cglaeser

The demos at IOImage look good. See http://www.ioimage.com Best, Christopher

I called Exacq this morning to check on the status of the timezone issue. They are working with a partial staff today due to the snow storm. The fellow who answered the phone in tech support said that they had discussed the problems relating to timezone, but was not aware if any decision had been reached. I'll call again next week. Best, Christopher

1. Any recommendations for quality baluns with power and ptz? 2. Any recommendations for passive baluns? Distance is less than 200'. Best, Christopher

In other words, if a balun has a power pigtail, you just use that for the ptz control? Best, Christopher

Good advice, I'll pull a separate cable for power. Can you recommend a quality balun with ptz? Best, Christopher

A home owner's association wants to install several security cameras and a license plate camera. Any recommendations for a competent installer in the bay area, CA? Best, Christopher

PIR motion sensors and IR beams are both relatively cheap. Crow Daredevil PIR motion sensors are high quality and about $100. Optex has excellent IR beams and PIR motion sensors. As has already been stated above, camera motion detection is a poor solution. Changing light conditions from clouds, moving branches, and other issues are all problematic. Best, Christopher

+1 If cost is the only important purchasing decision, then buy the cheapest piece of no-name junk on eBay. If functionality and performance are important, then the priorities must be shuffled. Best, Christopher

It looks like a Pelco? What is the Pelco model number? Can you post a link to the Pelco? Best, Christopher Edit: I found the Pelco at http://www.pelco.com/global/en/products/camera-solutions/range-presentation.page?p_function_id=9503&p_family_id=10212&p_range_id=2844

+1 Compare with the Samsung. Best, Christopher

Cat5 is fragile, but the breakage is usually at the termination, not the cable itself. That is why many alarm installers would never use Cat5 for alarms. If you used RJ45 connectors and you tested all the paths, you should be fine. What is the voltage/power specs of the camera? Did you test the voltage at the camera? Best, Christopher

Agreed, long distance transmission has nothing to do with the OPs question, but you tossed in a common misconception regarding the Tesla vs Edison debate, and I wanted to correct the record. Regarding the OPs question, increasing the voltage could help because that decreases the current for the same power, and 24VAC is a reasonable suggestion. However, I would still like to know the answers to the questions I posted before making any recommendations. For example, I'd like to know more about the connections (e.g. RJ45 or screw terminals). Best, Christopher

Not true for long distances. For long-distance distribution, HVDC systems are less expensive and suffer lower electrical losses than AC. AC is easier to step up and step down. Best, Christopher

Crow Daredevil. Best, Christopher

Several important questions: 1. Did you purchase cables with connectors or use bulk cable and cut to length? 2. Did you use RJ45 connectors or strip the wire and use screw terminals? 3. Did you use PoE? If not, what voltage did you use? Best, Christopher

Yes. They claim they need to do this in order to implement the search feature. Here's the basics of their implementation. The exacqVision server sets all the camera time zones to zero. In addition, all the camera NTP servers point to the exacqVision server. When a camera periodically requests the current clock time from the exacqVision server, it gives them the wrong time, which is offset by the GMT time zone. In other words, they set the time zones to 0 and then add the time zone to the clock time. It's an engineering kludge just so they can avoid a simple time adjustment during the search. Now, it's just inertia. They implemented a stupid hack that works fine for dumb cameras and they don't want to spend time fixing it. However, as cameras become more capable, the limitations of this kludge become more apparent. In addition, it's not ONVIF compliant, because cameras may be connected to multiple devices from different vendors. If one vendor expects the correct clock time and time zone and another vendor expects the wrong clock time and time zone, there will be a problem. Best, Christopher

