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I'm interested too... what's the best way to start for someone who only has a little above average network experience? A local community college maybe?

I'd be more than happy to markup a really good AverMedia unit for ya to put you in the price range. LOL but seriously, go to Avermedia's site and check out their stuff. I've recently become a big fan of their stuff. You can get everything you want and them some for WELL below your budget. Plus a lot of their units are hybrids so you can even afford to add some sweet IP cams to your system and still come out below budget! Check out Acti for the cameras...

Baluns are NOT for turning analog cameras (BNC type) into IP ones. They simply allow you to use UTP cable (Cat5/6) to carry video and power to the camera. It's still an analog singal and CANNOT be directly plugged into a switch. If you want to use analog cameras, you'll need to get an encoder at the camera end, and a decoder on the DVR end. Another option (and probably cheaper) is to just get another DVR for the building you want to add cameras. Then you can monitor both systems simultaneously using CMS software. Yet another option would be to use all IP cameras at the other building, assuming that the DVR your using accepts IP cameras. Which, it probably doesn't. You may conatact GeoVision to see if its possible to purchase IP camera lisenses to upgrade your current system.

Have you measured the length of wire needed from the DVR to the farthest camera? Do you really plan on home running all the cams back to around camera 1? Why? If you do plan on running underground conduit, then dang this is going to be an expensive project! Can you somehow make the head end closer to 5 and 6? This would cut cost WAY down so you could spend more of their budget on the better equipment, instead of the cabling and trenching project. For cam 1 you could just go point to point IP wireless and save yourself the headache of trenching under the pavement... I personally think an 8 channel analog DVR (even a good one) will be a waste of time and money to try and cover such a large area with the needed playback detail. To capture facial recognition (the only video worth a damn to police) you could not use a wide angle lens as you've suggested on 2 and other cams. Or maybe their not interested in 24 hour recording? Maybe their interested in paying someone to monitor 24/7? In which case the 8 channel analog system with wide angle lenses would do fine... At least go with a hybrid recording solution. Use UTP w/ baluns as much as possible for your wired connections. You'll thank yourself later when they call you back after something happens and say "that footage wasn't good enough." Then you get to look smart by saying "I was looking out for you! I future proofed your system for you!! Because I was so smart when I ran your cable and selected your recorder, you can easily upgrade to megapixel IP and capture 10 times the resolution for only $____ per camera!!!" Then you guys all high five and you get to make more money.

what OS is on the remote client pc?

CMS is the term I'm familiar with as well... haven't heard it called anything else until now

I'm sure Vasu is just trying to rack up enough worthless replies so he can put his crappy CCTV site's link on his signature. Seen it a million times..

On sites where cell phone viewing is crucial and multiple phones need to be supported, I'll connect a SlingBox to the "spot out" of the DVR. This is a fairly inexpensive way to add video viewing to almost any cell phone and DVR. Check SlingBox's site for a full list of compatibility.

I was curious what you guys were doing on new CCTV installs/ upgrades with IP cams on sites that already have networks. Do you try to utilize the existing equipment and perhaps create V-Lans? Or do you find it easier to add a dedicated switch or 2 for the cameras. Personally I get a little nervous when it comes to modifying a customer's existing network that could be critical to their operations... I'd prefer to have my own dedicated network and simply add a NIC to each workstation that the customer wants to dual purpose as viewing client. OR have my own dedicated LAN for the camers and put dual NICs on the server(s). This would allow for easy access on existing workstations and ISP without making home runs to each workstation... Your thoughts?

Anyone else use this? I've seen this thing at supply houses before. Almost looks too good to be true. I would have bought it already if it wasn't for the steep price. Like $250 I think?

Most reputable suppliers will allow you to make returns within 30 days of purchase, as long as the equipment is in "like new" condition. With the exception of software licenses for obvious reasons. With the money involved, I understand your caution and the need for the "gotta see it to believe it". I'd say order a camera. Carefully mount it, and play with it for a few days. The camera will come with viewing software so you can see of the picture. NVR software won't be required for simple viewing. If it doesn't meet your satisfaction, return it. I've returned many a camera in my day. Nothing beats a real world demonstration.

