kao

The KT&C series of Vandal domes also support tri-axis internal cameras so you can mount them on a vertical surface and position the camera properly. However if you are in an area with frequent rain, snow, or sun facing into the camera, then you are going to have compromised visibility. Most manufacturers sell a bracket that you can mount to the wall and it provides a horizontal base so you can mount the camera the "right way" and many have inner hollow area for running cable.

This is a wood sided building, but we are checking to see if the mounting screws could be hitting something inside. KT&C Tech support said the video looks like it is definately getting voltage back into the camera. The EXE file is a self extracting little program that will install the proper codec and play the file.

We've installed a lot of KT&C cameras - mostly vandal domes and box cameras. They are decent cameras and we always order the 12/24 dual voltage cams so power has never been a problem for us. We have run in to a few problems...I'd have to say about a 2% failure rate (not sure if thats good or bad) and they have always been real good about replacing the cameras right away.

I've set one up with a Geovision system. No Keyboard. It's a nice camera for the price. Clairty and control response are good.

When doing the initial walk-thru, I note the distances of where each camera is supposed to focus. When the cameras arrive, I try to pre-focus them in the shop by pointing them at something at the same distance in the building or out the window. As far as the sensitivity goes, once you have your zoom locked down and are fine tuning the focus, screw the focus down so that its not quite tight, but takes some effort to move...this allows you to not overshoot the sweet spot for focusing. I have worked with lenses that offer resistance when focusing them - which is a nice feature, but their lens quality wasnt very good and now I pretty much just stick with fujinon.

One of the first thing I did was switch the camera port out with other cameras. No matter which port I plugged that camera in to, it looked over exposed and would blank out after a random amount of time...ranging from hours to days. Camera has clean power - checked it with a meter at the camera. There are only 4 cameras on this system and one is powered locally...the power supplies are the individually fused type and are made to run up to 9 cameras. I thought for sure it was going to be a cable problem. So I ran a separate cable across the floor and out the door to the camera. The cable is siamese. Also used a different power source. Same problem. The strange thing is, if I pointed the camera down at the ground, it seemed to be fine...as I tilted it up toward the corner of the road and some sky came into view, it got very over exposed again. At this point Im starting to think its a combination of things...further testing will be required.

Does he want to catch them or deter them? Without seeing the layout, this is my best guess as to how I would consider setting it up as a deterant. 1. Put a small dvr or the new geovision video server (2-port) in a weatherproof lockbox (inside wall mount or on the roof). 2. Install 2 vandal resistant dome cameras (wdr or ir depending on lighting) in two corners facing the "problem area". I'd also consider running the video and power cable in conduit. 3. Use a portable usb hard drive for the recording so your client can swap out the HD as needed to review video. Or use a usb wireless ethernet adaptor so your client can access the system with a wireless laptop and review video that way.

x-netstat from freshsoftware.com is also a nice way to watch what each connection is using for bandwidth. For instance, if I have x-netstat on a client machine and am connected to a 16 camera server via the web interface, I can see how much bandwidth each camera feed is using. I think they offer a 30-day free trial.

Look at Dynacolor. We have one 4-port unit in as a test unit. It seems stable and able. The web-based controls are fine. Doing anything from the DVR it self (built in buttons) is a bit clunky, but probably as good as you can get without an actual keyboard. We have not tested these in actual service, but the test unit seems to do well. Pricing is reasonable.

I don't have much experience with the eMap outside of GeoVision systems. I assume they are all similar in functionality. I haven't installed one with more than 10 cameras per layout. You can use multiple maps on one DVR (Geovision). It is a hierarchical design where you create top tiers (like a building or a campus) then create sub-tiers like floors in the building or buildings on the campus. I don’t know if there are any limitations as to how many tiers you can build. For 100+ cameras I would think you would want to make several “sectionsâ€

You need an image that can be used as the map. I usually use Fire Exit plans as most companies have them readily availabe. Or if they have it in digital format already, that works great too. You basically tell the Geo software where the image is. You then place camera icons on the image. No, it doesnt take up much space. The eMap function is nice eye candy but doesnt have much practical use for most places using it. The real value comes into play for certain situations...such as if a large bank or a school is being robbed or terrorized by gunmen, authorities can use the eMap to click on cameras and see what is going on...while keeping the map up in relation to the cameras. This is a great tactical tool. Second...what I think the eMap system was really designed for, is guards that are monitoring remote locations that they may not be familiar with in terms of layout and design. This way if a guard is watching a bank of Geo servers around the country, if he sees something suspicious or criminal taking place at a remote location, he can contact authorties local to the situation and describe what he sees in terms of the map...i.e. what floor the perps are on, what room, what building...etc.

