camera-newbie

So we received an Avigilon 5mp bullet a few weeks ago but installed it today after decommissioning our old 1MP Basler.. Below are a few sample images.. The day images are awesome.. I need to fool around with the night though -- I can't find a way to disable the IR on the camera yet since it's installed right next to an existing IR light so the night results in a way over exposed image as you can see.. I'll probably have to find the remote for the external IR so I can drop the power output on it in half give or take..

I believe the bright spot is the combination of my Rayled Vario I2 in combination with the Avigilon's built-in IR... I really need to find the remote for the Vario so I can detune it to see what the results are like.. If you've got a suggestion on a place to shove a full-sized image I'd be happy to try it out.

yeah.. yeah.. yeah.. I was very hasty to get it setup.. I'm not done yet and one of my kids said it was not level but I needed to do some other stuff and opted to leave it for now. I would have posted full-sized shots but was down-sizing to make the forum s/w happy with the 550k limit on file sizes. I did have the camera setup for auto-focus but found it too blurry for me so I hand adjusted it (via s/w) which was much better but will be tweaking it further. I did not try to adjust color/brightness or anything from the factory defaults. By the way.. Regardless of what you think of this image it is 1000% better than the old Basler!

I've got an existing 1MP older Basler I bought used about a year and a half ago and want to move up to something that has better resolution and whatnot. I was thinking about one of the new Avigilon 3mp bullets but if I can get sharper images from one of their box cameras (e.g. 3.0W-H3-B2) then I'd rather go that route. It needs to work well in low-light situations -- I do have one Vario I2 to illuminate the area and will be adding a 2nd one soon farther away from the camera.. So, with the comment about soft vs sharp from above, which Avigilon is sharper -- the 3MP box (the model called out above) or their new 3MP bullet?

It might be too late, but before you jump on the Axis P3364-VE's, you might also take a gander at the Avigilon HD dome's (such as this one) -- while I can't quote prices per other discussions mentioned elsewhere here in the forums, I believe for similar pricing you'll get better equipment with similar if not better features and in my opinion a very nicely designed software package -- yes, you will need to pay for the software on a per camera basis but the software is really good in my experience but does require windows -- and it does not need a powerful system to run like some packages need. I've been using the Avigilon stuff (encoder + software) for close to a year now and find the software is VERY stable and just doesn't use much of the CPU.. I love how easy it is to scan through hours of video footage really easily -- the other day I spent about an hour looking through 2+ months of captured footage looking at various things -- easy peasy! I also had it setup to trigger recording based on a PIR motion sensor -- super easy! Anyway, just throwing this out there -- no I do not work for Avigilon nor do I sell their stuff but am just a happy user and am currently looking into purchasing one or two of their new bullet cameras coming out later this month.

As is mentioned elsewhere here -- I'd avoid these and get a more mainstream brand.. I suspect you'll not be happy with that sort of camera -- of course everyone's expectations of cameras is going to be different but I think you'll find Swann is not a highly regarded company for cameras

I think you'll find that most installers reading here will advise against wireless if at all possible unless you're going to be using a REALLY slow frame rate and possibly a lower resolution to ensure you have sufficient bandwidth to transfer the frames. I'd stick with a wired setup if at all possible. Do a search here for "wireless IP camera" and I'm sure you'll get lots of material to read on why not to go that route. Here's one thread to ponder.. Here's another one..

bigger sensor means more light captured (in general) -- even with pools of visible light you may still need some IR to help even out the darker spots.. Consider using external IR as they can be remotely mounted and may not attract as many bugs as the built-in units sometimes do.. I use some of the Raytec Vario I2's and they work GREAT but are not cheap -- it boils down to that old adage -- you get what you pay for!

bigger sensor means more light captured (in general) -- even with pools of visible light you may still need some IR to help even out the darker spots.. Consider using external IR as they can be remotely mounted and may not attract as many bugs as the built-in units sometimes do.. I use some of the Raytec Vario I2's and they work GREAT but are not cheap -- it boils down to that old adage -- you get what you pay for!

