordings quite easily.

For the camera in our alley way (between the front and rear of the house) I have that set to a low sensitivity for motion detection and also to email me if and when any motion is detected. This I have found quite successful, as I rarely get any false triggers, and get a gmail to my phone etc when a motion event occurs.

Similar to how I've got mine setup but I don't rely on the camera for motion detection.

Quite a few questions here, I've answered the below.

What's the max number of cameras you can connect?
On my setup, I can have a maximum of 4 but that's just limited by the available ports on my switch.

What PoE switch are you using?
D-Link 1008P

How much disk space does it utalise recording at 2048x1536 resolution at 20fps over a 7 day loop period?
I've allocated each camera 500GB on my 6TB NAS (4x3TB Raid 6), the other 5TB is used as normal storage for my videos, music, documents etc. I've got the cameras set to record at 12Mbps, as I'm only recording when motion is detected I'm using about 20GB of storage a day per camera. Once the storage is full the camera automatically deletes old recordings.

The same for 1920X1080p 30fps?
You can set the bit rate yourself, anything from 4Mbps-16Mbps regardless of frame size and frame rate.

What recording software are you using?
I'm just using the software built into each camera for recording and scheduling, there is client software available and also a mobile app, which you can use to playback full res recordings or watch the low bit rate stream or full res stream live.

What was the total cost if you don't mind me asking?
The cameras were £160 each, switch was £60 and the Microserver and disks came to £500 but I didn't buy the server and disks solely for this.

What's the build quality like on those cameras?
Excellent build quality, they are metal bodied and feel pretty solid.

Also what compression / quality settings etc?
Bit rate on the main stream can be set from 4Mbps to 16Mbps, you can change the frame size from 1920x1080 to 2068x1560 and the frame rate goes from 1fps to 30fps (max 20fps at 2068x1560). There's loads of other settings for adjusting gain, sharpness, brightness, IR on/off, noise reduction, bw/colour etc..

Motion detection / record
Video Blind and alarm (or email etc)
Video Loss and alarm (or email etc)
Disk errors / full etc...

You can set email alerts for any of the above.

Also does it allow you to search by camera / type of recording and then highlight in red (on a time line) all the motion detection....

the limitation with the built in software is that you can only schedule one type of recording so if I had it on 24/7 recording I couldn't set a separate trigger for motion detection that would mark a warning on the viewer timeline, however the trigger does appear in the log so you can use that for reference. As I've got mine in motion detection only mode that doesn't matter to me, the motion detection is very good to and you can adjust the sensitivity, I found at night I had the sensitivity too high as it was being set off by the video noise.

Any other questions let me know!

Thanks for the info really appreciate it.

So 20Gb per camera (motion detection recording) a day on the max bit rate, non compressed data at 2048x1536 resolution, so that'a round 1.4Tb per camera a week. That's a heck of a lot but I guess with a high frame rate, non compressed high resolution video that is normal.

Do you know how much it will use without motion detection?

Did you buy special case slot bnc/poe boards that fit into your NAS? How does it all fit in at the NAS end?

Ta
 
Caporegime
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Posts
26,103
It's a network, so there's nothing to connect to the NAS other than the network cable to the rest of your LAN. The cameras connect to a PoE switch.
 
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