I've been testing a demo version of exacqVision software DVR for the past few days and there are a few areas that could use improvement, but overall, my impressions of this application are favorable. However, there is one design decision that is, well, IMO, just plain wrong. Time stamps are an important feature in a DVR system, and the system must sync up all the times among all the various devices such as DVR and cameras and the events that each can produce. As part of their design, the Exacq engineers have decided to set the timezone of the DVR to the correct time zone and then set the timezones of all the attached cameras to GMT 0. Hello? IP cameras are becoming increasingly sophisticated with CPUs and embedded operating systems and support for protocols such as ftp and sendmail and event scheduling and on and on. Many of these features are time based, and if the timezone is wrong, then the features don't work as expected. For example, the most recent Axis firmware release will generate ftp folder and file names based on date and time. Awesome! This is a fantastic feature, because it is now possible to create folders on the fly and thus avoid the huge number of file names in one folder, which can bring any OS to its knees. Of course, if the timezone is wrong, then this feature does not work as expected. Event scheduling is wrong. Date/time video overlays are wrong. And on and on. It's just all wrong. Perhaps most surprising is that when I talked to Exacq tech support, I expected them to say, oh, that's a known defect and we hope to fix that in the next release, or there is a workaround, or something like that. But, as it stands, this is the intended design, and the implementation works as designed. Of course, they don't claim to support ftp or camera-generate time overlays or any other time-related feature supported by the camera. Wow. Do any other DVRs work this way? I'm just a bit stunned that someone would design a system where many of the devices attached to LAN are intentionally set to the wrong timezone. Comments? Best, Christopher

I have tested this and it does allow you to select the NTP server of your choice, but the time zone is still set to GMT 0 each time the server is restarted. They need an option to set both the NTP server AND the time zone. Best, Christopher Edit: Or, an option to leave the time zone alone would also work.

There are turnkey systems that do most, possibly all, of this. Rayled is one system to investigate. Don't think it does plate recognition or database queries, but perhaps a third party developer has. See http://www.rayled.com/voyager-2-integrated-number-plate-capture-camera.html One thing I would not do is try to build your own. Go with a turnkey system. Kick the tires and make sure it really works. They are not cheap, but should easily fit the budget you are discussing. Best, Christopher Edit: I have the Rayled Raymax Fusion 50 IR. As anyone on this forum will tell you, their products are top of the line. FWIW.

Panasonic 502, Axis 223M, and Axis 207MW. Planning to add Axis video server with Samsung PTZ. Yeah, an option to leave their mitts off would be helpful. I'll call them next week and see if there was any progress at the Monday engineering meeting. I should attach my dad's VCR to the exacqVision server. It's always blinking blue 00:00:00. Best, Christopher

I expect it is done in the application code. They probably just access the configuration spec for each camera, and then use that info to set the time zone to 0. Best, Christopher

Unfortunately, the exacqVision server sets all the cameras to GMT 0 on restart, independent of anything else. I just checked the world time clock. Reykjavik, Iceland is one of the few cities on the planet that is GMT 0 year round. Moving seems a bit drastic, but it would solve the problem. Best, Christopher

Yes you can, and I do, but this tedious process is required every time the server is restarted. It's a royal pain. The exacq support technician suggested that if I want to use on-camera scheduling, just add/subtract the time zone offset. In other words, if I want a motion alarm between 8 am and 5 pm, just shift that schedule by the GMT time zone. Ugh!!! Maybe I should just set all the devices in my house - phones, computers, watches, printers, TVs, thermostat, coffee pot - to GMT 0 and do the math in my head when I want to know what time it is in California. Or, I could just move to some place in the GMT 0 time zone. That's the only region on the planet where the exacqVision server works correctly. Best, Christopher

Someone in tech support, but I don't recall the name. He said there will be an engineering meeting on Monday and he would bring it up then. I talked to someone else about a month ago. Both were very polite and listened to my input, but I don't think either were particularly convinced of my position. Their basic position is the exacqVision server is the center of the universe, and there is no need for any of the attached devices to know the correct time. The exacq developers have implemented a kludge whereby they don't have to add a time zone offset when doing searches. When I point out that features like on-camera alarms and ftp file naming do not work correctly, their response is that they don't claim that any of that will work, so you get what you get. The good news is that exacq is a ONVIF member and have plans to release an ONVIF compliant server. Then they will have to address this issue since the current implementation is not ONVIF compliant. Of course, there's no schedule on when that might happen, but I say, why wait? The current implementation is a kludge; just fix it. We'll see. Best, Christopher

Does that cable line item only include the cost of the wire? Best, Christopher