Thanks guys.. I actually have another camera on the peak of the roof -- an older Basler IP camera that does in fact have a large sun shield and does point down quite a bit and the sun is no issue at all because of the aiming + sun shield. I think I've decided to just mount another camera elsewhere to capture similar FOV but from perhaps another side.. The particular dome in question is probably dirty at this point due to being rained on as it'll get the brunt of rain IF there is any sort of wind blowing at the same time so a little external dome cleaning is likely in order. If I get a chance I'll post a pic of what gets captured now -- just for your amusement..

So, I had a question that is more general in nature I suppose.. I've got an existing analog dome camera (CNB) that points more or less due west (or close to it). It works fine when the sun is high in the sky (and mornings) but quickly becomes virtually useless once the sun gets low in the sky and causes the captured image to be almost worthless due to excessive glare. Now, before you designers jump on my case with "I told you so", I'm sure some of you must have dome cameras that must look into the general direction of the setting sun -- how do you avoid nasty glare? Yes, I realize I could swap the camera out for a bullet camera with a large enough sun visor to prevent the issue but I like the inconspicuous look of the domes compared to the rather large bullet enclosures available (my only bullet enclosure mounts a super small Basler and is still the size of a Pelco enclosure -- e.g. BIG).. At this point I'm tempted to relocate this CNB camera to have a different task so that it does NOT look into the sun but would still like a replacement camera that can do a similar job without the glare issues and still be small to not be noticeable --- a conversation for a different thread.

I personally had to run some cables on two cameras -- obviously outside and I chose to install all of the cables in rigid EMT (metal) conduit.. It looks very professional and ensures that nobody will tamper with it without using a hammer, hacksaw, or similar..

To help you out, I specifically asked Avigilon tech support about a Mac client and this is the response I got late last night : I also asked separately about whether the ACC Mobile 'app' would be updated with new features for ACC5 and was told 'no' but that the gateway would be updated since it communicates with the updated server.

That's not to say that the upcoming ACC 5 release doesn't address this shortcoming -- it might but I've not looked into that yet.. it's on my pile of crap to do..

duplicate - please delete

Yeah, I've got media for that lying around somewhere.. Interestingly enough I was able to run the installer under WINE w/o issue but the resulting 'installed' client would not run unfortunately -- it didn't crash but it did not run either..

The iPhone/iPad viewer is called "ACC mobile".. I've not looked at the reviews to be honest but have used it when we were out of town over the AT&T 3G network and it worked fine.. I just find that the interface to select video footage for captured content is not the greatest .. It works just fine but you really need the time/date line like you get with the full client where captured video is showing and you can zoom in/out on the time/date bar to select individual events.. Right now the mobile version allows you to select a 15 minute window and it will check with the server to see if there's anything that happened for that timeslot -- unfortunately it doesn't have a way to list when events occurred -- you're left trying to find them on your own.. Using the full client on a PC it's 10000% better and works awesome IMHO!

Boy.. I guess I missed the good conversation here -- been away too long.. Hope I don't get anyone pissed for resurrecting this again.. I will admit that I've got an Avigilon installation and have had it running for quite some time now (since this past Mar/Apr).. Anyway, I've never had the software crash and it works REALLY well IMHO! I, as a residential user, did NOT find the pricing out of line..and firmly believe that you get what you pay for. I did buy not only the core license (as I recall) and the gateway which allows remote access via their ipad/iphone apps and they work great but could use some additional features -- specifically revolving around time selection when reviewing existing video footage remotely. I do find it a bit painful to control IF you're using something like VNC to remotely connect to the server running Avigilon and use the Avigilon client that way.. Unfortunately for me, I run a house full of Mac's and their client is only a PC app at this point and even using a hard wired ethernet drop selecting frames to watch at the bottom of the screen is laggy -- this is NOT an Avigilon issue as much as just a remote/VNC issue due to the amount of data being transferred over an ethernet link. If you're wondering, I've got one of the Avigilon 4 channel Analog encoders monitoring a pair of CNB analog cameras (one avigilon license there) and have external triggering setup for the encoder care of one remote PIR sensor (Optex HX40 wired to a wireless radio care of Inovonics) and also use a pair of Raytec Vario Infrared lights for night monitoring.. Overall I've been very happy with the system! Interestingly enough the server itself does not seem to consume much of the server's horse power -- very little really which is nice since it's doing other tasks as well..

