hardwired

I agree with the other responses, you need to learn to walk before running, on this one. Stepping into a project this size with no previous experience is likely to lead to some very bad results. You started with a simple question, but the answer for what you want to achieve with the final result is not simple at all, there are a lot of variables to contend with to make something of that scope work effectively. For example: available lighting, line of sight issues, available cabling between buildings, desired quality of images at a given distance from the camera locations, budget for project, viewing locations, length of storage, vandal resistance, cable protection, and a lot of other things, need to be taken into consideration. If you really want to take this on, I suggest you do a LOT of reading here on similar subjects, and get an idea of what you are trying to achieve with this system, and ask more questions after that.

We need a little more information here about the recording computer (processor, RAM, HDD sizing, OS, etc), Milestone version and device pack, and what framerate are you trying to get? Milestone is very flexible in recording option, but some are not so obvious (setting bitrate instead of framerate on some MPEG4 cameras, for example). Take a look at the event log on the computer, and also the recording server log in C:\Program Files\Milestone\Milestone Surveillance, and see what correlates with the failure time. Look especially for Event ID 4226 "TCP/IP has reached the security limit imposed on the number of concurrent TCP connect attempts" in the Windows system event log, (if using XP). XP has a problem with half-open TCP ports, there is a patch available to raise the number from 10 to 50 open connections, that may help. The configuration you mention (motion record at 1FPS, overwrite when full) is available in the settings, what is it currently set at?

On Essential, it has a five concurrent user limit, and it does have a web interface that allows either downloading the full-featured Smart Client, or running the light Remote Client from the web interface (does need Windows and IE to work with the plugins, though)

Yes, pretty much any wire would work. Make sure you connect the ground wire between the VCR and mux, as well as the alarm trigger wire. Typically, wire from the alarm out terminal from the mux to alarm in on the VCR, as well as the ground, is what's required. Take a look for a synchronization (or similarly titled connector) between the mux and VCR, as well, with this connected it makes sure that one frame of video recorded on the VCR matches up with a single frame of video from the mux, no matter what speed the VCR is set to (you do usually have to enable this in the mux settings). That will improve recording performance by a fair amount.

The maintenance contract (PMA) isn't a requirement, it just enables updating product versions throughout the term of the contract, or applying full trade-up value towards a higher level product.. The product itself will work without, or with an expired, maintenance contract. If you do want it, though, the one year PMA for Essential is $18.00 (MSRP) for the base license (two cameras), and $9.00 per camera after that.

I did not see the new Arecont listed in the supported model list on Milestone, even in the Beta driver pack. It's probably seeing it as a 5MP model or so, and only showing the number of pixels that a 5MP camera would. Most likely, you'll be waiting for the next device pack or beta pack. If you need a more immediate answer, their phone support is fairly good, too.

Station mode is what would be at the customer end of a wireless Internet service provider setup, connecting to an AP at the other end (routed, usually, not bridged). In your case, using Ubiquiti equipment, you would use AP-WDS to Station-WDS, to allow transparent Layer 2 bridging, and maintaining the source (camera) MAC address. Regular AP-Station traffic removes the MAC of the source, and changes it to that of the wireless equipment. Ubiquiti does a great job at keeping their costs down by both moving high volume (the distributor I use regularly ships out 5000+ units at a time, when they receive them), and by keeping their design simple (as you noted, not IP65 sealed, but good enough for most conditions). Their products are becoming a first choice product for a number of wireless service providers (take a look on their forum for examples, and the WISP forum at DSLReports). I have links using Ubiquiti that have been working, and stable, for over two years... If other products fit your needs better, then by all means consider them.... But for the money, I haven't found anything that works as well as their products do. The Ubiquiti products can be powered without PoE, the power injection they (and a lot of other pieces of wireless equipment) use is not 48 volt standard 802.3af, but rather a passive power injection on the unused Ethernet pairs (Ubiquiti products are generally happy with between 12 and 24 volts DC, but not above or below that. You can use a passive injector like this to supply power to the Ubiquiti product, just make sure it is regulated to 24 volts MAXIMUM (even 25 can cause damage).

The Panasonic 502 box and dome cameras are CCD, as well as the Acti TCM-5311 and the Sony SNC-DM160. I've seen some good to excellent performance from CMOS cameras, though, take a look at the new offerings from Sanyo as an example.

Heck, I was just guessing when I threw that comment out, but then I searched, and here it is.. http://www.monstercable.com/productdisplay.asp?pin=922! Voipmodo, you had it right, except it's colored Navajo White!

