voip-ninja

At VGA resolution you are using something like 1-5 megabits per second depending on frames per second sent. So even on a 100 megabit switched network you would have enough bandwidth for dozens of cameras. If you aggregated multiple cameras into 100 megabit PoE switches and then uplinked them to a gigabit core switch you could run even more.

The quality is not outstanding, but what they have been able to do, from a technical standpoint is quite impressive.

With the Vivotek in the same spot you could only see the edge of the garage (couldn't see the garage door at all) and you could only see 1/2 of the tree.

that's what the axis spec sheet says... given a 1/3" sensor that doesn't really agree with most lens calculators, at least not for the most commonly used horizontal fov. i think axis is over-stating things on their ad copy. I don't think so actually since I have the camera wide open (2.5mm) at exactly the same location that had a Vivotek with an 88 degree FOV previously and the FOV with the P33 is noticeably larger. In fact I was surprised at how large the field of view was with the P33 compared to my Vivotek, and also how much sharper the image was at the edges when wide open. With the Vivotek the image was noticeably fuzzy in the corners.

6mm P3364 actually is 105 at 2.5mm which is great if you need wide coverage like a property corner.

You almost never want 12mm unless you are mounting the camera a distance off and want a good shot of a doorway that is quite a ways away. For just about any residential type application you would want the 6mm lens.

I feel your pain, nothing worse than buying a new toy and having a long wait before you can play with it. However, seeing as it took 11 weeks for the car I ordered to show up (from Germany) and the Mac I just ordered won't even be built for another 3-4 weeks, I'd say that waiting a few weeks for a IP cam is pretty small potatoes!

after seeing a report on amazon its not hard to understand why products are late or slow ........ there is no such company as amazon uk. its only a web address they own. most goods from UK are shiped direct from outside of uk to avoid tax same with america 90 billion and little taxes You are probably right... the item shipped out of Germany via some kind of "DHL international post" operation. Nonetheless it was shocking to see a six week delivery time for any item, media mail or not. I order things via China all the time that arrive via air mail within 1-2 weeks and shipping is typically just a few dollars.

I can sympathize. I ordered a box set of Blu-rays from Amazon UK back in December (before Christmas) and they are expected to be delivered January 24th. Apparently delivery by steam trawler is still an option.

Lack of documentation notwithstanding, how are you liking the P33?

Looks like a user tutorial is as close as they get; http://www.axis.com/products/cam_companion_software/video/user_tutorial.htm

I think if you are looking at cameras which are that cheap you should at least go with something that people here have experience with, like the lower end Dahua 1 and 2MP bullet and mini-bullet cameras.

That looks a helluva lot better than anything I was ever able to get out of my Vivotek camera. " title="Applause" />

OK, maybe... assuming a tiny restaurant where things are slow enough that the staff can do this. Certainly not any restaurant I have ever been to... the servers are too busy busting their asses taking care of the 10-12 tables they are covering to sit there and check a CCTV feed, not to mention I would not want my employees to have access to it (learn where blind spots are, use it to check up on other employees and play tattle tale, etc). As a manager I also probably don't have time to do this. What's a more likely scenario is that a server reports that someone didn't pay for their meal, you pull up the recorded video to see the transgression happen and prove that someone didn't steal cash from the table, etc, and then you can report it to the police, and/or ban them from ever visiting your place again.

very bad idea....... this is not saving money its a risk.....and can be expensive to installer. using POS system and loading software onto it can and will have problems Thousands of business run Axis edge this way, so I think you are over-stating your case. Yes, a standalone or dedicated display for CCTV is superior to browsing to a video feed with the Point of Sale computer but that's what he's going to have to do with his budget. Maybe you should have a conf-call with his customer and make your case that they should spend more on the solution.

Do you really think that it matters for a restaurant to spend 10 minutes searching for a recording vs it being done in 10 seconds? I agree with what someone else said that they should have a live view monitor, but it did not sound like the OP had enough room for any additional hardware. The speed at which you can search and export video is extremely important and overlooked most of the time. Most of the time you don't know exactly what your looking for so looking for a simple event can take hours even with small 4 camera systems. Okay, so for his $2000 max budget, and assuming four cameras, propose something better than Axis with edge recording. This isn't one of the many who come trawling through here asking for amazing $50 cameras... he has a "real" budget that would be typical for a very small business.... even if it's on the low side. So propose something else that fits in his budget vs spending all the time shooting down other peoples ideas.

for a restautant yes it is important (very) if a table has not paid or staff not shure ........10 mins there gone Well now you are talking about live view, before you were talking about how long it takes to search recordings with Axis Companion vs a dedicated recorder. I agree with you that for a restaurant or retail shop, live view is best as it lets the employees keep an eye on things... on the other hand, in a busy restaurant there is normally no one with enough time to sit there looking at a DVR feed.

With the budget you have there just isn't much out there. The best you are going to do is getting something like a "ready to go" NVR + camera package from Costco, but you will be getting fairly low end cameras, and a low end DVR. Support if there are issues will be extremely limited. I was trying to point out to you that you can go with cameras that do edge recording to SD card storage and this eliminates the need for an NVR. You just run a companion app on that PC and you can live-view the cameras or view the recordings.... no NVR required.

hi..... sell customer a foscam ......and watch them get upset. if your not looking at a NVR now and you cant use a PC how are you going to give your customer a view of there cameras He previously said they would use a web browser or application running on one of the point of sale computers if they needed to look at video.

Axis M1014 they are about $240 a pop for 720P with audio... you put some $14 SD cards in and run Axis Companion. You can do a six camera installation for about $1500 including PoE. Or, I guess you can get Foscam.

Do you really think that it matters for a restaurant to spend 10 minutes searching for a recording vs it being done in 10 seconds? I agree with what someone else said that they should have a live view monitor, but it did not sound like the OP had enough room for any additional hardware.

I think Buell gave you some really good information and a great summary. There are a lot of Avigilon partners here and it is also supposed to be really good but you will have to have a PM conversation with them for pricing. I think that Axis might be a good fit for you, because in the case of Axis, you don't even need a DVR... the Axis cameras have an onboard DVR capability (Axis Companion) in certain models and can record the events to SD card and still be web accessible from a browser. It will even do time-line and events from a bunch of cameras in one browser view, all using no NVR, which is pretty neat. Cutting the NVR box/license out of the equation can easily lop $500-$1000 off of the hardware/license cost of your deployment and Axis cameras are very good quality and well supported. All you would need is a small PoE switch to power them that could be co-located with the other layer2/3 switches in the deployment.

I likely went with a different reseller than you, my first camera took about 7-9 days to show up, the 2nd one showed up in 2 days... both from the same seller.

The Dahua cameras don't have a sensitivity setting for determining the switch to IR mode?

This seems to be a 1MP camera. I was going for at least full HD (2MP) because I am going to cover such a wide area. I get your point on the built-in IR. I see the spider web issue on the ones I have now and it makes sense to use a separate IR illuminator. In that case I assume it is still desirable to have a true D/N camera with removable IR cut filter, correct? Yes, separate IR is definitely superior to integrated IR... however, I do have integrated IR on a couple of doorway cameras and it works well, I haven't had too many insect issues with those. Those are Samsung cameras. As to what's on the market that is 2MP and has good low light sensitivity, I will have to defer to others, I only have experience with Vivotek 1600X1200 cameras for 2MP and the low light performance was terrible.