Fiona

REALLY SOUNDY THERE IS NO NEED TO SHOUT. Thanks for that AK357. The AR0331 is listed for surveillance: Optical Format 1/3-inch Active Array 2052x1536 Imaging Area 2048x1536 Okay then, so much higher resolution. I don't expect anyone to answer this but I'll put it up anyway: Q1: Are these sensors being manufactured by companies independent of Sony and Panasonic? Q2: Are companies like Avigilon, Axis, Arecont etc., using these independently manufactured sensors? Q3: Do the main megapixel camera manufacturers disclose the details of the sensors in their cameras? I tried to find the price for an Avigilon camera but I have hit the Aviligon Cloak of Silence.

More like 350 feet. I wish other countries had your 2nd Amendment: The Right to Bear Arms. I have a close friend who fled persecution in South America. She had most of her family thrown out of the back of a moving aircraft at 15,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean. People like Pinochet and his cronies were the enforcers of such policies and were trained at the School of the Americas in Georgia. I wonder if her family call her paranoid? Oh no, wait a minute, she doesn't have any family left so they can't.

Quote fro AsMag: "Shawn Aoki, Manager of Global Marketing Group, Security and AV Systems Business Unit, Panasonic System Networks: For the most part, network and analog cameras use the same sensors. " Sony rep claimed: Yoshikazu Hirano (a Sony Electronic GM) said. “This simultaneous processing and adjustment of both light and dark areas of the scene delivers improved WDR performance with enhanced scene visibility. New solutions can provide a nearly fourfold increase in sensitivity at normal shutter speeds, Hirano said." Full transcript: http://www.asmag.com/showpost/10965.aspx Some information suggests that 1/3" CCDs should provide no more than the 800 x 500 resolution mentioned.

Dan, don't know why it took you so long to get to CNB. It's referred to constantly on this forum. You might want to look at the problem of AMP modules. Do CNB PTZs use AMP modules and are these modules interchangeble within the range?

I guess you've never lived next to Failed State types. Ever experienced an attempted Home Invasion? Ever had Failed State Mongrels threaten to kill you? No. Probably not. For most of you, Security is either a source of income or a some kind of hobby. For some of us, it is a means of surviving in our homes. I had posted other still shots of violent encounters which Soundy removed. I had also asked him to remove a pornographic image demeaning to women. When he failed to do this, I started posting images demeaning to 'men'. The only difference in the two forms of image is that the males were breaking the law in public. What the porno deal is hardly matters. The fact is that Soundy didn't remove it. If you are such a hero with 'jokes' like this Soundy, why don't you pull that stunt within a State Institution. If you did this at a University or a Hospital or a Government facility, you would be finished in your career for the duration. But oh, no, just do it against this easy target. What a hero. Chris, you suggested that I 'locked the door but forgot to lock the window' so to speak. When I described other measures I have taken to prevent forced entry, you jumped to comments about living next to me. This is not a rational train of thought. N.B. It always amazes me to witness people who cannot get beyond their own subjectivity.

No. Narrow laminated glass jobs. The glass is about 7mm thick. Able to be struck by a hammer without caving in. Plus laminated glass behind the over-kill steel doors. Plus 10 foot tall enclosed steel side gate. Home invasions are just another reality of life. If we live in an aggressive society, then we need aggressive solutions. So the problem escalates...

Maybe it's not my place to say this but I would’ve thought that if your objective were to establish a CCTV business, then you’d be looking to install and familiarize yourself with exactly the type of DVRs and cameras that you’d hope to sell to the public. There is a well told story about optimistic CCTV businesses starting out with a bubble of enthusiasm over the wrong products and the wrong installation approach. To cut the long story short, the fledgling businesses gets overwhelmed with errors of judgement, callbacks and complaints based upon: (a) Installation of the wrong products & (b) Not straightening out the naive customer in the first place about pragmatic solutions. Then again, the general public will buy just about anything unscrupulous vendors offload. Commercial installations have far higher expectations.

I use a 5-Point door lock on a heavy steel security door. The door is made from 3/4 inch hollow rolled square tube that is 1.6mm thick. The 5-Point lock inserts pins all the way round the steel door frame. It cannot be jimmied or opened without using an SUV and a running start. At that point it would have to pull the bricks out. Nothing beats STEEL BARS.

Public Urination. Here's another one of Joe Citizen when he thinks nobody is watching. Distance about 120 feet shot with the speed dome. Got a nice close up of the number plate too. I am running out of light poles for these posters. What I need is a large wall to publicly display them.

Dan, didn't you look at that elaborate post on the subject of camera specifications. As a comparison, Super VHS only hits 420 lines. You continue to tout camera specifications as if they mean anything. Unravel and Undo the Unreal CCTV Camera Specifications by David Elberbaum http://www.cctvcad.com/Files/cctvfocus37_unravel.pdf The Secrets of Higher Sensitivity CCTV Cameras by Nikolai Uvarov http://www.bezopasnost.ru/upload/iblock ... s%2023.pdf

Just read "E1109 5.00pm to New York" on the Departures' board. Which Avigilon camera is this? One of these I'd guess: http://avigilon.com/products/cameras-video/ Spec sheet for Avigilon HD H.264 cameras: http://avigilon.com/products/datasheets/A4/HD-H264-IP-A4.pdf Youtube demonstration of 16 Megapixel Avigilon:

Dan, further to the problem of Auto Tracking... I don't think anyone would criticize the possibility of Auto Tracking if it could be established that a Robust solution could be easily integrated into a Pelco protocol unit. Like Soundy said, the manufacturers will say and do anything to unload their rubbish. The Auto Tracking may work under perfectly controlled conditions - no leaves; cats; rubbish; moths; headlight glare; rain on the dome etc. etc. For some of us, the possible contingencies just don't add up. Not to to a professional solution they don't. But I do not want to dissuade you. You may be able to find an answer that will identify and track people only: a solution that does not cost $500+ on top of all of the rest of the costs associated with speed domes. Many of us work on private projects and then discuss our research on the forum. One thing seems certain; there are no easy solutions or magic bullets.