Since I'm still working out the details of our upcoming (first) home security system, I had been looking at IP cameras that had strong IR features to lighten up our backyard (which is ~50 feet deep).. However, it dawned on me that I've got a chicken coop in the backyard that has it's own 12V small car battery that is recharged during the day by a small solar panel. I was thinking that the backyard camera could have an IP camera with IR capability (e.g. Vivotek IP8362) but leave the IR off to not give away it's location and instead have this remote mounted illuminator (which would be about 30 feet away from the camera) lighting up the back half of the yard.. So, that brings a few questions to mind : I'm assuming I'd need to match the IR wavelength on both the illuminator AND camera's IR system to have the camera pick things up that it is not illuminating -- correct? Unfortunately many of the illuminators do not indicate what exact wavelength they cover -- and this particular Vivotek does not indicate it either making matching them up more difficult.. I've yet to see any illuminators that indicate how much power they draw. I want to ensure they don't draw more power than the battery has or which can be recharged in a typical day -- perhaps I should couple it with some sort of low-power motion detector to trigger illumination. Am I barking up the right tree? I guess I could consider this IF it turns out that the camera's built-in lighting is insufficient.. By the way.. How much glowing is visible from one of these IR camera's at night? It is really obvious -- something that would catch someone's eye from 30+ feet away? Is the light omnidirectional or is it only really obvious if you're in direct line of sight of the camera?

Just a stupid question if you don't mind.. Since you're apparently talking about replacing analog cameras with more analog cameras, why bother if the old ones are doing their job OK? Now mind you, if you were moving from analog to IP cameras then that's a different story and camera replacement would be obvious.. However, if the old cameras are working fine then new cameras are not going to be a huge improvement (or possibly even a small improvement over the old equipment???) so it would seem to me to not be $$ well spent. I'm sure someone else will chime in on the wire types and whatnot.. If I were running new cable, you might also consider running CAT5 & Baluns which would somewhat future proof your new camera runs in the off chance you want to move to IP cameras. Anyway, just a few things to ponder..

Thanks all. I visited my local electrical supply place after visiting Home Depot -- which had more or less what I was looking for but was for a wide flat cable -- similar to old style UHF cable (rectangular).. So, over at Walters wholesale electric I was able to get a set of these guys : which is a Crouse-Hinds "Cord Grip" in 1/2" size (part#CG-50350) for use with 1/2" conduit. Luckily I was able to put the Raytec cord through easily and when this is tightened down the cable does not move so it ought to be water tight.. Unfortunately I've not had the time to do the install but now have all the pieces.. I did jury rig the light using a 12VDC 1A power supply and my cameras were happy -- albeit the images were blown out a bit since the raytec was on full-blast mode as the default.. I'll take some photos and post them once I'm done..

Hi all.. So I've got my Raytec Vario's sitting at the house ready to be installed.. I know what wires need to be used and now it's just down to doing the wiring & mounting.. However, the cable that powers the illuminators is about the size of an RG6 cable give or take (but has individual wires inside the sleeve obviously).. I could do wiring the easy way and just attach it to the eaves using wire holders with those small nails.. However, I want something that looks professional and not..umm.. hackish.. One thing I was thinking was that perhaps there's a single gang box cover that the cable from the Illuminator can pass through (perhaps with a rubber seal) and then it can be connected to power/tlm inside the box.. The box would then be cabled to have EMT or similar into the attic where it can be fed back to the offending power supply et-al. Another thought is finding a cover that has a multi-pin connector and having the IR cable plug-in.. Are either of these more or less what you professionals do for things like illuminators that don't have EMT/conduit holes directly in their boxes?

We've got a telescoping pole that we bought a number of years ago to pick avocado's from our yard -- it's adjustable height allows it to extend to something a bit over 25' -- we got the longest pole we could find since our tree is >75 years old and even with that long pole I'm still a good 15'-20' from reaching the top while standing on the ground!!

I'll also add that in some cases I would think, that if you can off-load that processing onto the camera to do the analysis (assuming the hardware/software supports it), it might leave a bit less processing to be done on the host machine where the NVR/DVR is running. This is my guess anyway..

Cool.. Now I just need to buy some.. I'm assuming these are more or less mail order only? I wonder if the local electrical supply house might carry these.. I might have to wait if I can't find any locally..