Kawboy12R

That sucks. It'd be nice to know that they looked and at least checked to see if the cams got a good shot of what went down. As far as liability went, I was more worried about abuse of access to the video record by, say, jealous husbands asking security who visited their apartment or whatever. Giving access to just the police keeps them from being played or duped by people falsifying reasons to look at the "tapes". Same goes for giving the control ofwas access rights to the guys in the booth. If they are allowed to ONLY give access to the police, then they're less likely to play fast and loose with the footage for favours or whatever. The rules would be simple- cops only or you're fired.

I can see them refusing to give the video to YOU, but what I didn't see in your post was if they would refuse to give it to the police if the POLICE asked them. Not COMPELLED them, just showed up and asked them. It might just be that the management needs to deal with the police and only the police for liability reasons.

As I search my memory, all of the holes into the camera are pre-plugged with grommets. You can use the included cable with grommet if it is long enough to reach your switch or remove a grommet from the hole you wish to use in the camera and punch it with a circular punch (the included torx driver is what they recommend) to insert your own cable to which you then attach the connector. No need to destroy the factory cable to get a grommet.

Sometimes the grillwork protecting a fan causes turbulence and a very noticeable increase in noise. Snip out the grillwork and the noise drops. This isn't specific to your DVR, just a trick that quiet PC enthusiasts use to drop noise levels while still keeping airflow. I have heard of some people trying this with their DVRs with some success. Your mileage may vary, may void your warranty (ha!), don't get metal grindings in the works of the DVR, fan may bite your cat's nose after modification, et cetera et cetera.

There's always the old emergency standby- upload it to YouTube. They can convert and play just about anything. Hope you've got a good upload speed to do a 4.8 gig file though... On, and remember to set it to private or every Tom, Dick, and Harry will be watching your video.

There's no guarantee that the 50' cables use the same gauge and quality of wire/sheath as the 100', 200', 500' versions. They might be juuuust barely good enough to run low-power cams at the length they're made for. Double the length and add some signal loss because of the connector and there might be issues. Then again, there might not. There's certainly more chance for weather-related failure down the road in the middle if that joint is exposed to the elements.

Oh, and don't cut a different grommet with a knife to get the cable in. Use a circular punch of some kind. They recommend the included torx driver so that's what I used.

Mine came with an extra grommet. Nothing in your little pack of goodies?

http://www.etsnm.com/microphones.html

http://www.etsnm.com/microphones.html

www.ipvm.com

Easy peasy.

You're going to need to put up mirrors on the buildings across the street to catch face shots as they're running away. Maybe set up one camera INSIDE with a monitor at your mailbox running 24/7 showing everybody what's waiting to chomp on unwelcome visitors...

Well, I think a more accurate statement might be that Axis prices are readily available, and it's pretty easy to find genuine (new in box) Axis cameras that are heavily discounted. They are used in so many projects that there are always good deals to be had on eBay, etc, if you are patient. Also, I don't know that Avigilon offers something like Axis Companion that makes managing cameras and edge recordings pretty easy without having to buy a DVR or software package. What if a fellow doesn't necessarily want used or heavily discounted new cameras and contacts Avigilon repeatedly to purchase software and a few pieces of hardware to add to an existing system and gets ignored (not turned down, ignored) after the size of the order is known? There's no reason for Axis Camera Companion to not work in addition to Avigilon for use with the Axis cameras in the system. As far as I know though, Avigilon doesn't support Axis' edge storage at all. Or sound. Or have their own in-camera storage.

What happens when you swap cameras?

But Axis wants his money though. You have to pass a sniff test or something before Avigilon will take it. I'm sure the Avigilon problem varies by area but it is common for it to be unavailable even for homeowners with the desire and budget.

Do you have to be a dedicated CCTV business to source from ADI or do they allow businesses with a broader scope?

Those are very common problems when trying to use video-based motion detection in an outdoor setting. Nothing wrong with the camera, just the detection method. That camera supports PIR inputs so why not attach a PIR motion detector and set it to record only when the PIR fires off?

They're priced fairly reasonably, too. Shouldn't be a problem finding them well under $500.

I'm a bit torn. Might put cam 4 at the door between 1 and 4 and cam 1 on the garage looking out. Either that or cam 4 in place of cam 1 but closer to the door so it can catch more of the driveway than cam 1 currently can and cam 1 in a different spot that is currently blind.

What city are you operating out of?

Oh, if you really want a good face level shot without low domes, look at mounting the Axis P1214-E somewhere discreet. There's an indoor pinhole version (P1214) or the slightly larger weatherproof P1214-E. You'd have to get creative on how to hide them but they look quite flexible as far as mounting abilities. for some business-oriented options.

I can't speak to the pros (I'm just a DIYer) but in the majority of residential situations around here it is impossible to mount a camera out of reasonably easy reach. I'm 6' and even mounted on the soffit above a single storey front door I have no problem reaching a camera without help. IMHO, a camera loses much of its effectiveness for facial ID when mounted 15' or more up (out of range of someone with a broom). Heck, many cams have an effective ID range of 15' line of sight so why lose much of that just to mount it where it is slightly harder to adjust? Anybody with access to a basketball can adjust a bullet. Slightly higher mounting positions for bullets just keeps accidental adjustment to a minimum. Vandal domes, on the other hand, are almost impossible to adjust and easy to ignore down low where cams are most effective for facial ID. The major trouble with low cams is their vulnerability to spraypaint. You'll just have to trust the built-in anti-tampering alarm for notification and hope your coverage is good enough that you got a pic of the jerk who painted your camera. But face it- if they come with spraypaint to disable your cams then they'll most likely also have thought to wear a mask because they knew that there were cams and came prepared. Cameras aren't like having on-site security guards.

http://www.galaxycanada.com/store/ No personal experience with them directly but my favourite local electronics emporium uses them (among others).

Depends on other network traffic and who you talk to. The "best" way is cameras to switch to separate NIC in the computer dedicated to camera traffic only, then computer to router via the other NIC (probably the built-in port). The easier way that most home DIY installers use is cameras to switch to router and computer to router. That runs the camera traffic through your router though. Not a big deal for a camera or two but can bog down network traffic through the router with lots of megapixels going through it. That "easy" way works best for cameras->switch->NVR->router topology so network traffic only goes through the router for remote viewing. You'd probably be better off doing the cameras->switch->separate NIC in computer route. The NIC won't cost anything at all compared to the rest of your hardware and a rent-a-geek can handle installation and configuration if you're not comfortable with doing it.