I didn't anticipate the problem of GPS tracking would turn out to be this vast. On top of all of the points made by danboy53 is the ongoing cost and consumption of credits used to pay for GPS tracking. All of the issues raised by Dan appear to have dramatically different cost structures apart from the Data Logger - and of that, I am not yet certain.

Here's another one at about 250 feet with a moving camera. N.B. I am working now toward a better solution. This poster read: Information Wanted: Illegal Motorbikes in Public Park.

I've been asked (PMed) about which camera I used for these shots. Two years ago I tried to identify the 'best' PTZ on the market as a starting point. The idea, for me, was to start with the best concept and work backwards rather than start with a poor solution that had to be constantly replaced or upgraded. The best speed dome back then cost a fortune, so I set out to identify the camera inside that dome and then put together a speed dome based on that camera. The Achilles heel of this approach has always been the generic PTZ domes I used. I have since discovered one generic speed dome of a substantially higher performance which I was going to discuss on the forum but I have since come to the view that generic domes (for me at least) will never provide a permanent solution because of the problem of maintenance. This hasn't stopped the quest to find other generic cameras though. Below is yet another still shot of public urination onto a public road constantly used by children. This shot has not been digitally enhanced. Distance is about 90 feet from camera.

Here's a neighbour taking a slash against one of the lamp posts with posters attached. This public urination was an act of defiance against the posters and against local crime. So I took a shot of the jolly wobbler and stuck that on the light pole too.

A security sign that garners respect is a poster made with photos and captions about real neighbourhood crime. Stick the posters on a light pole and watch the reactions. I had a teenager flip-out in disbelief over a poster with an event taken at a distance. You could see the kid resolving in her mind the connection between the camera location and her very distant location. A lesson was learnt. Here is a still shot of an event at my house. The punk tried to break into an out building. I used this photo on a few posters with appropriate captions:

Doesn't the US still have that Clinton slam dunk known as Three Strikes and You're Out? With 3-Strikes, any offender was given a severe prosecution disproportional to the crime - such as life imprisonment. (Life sentences range from 8 years to life in different countries.) California has its Death Row. Texas actually has the Death Penalty. One problem with US Crime stems from the fact that One Percent of your population owns more than 50% of the wealth while about 20% of the population are penniless or in debt. No attempts are made in Western nations to stem the concentration of wealth and power. Another is that we are creating this one-dimensional society which implicitly claims that money is the sole measure of human worth. You Are What You Own. I dunno about the US having the same problem. If a citizen reports the same crime with names, photographs, registration numbers, dates, addresses etc., etc., in writing, phone calls and on-line tip-offs over three dozen times, I would expect the authorities to act. Then again, perhaps the corruption and debasement of society is all part of the greater plan.

The plain clothes officer was "alerted by CCTV operators to a nearby suspect." Caption should have read; CCTV Operator Mistakes Copper for Crim and operator directs wild goose chase. My theory is this: The Sharper/Smarter the Technology, the Stupider the Population Becomes.

Perhaps it hasn't happened yet in Great Britain. Maybe the UK is less corrupt. Dunno. I hope so. Don't forget this land was originally Populated By Criminals. Generations of interbreeding criminals must have corroded the national gene pool. That would explain the runaway crime and the corruption. Look at America. Settled not by crooks but by magnanimous Pilgrims.

The Gotek Sniper Tracker claims 40-50 days battery life. That would probably round down to a fortnight in the field. Retails for $439 US. Gotek is a US company located in MA. They claim each magnet can resist 27 kilos of lift. Must be the Neodymium magnets that I previously mentioned. http://gotek8.com/sniper-unit/

Tom, dunno if you're trying to be funny or whatever, but this web address leads to a pornographic prank. Pity it hadn't been the other way round with some bloke taking it up the ar$#

There seem to be two fundamentally different types of Tracker. I'm in no position to say, but I think a device exists which 'logs internally'. It would have to be removed from the vehicle to download the data, but I guess it wouldn't make that much difference when I think about it. If a tracker cannot be covertly wired to a brakelight cable etc, then it would have to be removed to be recharged every few days anyway. So maybe an internal logger might be the simplest solution. The second type of tracker does not log internally; it, as Soundy points out, sends a signal or message back to a network. A tracker with a Neodymium magnet + lithium battery + GSM etc could be attached to the underbody steel of a vehicle. I thought the Patriot Act circumvented a lot of that.

Thanks so much for that Tom. I've PM-ed you about why I'd need to remove it. I'll look into the Snooper product now... Ouch! Snooper battery life only 72 hours. I should have mentioned this is covert. There are quite a few trackers advertised; most of which look like hardwired jobs. A covert tracker would benefit from the longest battery life possible. I had an old Nokia phone that could go about eight days without the battery failing. Almost wish I could strap that to the undercarriage of a car... Nope, that'll never work. Better take another look at the Snooper again.

Thanks for your comments Tom. I was aware of a device that attaches to a vehicle which has to be removed from the vehicle to download information. It would be useful if the device you mention could be left on a vehicle (or a horse) for a few weeks or months to determine movement patterns. I am totally clueless about this area of surveillance. Does anyone know of a name of a device that is user friendly and basically just works?