Haha...about 22 days too late Dont forget to check out their installation instructions - http://www.google.com/tisp/install.html

I would recommend the Geovision Video Server. You can connect 1 or 2 analog cameras to it via coax and a USB hard drive. It is accessable via IP if you want to connect it to a network. I dont know for certain, but I think it saves the video files in AVI format (like a full blown Geovision PC system) to the USB hard drive. If you load the codec on your local pc, you should be able to just use windows media player to review the files.

Ok... when I was out at ISC West in LV, I noticed that EVERY taxi cab I got into had a camera mounted to the rear-view mirror. Most of them looked self-contained for recording and the only cable I saw looked to be for power. I have a couple of cabbies looking this kind of setup, but dont want a full function dvr installed...just a picture taker. Preferably to memory card. Can anyone point me to a brand or dealer or model number or anything for these types of cameras? Plz post or PM me.

Awesome man...good job Gotta love it when our systems do their job.

Setup: IP camera recording software running on a PC. Several IP cameras on LAN, WAN and Internet. The problem: If one (or any number) of the IP cameras loses power and/or network connectivity for a period of time greater than ~2 minutes, the recording software does not "re-connect" with the camera(s). In order to get the camera connected back to the recording software, I have to restart the software (or that particular camera in the software). I have noticed this with several different IP camera softwares. I wont mention the names here because there are newer versions available and I have not tested this problem with them. Has anyone else encountered this? Particularly with latest version software. More to the point - can anyone recommend an IP recording software that does not exhibit this problem?

Some of the software I used was "big names". But some of these are 1 or 2 versions old. I just dont have the time right now to test the latest versions of these software. It just seems to me that when designing an IP camera recording software, one of the most important functions should be to re-connect to a camera once the connection has been lost and restored - without user intervention. With the internet what it is...and networks what they are, it is almost inevitable that a connection between camera and recorder will happen. You can take steps to reduce the likelyhood of such events - batt. backup of cameras and network switches, routers, etc... but if you have a very large network or go across the internet - you are bound to have a dissconection.

v8.2 (supposed to be out sometime this quarter) supports Axis and Sony Ipela cameras. Im not sure if there will be any other brands supported in 8.2.

Hotel and flight booked. See you guys there.

Hey guys, Just installed this outdoor camera. It's a KT&C Day/Night 480 res. Sometimes the camera comes in clear...other times it comes in like the video here: http://users.northlc.com/gilroy/Event20061204193237012.avi May have to right click and choose save as. The file is about 3.75mb The camera tests fine when we bring it in and hook it up local. Im thinking maybe in the cable or connectors. Cable run is between 100 and 150'. Thanks for any insight.

Update on this. We ended up replacing the camera with a non day/night model since there is adaquate night lighting. We have the camera in the shop, but I havent had a chance to test it. One of the video cables was pinched by one of the mounting screws. I dont think this was the problem tho cuz the camera was working fine in the daylight. I think it was either a bad day/night sensor or an iris problem. I'll post back once I get a chance to test the camera. But in short it seems the camera was the problem (in night mode).

A while back someone here posted a link to a cctv camera with an HD built in. I cant find the link or any similar camera. Anyone here have a link to that thread or a link to such a camera? Thanks!

I've used mapped network drives as temporary solutions. 16 cameras with moderate motion and 100mbps seemed to keep up just fine. Per a customer request, we built a windows xp machine and filled it with 250GB hard drives (2TB total). Connected it to a 100mbps switch and and have half the drives to one Geovision box and the rest of the hard drives to another Geovision box. Both the Geovision boxes were connected to the same switch. This system has been running for 3 years with one hard drive failure in that time. Not the way I'd recommend doing things, but it was all we had at the time and its still going.

A guy walks in and says at the moment he is running a camera in a waterproof enclosure to video shipwrecks in Lake Superior. His current setup - He runs 120v power from the boat down to the waterproof enclosure and has a 12v DC transformer in the enclosure to power the camera. Video is sent back via 1000ft coax cable. They basically drag the camera slowly under the boat. This system works fine, except he would like higher resolution - like that of a MegaPixel IP camera. The problem is I dont think you can run an IP camera signal back to the boat over a 1000ft of cat5 without putting some kind of booster or repeater inline. (Plz correct me if Im wrong). Fiber may be an option, but that might get a bit out of his budget...and Im not sure how fiber would hold up waving around in the water all the time. I'm pretty sure you can run ethernet over rg59 (I know we used to run it over rg58 in ThinNet networks) and rg59 *I think* has a limit of about 1500ft. Anyone know of any converters to go from cat5 to rg59 and back again? Edit - also looking for suggestions on a good MPixel camera. I was looking at the Arecont line. The only IP cameras I have used are lower end (gadspot, Hunt, and D-Link).

Thanks for the info...I'll check it out.