I'd add the merits of easy termination, even by lightly trained personnel..... If you are trying to introduce a new transmission protocol/format, using commonly available cable and connectors is not a bad plan, will probably help it gain wider acceptance (if some other scheme doesn't knock it off first). **************Edit********** If you are a conspiracy theorist, wonder if Monster Cable and other high-end (margin) cable manufacturers will try to kill this?

Wow! Haven't heard that name in a while! I'm impressed, old timer. We actually still used that crap until about 5-6 years ago when we switched to DVRs. Micromoles and NIUs... what a PITA to get to work and keep working. ....If you ever built your own DVR's with Win98, the Prism units didn't seem so bad. Newer DVR users probably wonder what the daily reboot option is for

Basic setup is usually pretty easy, there is a VCR input on the mux that goes to the VCR output, and vice versa, and a monitor output on the mux that goes to the monitor. You will need to find a "live/playback" button, and select playback, to view the tape output. The camera selection buttons on the mux should bring up the associated camera view for an individual view, and the split screen buttons, as well. If you look at a frozen frame of that recorded video, without playing through the mux, you will see something that looks like a barcode at the (usually) very top of the image. This is added by the mux to each image during recording, and is how the mux identifies each individual camera to place back in the correct position for viewing. High end forensic video software can decode this barcode also, so police departments do not need an assortment of multiplexers to view video taken from different sites.

....Not sure Pelco's been doing a lot of things right since being bought by Schneider.. I'm a few miles from Pelco's headquarters, and about the only things I use often from them is the EH3512 housing, and some of the IS90 interior domes. Acti's been trying harder recently, their latest firmware update includes Universal Plug & Pray, SNMP, and Bonjour. Overall, one of the best, for the money, IMHO. The Pano 502 is a pretty nice cam, but maybe not quite what I've come to expect from Panasonic... Had a few fail out of the box, or soon after. ....Don't even get me started on an ActiveX plugin rant, though...

Hmm, that must be a similar unit to the TLS-4072 - I think of the few VCRs we still have in service, most are those model. Yes, the AG-RT600 was an older model of the same style....A real workhorse, saw a lot of use in casinos. Had a setup that had a Genex multiplexer, THREE recorders, (one daisy-chained to the next for extended recording, and the third for playback, a Pelco 6700 matrix with three original Spectras and ten other fixed cameras, about twelve Optex wireless units to call PTZ presets through alarm inputs on the matrix, and a Prism MicroMole300 phoneline video transmitter for off-site viewing to Windows 95 based receiver, in a high end residence. That was a hot setup around '97 or so.....

To elaborate on Soundy's comment, most multiplexers either had menu settings to allow matching the recorder(and recording speed) to the rate of images coming out of the multiplexer, or (ideally) a synchronization connector that allowed the recorder to trigger the change of images from the multiplexer. That way, each single image recorded would be matched to a single image from the multiplexer, for the most efficient recording. That also allowed for changing speeds on the recorder, and still have matching frame rates sent from the multiplexer. Your best bet for a decent recording rate is to use a "real time" 24 (40, on a few)hour recording mode, that gives you 20 frames per second recording/16 cameras= a little over one frame per second, per camera. At the 240 hour speed, I think you only get about 2-4 frames per second, that divided by 16 cameras equals a pretty low frame rate. Another feature of multiplexers that could be implemented is that some had motion detection features, to allow recording more frames per camera for ones that had active motion than ones with no motion. Also, recorders often had an "alarm" hardwired input to allow changing to higher recording speeds in the event of a holdup, etc. Us old-timers will gladly wax poetic about the features of Robot, American Dynamic, and Pelco muxes, as well as the durability of the Panasonic AG-RT600 half width recorder for as long as you'd like (or as long as we can still remember ).

The Nanostation's are not sealed, the door you see has an overlapping lip that should block any normal rain, etc, but probably not a jet of water. If you were really concerned, you could put them into a NEMA rated plastic/fiberglass box, but I've never had any issues with it. As far as a repeater, sure, that's easily done, if you have power there, or nearby enough to run a cable to. Solar could be an option, as well, but adds more cost and complexity. A single radio can perform as a WDS repeater, but you will lose half the bandwidth. In your case, that still would be enough for a few cameras, most likely, or you can use two radios back to back for full bandwidth.

