hardwired

Take a look at the Acti ACM-3601 or 3701 (megapixel), with the ACD-3100 decoder. It's a very small dome camera, and you could leave the dome off....

Have your arms become too short over the last few years to hold the spot monitor at the right distance, like mine have , and trying to hold a big enough monitor to see clearly ... Getting older is the PITA! At our office my boss and I are in a race for larger monitors, I get each one that's gotten too small for him... he's up to a 24", I just got his 22"...

Cheapie notepad/UMPC running VLC, or some other cap application that can be set to show the filesize of a MJPEG stream from a USB capture adapter should work, the filesize should track the amount of detail in the image, which would be the same as focus (or noise, if you close the iris too far-although the Camera Master has the same drawback). **********Edit******* I do have the Camera Master, it works fairly well, although if you have a lot of depth of field in the shot, you do not know if you are focusing on the foreground or background... It has a lot of other useful features, too, though. BTW, the auto back focus on the newer Panasonic and Sanyo IP Megapixel cameras (and a few others now, I think), is the one of the greatest things since sliced bread.....

You have to isolate the IR from the camera lens, the same way that it is on the camera itself, with the rubber ring between the IR LED's and lens. If the view is straight out the window, or very close to it, you could try taking off the sunshield and lens cover, and press it against the window, with the rubber ring against the window glass. As Erron noted, a dual pane window will present a problem you may not be able to work around, except possibly by disassembling the camera and extending the IR LED ring wires to place it a foot or so away from the camera (voiding your warranty in the process, though), or cover the IR LED's on the camera and use a separate IR illuminator, away from the camera.

I haven't seen anything like that, and I think you would run into the limit of the PoE standard (15.4 watts, for 802.3af) not being able to drive a very large illuminator, plus the camera draw. The newer standards (802.3at high power, 34 watts or so) could help with that, but it is not widely implemented yet.

I'd hunt around for any existing phoneline cable that could be used with baluns for the video first, but failing that, I'd look at using an Acti video-Ethernet encoder at the camera side (ACD-2100), and the Acti Ethernet-video decoder ACD-3100, and Ubiquiti NanoStation M5 wireless units to transmit the signal. There are analog wireless video transmitters available, but if you've been used to the picture quality and reliability of fiber, you'll probably be disappointed in them. This IS assuming an available clear line of sight between buildings, and a reasonable distance (the NanoStations I mentioned are good for 2 miles or so), or there are other solutions for longer range.

Wondering if the DVR is not set to allow remote viewing, in the setup menus somewhere? Anyway, here is the manual http://www.global-download.schneider-electric.com/852575770039EC5E/All/2E430ADFE23640178525763800644EFA/$File/c624mc.pdf

Anyone tried using baluns with 422/485 data on coax? Seems like it could work, as mentioned, RS422 IS pretty forgiving of what you stuff it down. I had one installation where I had two coax cables for a data pair, using just the center conductor on each for the data +and-, and grounded the shields, it worked about 500' out.

It's possible to burn one out with a big enough surge, I'm sure. One of the other problems that can cause connectivity issues with powerline carrier equipment is that a really good line filter will also filter out the signal, you have to sometimes install them before filters/UPS's.

Powerline transmission works, but has an issue that sometimes needs to be managed. In standard U.S. household power (110/220 volt, split phase), there are two separate "legs" of 110 volts each, that power the house. Powerline transmission that is on a different leg of power inside the house has to go all the way to the nearest transformer (often several houses away, or more), and then back down the other leg, to work. Often, it does not work at that distance. This will lead to intermittent operation, when 220 volt appliances in the house are running (A/C, dryer, stove, etc.), it will work, because the appliance temporarily couples the two legs together inside the house. There are couplers that attach either at the electrical panel (need an electrician, for that), or on the plug of a 220 volt appliance, to couple the phases together. Not a show-stopper, but something to be aware of, if you are using that type of equipment.

Did a few cameras in a Gamma radiation treatment chamber to watch patient positioning, put standard cameras in a lead lined box and used a mirror to reflect the image into the camera (I used a camera that had the reversing image feature). Working over a year now, no problems, other cameras that were mounted without protection started losing pixels (hotspots, deadspots) after a few months. You can also mount a standard camera in a lead lined enclosure, with a leaded glass window as a viewing port, depending on the exposure levels.

