360fish

Thank you Moderators for the merge Any recommendations on camera selection or setup tips for night clubs? I have a 20,000 sq foot club with 10-30' ceilings, very dark and very uneven lighting. Client wants to see bill denominations at points of sale, and be able to clearly identify people's faces in pretty much any corner of the club, on the main floor, in a semi-private VIP booth, etc. Also implementing facial tagging and recognition at the entrance (where lighting is controlled and I can predict where people will be) and possibly other locations TBD. I haven't found much info about configuring IR banks to provide supplemental IR light, and I'm unsure how the club lighting (disco balls, multicolored spots, dramatic under-bar warm lights (2600k-ish), etc.) will interact with the IR or what I can do about it if it does create impossibly wide dynamic ranges. Maybe a physical IR Pass filter ... I am working with a March 15 deadline so any advice is doubly appreciated. I love to RTFM so links to documentation or resources specific to these kind of challenges are awesome. Using 3VR (http://www.3vr.com) and Envysion (http://www.envysion.com) DVRs. Using 3VR for facial recognition and other advanced surveillance tasks and Envysion for POS integrated needs (using Aloha POS).

@soundy I hadn't thought of using two cameras for the facial recognition I am not sure how to configure that in 3VR but so far their tech support has been great so I'll hit them up. I'm looking into barwatch now. since my client has 11 clubs and bars in the area I bet they'd love a private version of that. I think I should document this process for the forum, already I'm getting a lot of PMs about the 3VR boxes. I'll set up a separate thread when I have a minute. I welcome any more comments I am really interested in camera selection, location, and supplemental lighting tips. - thanks all -

I have only put the 3VR in the lab, it's going into production in the next 10 days. So far in the lab environment the analytics setup has been easy to get into and hard to get right. That is to say, getting facial recognition or direction of motion events to work is not so hard, and the overall UI, both for configuration and for end-users, is pretty great. But getting real world business needs addressed is going to require a lot of tweaking, trial and error, and close work with the management. I suppose that's not too different from any implementation scenario, but it's ... daunting. I don't have people counting or crowd flow analysis licensed yet but looking forward to it. I have gotten 3VR together with Aloha (POS software) and they're working out aloha integration using the Aloha Spy SDK (free with a signed NDA and pretty damn useful). THAT will be a game changer if they do it right and I can then integrate customer loyalty programs with 3VR video data. Until then Envysion has great Aloha integration. Both have excellent customer support, I'm very happy with both companies. Except neither has a mobile solution. Envysion's is in beta, 3VRs is promised in 2012.

I have an order in for Axis p1346 & p3367, vivotek fd8162 and fd8362 and a sony snc ch220. I found a vendor that allows me to RMA with no restock fee so I can try them out and send back what doesn't work well. Any other recommendations? I've seen in the low light posts people recommending finding dedicated B&W cameras, which makes sense, but they're hard to find nowadays...

FYI - If you're using this for surveillance, and you don't say you are, maybe it's just for video conferencing?, and you're in the US, it may be illegal without active consent from all parties who may be recorded. Active meaning just posting a sign saying the area is using audio surveillance is definitely not enough, you need something more like a signed consent form. The laws vary by state. In California, audio surveillance anywhere someone could have a reasonable expectation of privacy, e.g. any space with a door that closes, offices, conference rooms, etc., falls under wiretapping regulations. You face the same penalties as someone illegally tapping a phone. I recently had to research the case law, so it's fresh in my head...

I'm a PC tech with ... too much experience. I'm old. Mostly in web development, programming, and PC deployment and support. I ran help desks, things like that. Currently clients are asking for surveillance assistance so I'm going through what turns out to be a long, dark, and rather rabbit-hole-y experience of trying to learn all about the CCTV world without actually, you know, getting trained. Or working closely with an integrator. Because that would be too sensible. As of early February 2012 I've finally gotten a handle on some of the subtleties of the DVR side, but am still striving to get a handle on the camera side. Switches and Routers and NAS and secure remote access will be a breeze for me, comparatively. I have a HUGE project due March 15th so you may see a lot of me in the coming weeks