Those connectors are made (mainly) by Molex, (commonly called a Molex connector, even if not actually made by Molex)and they require a specialized crimping tool to attach the connector pin to the wire properly (a basic crimping tool isn't too expensive, but the production tool is $300+), and a tool to remove the pin from the shell later (if you need to). Keep in mind that there are a lot of variations within the product line in regards to connector size, shape, and pin spacing, here is one example http://www.molex.com/molex/products/family?key=standard_093&channel=products&chanName=family&pageTitle=Introduction&parentKey=power_connectors. If it's only a few wires, and you do not need to disconnect them very often, what Ted mentioned above (often referred to as a "barrier strip") might be an easier approach.

For the price of a high end WDR megapixel, you could probably get two Acti ACM-7411 megapixel domes (supported by your hybrid unit), and focus one just on the entrance, adjusted for the back-lighting, and another for the general lobby area, that would give you more potential lines of sight, as well.

The data rate/frame rate that you want to record may be quite a bit higher than what you will want to stream, that's why I was asking about the bandwidth. At the distances / data rates you are talking about, the NanoStationM5 as the camera end, and a BulletM5 with an omnidirectional antenna should be fine... But, non-line of sight is generally a show-stopper at 5Ghz frequencies, what is the obstruction? 2.4Ghz might be a better choice for penetrating at least a small amount of foliage, at that distance, or can you raise/move the antennas to clear the obstructions? The motherboard you listed should probably work fine for what you want it to do.

As long as the camera will work with 10BaseT Ethernet, (for example, Acti will work, but Arecont will usually not), you should be fine with the passive, balun type Ethernet converters, and those should work in a wider temperature range than the camera. How long is the cable run?

I've had better luck using good (Nitek/NVT) baluns on a twisted pair phone cable in the traveler. 22 floors is a pretty long traveler cable, with power bundled in the cable along with the video, in most cases. Some interference may be unavoidable. The best picture I had was using a DSL-type Ethernet extender over a twisted pair in the cable, and an IP camera in the elevator cab. No interference there, and much higher resolution available.

I was having trouble finding a supported model list for IP cameras for your software, do you have any links/lists? If that's what you are limited to, we need to know what's supported.

On the Ubiquiti products, at least, each device can be set to AP (the receiving end of multiple client units) or Client mode, as desired. I'd recommend the NanoStationM5's (wireless "N" data rate, lots more bandwidth that A/B/G rate equipment) at each camera, and depending on the distance and angle each client unit is from the base AP, either a NanoStationM5 there, or possibly multiple Nanostations, BulletM5 with an omnidirectional antenna, or (ideally) the RocketM5 with a sector antenna. The units should run in WDS mode for a fully layer 2 transparent bridge. Here's a list of Australian distributors for Ubiquiti http://ubnt.com/purchase/australia Please provide more information about the number of cameras, distance and angle to the base, and desired framerate/data rate, and I can help more with the design layout. For the Linux box, you could build your own with something like the MSI IM-945GSE Mini-ITX motherboard, it has dual LAN ports, Intel Atom processor, should be plenty fast for routing/NAS use.

It's $99 MSRP for the base license, which includes two channels, and then $49 per channel after that. It is limited to 26 channels, and five concurrent users connected for viewing. And yes, the other versions are WAY more expensive. I think Exacq, and other NVR manufacturers, have taken a bite out of Milestone's business, and they want it back. I've been a Milestone Certified Partner since 2007, and am looking forward to being able to sell a lot more Milestone now. I had been siding more towards Exacq recently, mostly due to the difficulty of selling Milestone at their previous pricing. They still have their upper-end product line, I think this is more of a "loss-leader" for them, to try and gain some market share back. Milestone is a very solid product with good support and probably the largest range of IP product support, the pricing has been the only major drawback. The only significant drawbacks to Milestone (not necessarily bad, just the way they do it) is that cameras are individually licensed by their MAC addresses, so adding or changing cameras requires a visit to their licensing website to change the information, and get a keycode for the camera. Also, Milestone requires dealers to provide them with end-user contact information for each purchase. They promise that all that information is just for their records, but it makes me nervous to provide MY customer's information to a vendor that could potentially divulge that information to a competitor.....

I'd suggest the Panasonic WV-NW502 dome (or 504 box style) camera. They have Panasonic's usual superb WDR capability, at 1.3 Megapixel. (They can run up to 3MP, but only in MJPEG, and no WDR at that setting). It's a CCD imager, also, so low light capability is pretty good.