Numb-nuts

How long is the run to your PTZ and mic from the DVR?

All that last camera needs is a little camouflage painted on it and it's invisible. Why go to the trouble of hiding it in foliage and then diminishes your efforts. (great effort by the way) Is your purpose to catch people in the act or is it to prevent crime? If it's to prevent crime, it's better to be very overtly obvious, but if not then hide the camera by all means but go that step further and treat the camera to some camo paints. Nice job all in all..

Mothballs

I am pleased that your DHCP is not allocating that IP address to another device on the network as it is in the DHCP range of the router, however if it has been working fine ever since your particular router is ignoring it and not allocating it to another device or you'd have a conflict. I believe that there are a lot of routers that will create this conflict so you should really allocate an IP address with device identifier over 200 - 240 or whatever the upper limit of the DHCP range is and set it to static. You can also check that you have correctly set up the rules with suitable port forwarding (use TCP IP if you have the choice) and check that these correspond with the settings in the DVR.

Most of you will remember the outbreak of riots in the UK being reported in the news some time earlier this year. One particular area just outside London called Croydon was reported as having a family furniture store of some 140 years of being in Croydon having been set alight and burnt to the ground. The offender is just so lucky that nobody was killed by the blaze as there were a lot of people on the street that night. I think the sentence is not too long for such an offense. The Arsonist was on the street and started the fire by throwing his petrol bomb through the store's window. The essence of the riots, (jealousy) was supposedly the motive. Thanks to CCTV footage, the rioter arsonist that set the fire during the rioting, was caught and sentenced to 11 1/2 years in gaol (jail). Stories like this convince me that I work in a worthwhile industry and give the the pride to think that I am making a contribution ( small as it may be) to society. It spurs me on to want to constantly improve what I do to the best of my ability. Obviously police trawling through thousands of hours of CCTV footage lead to the evidence being put together, British Police (and US Police) are notoriously tenacious about things like this and thank heavens they are.

I can't tell who these guys are from Adam, but of course we are only seeing one frame. It's a good feeling that you were able to make a contribution to law, order and justice. Fortunately, most CCTV operators are happy to offer their footage to police and police can piece together a fuller picture of what crime took place and who was responsible by looking at load of different cameras in the area that crime took place.

I know that you are clever with your hands Luke, or I wouldn't suggest this. Cut up a plastic bottle and create a plastic hood for the dome, mount it on the outer housing with silicone. The bigger the bottle the better it will fit. Water on a dome lens is always a problem at some time, I always reccomend that the dome is cleaned with Polycarbonate cleaner or VERY mild soapy water and a microfiber cloth. After a rainstorm, clean the dome of all waterspots or they corrode into the dome and it's water damaged permanently.

I think considering the way it could look without any thought given to appearance, you have made a neat and tidy appearance to the finish. The extra money for the mounting plates is money well spent. I have found that some installations will need a bit of extra thought to make an acceptable finish. My only tiny criticism is that maybe the dome is too accessible for a vandal's hammer. Obviously I haven't seen the full picture so it's just an observation. I have a camera in a similar position at home and it's housed in a vandal resistant housing designed for prison applications. As is apparent, some people can't grasp the concept of making the installation look clean as well as work properly. In my opinion, sloppy looking installs suffer from more faults than neat and tidy ones. It's an indication of the installer's attitude, 'sloppy is as sloppy does'.

It's rare that I am surprised by what people get up to. Very often the first time a client wants to save some event onto CD they give me a call. There are some that follow my tuition but mostly they forget. I always advise that the most important thing is to estimate as closely as possible the time if known. The rest I can do for them over the phone. Surprisingly, these days many police officers know the principles and can get the material they need off a DVR.

Where are you living Andy, city and country will be enough no addresses here please.

It's kind of normal practice. I always set up an engineer account and ask the client to add full permissions when needed for fault finding purposes. Some guys just set up an account with full permissions without asking. It's usually done in the client's best interest.

Kick the guy to the kerb, he doesn't deserve your business and if something else goes wrong you will have to experience the same trauma again. Find someone who has a good attitude.

I am watching a program about Shoplifting and there was a shoplifter being wrestled bt security gurads, he bites them spits st them while they struggle with him. Suddenly his phone rings and he askes quite calmly "can I answer my phone please guys"? What planet is he on???????????

The PIR alerts will definitely reduce the number of false alarms and leave you in peace until you need alerting. You can even schedule the PIR alarm triggering to take effect only during the hours you are not in attendance. That will further improve the workability of your system.

Hope the claims are not full of hot air sorry no criticism meant, just couldn't resist the chance to make a joke, however corny it is!

I am sure there will be a market for used systems on both those auction sites. Of course, remove the $100 bills from them first (and send to me). Good luck shifting them hope you get a good price.

Vinyl is notoriously difficult to get a SOLID fix to especially with a heavy camera housing. This is just a guess but I would hold the bracket in place and drill the holes through to the plywood backing, to locate the holes. If you have access to the back insert captive nuts into the ply and use copper pipe spacers to bolt through. This gives a solid base on the surface without relying on spongy surface to bear the weight. You will need long bolts but you can buy a just a few at any hardware store.

That reminds me, I need spaghetti next time I visit the supermarket.

Sorry but the laptop doesn't have expansion slots, but I take your point. I suppose there are USB devices about. It's no longer an issue now, I am attending a CCTV networking course shortly. The DVR's will be Inspire blue + and the CMS is free and it has been confirmed by COP Security that any Inspire DVR can be added to the CMS ( Windows Only) and the DVR output combined into the one display (obviously). I understand this should also allow search and back-up to a remote computer hard drive or DVD RW. The output will have the "recorded" resolution and frame-rate as you would be copying the files recorded in the primary stream and not the secondary stream which are often lower than the primary stream's settings.

I have a client that wants 2 dvrs managed on his laptop and displayed on a 40inch TV The idea is to combine both DVRs output onto the one screen. What is the correct way to connect this any ideas? Personally I thought it would be easy but the 40" TV panels I have seen do not have VGA input and the laptop doesn't have composite output. I'm a bit stuck. I know the answer must be obvious but I can't work it out.

Here in the UK I thank providence that pepper spray, tasers, guns, and any type of weapon that can injure are not legal to carry own or use in defence. They are quite widely restricted and thank heavens for it, if I can get one so can the criminals and they are more likely to use these weapons against others. Better these weapons are not easily available. Yes criminals will get hold of guns tasers etc, but they stand a good chance of being stopped by police and gaoled (jailed) and the sentences are mandatory even without trying to use the weapon. This has the effect of stopping the majority of criminals and potential criminals from carrying weapons. Seriously determined crims will always get hold of weapons but a lot of the potential for crime is removed. If the price to pay for that is that I do not have access to weapons, I think thats a price worth paying.

Under section C, that is a principal of civil liberty and human rights. In the free world, everyone has a right to privacy in a place where you would reasonably expect to have privacy like in your own home, when changing in your bathroom or bedroom, on your own private land (back yard) or in a WC cubicle etc. If we didn't have this protection under law, we could never consider ourselves free to live out lives without looking over our shoulders or worrying if someone might be stalking us with a video camera. But like I said before id things are that bad, just move someplace you can relax and not have to put up with the worry. Lightening in my experience rarely strikes in the same place (or the same person) twice. Don't worry, be happy

He looks like a feisty little tough guy with attitude! lol

I love dogs, they are so much fun. I once had a load of socks go missing and eventually found them all in my dog's basket. This was shortly after we weaned him off sleeping in our bedroom and only in his own basket. When I looked at him after discovering about ten socks, he hung his head in shame and skulked off behind the sofa to hide. It was so funny...