questioneer

Hello. My name is Nick. I live in the Dallas, Texas area of the United States. My job is split fairly evenly between applications engineering and business development for an integration (design and installation) company. I joined this forum to discuss technology, specific applications, and also see what others out there are having success (and not having success) with that's on the market.

You should place them where it is important to place them. I say that a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it's an accurate statement. Anyone who can put cameras onto a layout without understanding the complexities of your workflow, organization, high risk / high value items within your building, and other important things that you simply can't see on a floorplan... has special abilities. I can say nothing intelligent about camera placement without understanding what goes on there. I think that you are more qualified to answer your own question at this point than any of us are. Field of view is a sensor size and lens focal length issue. There are plenty of calculators that can help you figure out what type of lens to get for the cameras you're interested in. As far as placement - I really think you're better qualified to answer that than any us at this point. All we can possibly see is walls and doors at this point. Design for protection fo assets can't happen in a vacuum. At least - it can't happen well.

HID Edge. Yes. Installed in conjunction with AMT software. AMT will run either VERTX (edge) panels, or HID EDGE single door readers. I like it just fine. Is there specific feedback you're looking for?

Readykey pro is fine for a single site. Once you get more than 8 bit formats or facility codes, it can't accomodate that. So if you have or think you may have 30 facilities at some point.. probably not your best choice. Otherwise, it serves the standard purpose.. unlocks doors upon valid card read, does scheduling, does antipassback, etc.

I've used the intercoms. They're fine for what they are - little video in a little screen. I think you can also have it output over coax into a video system, I'd have to look, but it seems like you can if I remember correctly. My experience with Aiphone has been that you can use different cabling, but that their cabling isn't THAT much more expensive. I've done it both ways, but lately (and since using the integrated video) have started just using their cabling. You can do it the other way as well though. I think Honk probably has a good philosophy on it.. if you're not real worried bout interference, or the 2 year warranty, standard cabling is fine. If either concerns you, go with their cabling.

...i've been wondering the same thing. Usually I install SoftwareHouse, Verex, HID VertX/Edge with AMT, or GE (Facility Commander). I'm curious if it works as well, and how well it works. Let me know if you find anything out..

Regarding the questions on megapixel cameras. Yes, I have experience with them. They range from 1.2MP to about 15 or 16. The highest I've personally seen is 15 (Avigilon), but I understand there are higher resolution ones out there. The majority of my installations have been in the 1-5MP range. Keep in mind that there are a variety of issues of the analog versus IP discussion that probably deserve their own thread. Storage/bandwidth questions were mentioned. That can be an issue, but also depends on the codec/encoding. For example, I've personally sat down with Arecont's (proprietary) h.264 encoding and watched both the storage and bandwidth requirements go down versus other encoding formats. You can even tweak it to where at, for example, 3MP, it takes less bandwidth than a traditional analog camera being transmitted over the network using MPEG4 or something along those lines. So, the answer to pretty much every MP question about storage and bandwidth is "depends." That also probably deserves a thread in its own right.

I agree fully with those that have said "install both." The majority of my customers are either military or other facilities, or logistics and distribution. Both have many warehouses involved. To state that I have walked through many warehouses of many sizes is accurate. While you state that money is an issue, there has to be a cost-benefit balance. You could have very complex, and very expensive, analytics provided that would do a good job of weeding out the lighting changes, line noises, rats, and so on, in order to determine when a human being really enters your facility. In fact, if you're willing to pay for it, you can have forklifts, humans, dogs, and anything else you can think of walking around a facility map based on an interface from camera --> nvr --> analytics --> mapping software. With that said, the most cost effective way to accomplish what you want, is going to be to either retrofit or completely replace your existing alarm system, and also to put in video meeting the requirements you discussed. Perhaps an added requirement would be "install an interface between the NVR/alarm system." What others said about dual technology detectors is good. Just keep in mind that microwave, when overlapping, can cause interference between sensors. PIR you can generally overlap, but dual-tech most manufacturers recommend that you do not. Also keep in mind that there are companies out there that can monitor your facility for you through specific video systems based on system analytics and also your "traditional" alarm devices. So, for example if you retrofit your alarm system, and one of the dual-tech sensors is triggered, they can look in through your video system and determine if it was a real human being or something that doesn't matter. The same goes for if a video analytic were triggered.. they look in, determine if the alarm is real, and if it's real, they respond appropriately. If you're willing to pay to have a PA system or speakers installed, you can even have some of the central stations that do this talk down through the speakers and say something like, "You, in the red shirt. This is security. Leave the premises immediately or you will be arrested." Some people prefer this method, others prefer to have the offender stay on site until possible apprehension. The first method is more successful at preventing the occurance from going further generally, the second is preferred by some because they like to "catch the bad guy," but also opens the danger of them getting away if the police or private security response is not quick enough. If you outsource the response, it saves you the trouble and heart ache of dealing with false (or real) alarms at 3AM, or when you're on a date, or at the kids' sports game, or having an anniversary dinner, and so on. There are people who do this every day that probably make less money than you - it's worth outsourcing it to them rather than rearranging your life.

