hardwired

I think we've overlooked suggesting that someone should fix the pole electrical problem before someone leans against it in the rain, and it kills them?

I'd have to say the range-gated laser illuminated cams would be the way to go here. With that, you have the ability to look through fog, plus you get distance info with your image. I think their price is in the "if you gotta ask..." category, though.

Hey, on a side note, maybe you can answer something for me: I discovered (while on a site, and only after several different calls to Panasonic tech support, argh!) that the CW484 disables SDIII when you plug into the service jack - drove me nuts trying to set it up when I couldn't access the main output connector. This is apparently a design decision, I can't even begin to fathom why. Have they fixed this with the SD5s?? You're right, these Panasonics are definitely in the "you get what you pay for" category, but even then, there are still some little oddities to be aware of. Honestly, I hadn't even noticed that on the 484.. I'll check it when I get a chance. BTW, the 504 comes with a inner liner cover aroud the cam module, so it has a clear dome and you still can't tell where the cam is pointed, should be good for half a F-stop or so compared to the smoked. *edit* also, the 504 will recess into a single gang box for flush mounting. cglaser, take a look here, http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=17863&start=30 halfway down I have a couple of NP502 images. I'll post more soon.

The Panasonic has a bunch of image settings available, shutter speed included. The black and white setting menu also has a "Auto2" setting designed to detect IR light, and stay in B/W mode. It also auto back focuses each time it switches between color and B/W to correct IR focus shift. It is one of those "you get what you pay for" cameras, IMHO. BTW, I just got in a few of the new WV-CW504S domes, look REALLY good so far. I'll post images when the install is done and I've got some good night shots for Rory...

Went with the E7500 2.93GHz. It's pretty stout, for a little unit.....Got a couple of them baking in the sun on poles here in Central California... Summer gets a little toasty here.... Noticed a lot of you use Newegg, not sure how many of you know about www.biz.newegg.com for commercial accounts... Kinda handy, terms and all....Just looked, and we did 53K YTD with them...Don't think they screwed up a single order....Pretty good to deal with, overall. Did the stock Intel heatsink fit in that box? Did you install 2.5 drives? Yes, the stock low profile heatsink fits. I did glue on a passive chipset cooler, reviewers noted the chipset runs hot, cheap insurance considering where I put them. And yes, 2.5" drive, WD5000BEVT SATA. What NVR software where you using? These ones were Milestone, but future ones will probably be Exacq.

Went with the E7500 2.93GHz. It's pretty stout, for a little unit.....Got a couple of them baking in the sun on poles here in Central California... Summer gets a little toasty here.... Noticed a lot of you use Newegg, not sure how many of you know about www.biz.newegg.com for commercial accounts... Kinda handy, terms and all....Just looked, and we did 53K YTD with them...Don't think they screwed up a single order....Pretty good to deal with, overall. Did the stock Intel heatsink fit in that box? Did you install 2.5 drives? Yes, the stock low profile heatsink fits. I did glue on a passive chipset cooler, reviewers noted the chipset runs hot, cheap insurance considering where I put them. And yes, 2.5" drive, WD5000BEVT SATA.

Something like this http://www.mini-box.com/DCDC-USB would clean up the output to equipment a lot. They also make a 12VDC UPS board setup for keeping things running after the main battery runs down, but from the schematic, it doesn't have regulation / protection on the output.... BTW, a bridge does not cost much money, but will cost you a loss of about 1.2 volts.. sometimes you need those last few volts.

Search on Newegg came up with this one, among others... http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?psn=0001&pid=274

Went with the E7500 2.93GHz. It's pretty stout, for a little unit.....Got a couple of them baking in the sun on poles here in Central California... Summer gets a little toasty here.... Noticed a lot of you use Newegg, not sure how many of you know about www.biz.newegg.com for commercial accounts... Kinda handy, terms and all....Just looked, and we did 53K YTD with them...Don't think they screwed up a single order....Pretty good to deal with, overall.

i posted that earlier with another link, just in case you missed it l Just built two setups with that mini-box M350 enclosure and a Intel DQ45EK Dual Core board, 2GB ram, and the Mini-box PicoPSU-150-XT power supply, WD 500 gb drive... Work great....

A quad would be your best bet, half screen splitters usually needed genlock (whats that, I hear the new guys asking... better that you don't need to know anymore!) This one makes me nostalgic for an install I did years ago that used two Robot muxes.. One encoded for both the recorder, and split off through a single twisted pair link to get demuxed at the far end for viewing..Ahh, the good old days..NOT!

Just found this: Thinking it and a Mobotix cam might be a pretty good combo....Haven't found it selling anywhere yet, though.

It usually depends on the application. In installs in schools, etc., where there are existing (non-PoE) switches in many locations, and I am adding only a few cameras per switch, I use injectors (Phihong makes decent ones) In a ground-up install, I try to use managed, or at least "smart" switches with PoE, so I can implement VLAN's, and if needed, power cycle cams remotely (not that cams ever lock up, right?!? ) Another option is if you have a good managed non-PoE switch already in place, and want to add more than a few cams, is a PoE multiport midspan injector (Phihong, or PowerDsine) to add PoE capability. Phihong is announcing upcoming new models of PoE up to 95 watts per port, Gigabit compatible....you could run a lot of stuff on that!

