hardwired

Separating the camera and IR illuminator by a few feet would probably help somewhat (think about driving in fog, your headlights bounce back at you, but objects lit by street lighting away from you produces less glare) Cameras with built-in IR tend to be more problematic for a number of other reasons, as well.

Keep in mind that the REX is triggered by heat... And not necessarily a body leaving. I've seen examples of REX's being triggered by savvy thieves stuffing burning paper through the door gap..And in one case, urinating through it. You may want to look into one of the dual-tech, PIR/Microwave type units, to prevent this.

Milestone/ONSSI probably has the widest compatibility list... But at a significant cost premium. Exacq has worked well for me, and has fairly wide support as well.

An old DVR chassis with a P4 HT 3.0 MHz processor, 1 GB ram, new 1 TB Seagate... It's pretty light on resources....

I had a similar instance recently, where a thief (apparently inside job) cut open the the safe, cut the alarm lines... And took the DVR itself. In replacing it, we set up our XP based DVR to mirror to a second location through iSCSI NAS. (Microsoft OS will support this with the iSCSI initiator software you can download from them) We set up the remote unit with an old PC running FreeNAS ( http://freenas.org/ )to be the mirrored storage in a remote part of the building.

Optex probably does make the best beams. Depending on the area you are trying to cover, though, you could look into area sensors, Protech makes very good ones that will cover out 100' or so, reduces labor if that will work. Look at http://www.protechusa.com/Products/documents/XL2Med1.pdf

I'm amazed at the number of people that ignore the fact that (most) Megapixel setups use manual iris lenses, adjust them to F4-5.6 or so for a good day image, and then complain about the night performance...imagine that... Finally, a few megapixel A/I lenses with a decent F-stop rating are coming out, Tamron has the 1/3" M13VM308 3-8mm F 1.0 A/I model. Not sure of the exact megapixel rating, but it's a step in the right direction. I'm looking into trying out the Stardot cams with A/I output, any opinion on those? ipvideomarket compared it well against the Arecont, pricing is pretty close.....

Not sure on supplier, but I'd suggest staying away from the new analog Panasonic 504's. I've been a strong supporter of Panasonic... but not this particular one. I installed six for a customer a while back, and the results were far less than satisfactory.. Samples here.. viewtopic.php?f=19&t=11322&start=180 A recent conversation with the regional rep suggested that they might be willing to trade them back for the 484 series cams. Those models would be ones that I would highly recommend.

The Pelco IS90-CWV9 is a pretty good indoor D/N WDR dome, and it installs pretty easy. I've also had decent luck with deView cams, they also have models with the Pixim chipset. deView also has a five year warranty, and an advance replacement option.

Exacq NVR software will do that too, a lot cheaper than Milestone, you may be able to get a one channel license free if you ask around.....

Just talked to a regional rep for Panasonic..The general consensus about the new SD5 analog cams is OOPS, sorry, we blew it, this just isn't a good camera. They are going to keep the SD3 (CP484, etc.) line going longer and try again. I may change my installs with some of the SD5's back to SD3's if they take them back (they might).

I'd suggest using a small DVR that has hardwired cameras and network capability, and access it through a wireless router with a small netbook or laptop. This would also give you the capability of accessing your system through the internet.

I've had good luck with the Acti product, not so good with Vivotek. The ACM-1231 is a good product, although around here, bullet style cameras tend to get turned into pinatas by the hoodlums. I use a lot of the ACM-7411 domes, which have the same performance as the 1231. Keep in mind the megapixel cams have somewhat lower night performance, due to smaller pixels, and (usually) CMOS imagers. Having said that, I find that with reasonable lighting levels, the performance is usually very good, and the picture resolution can't be matched by standard res cams. You may want to look at sample images here on this site to give you some ideas.

