hendrickx

Diamond II is getting near the end of it's life. I know there's nothing good on the market that talks to the hardware, so I'm finding myself in the market for a massive enterprise system overhaul.

We have 690 readers (some doing in-cab elevator control) , 165 duress switches, and 10 motion alarms currently monitored by Diamond II. There are a few remote control things, mostly door release buttons too far from the door to wire back to the panel.

This is among 9 different buildings. They are geographically dispersed, so some of these need to talk over our IP network. The network has a 99% uptime, but the panels doe loose communication during network or power outages. It's critical that the system continue to function during network or power outages. Battery backup on the panels is fine for that, I know lock power may drop with the AC, that's cool.

There are 14,600 active cards in the system as of right now.

Here's the quick and dirty of what I want:

1) APIs I can call for integration. I want to call an API to make a badge or provision access --- this might be a pipe dream and I might have to build SQL integration to make it happen.

2) Easy to use for non-technical folks. I need our security officers to be able to unlock and secure doors with the click of a button. They need to be able to fairly intuitively find their way around. Similarly I need HR to be able to take badge photos easily.

3) Photo import/export for ID cards

4) FARGO card printer suppot

5) Role based user control -- based on custom fields of "department code" and "position code" I want to give users access to doors.

6) Integration with ip cameras (we use axis hardware -- I know the NVR may have to get changed out)

Suggestions for a large-scale enterprise system? I need to get a few to compare to make sure we're making the right choice. If you have a similarly sized business, what are you using and what issues are you having?

Thanks!

Perfect. There is only one entrance, so this would work. I don't mean to come off as disregarding any of your input, I do thank everyone who has posted.

Middle ground would help the situation. Unfortunately, that's exactly what I was after.

Her expectations are very unrealistic.

 

Why has she got tills in the shop? Why didnt she just use some carboard boxes to store the money in, a pen and paper for receipts and a calculator for the numbers. It would be cheap, and do the job, sort of..

 

But she bought the right tool for the job....

 

Same as she should spend the money on the right tools for this job, its a business, and she wont be thanking you if you cave in and go with her wishes for a 400 (or even 900) dollar system, she may thank you when its installed, but not when she needs the footage from it.

 

I would tell her she is best of getting a cctv company in, and paying decent money now, rather than paying for a cheap system, realising later its not any good, and paying again for a new system (and probably realising again, its still not good enough) before finally buying something that does the job well.

I think I'll tell her the truth -- this is what I found in your price range, and there are no reviews for it. A forum I trust says youwon't be happy with the footage, and I've never had to support it. If you want the euquipment I'm familiar with supporting, it's expensive, and quote her on a GE Storesafe with some semi-decent cameras.

What's between $400 and $900? Is that the price per camera, or the price you're looking at for the DVR? I would hope the former, if you're serious about a quality system.

She was hoping that'd be total. I'm not sure what's possible.

 

if you wish to remain friends with your customer then stay away from installing that system.

 

you would be best spending as much on the dvr as possable and adding to it over time. remember cheap systems are cheap and dont get better.

What's the problem with this system? Saying "It's cheap" isn't enough to dissuade her. She has X dollars budgeted, I need to make the business case that it's not enough or she's going to buy it, with me installing or without.

Saw the Aposonic A-BR8B8-C320 on Newegg for $749.99. Would it fit the bill? Anyone have experience with the quality/ease of use?

I'm a technically competent IT guy by day who's been asked to help a decently large metaphysical store add 6 cameras with room to grow. I'm thinking a 9-port system with 6 dome-style cameras would work. I assume 1 camera on each till (2) , one on each door (2), and 2 to cover broad areas of the shop.

Suggestions? Looking to be on a budget. The owner thinks $400 is reasonable. I'll be happy if we get away under $900 with something between junk and high-end megapixel cameras.

Thanks for the help.

Do you remember the name of the utility you mentioned? GE Support seemed to think flashing the drive using DVR Uploader would do the trick.

Are they right? I hate to question it, but I really don't want to get stuck part way through.

Also, SATA or PATA?

Thanks!

Is this possible? I have several GE StoreSafe II units, all in various stages of in/out of warrenty. Most are 320 GB, some are 80 GB. Can I upgrade the drives in these? Anyone done so successfully? What do I need to know to do so?

Thanks!