You may want to check playback to see if you are really getting that frame rate through to the disc, I think with the way Exacq works, you may hit the disk write speed limit and/or Ethernet limit before you max out CPU load... The first time I tried Exacq, I did not think it was recording, from looking at the CPU load.. Until I looked at disk read/writes.

Milestone is my current "enterprise" level solution... But Exacq runs a close second, at a third to a quarter of the price.....

Take a look at the Pelco PMVC4/PMVR2 Multiviewer, they allow viewing of VGA/DVI (PMVC2) or analog (PMVC4) up to 30 VGA or 60 analog when daisychained. Also, take a look at products from RGB http://www.rgb.com/products/multiinputdisplays/ Really nice. Not cheap, though.

I get 24V over 500' on 18g wire. Are you sure you are testing under load at the far end? There has to be some degree of losses at that distance, but it will not show up unless under load. And sometimes, bumping up the voltage IS the solution... That's why Altronix and other make power supplies with 24 and 28 volt taps... I would NOT suggest 12 volt, your line losses will be twice as much as at 24 volt, as well as having more ground loop problems.

Acti makes a decoder, but again, it is brand-specific, and only one cam output. Your best bet is probably to run a small (mini-itx style) PC running client software. You can do some scripting to make sure the client auto runs on startup, and has the proper display configuration. Thewireguys and I both seem to be partial to Exacq, and you could run the client on a pretty small Linux box in that instance.

It all really depends on how much you want to spend for that peace of mind. The base systems I build have software RAID1 on two 80GB drives, and storage not RAID (JBOD) Up from there, you can go onboard (software) RAID5, with limitations on recovery options compared with a controller card. The upper line systems I built (48TB native capacity, RAID6) used Areca SAS controller cards, battery backed RAM, with three OS drives(RAID1, Hot spare online), and two 16 bay SAS connected enclosures with 1.5TB drives. That setup can expand up to 128 drives.... And it is definitely NOT slow. Also, as Survtech mentioned above, streaming video is not typically verified on write.. but good controller cards allow you to scrub data later.

You are on the right track, Non- PoE port to router, PoE port to camera, doesn't matter which one (when you get into big stuff, it can matter, this isn't one of those instances). You will want to assign the camera a fixed (static) IP address that matches your network configuration, but numbered outside of the DHCP (automatic) IP range set in router. I.E., if your router is set to assign IP addresses automatically above, say, 192.168.1.100, use a number below that (anything other than another PC or the Gateway IP, though.) All other camera settings should match your PC (if Windows, click start, run, type in "cmd" and then "ipconfig/all" to see what was assigned by your router)

By LOS, he means, is there a clear Line Of Sight between the buildings (perhaps from the roof of each) or are there obstructions (trees, hills, bigger buildings, etc) between them. There are NLOS (non-line of sight) options, but they tend to be a little more difficult. If the power is supplied from the house to shed, you also might to be able to use a powerline carrier device to transmit network data between them. This is all assuming you have a network ready DVR, and a PC at the viewing end. If not, you may be able to send analog monitor output wirelessly, but with no control of the DVR, and a much more degraded signal.

As I mentioned earlier, take a look at Ubiquiti products, the NanoStation M especially, it is perfect for your application, you can use a single PoE injector to power the transmitter and IP camera. As far as the heat, I'm in California's central valley, (summers above 110 degrees), and the stuff works fine. It is made for wireless internet service providers, and one of the biggest online forum contributors on Ubiquiti's site runs a WISP in Texas. For the camera side, Acti on the low side and Panasonic, Arecont, and Mobotix on the higher side have worked well for me. For a hybrid or NVR solution, take a look at Exacq.

Thanks, Im not impressed, I will search for another software. At first, I was a little startled by you not liking Exacq... But then I thought back to when I first tried Exacq, and my impression wasn't that good at first, either. Not sure why, maybe, it just seemed really...plain, I guess, and the playback was a little odd. It wasn't until after Milestone's round of price hikes a while back, I looked at it again, and really spent some time working with it, and really began to like it. Now, it's becoming neck and neck between Milestone and Exacq, for me. The ability to view multiple sites, and control settings on all through the GUI, isn't in Milestone until you get to a product level that is over FOUR times the cost per channel. And now that Milestone is asking for all end user information on every install with their product (I assume to avoid us reselling it wholesale, but it still makes me nervous giving all of my customer info to a vendor who could give my business to another integrator), It is pushing me even more towards Exacq. Maybe, just spend a little more time with it. Try out the digital PTZ control with a joystick, and the digital PTZ presets, and the ExacqRecall feature( the hospital I just installed it at love those features), and they liked the GUI and controls as much or more than the DVR's we've had in there for years.

I'd say Acti too (4201 for PoE), but put a decent varifocal on it....

If you download the server bundle, on setup it will install the server, client, and web server. As stated above, the recording is a service, you'll find it in services under "ExacqVision Server". There are no controls for the server, it is all through the client S/W, if they are on the same machine, they talk through local loopback, 127.0.0.1, port 22609 ( I had firewall S/W block it once, and it wouldn't work, even on the same machine.)....But I'm sure Rory wants to try it in Linux, right?