ssnapier

I was in L.A. all week! Just got back to Maryland last night. I have only dealt with one company out there, and you can find them at http://cctv-losangeles.com/ The website looks cheesy, but they do good work.

Ok, for starters that Mobotix vulnerability you posted was from 2006 and has LONG since been fixed. Secondly, there are VERY few cases where 30fps is acutally required. I run a majority of my camera between 8 and 15 fps and the video is excellent. I have had 12 different cases go to court and not one of them was thrown out for bad video. Unless you are doing something in a casino, bank vault, or someplace with VERY fast movement 30fps is just a waste of bandwidth. Yes it is true that a lot of the IP camera makers advertise 30 fps, but don't tell you that it cannot be accomplished at maximum resolution unless you read the fin print, but car makers and pretty much anyone with a marketing department will do the same thing with their brands so let's move one. HD-SDI has it's place but if you follow even basic information security procedures (strong passwords, use of NAT/ VPN, etc.) then you are no more vulnerable than anything else on the network.

You say 2+ users, but what is the total users that could be on this system at one time?

See if you can find a manual online and try to follow along with it?

That question is a bit too broad since there are many different models, but in general they perform as expected ad provide reliable results in nearly all cases. Did you do a search of the forum? That brand has been discussed a LOT, so there is plenty of stuff for you to read thru and form your own opinion.

Fair point, but my support contract paid for itself overnight. We had a switch take a power hit, and literally smoke out a telco closet. I had a Cisco rep on site and helping me swap out the unit for a new one in 90 minutes. Depending on the importance of the circuit, that might be worth it to your customer.

I have three of those in the field right now and they are great. The management is pretty easy to navigate and the switch is relatively quiet if that matters.

Yeah that looks like a decent camera to me. I am guessing that is going to be somewhere around the $100 price range based on those specs.

As for the equipment to use, there are plenty of $50-$75 cameras out there that will be more than adequate for your needs, but I would at least get 600TVL. I would not skimp too much on the DVR though. The super bargain DVR's tend to have issues with remote viewing. For an 8 channel unit I would be looking in the $450-$700 range (including the hard drive). I can recommend plenty of units to you, but it would help to know where you are located.

How many total cameras will be at each site and how many of them do you plan to view at any one time? If you have 17gb/month you should be fine if you are only viewing these cameras for a few minutes at a time. The problem as I see it is getting your DVR to talk to the Karma hotspot. Here is the way it should look:

As long as you are not buying in a bargain basement, pretty much everything in the analog market is going to be close to equal. The DVR is the only place where you want to be a bit picky. You want the software to make sense, and actually be written in English, some of these companies use a horrible broken English that is miserable to try and navigate. If you can find a place to get hands on a few of them, that would be the way to go. You might also contact some of your local dealers, or ever the manufacturers themselves to see if they have a live demo that might allow you to see what the menus and what not look like and how smooth they operate. That is a very subjective thing because we all operate a bit differently.

There is no way to get around the license fees. You can set each camera up to record to an SD card, and then flip flop them in the display as needed, or you can get something low cost like Blue Iris ($50 for the full version) but that may have a few limitations. If live viewing is your main concern, that is a pretty reasonable option.

Is it manually triggered or just recording based on switched power?

There is really only one company I use for secondary audio recording and that is Louroe. They are not the cheapest by any means, but they make stuff that works and works forever. (It is pronounced LOO-ROE) http://www.louroe.com/

2nd, they make great gear... it will treat you well.

I have the urive shotgun, and it is EXCELLENT! I bought mine used and it was missing the GPS antenna, but the cameras themselves are fantastic. It even sits in standby mode and turns into a standard DVR to record on motion when you are parked. It also has front and rear cameras to increase your odds of capturing evidence.

What do you mean by a 1" lens?

It does, just make sure you use a Class 10 card!

50 bux! Just mount it lower than normal in case it is a little kid. http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-Door-Doorbell-Viewer-Peehole-Camera-Video-DVR-Night-Vision-3X-Zoom-120-/111204784648

I think I would just buy a peephole camera and call it a day.

Cat5e is just fine for cameras, as for the switch, the Netgear SmartSwitch series is a great switch at a very reasonable price. As for dealing with a brick wall you have two options. You can surface mount a piece of conduit, or you can drill straight thru and feed it from the inside. The surface mount option can be painted to match pretty easily, or you can mount the camera slightly higher to use less conduit. As for where to mount the camera, I have a few out of the box ideas there too. Either use a webcam (with a USB extension cable) to give yourself an idea of what a persons face would look like at several different mounting heights. Also take into account things like street lights, porch lights, or anything else that will wash out or change the exposure of the shot. Try to keep all of those OUT of the scene if possible. You can do the same (or similar) with a camera phone too. Keep in mind, that the field of view on these cameras is going to be a LOT wider than the actual CCTV camera you choose. Just focus on the center of the image, and you will get a great idea of what is possible out of your new setup.

I use Netgear GS110TP a lot, and it is rock solid. You can find it for $175 or cheaper all day long, just shop around. (this link is not where I buy from, just a reference) http://www.netguardstore.com/GS110TP.asp?gclid=CPW_wabzvrsCFSHNOgodWBsA-g

Do you want fixed lenses (usually close to 4mm) or varifocal lenses? If you go with fixed lenses you can get awfully close to $1000 for that setup, but I just looked at my stuff and I can... well, let me stop... PM on the way.

I don't think that is an issue to be honest. Hardware wise it will be just fine, and since the screen on the laptop would not be running (the most likely part to fail) than this willbe just as durable as any other option and it gives full functionality if required. I am not talking about a bargain basement laptop, spend 7-800 bucks to get something decent and things will be just fine.