Owain

Mmmm, tasty.

Is there a setting for NTSC/PAL or other colour system? Some monitors will accept the 'wrong' system but not read the colour information.

The phone co should do, it's absolutely normal for CCTV, traffic controls, and other telemetry applications. However it will usually be subject to the full costs of the work, and not a standardised or subsidised price for a new residential connection. The British term is non served premises.

use an alarm output from the DVR to a relay If you use a set top box, and don't have SCART autoswitching, use a changeover relay to switch the TV's video input between the STB and the DVR. obviously this is easier using Composite Video as only 1 wire and screen to changeover. If you don't use a STB and have SCART autoswitching, use the relay to switch the SCART auto-switching line and set the TV up to auto-switch input Pin 8, the switch signal pin, carries a DC voltage from the source that indicates the type of video present. 0 V–2 V means no signal, or internal bypass 4.5 V–7 V (nominal 6 V) means a widescreen (16:9) signal 9.5 V–12 V (nominal 12 V) means a normal (4:3) signal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCART older TVs may support split-screen with TV on one half and SCART input on the other half.

You want a quad processor / multiplex with loop in/out. This will give you an output with a 4-way split screen. Don't just tee off the BNC camera lines as that won' terminate them properly and will degrade video quality. Somethng like a Robot MV85, quite cheap used on ebay.

Dedicated Micros is good, but if you get the current range *expensive*. Second-hand stuff is robust, but dated. I would query any PTZ cameras on a domestic install, unless you are going to be watching the cameras continuously then they will probably be pointing in the wrong direction when something happens.

volt drop - the IR is taking too much power and the camera signal is cutting out How are you powering the new camera?

Those are 'jelly crimps' for telephone wires. http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GPJC3R.html

Camera 550mA (max), Receiver 850mA (max) And they supply a 1A power adapter Sounds like power supply is overloaded or faulty and switching off on overload and then resetting.

You can, and it was done 'in analogue days' but you have to be able to match the video monitors to the line, with video in and video out connections and terminate the line correctly. If the monitors have a through/terminate switch you set all but the last one to through. If they don't you may have to remove the terminating resistor from the circuit board or consult the manufacturer. http://www.fmsystems-inc.com/index.cfm?tdc=dsp&page=publication_detail&pid=17

You want to count the money being handed over? $500 will buy you one camera. Maybe.

IP cameras with on-board recording. 5.8 GHz wireless 802.11a mesh. In the UK you can use Band C at 4W but require a site licence from Ofcom. In the USA you're limited to 1W.

Use a separate LED illuminator and bounce the IR light off the ceiling, that way baby won't be looking directly at the LEDs. You can get 'true' (non-visible) IR LEDs and cameras that work with them for covert use, but they're more expensive.

There may be analogue-video-over-mains adapters available but they'd probably be for professional use and Not Cheap. You could run video over coax and use local power supplies for each camera, use one of the coax cables for video and one for power, or use a video+power over coax product.

Powerline networking adapters transmit/receive ethernet data signals. They don't work with analogue video signals or any other type of data, regardless of whether it happens to be on a RJ45-style jack or not. The data signals on the Samsung DVR are 1 CVBS+ 2 CVBS- 3 AUDIO 4 GND 5 12V not compatible with ethernet You could probably extend the DVR 'network' port over Powerline if you wanted to.

For selected 'critical' cameras use cameras with on-board recording to SD card as backup. For resiliency though you need to consider how you will power cameras, that's usually more of an issue than a decent network going down. And the network is under your IT control; power isn't. UPS to a server room is easy, getting UPS power out to cameras beyond the reach of PoE isn't.

yes, but run two cables now. Cable is cheap. Ripping the building apart to put another one in later if you have a wire break, or decide later you want two cameras instead of one, or have voltage drop problems, is annoying.

Broadband speed is irrelevant as the video *should* be running across the local network only. For security it would be better if there were no connection to the internet.

DVR BNC out to SCART in. Resolution will be poor for quarter-screen multiplex and inadequate for eighth-screen multiplex. If your DVR has an Alarm Output then you can use this to switch a relay to apply voltage to the relevant pin on the TV SCART socket so the TV will auto-switch to that SCART input. (Whether it will depends on your TV). Actually turning the TV on from standby is less likely to happen. Most DVRs don't need a PC to set them up at all, they may have an input for a mouse or keyboard. You might be better with a UK based forum for SCART switching questions as I don't think it's used in the USA, from where most people here hail.

you can get converters from POE to 12V subject to not taking more than the permitted current from the POE supply. http://www.titanwirelessonline.com/Smart-Adapter-48V-to-12V-p/pe-ipaf4512-pan.htm

If you're using 10 or 100 Mbps Ethernet you're only using two out of the four pairs in the cable. You can try sending 2 x video on the spare pairs using baluns. Gbps Ethernet uses all four pairs.

You use a CCTV microphone with a built-in pre-amplifier to raise the mic-level audio to line level, which should be suitable for a RCA/phono line-level input on the DVR. You can run the audio down another pair of Cat5 using a balun similar to video, but that removes a pair which you could otherwise parallel up for power, so volt drop may be more of an issue. http://www.maplin.co.uk/miniature-bullet-cctv-powered-microphone-27695 http://www.cctv42.co.uk/content/118/microphone-for-cctv-systems.aspx

IMHO having PTZ is useless unless you have someone watching the monitor 24/7 to do the PTZing. Otherwise it will just be looking in the wrong direction when you need it. Save money and get one or more better quality fixed cameras to cover the area as required.

roadhawk has a GPS receiver and the software links with google maps so you can view the vehicle journey after the event on the map while watching the video. Also uses the GPS to calculate speed. Do you mean mobile CCTV for road / driver safety like Roadhawk, or mobile CCTV for passenger areas of buses/trains? There is a difference.

She may be a fantastic saleswoman and obtain 10 sales a day for you, 6 days a week. 270 sales a month, that's $43,200 you owe her at the end of the first month. However in that month say you can only do a maximum of 1 job per day. That's $43200 revenue in theory, which you hand straight over to her. You still owe your suppliers for the equipment, you still have your overheads and expenses to pay. In practice your clients are slow payers. At the end of the month only half have paid. So you hand your saleswoman all your revenue, and $21600 of your savings. You still owe your suppliers for the equipment, you still have your overheads and expenses to pay. The sales leads this saleswoman generates are only of value to your business if they generate a profit; they will only generate a profit if you can do the work profitably. How much additional work can you take on? How much time are you currently idle? Would it be better for your business to have this person in the office answering phones, making out invoices, or even unpacking equipment and making up cables, at basic wage, while you go out and do installations?