Spec me a CCTV System

V F said:
Hmm... I haven't seen the IR reflection at night or condensation problems. They're mounted and fairly sheltered below the pvc plastic of the house.
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It’s very common. Only in specific cases installers would use dome cameras these days.
 
Planning out 1st fix wiring for my renovation and looking at having at least 2 maybe 3 cameras covering the property, not looked into systems yet but would like them hardwired. I presume all cameras require similar connections? what is the minimum/ideal requirement for cables, Cat 6 and separate power? I'd like to be able to upgrade the hardware in future without needing to replace the cables.
 
Each camera only requires a single cat6 cable. No power cable is needed as this cat6 cable will carry the power and data. Have all camera cables located back to a central location we’re you will have your NVR/POE Switch.
 
I currently use Surveillance Station on my Synology NAS to record the feed from three cameras. The software comes with a licence for 2 cameras and I bought one for about £40 iirc. I want to add 2 or 3 more cameras, so extra licences are going to cost me ~£50 for one and £200 for four. With this in mind, I'm wondering if I'd be better off investing in a dedicated NVR. It might cost me more when HDDs are factored in, but I imagine there'll be benefits in the long term.

Do you agree? If so, do you have any recommendations?
 
Few questions for Hikvision users:

1. How good is the Hikvision remote viewing and notifications via smartphone app (iVMS?)?Is it stable and generally pain-free?
2. Which Hikvision NVR to go for with 4x 5mp cameras?
3. Do Hikvision do black mini bullets? I much prefer black, the white will just look ridiculous when mounted against wood.
4. If not i'll likely go for a turret like the DS-2CD2355FWD-I-G. Anybody used the new turrets can comment on quality and night performance?
 
IVMS-4500 is mostly used by those that are within the LAN network and Hik-Connect is really the remote viewing app of choice when outside of the local network. Notifications are good if trial and tested to get the best results. They aren’t perfect but none are.

You are better going for an 8 cam NVR such as the DS-7608NI-K2/8P. If you decide to add another camera, you have the capacity to add it.

Hikvision does white/Grey/Black bullets but depends on model. To be honest, stick to turrets, not bullets.

Forget the 2355 or 2385 turrets. Crap at night. The 2335 3MP and 2345 4MP turrets are miles better in night performance over the 2355 and 2385. The 2335 in particular and the 2345 are darkfighter/low level light cams.

I know someone that will be testing a new cam shortly so I hope to get some comments.
 
Scream said:
IVMS-4500 is mostly used by those that are within the LAN network and Hik-Connect is really the remote viewing app of choice when outside of the local network. Notifications are good if trial and tested to get the best results. They aren’t perfect but none are.

You are better going for an 8 cam NVR such as the DS-7608NI-K2/8P. If you decide to add another camera, you have the capacity to add it.

Hikvision does white/Grey/Black bullets but depends on model. To be honest, stick to turrets, not bullets.

Forget the 2355 or 2385 turrets. Crap at night. The 2335 3MP and 2345 4MP turrets are miles better in night performance over the 2355 and 2385. The 2335 in particular and the 2345 are darkfighter/low level light cams.

I know someone that will be testing a new cam shortly so I hope to get some comments.
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Excellent, thanks Scream.

One more question: I assume the NVR's support DDNS for remote viewing and notifications etc?
 
Scream said:
IVMS-4500 is mostly used by those that are within the LAN network and Hik-Connect is really the remote viewing app of choice when outside of the local network. Notifications are good if trial and tested to get the best results. They aren’t perfect but none are.

You are better going for an 8 cam NVR such as the DS-7608NI-K2/8P. If you decide to add another camera, you have the capacity to add it.

Hikvision does white/Grey/Black bullets but depends on model. To be honest, stick to turrets, not bullets.

Forget the 2355 or 2385 turrets. Crap at night. The 2335 3MP and 2345 4MP turrets are miles better in night performance over the 2355 and 2385. The 2335 in particular and the 2345 are darkfighter/low level light cams.

I know someone that will be testing a new cam shortly so I hope to get some comments.
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That's the only thing I really despise about the bullet cameras. Is the amount of times I've to clean cobwebs from them.
 
Rossi~ said:
I'll be avoiding the Hik-Connect app and using my own DDNS, for better security.
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Remote connection should be VPN only with NO cameras or NVR directly connected to the Internet. Since most people don’t care, Hik-Connect fits the bill.
 
Rossi~ said:
Hahaha! I have a Swann system currently with bullets. I have to clean them every week or so :p
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Sometimes it is worse. Couple of days ago I cleaned one of the cameras and within 4 hours the spider came back out at night with vengeance to make an even bigger web over the camera.
 
Bumping this as it didn't seem worthy of its own thread but Apple are launching a service called HomeKit Secure Video which will work just like the Nest system apart from none of the video is sent to the cloud for analysis, it's all done on-device (the HomeKit 'hub' so ATV, HomePod or iPad) and is encrypted end to end. Also if you have the 2TB iCloud package you get 10 day recording on up to 5 cameras for free, the 200GB package gets you 1 camera, and it doesn't use up your iCloud storage. I'm seriously considering swapping out my Nest equipment as I'm already on the 2TB iCloud package and it'll save me $300/year on the Nest costs. Hopefully the software will be as good as the Nest software as that's the only thing that would keep me paying for it. The HomeKit cameras should be around the same price as the Nest cameras too as they're already quite expensive.

https://www.macrumors.com/2019/06/06/apple-secure-video-icloud-storage-requirements/
 
Scream - great info thank you. I have exterior house lights, 7W or 11W leds all round. On a timer so there is low light at night.

If I was exploring a pc, 4 cameras with wifi/cables which cameras would suffice? 720 or 1080? Or could they have memory cards on-board? I have access to mains power at all camera 4 locations. Only 1 camera would not be tucked away under the eaves on south facing wall exposed to the elements. Cheers.
 
Unable to find the 4mm DS-2CD2345FWD-I anywhere for reasonable money. Where's best to look?
Ordered a 2.8mm for a test with Synology Surveillance Station at the moment but want at least a 4mm one for one of the placements.
 
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