Cameras for our holiday home?

[IP in the Med]

Hi, I'm new here, I hope you can help. We've got a holiday home abroad and are considering fitting some cameras for security (there seems to be an increasing amount of break-ins in the area).

There are so many different cameras, software, etc Could you please give us a few tips on selecting cameras, recording etc?

Thanks.

 

[Phil]

Welcome aboard, and it's nice to see another new-joiner in here .... with another creative IP ID that made me smile

OK here we go, I'll try to keep this concise and understandable ....

Cameras
With IP cameras pixels is the measurement of image resolution, so, the more pixels (or megapixels) you buy & install, the more detail you are going to be able to see in your recordings. A good traditional analogue CCTV camera (co-ax out the back) would produce about 0.4 megapixels, so there's your approximate benchmark.

Housings
Many applications will need the cameras to be installed outdoors. Most IP cameras will therefore need to be protected within a weatherproof camera housing - not all - most Mobotix cameras are supplied weatherproof and therefore are 'good to go', just fix them up outdoors.

Dome cameras are a good option, as you are purchasing the camera, lens and housing all in one compact package - often these will be available in Vandal Resistant variants like the ACTi ACM-7411.

Bullet-style cameras are typically the cheapest solution for an outdoor weatherproof camera.

NB Take note of whether the cameras are marked as suitable for indoor & outdoor in the attributes listed against them in the shop details on our website - as I've written elsewhere in this forum - if they are marked 'indoors only' it is because their image sensor will not survive in sunlight i.e. not just a weatherproofing issue.

Body-style cameras such as the better Axis models and the Avigilon range give you the most lens options e.g. we can help you select the correct lens for a specific application. These cameras are generally the highest performing cameras, and therefore of course the dearest!! This flexibility with lenses comes into its own when you have a set requirement e.g. I want a detailed view of the gate at the end of the drive from the house; the gate is 4 metres wide and 20 metres from the house ...... We can then size a lens to fill the screen with just that view; maximum useful detail, best chance of useable evidence!

Power Supplies
Power Over Ethernet is ideal for self-installs. You can add a device (a POE injector) which injects the power supply volts into the spare cores in the cat5 network cable which you run to the camera. The camera will then separate the power and the data internally, but the key thing you need to know - just one cable to each camera position, and that cable is a safe-to-install low-voltage cat5 network cable (like the one in our logo).

Recording
OK - more options.

Cheapest - use a PC. You can get some really cost effective network camera recording software - we have always recommended Icode - it delivers maximum bang for your bucks and is really very feature-rich and effective. ACTi have really set the cat amongst the pigeons by providing their Enterprise NVR software free for use with up to 16 of their cameras (NB - only works with their cameras).

If you're not happy to leave a PC running 24/7:

Some Mobotix cameras are able to write their video straight onto Network Attached Storage (NAS) - this means that you only need to leave a small NAS unit running (instead of a PC).

OR

Use a Network Video Recorder (NVR), a dedicated appliance for recording cameras and serving them onto the internet so that you can view them, as well as managing and sending alerts by text, email etc (PCs can do this too).

I would recommend you use an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) with any of these schemes, just to allow your cameras to ride-through any power disturbances, especially in foreign lands ....

You can actually record across the internet e.g. use your braodband connection to write the video onto hard drives elsewhere, but this is not really recommended because it is very bandwidth intensive (sending video up to the internet all the time!) AND if your broadband provision fails, you have no recordings!!

You will of course need broadband to the site to view the cameras on the internet. It's best to arrrange for a broadband solution with a 'Fixed IP' address, but if that's not possible there are ways around it.

The same broadband provision can of course be used for surfing the net when you are in your holiday home.

OK - I guess that's enough for starters, feel free to come back with queries if you want more detail on any particular issues .....