ssbtech

I'm usually pretty good at doing product research by myself, but I'm new to the world of CCTV systems and am looking for a couple of pointers. Been doing computer support for several years and now a few of my clients are starting to ask about cameras. What's a good resource for reasonable quality CCTV systems and components in Canada? Canadian availability is a must, I don't want to be poking around Amazon to see what items can and cannot be added to my shopping cart. Most of my installations will likely be using IP cameras with PoE just for simplicity. (I know, there's plenty of good analog cameras around, but IP seems to offer a greater deal of flexibility.) Mounting standards - are there any? What should I be looking at when choosing outdoor enclosures for cameras? Some of my clients are in industrial areas and I'd be surprised if the kids don't toss rocks at the cameras. Is there a "one size fits all" type standard (like VESA mounts for monitors/TVs) or is it highly dependant on the camera vendor/camera model? I think that's about it for now. Just need a reliable Canadian source for systems and accessories, the rest I can piece together as the need arises. Cheers

We have a Q-See NVR set up at the farm house. The outside camera is mounted in a covered porch area looking at the driveway. We've had to reduce the motion sensitivity as it was sending email alerts with all sorts of things - cloud shadows seemed to set it off. It's still sensing falling snow, but it somehow managed to miss someone dressed all in black walking across the snow covered driveway and up to the door right where the camera is mounted. The system sent a "motion alert" email an hour later with footsteps in the snow. I went to look at the recordings and there was nothing from the time that the visitor was there. Maybe what I'll do is increase the sensitivity and mask out the area where falling snow can be seen near the lamp post outside. Any other suggestions? I was hoping we could rely on the motion detection but I'm thinking it might be safer to set up 24/7 recording.

Hello all, First post here. I'm helping my parents set up a Q-See camera system. The difficulty here is that I'm about 3,000KM away from the system so I'm trying to do this remotely. Cameras are working and feeding video to the DVR Q-See software is up and running and we're using DynDNS as a DDNS service (The Q-See DNS has been set up, but neither the DVR nor router are updating the IP address for the "Myq-see.com" DDNS service. I've managed to get motion detection working OK and the system is emailing a snapshot of the captured motion. However it is also taking a snapshot from the other three cameras and emailing photos from cameras where no motion is detected. The user guide makes reference to this and I've ensured that under Device Config -> Detect each camera is only set to record its respective channel when motion is detected. For example, under the motion detection settings for "Channel 1" I've ensured that I've de-selected channels 2, 3 and 4 next to the "Record Channel" option. This should, in theory, only send emails with photos from the camera where motion is detected. However, it's sending multiple emails with snapshots from the various cameras. I'm also confused about the management and playback of recorded videos. I don't see any reference in the user manual to "record duration" on motion detection. Is this what the "Record Latch" refers to on the page for setting up motion detection in the PSS software? The system manuals all make reference to the on-screen setup as managed in person, not the PSS software so it's a little confusing. In searching for videos recorded, I select the "Activation Record" tab in the Playback window, choose a time and dateframe where I know there has been activity, select "Motion detect" as a "Type" and click "Search", yet I get a message saying "No record". I've been poking around this software for about an hour now and can't seem to make sense of how it manages files and videos, so any tips would be appreciated. Thanks!