fa chris

Axis generally has solid cameras, proprietary zip stream tech to lower bandwidth consumption, and the more advanced cameras can run a lot of cool analytics tools if you want to spend the cash. They also have some night time cameras that produce mind boggling good images. Hikvision, not so much. They're by far the cheaper option if you don't need any of the above though and probably what you'd want to lean towards for residential use or small businesses.

Do any of your cameras have relays on them by chance?

Altronix has a product finder where you can select everything you need: http://www.altronix.com/products/index.php# Click on Power Supply and fill in any relevant info.

Yea but you're also competing with the owners on site staff or preferred electrical's at that point. You're no longer an integrator, just a wire puller! No thanks. Not having to deal with warranty and repair problems is nice, but you're really opening yourself.

Avigilon isn't designed for 3-4 home camera systems... it's designed as a high end system for the bid spec market where you're dealing with big budgets, professional security consultants, and a large number of cameras. We've put them in prisons, government facilities, and stadiums with massive success because the VMS just... works. With that, they only partner up with serious integrator's who have dedicated technicians, engineers, and sales people who normally work with owners and GC's on huge jobs. It means the best possible installations for them, and customers walk away happy, not some fly by night install with upset customers who can't find the people who sold them the camera and didn't properly install it. So unless you want to contact someone who's used to working on hospitals, government facilities, and the new high rises going in downtown, and ask them to sell you 3 cameras for super cheap... yea, you're going to have problems acquiring one of their systems. It's just not the market they're interested in. Axis on the other hand, has always been a solid all around performer with cameras for just about any application and projects of any size. When you need explosion proof cameras to go on a space shuttle launch pad, they're the guys you hit up. On the same hand, if you need 500 cameras for a project and are using Genetec, Exacq, or Milestone (now milestone especially I guess...), it's also a good choice. Or if you only want 5 cameras and want to use on board recording... again, a good choice. Not all companies are in every market. People have a tough time accepting that the consumer market is the bottom rung most companies want to avoid. Also, Axis will change. It'll be combined with Milestone, R&D will get slashed, Cannon will do market studies and focus on the high volume cameras and cut back on the rest, they'll focus on making the cameras work with Milestone first and everyone else second... anyone who's ever worked for a large conglomerate knows how it works. This all takes time though, it'll be the same company tomorrow... but 5 years from now? Different people will be in place with different strategies to implement. Just look at the evolution of Casi after it was sold to GE Security, and finally sold to UTC to die.

Software house ( http://www.swhouse.com ) has a 4 door IP controller now called the iStar Edge. The head end software isn't cheap, but the entire system can be expanded into an enterprise system easily if ever need be. They also have a small SiteServer now for running the head end software. It blows ge/cassi out of the water in my opinion. Tyco owns Kantech and Software House, but I've never messed with any Kantech stuff. DSX ( http://www.dsxinc.com/ ) is another option. It's no more difficult than ge/cassi hardware wise, the software and programming takes some getting used too, but it's dirt cheap and rock solid. Worth checking out the prices or becoming a dealer for if looking for small systems and cheap. It's actually expandable into a pretty good sized system. All of the above use wiegand readers.

For 2 doors Honeywell or Bosch will be your best bet. You don't have to be a dealer, your supplier should carry at least one of them.

From what I've seen, for small businesses HR or the office manager will handle the access control stuff. This is a minor task, takes 5 minutes every time they get a new employee which is rare. For hospitals/office buildings/campuses with a few hundred or more readers the security department typically handles it, usually the manager or one of his direct subordinates (not the actual security guards). Generally if the administrator is whoever is managing the security guards. The few instances where I've seen dedicated access control administration are for large corporations where the entire nation is controlled out of one office, and for pharma's with a lot of money or companies which require a lot of high security, and those guys are also responsible for the entire access control and CCTV system, maintaining, upgrades, dealing with the integrator, consultants, etc. These guys, as ssmith pointed out, usually are hired away from integrator's who installed the original system. We've lost a lot of people this way...

A $100 game camera would do the job, it's an out of the box solution with no installation and it'd capture your guy, perfect for a temporary situation. I seriously doubt it's the UPS guy. They get paid very well, and with them it's not a local police matter it's the FBI who comes knocking since it's interstate commerce if they try to take anything, simply not worth the risk. You can also call UPS and voice your concerns, they'll have guys trailing him eager to catch him stealing if it truly is the case.

Where are you located? If it's within a few hundred miles of me I'll come check it out free of charge.

Honeywell front end by any chance? Nope, ccure.

Professional. Our security group needed help on the engineering portion of a $8 million dollar heavily integrated security system. I was brought in and spent a year learning/designing special systems portions of the project and along the way picked up quit a bit of CCTV knowledge. This was all right before IP really took off, so it was ~600 or so analog cameras, a lot of fiber equipment, and racks upon racks of N.I.C.E. Systems dvr's. So it all kind of just fell into my lap and I've been stuck with it ever since.

What type of readers? 2f or whatever GE's proprietary protocol is or weigand? Are they home run or terminated at a controller at the door? What are the controllers? You might be able to migrate to Facility Commander relatively easily, otherwise if you want to stick with UTC look into replacing it all with a Lenel system. If you want to switch companies completely then put in a software house ccure9000 system.

For residential I prefer discreet for aesthetic purposes. Unless every single one of my neighbors is alright with looking at some big ugly camera, I'm going to keep it to a minimum. Window signs can let people know they're under surveillance, and they'll be able to find the cameras when they look for them. For commercial, I like a good mix, some discreet to watch the obvious cameras.

It's the same way in the states. Elevator company usually owns the shaft and everything in it, need their permission to do any work there because they are liable for anything going wrong.