Like others, I refuse to use "wi-fi" cameras. I will use point to point (line of sight directional antennas - not 360 degree antennas) high end for wireless transmission, but it is expensive.

1) In the existing system, there is a DVR recording for 16 channels. It has been fixed to store the recording data. The distance of centralize monitoring place from each DVRs location is 2km and above. For this situation, please advice on the cabling job and highlight what type of fiber should be used to carry out the video transmission Fiber can be either single mode or multi-mode. Either will transmit over 2km, based on the data conversion. Multi-mode will be less expensive to convert, but single mode is capable of longer distances. If in doubt, and a quick answer is required, ask for or pull single mode to be safe, but know when doing so that the cost on conversion will be higher. MAKE SURE THAT THE FIBER IS APPROPRIATE FOR BEING IN THE ENVIRONMENT THAT IT IS IN. You don't want to pull 4KM of fiber and find out later that it should have been rated for certain conditions, ie underground/submerged/heat/armor/etc. I wouldn't worry about losing video quality over this distance. To do this properly, you will install a "layer 2" or "layer 3" switch/router, most likely L2 for your application. This will use TCP/IP protocol for controlling data loss. I do this all the time. As long as you design the fiber and equipment properly to account for db loss over the exact distance, you will be fine. If you don't know how to do that, I recommend subcontracting the fiber work to a company that does fiber every day. 2)I plan no more use the existing DVR system and transmit all the analogue data to the NVR with using end coder as middle device convert the analogue to ip signal ,please advice on this circumstance on criteria I should follow when choosing a good NVR system which will support more than a 100 of camera (static) and please let know how to calculate the storage of HDD in a NVR. (no.days:45;fps;25: hours:24 ; real recording ; resolution :Need your advice on which is the best ;channels;16) The answer to this question depends on the encoding, image complexity, motion percentage, and other factors (in some cases, it even depends on the manufacturer as they may put metadata into images, be using RAID that stores to multiple hard drives simultaneously, etc). In short, "depends on the manufacturer and also the conditions at the site." Need more information to answer. 3) Please advice me on a good brand of the CCTV surveillance system Need more information about the application. a good CCTV system for one application / end user / environment is a bad cctv system for another.

Elkabong, The answer to the question depends on who you are. We buy direct from Pelco, Geovision, Verint, Verex, GE, and a few others for CCTV. There are other manufacturers with a direct relationship with various companies. Smaller companies are less likely to get direct deals with large manufacturers without certain conditions being set on that agreement - such as certain amounts of volume per time period, an exclusive agreement, a semi-exclusive agreement, etc. I guess my advice would be to figure out what equipment you like, and ask the manufacturer how direct purchasing works. If they don't tell you what you want, find something else you like and ask them. Pricing is often based on volume. If your volume is high, in some cases, you can get really good pricing. If your volume isn't high, favorable pricing may involve some of the conditions I mentioned earlier.

I don't use the cards/software combination typically, but do install their DVRs and NVRs. I've had very good experiences with the DVR for analog. I had a couple of could-be-better experiences with their first version of the NVR. Trying to run the full allotment of cameras on the NVR (all at MP resolution) was unsuccessful. My experiences with the second version of the NVR (with the i7 intel quad processors) has been super. Also, the control center software makes it really easy to manage multiple NVRs/DVRs and you can also use it to set up some pretty snazzy command center displays. Aside from being useful for a command center, it is also useful for the sites where I have DVRs/NVRs in multiple buildings, and for customers with multiple sites. It allows you to basically do the same management functions remotely that you could do right at the DVR. Anyhow, I like it. I had a concerning "bump" in the road with the first round of NVRs, but that seems to have been resolved by significantly upgrading the hardware to i7 with more RAM, and some changes in the software.