I agree... I know there's too many variables for a solid answer. Just looking to learn of mainstream "ideal" practices. I'm trying to do all the homework I can before I feel confident enough to start bidding the "big" jobs. Common sense I've got, real world experience I don't

Good input. Thanks. My full time job only requires me to troubleshoot. Network design is something I never thought I'd need to know. This CCTV side business I run has quite the steep learning curve... Thanks for sharing your experience.

You must get a powered composite to VGA adapter. The cheap ones will work, but only if the LCD monitor you use is compatible with the resolution the adapter's output. Most of the ones my suppliers sell are 680x480 (i think) and some monitors may not display this at all. Check Amazon. I bought one off there that had adjustable output up to 1024x680 (I think)

what will the camera be used to monitor? how far away will it be mounted? where and how high up do you plan to mount the camera? what is the lighting like? do you need to see into total darkness, ever?

I've been around this industry for about 7 years and outside of VERY expensive radar based tracking systems, I have never seen any motion tracking PTZs that performed ideally. ESPECIALLY outside. Artificial intelligence is a long way off from being as good as a humans perception of areas of interest. That is why I recomended megapixel cameras to capture the entire FOV. Honestly, a decent megapixel camera will be cheaper than most quality PTZs. Plus there's no moving parts in a megapixel camera... less likley to break. Cheaper to maintain. And with continuous high speed tracking of objects, the moving parts will see a LOT of wear and tear in a short amount of time. The only downside of megapixel,are the storage and bandwidth requirments of megapixel. But with the inventon of H.264 and dropping storage prices, I don't consider it to be that big of a financial burden. Maybe I'm not understand the full requirments of the application?

why not go to megapixel ip? i personally hate analog motion tracking software.

For $10 I don't think you can go wrong bud. Even if it only works for 6 months, you got your money's worth. lol

Also, most DVRs require that when you replace the HDD to do some sort of format. You can do this by first installing the HDD, then scrolling through to menu systems to find something to do with formatting the drive. Have you done this?

It should work... what size the is the drive that you purchased? What size was the orignal? I found that some DVRs cap out at certain size HDD and won't work with anything past a certain point. I've seen DVRs max out as little as 500gb, 750gb, or even 1TB. No idea why. Crappy outdated firmware I guess...

Me too

Good call. I guess I was thinking about the cheap cube cameras they sell... It does have audio inputs though that could be used.

I don't believe your analog Geovision capture card will work with LuxRiot. I think Geovision cards only work with their proprietary software. I could be wrong though, I don't have any experience with Geovision... LuxRiot's customer support line could probably answer that question better than GeoVision's. I hear GeoVision's support is not so supportive. The heater is just for colder climates. No mechanical PTZ. With a heater ("HK" model I think) its rated for -30 degrees C. Without a heater it's rated at 0 degrees C. Not a problem for us here in Texas. As far as the lens... that depends. About how many feet or meters is your house (where the cameras will be mounted) from the street? You can use the lens calculator on Arecont's site to help design the angles and FOV in which to focus/ mount the cameras. Yes, you will have to manually zoom/ focus the camera. This is accomplished with the 2 set screws on the lens that you loosen, then turn. I find it handy to first mount the camera, get it up and running on your wireless network, then use a laptop to focus and fine tune. Yes, the bullet's microphone audio is transmitted over Ethernet. As well the power, video, and camera's browser based configuration settings. All in one cable. Arn't IP cameras great? Another reason the bullet would be a great place for your front porch, is for the audio. It's interesting to hear what salesmen and people knocking on your front door have to say. I have one at my house, and recommend a mic at the front porch for most residential installs. You never know if you might hear some thieves talking about robbing your house when you don't answer...

Did you tell the guys you hired that you needed to capture plates and faces? If you did make that clear to them, you definetly need to fire them. The FOVs and camera mounting heights are totally wrong... not to mentiom the equipment slections. However if you did not make that clear to them and just assumed that the equipment would be capable of face/ plate recognition than dang I feel sorry for those installers!

Oh ya... that would be better. I forget about that stuff cuz I never carry it on the truck. I always have too many different sizes of cable trunks and don't want to carry different sizes of each of that stuff...