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Yup, they started about a year ago. I believe they still sell the 6 packs of BNC for RG59. The UPC for the 25 pk is 7 69328 11407 2. They were marked for $12 and I loaded up the cart. I was blown away when they rang up as $.01 a piece at the register.

I'm looking to cover a parking lot with no curbs for a main entrance from the street. Basically the entire width of the parking lot can be entered from any point from the street that runs parallel with it. The size of the lot is 60 feet x 110. It has very little to no light at night. I'm interested in catching plates of vehicles both parked and entering/exiting the lot. I was thinking a minimum of 2 seperate, 3-5 megapixel cams mounted for wide angle shots. So far I have been impressed with demos from both Arecont and Mobotix. I will be using a hybrid NVR on site so while the Mobotix built in records are nice, it would only serve as backup purposes. Q1: What would you suggest for megapixel IP cameras? Q2: What lens type? Q3: What IR floods? Q4: What housings? Can a typical blower/heater housing for an analog camera suffice?

What's PPF?

I’ve got a potential client that asked me for details about a technology I’d never heard of. It has to do with human voice detection for alarming purposes. He owns a store in a rural area and has been having issues late at night with thieves. He’s looking for some sort of device to give him an early warning and head start to check out the cameras remotely and decide whether or not to take action. Idea being that since it’s a rural area, the only people within range to be heard talking late at night are up to no good. The microphones would be mounted outside and would be hooked up to something (DVR I’m guessing) that would have the intelligence of deciphering which was human and which was natural ambient noise. You guys ever heard of such technology? A quick search didn’t pull anything up. Any idea where to get it?

The search is over!! He was able to give me a name of the technology he'd heard of. Turns out, he totally misunderstood some misleading marketing by Sonitrol. Sonitrol's claim to fame is to have listen-in devices to verify alarm trips. Their central station has people that listen in remotely but only after an alarm has tripped. Supposedly they filter out false alarms better than any other company. Duh! Not a big deal, that technology has been around for years. Longer than I've even been in this business (6 years). I should know, I've been installing similar devices by Caddx, GE, and Eagle for years. Thanks for everyone's help! I still think the original idea of intelligent voice detection is interesting though and could definetly have a good niche in the market, should it actually work and be developed for a reasonable cost. Thanks again guys.

I thought about PIRs, but still think the potential for false alarms in a rual outdoor environment are too great for what this guy wants. Then again, who knows how accurate this new voice detection technology is, IF it exists at all. I’ve talked to lots of distributor reps who either tell me “that’s impossibleâ€

If I was dumb enough to be a theif and I knew no one was around for miles, I wouldn't see any obvious reason to be quiet. Most of the intruders in the past have worked as teams and often can be heard on the existing system's recordings talking to one another before entering the building. So I disagree, I think it's a good idea that hopefully won't be that expensive. It would be just yet another layer of protection in a high quality security system.

Thanks for your reply but I think you misunderstood. The mic itself will pickup and record everything. What my client wants is for the mic to be hooked up to something that has the intelligence to know when it hears human voices during a scheduled time to create an alarm and alert him. I.e. sms or phone call. He wants to have a head start on any thieves instead of waiting on the PIRs inside to trigger the alarm panel, call ADT, and then ADT call him and then ADT call the plolice. Usually by the time all of that takes place the theives are already gone with the loot.

Another solution (although impractical and poor quality) is to go to Goodwill and buy 4 VCRs. These have TV tuners built into them that you could use to "reverse" the modulation. Turn the channel to a different camera on each VCR. Instead of using another RF output for a TV, use the RCA output to connect to a DVR. That is a viable solution to your question; HOWEVER I would not advise recording a modulated video signal to begin with. The quality would be so poor, you might as well skip the "Digital" in "Digital Video Recorder" and just record on plain old VHS tapes. When in doubt, hire a professional.

Your right, AverMedia doesn't go into detail about the so called "voice activation". I emailed their customer support, we'll see. I did a bit more searching, but couldn't really find much. Just a whole lot of products that use a prerecorded voice to yell at thieves, "Police are on their way!" Kind of worthless. Thanks for your help.

Exactly. It's a good idea though. Doesn't sound too Hollywood or technically difficult... I figured it already existed. If not, maybe I should delete this topic and go patent it real quick.

It's something he heard about from a friend. No names, just the info that I already provided.

