Hi guys,
Just thought I would share with you my home surveillance solution. Granted this is very much tailored to my needs but it might make some of you think slightly differently from a complete off the shelf CCTV solution.
I was the subject of an attempted break in recently which made me look into how I could secure my home. I looked at loads of different surveillance systems and couldn't decide what to do, mainly because I wanted a system which would produce high quality images and video of anyone trying to break into my property but I did not want to spend thousands of pounds.
I am quite tech savvy and have a windows home server in my home which is the central point of my home entertainment setup, mainly supplying video and music to all parts of my home.
So, in short I decided to use my home server as brain of my surveillance system. For reference its spec is an intel e2200, 2GB RAM, 4TB HDD (with room for expansion). I coupled this with Microsoft Lifecam HD web cameras which are currently available for around £35 each (these are capable of 720p at 30fps). The main room I was concerned with happens to be the same room that my server sits in so having USB cables back to the server isn't a problem. For other rooms I will have to use IP based webcams or use usb over ethernet converters. The cameras are small and are mounted in the inside of my windows to look outside. I am using a great bit of software called Blue Iris (costs about £35) running on my server which is setup to start recording once it detects motion, it will also email me a screen shot of any motion captured so that I can see whats happening all the time and also allow me to view all my cameras live stream through the internet on a pc or on my phone. I am really happy with the image and video quality achieved and the effectiveness of the system. So far I have captured a couple of dog walkers and even a fireman as well as numerous disturbances from my cats
There are a couple of short falls of the system, namely I can't at the moment capture anything in the dark. I am hoping to rectify this with the use of outdoor security lights and maybe modifying the webcams to work in the dark but at the moment my main concern was a system that would be able to capture any movement during the day while I was at work.
All in all, because I already had my home server (which cost around £250) my surveillance system has only cost me around £100 at the moment with plenty of scope for adding more cameras as I see necessary.
Hopefully some of you will find this useful! Happy to hear comments both good and bad
Cheers
Just thought I would share with you my home surveillance solution. Granted this is very much tailored to my needs but it might make some of you think slightly differently from a complete off the shelf CCTV solution.
I was the subject of an attempted break in recently which made me look into how I could secure my home. I looked at loads of different surveillance systems and couldn't decide what to do, mainly because I wanted a system which would produce high quality images and video of anyone trying to break into my property but I did not want to spend thousands of pounds.
I am quite tech savvy and have a windows home server in my home which is the central point of my home entertainment setup, mainly supplying video and music to all parts of my home.
So, in short I decided to use my home server as brain of my surveillance system. For reference its spec is an intel e2200, 2GB RAM, 4TB HDD (with room for expansion). I coupled this with Microsoft Lifecam HD web cameras which are currently available for around £35 each (these are capable of 720p at 30fps). The main room I was concerned with happens to be the same room that my server sits in so having USB cables back to the server isn't a problem. For other rooms I will have to use IP based webcams or use usb over ethernet converters. The cameras are small and are mounted in the inside of my windows to look outside. I am using a great bit of software called Blue Iris (costs about £35) running on my server which is setup to start recording once it detects motion, it will also email me a screen shot of any motion captured so that I can see whats happening all the time and also allow me to view all my cameras live stream through the internet on a pc or on my phone. I am really happy with the image and video quality achieved and the effectiveness of the system. So far I have captured a couple of dog walkers and even a fireman as well as numerous disturbances from my cats
There are a couple of short falls of the system, namely I can't at the moment capture anything in the dark. I am hoping to rectify this with the use of outdoor security lights and maybe modifying the webcams to work in the dark but at the moment my main concern was a system that would be able to capture any movement during the day while I was at work.
All in all, because I already had my home server (which cost around £250) my surveillance system has only cost me around £100 at the moment with plenty of scope for adding more cameras as I see necessary.
Hopefully some of you will find this useful! Happy to hear comments both good and bad
Cheers
