CCTV ideas

Flat fronts IIRC we had two 16 way on a private housing estate.
Remember moving all the cams down 20 ft, but still up 20 ft and off ladders, well was a while back!!!!! Hated that part of the job lol
Then we put in access control to all the entrances, mag locks, key switches fire interfaces. LCN door closers, shed loads of stuff, spent an entire summer there!!! Oh and the enrtance and exit barriers. Paxton readers. Ground loops everywhere :S
Oh and master keyed everything for the caretake...........oops building management ( fussy fooks lol).

ok, here is a basket idea. let me know your thoughts, too excessive or not enough???

craig51 said:

ok, here is a basket idea. let me know your thoughts, too excessive or not enough???

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Change the camera.
Get CAMTPD, that's the one without the IR.

Set correctly it will give impressive results and you won't have the grief of fannying about with IR/Lens issues. It's also cheaper.

this one?

http://www.cctvdirect.co.uk/product...-Ultra-High-Res-Dome-%2d-2.8%2d12mm-Lens.html

craig51 said:

this one?

http://www.cctvdirect.co.uk/products/Twilight-Pro-Dome.html

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That's the one.

Good bit of kit.

my bad, i changed my post as you were replying.

Ok so the first one i linked to then. Cheers,

Alarm said:

Some stuff.

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Quoting getting complicated.

Modect should be recording a ring buffer with "pre event" frames already in memory. So when something triggers it you get what happened before too. If a dvr isn't doing this then I can understand why you think its usefulness is less so.

I do know a little about this, Alarm. Installed and have been running five dedicated debian and zoneminder servers for almost five years now. I'm on first name terms with the local police who contact me for recordings if there's trouble nearby, and not for the bad reason

I record each camera stream, and also have a seperate entity doing motion detection. Why? Because modect is a lot easier to review with a thumbnail for each event you can look at all events for a week in a few seconds. Recording as well because modect is never foolproof and sometimes you need to search by time too and yes, sometimes stuff continues to happen after the modect event is over. (People move into shot, then stop and do low-visual-impact stuff)

Seriously - if you do much with cctv, check out zoneminder. All the software is free and it's very easy to install on debian and ubuntu nowadays. Don't need to compile anything at all. Might not be the best solution to sell to customers, but it's seriously good and thousands of quid cheaper than some commercial cctv software.

Solid state drives - still too expensive for decent sizes, and for any decent retention you'll need a large drive for any number of cams.

My ignorance is in dedicated dvr boxes. With free software and the ability to make it work, I have more control and can significantly cut costs going this route, and no lock-in, so have had no need to try them.

digdilem said:

Seriously - if you do much with cctv, check out zoneminder..

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Errr, no thanks. Got a business to run, customers to service, reliable solutions to provide.....etc

Now, if i was a geeky type, then yes, i might be tempted to run it, but NOT for a provided solution.

The units mentioned that do run on XP are still dedicated boxes designed for the job - totally different to a PC cobbled together with a Linux dist and freebie S/W on it.

The Plod asking to look at your footage does not give it any sort of 'approval'. They will look at anyones footage if they know about it and think it will help them catch scroats.

I have to assist "plod" in many scenarios, with a wide range of systems. Using freeware is not an option, that is why we use recognized makes with manufacturers software.
Five years is not bad, get another 20 under your belt and we might be on a par .
Seriously PC`s running other "stuff" are a big no no in the world of dedicated cctv surveillance. One day perhaps.

Good to see you use and understand pre-event, catches a few out. See the "alarm" flagged go to it and nothing there. Then as you say time and datge stamp can be of assistance.
We can link to intruder systems and access control to get closer to time frames when needed. However have had to send whole days watching "video" as "plod" unless in exceptional circumstances will not do this, as it ties up resources.

That does sound like quite a snooty reply there, both of you, born from ignorance of free software I'm sure.

Paying for software does not guarantee quality, accountability or that it's useful or usable. All it proves is that you have spent money, not that it will give better results, be more reliable or have any kind of authority that a good defence lawyer might be able to call into question when the case goes to court.

The geek comment is a fair one, and as installers who don't want much comeback it has a lot of weight. If you spec stuff that has paid support, you just palm the user off onto them and it doesn't suck your time out. I get that, I really do - but "cobbled together" is an insult to the quality of the work involved. (Not mine, I'm just a user btw - and many standalones use linux as the base. Windows or linux as OS, it doesn't matter in use, it's just a choice made by the developer)

Zoneminder is a good solution that's also free. I think it's worth mentioning. It can also trigger alarms, any kind of events, has X10 built in and a lot more than most commercial systems. But yeah, you'll need to spend more than five minutes with a manual to get the most out of it. And - remember this is a DIY forum, and cost is always an issue whereas time is not.

alarm - not into arguing who is better at cctv. No doubt you're an expert in your systems, but I'm an expert in mine. There is room on the internet for more than one person to be right, you know.

As it happens, both Alarm and myself know someone quite well who is/was very involved on Zoneminder. He's determined to put together a commercial offering with it. As far as i know, not seen the light of day yet. I do believe he may have ditched it though in favour of another bought in product.
His favourite? DM

As for what the stand alone boxes run on, yes, we know it is various flavours of linux and all the additions of what's under the 'hood'. Not having any comeback is not really a fair statement. We do have that concern, what we don't want is to supply problematic solutions to customers, nobody wins with that.
One thing not mentioned, and whilst not strictly applicable to all, the concept is, ISO. We need audit trails and more importantly, so do our customers.
Our access to tech support is not actually how you portray it. They only take ownership whwn the product itself is flawed. We have to know how to use it, yes, they may hold our hand so to speak, but they are not there to talk us through everything. - That's why we go on training courses.

Whilst zoneminder does a job, you have to remember to look at the full picture (excuse the poor pun). The geeks will not notice the hours 'wasted' having fun dealing with the various challenges. Installers and customers will.

You also have to consider the problems we have experienced in the trade both individually and collectively with PC based systems. There are very good reasons why we tend to avoid them.

I mentioned the Honeywell Fusion (also seen as Dowshu) WinXP based. Very powerful bit of kit. Having nearly had the life sucked out of us dealing with the numerous problems with both the equipment and the company, we will no longer go anywhere near ANY product the produce/supply.

Each to there own but it is worth noting that if PC based systems are best, how come there is so few of them?
There is a show on next month where everyone and their granny will be touting their wares, the PC based guys will be flogging a dead horse to attract interest and sales in comparison to the more traditional box manufacturers.

digdilem said:

That does sound like quite a snooty reply there, both of you, born from ignorance of free software I'm sure.


alarm - not into arguing who is better at cctv. No doubt you're an expert in your systems, but I'm an expert in mine. There is room on the internet for more than one person to be right, you know.

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Think my collegue has covered this really.
Good luck with freeware.

One person as mentioned has tried this route and apparently its no good for several reasons from a professional and support route.

I use freeware for some of my personal things, but would never "retail" it. As that is what would be happening if even used. As we would have to support it and thus charge. Beats the freeware idea to shreds then does it not?

Please dont think anyone here is saying what you do is wrong or incorrect.

Its just we cannot use freeware on our products.

As above big show coming with what it entails,
Alumni, going? Might do 1st day, more freebies to be had!!!

Wednesday probably, workload permitting.

Think you might want to 'edit' your post, part of it reads wrong. could very easily be taken the wrong way.

Wed, hmmm Could do.
Give me a call to confirm. Just want to say hi to a few faces anyway, not really there for the show lol.