My experience has been that expensive does not always equal reliable. I’ve seen $200 DVRs last years and $3,000 ones crap out after 6 months. I offer reliable (minimum 1 year warranty) but cheap products. As a new business, I do not have the luxury to sit around and wait for the high margin, high profit sales. I’d rather make a little money than no money at all. After all, I need to crawl before I walk. My goal is to establish relationships with people. I do what it takes to make my customers happy. If they learn they can trust me with a little, sooner or later they’ll trust me with a lot.

I'm in the business of selling products that people want. If cheap is what they want, cheap is what they get. $200 is just a starting point to give them an idea of the absolute bare minimum they can buy for me to show up at their door step. Classic bait and switch? Not quite. I demonstrate the differences of why a $400 IP camera is better than a $40 analog one and why a $800 DVR is better than a $175 one. I.e. Daewoo vs. Lexus. The customer decides for themselves what they can afford. If they pick a system that doesn't perform to their expectations, they can't say I didn't supply them with the knowledge to make an informed decision. I don't hide anything or mislead. I stand behind all of my installs and do whatever it takes to make the customer happy. Including going the extra mile to keep their wallets full. Limiting yourself to just a few elite home owners that can afford high end systems doesn't make much business since to me. After all, a cheap CCTV system sale is better than no sale at all.

I'm in the business of selling products that people want. If cheap is what they want, cheap is what they get. $200 is just a starting point to give them an idea of the absolute bare minimum they can buy for me to show up at their door step. Classic bait and switch? Not quite. I demonstrate the differences of why a $400 IP camera is better than a $40 analog one and why a $800 DVR is better than a $175 one. I.e. Daewoo vs. Lexus. The customer decides for themselves what they can afford. If they pick a system that doesn't perform to their expectations, they can't say I didn't supply them with the knowledge to make an informed decision. I don't hide anything or mislead. I stand behind all of my installs and do whatever it takes to make the customer happy. Including going the extra mile to keep their wallets full. Limiting yourself to just a few elite home owners that can afford high end systems doesn't make much business since to me. After all, a cheap CCTV system sale is better than no sale at all.

Thanks for all the feedback guys! It’s seriously helped out a lot (except for the couple “Captain Obviousâ€

I’ll have to admit I really don’t follow world events like I should. After all, I am an uneducated 23 year old. However I can’t help but think about the ever popular media topic: the economy. It seems like I remember hearing about how our economy was going to collapse, how a recession was right around the corner, how we should be more conservative with our investments and so on WAY before I knew of actually problems with our economy. Certainly way before I heard of friends, family, and neighbors loosing their jobs. It seems like the media covered a problem that hadn’t actually happened yet. So I pose the question for someone much wiser than I: Which came first, the story or the reality of a recession? I may sound crazy, but I think the story did. I think the media warned of future financial woes and actually started the domino style collapse. People listened and stopped spending. Stopped buying new cars, spent less on entertainment, started buying generic brands, and overall stopped spending as much money. People felt they needed to brace themselves for financial disaster and in the very attempt of self preservation contributed to the economy’s downfall. So what’s the motive? How about being able to buy up fortune 500 companies for pennies on the dollar? How about being able to literally buy the competition? What do you think? Am I too far out there or am I on to something?

I found this: Google search "tangent mini 965." has a foot print of 6.54" W x 6.18" L x 1.89" H. No prices listed though... not a good sign. Get ready to bend over.

What would the main function of the PC be? I've seen a lot of Palm/ or Windows Mobile applications made and used for various computing needs. The devices they run on are cheap, reliable, easy to find, and very small. If something more powerful is needed, would running a high power wireless network be an option? With LOS and the proper equipment, I've heard of the range being tens of miles. This would allow you to run a normal PC in a less demanding enviornment.

Twitter's popularity spawns from all the self centered people out there that finally have a venue to fill that “look at meâ€

Look at your cellphone, wrist watch, and everything around you. Can you be more specific?

Hello from Texas!

Most likely the answer is yes. But first, we need more info. What is the make and model of the "DVR card" you have? Is the PC that the "DVR card" is installed in connected to a local network? What are you wanting to connect to the "DVR card" with? Is it on the same local network?

I couldn't agree more. My problem is just getting the chance to!

I'm new to the CCTV business, are there any must see or go to events I should know about in or near Texas?