I'd agree with Bpzle, above. Take a look at the Optex RCTD10U wireless PIR Transmitter/Receiver set, should work well for your application, at a reasonable cost. Triggering alerts with the motion sensing on the DVR will give you sleepless nights reviewing footage of birds, bugs, tree branches, etc. Look for a place (or create one with fence, hedge, etc.) that you could create a "trap zone" with one or two cameras where people will have to pass through first to do anything on your property, and install a good camera with a narrow field of view to get as much detail at that point as possible.

Have a customer that still has some Pelco ED29 "Harris Dome" PTZ/Enclosures still operating, they weigh 50 pounds, plus the PTZ drive and camera, probably about 75 pounds total. They are 25 inches square, and 25 inches deep. They look like a large planter box hanging upside down over your head. Removed a few Ikegami B/W tube cameras from a convenience store a while back, too, should have taken some pictures of those.

Just looked at a weather headline that mentioned that it hit -50 in Edmonton... You guys still alive up there ?!?

12VDC is fine for the Ubiquiti products, you can use a passive injector or just peel the power pairs out of the cable to power it, just don't go below 12VDC or above 24VDC. For the Mobotix, is there a separate power input on that model, or just the CAT5 PoE power input? I just tried powering a M12 up the CAT5 cable with a passive Ubiquiti power injector (15 or 24VDC, +on pins 4&5, -on pins 7&8, and it didn't power up, I was not sure if it needs to do the true 802.3af power negotiation before it would power up. That's why I mentioned the Mobotix PoE injector. If the M24 doesn't need that, so much the better.

Matrix is supported in Professional, Enterprise, and Corporate versions. Not all cameras are dual-stream and supported, see list here..http://www.milestonesys.com/Downloads?product=13&tab=3, look under release notes for Matrix device pack. Matrix allows you to push out view groups (single or quad) to multiple monitors/PC's running the Matrix client. Not sure if that's what you need, or not. You might want to read up on the manual, or test it with a trial version of Professional, etc. to see if it will work for your application.

Milestone can do it with the Matrix client, separate from the regular client.

In that situation, I would use the PoE injector from Mobotix (NPA-PoE-Set) for injecting power for the camera, and the passive injector (or Ubiquiti injector, if you have AC power), as I showed above for the Ubiquiti NanoStation, as long as you are not exceeding 24 volts for the power. So, you would have... Mobotix Cam----<(power)(power)>---Ubiquiti Nanostation. The NanoStations DO have a pass-through power and Ethernet port, but it will only work with other Ubiquiti products, not cameras. I have tested it with several cameras, Mobotix included. (I know, their picture shows a camera... It doesn't work, I have had discussions with them about it.)

I wouldn't think powerline adapters would work well in a large building like that, but most hotels will have cable and phoneline to each room. DSL-type extenders(phoneline), or coax-Ethernet adapters (cable TV cable), would get you from the central wiring hub, (where you could place the NVR) to the closest room to each camera, and hard-wire the camera from there. Those adapters also work to allow you to retrofit the hotel with Internet capability to individual rooms, too.

Who's planning on going, and what's tops on your list to check out?

That Kowa lens that Wireguys listed (above) Looks exactly like the Arecont branded lens I have (below). Problem is, neither of those are from Kowa's Megapixel line of lenses, they are just standard res lenses. Kowa's true Megapixel lenses work MUCH better.....

I posted those images a while back, here they are again, for reference. Cam is an Acti ACM-4201 indoor cube. Original lens, like I commented before, maybe slightly out of focus, but not by much. With Fujinon YV2.8x2.8SA-2 lens: I'd be curious to see if any better lenses would have the same benefit on the ACM-7411 or ACM-1231. Hard to find board cam ICR megapixel lenses, though.

We had some fairly dark elevators with very bright lobbies, so we chose WDR cams (DeView WDR29ATM, board cam with bracket), in the Speco model BCCCM corner mount housing, worked very well for our needs.

Slightly off-topic, as I am talking about dome cameras, but I think in my experience we could have sold Panasonic domes for the same price as Pelco or others, and still been ahead money because of how many others we had to replace (under our labor warranty, gotta love some of my installers..NOT!) that were turned into fishbowls, compared to the dummy-proof sealing of the Panasonics.

You're welcome, hopefully that will fix the problem. You may also want to look into how large the partition selected for "First Day" storage is, if that is too small to hold a full day of recordings, you will run into problems. Milestone is great software, but like any manufacturer, they have their quirks. Their phone tech support is very helpful, though.