I'm not sure about an installer, but if you are going to the expense of pulling cable to the corners just for power, I'd recommend pulling video cable (siamese RG59/18-2) instead. The 18-2 wire in the siamese cable could be used to power the wireless cams now, and you would be able to add a hardwired cam later. The additional cost would be minimal, and wireless cameras tend to be problematic. in the future, you may very well want to change to hardwired cameras to avoid those problems.

I, and a number of others here, will strongly recommend separating the IP camera and WI-FI link. Cameras with built-in wireless tend to be much lower quality images, and wireless performance, than separate units. You can also place the link for best performance, instead of being limited to the camera location. I'd suggest looking into wireless links from Ubiquiti, and cameras from Acti, as being a good place to start.

There's a huge amount of different covert video products available, and with the requirements as you described, the quality of the video may not be as great an issue, as getting something that blends in (potted plant, clock, smoke detector, etc) However, I would spend the money on a good microphone system. Louroe makes some pretty good ones, but the Crown PZM microphones are even better. Find a way to get it as close to your subjects, and as far away from noise sources (air vents, etc) as possible.

If your integrator is only now proposing IP based equipment as a concession to your request, that doesn't give me a lot of confidence in their experience level with IP systems. I'd ask to see a similar installation that they had completed successfully, before you become their guinea pig for IP systems... BTW, at times, I've been a little hesitant asking for higher product margins, but the prices your vendor is quoting has given me renewed confidence....

I had a similar situation a while back... I found a few vendors of leaded glass windows online that would work for X-ray sources, but this was a gamma radiation source (much more penetration), so I ended up mounting a standard hi-res cam that had image reversal option (like a backup cam) in a lead-lined box at a 90 degree angle to the radiation source, and used a mirror to reflect the image into the cam inside the box. So far, so good.... Other cams originally installed behind radiation-resistant acrylic died within a few months...

Just noticed that after updating, in the setup menu of the Exacq, there is an override button for camera time server, with a field to point to the time server you want. Haven't tested it, but looks like what you were asking for....

One possibility for your complex, is if you own the telephone cabling throughout the complex before it reaches a telco connection, and it comes to a central point, would be to see if you have any unused pairs in the cabling coming in from separate buildings that you could use for video. I did an apartment complex a while back with a mix of analog video and IP cameras over DSL extenders this way, and the labor was a fraction of what cabling the complete complex would have been. You might also want to look into options with IP based access control. It kind of sounds like your provider isn't much for thinking outside the box... You might get better luck with another integrator.

I couldn't find much info on that lens, does it have two adjustment potentiometers on the side marked something like level and ALC? if so, it is a video drive lens, try changing the level settings on the lens. If not, chance the video/DC switch to the DC position and try adjusting the iris level on the camera (should be a screw-type adjustment on the cam)

You may just have a bad camera or lens, that looks worst then a low res cmos bullet. If so, I have six of them.... One thing I noticed is that the auto backfocus seems to move the focus too much to the foreground at night, I may have to set a fixed focus setting... I don't have any defense for the video noise/graininess/lack of resolution, though. Going to try a Samsung WDR dome in the same spot to compare, when I get out there again.

Did you mean 504? The 502 is IP. Best, Christopher Yes, sorry, meant the WV-CW504S analog dome. Here's a couple of shots. Day: Night: On these, the light is spilling over the wall they are mounted on... and here's where the lights are. Day: Night: These are really difficult shots, I know. But I still expected a little more from the Panasonic's...

Wait till you try to find a outdoor housing that works with the Theia lenses... I ended up using a crappy EMI flat front housing that is SUPPOSED to be for outdoors (yeah, right, NEMA 00, maybe), and a lot of silicone.... Even the EH2508 tube housing isn't wide enough.

Oops, sorry, realized you were talking about the 484 dome that you could see on the wall, not that it was the shot from that cam. Saw sunshield ears, that's why. You might be interested to try a shootout between the Iqeye and a Pano WV-NP502 (or the 504 dome) for a fairer comparison. BTW, as much as I love the analog 484, I'm not really as impressed with the new analog 502....