cctvman

Thanks for the reply, the cable isn't so much what concerns me,. its the labour of installing the cable. How do you do that? Is their a systematic process you go through? CCTVMAN

What is the general height of cameras you install outdoors? I figure a 6 foot person (tall kid) with a 2.5' reach, than can jump another 2 feet should be secure at about 11' to be safe at minimum from random acts of Michael Jordan hanging from the bracket vandalism. Is this just way too low? I hate when clients say they want a bracket moved. Cause i gotta unscrew the bracket drill a new access hole possibly, re-run some of the cable, possibly put on new connections, and I dont like having to say to them that they're will be an added cost cause i start looking like a cheap skate. I purchase a viewfinder which i show customers. but i have also been looking at that CCTV VIDEO CAD software about the 3d positioning views. Any thoughts on that? It looks like it could be useful in terms of securing a final location and precluding customer indecision. I guess the reason I feel guilty about charging them as well is because I, myself sometimes kinda agree that it should be moved. Its just difficult for any person, whether installer or not to tell how its gonna look. CCTVMAN

I start from a variety of positions depending on the cabling technique that will be used to secure the cable in place. Sometime i start in the middle of a run even. I realize it must sound a little strange but I find that for instance if part of the cable run is fishing it above I-Beams then i will position the spool of cable before the I-Beams and start to fish the cable over in one direction over the I-Beams in the direction of the final camera installation. Once done that, if the other side of the cable run towards the DVR requires the cable to be tie wrapped along an I-Beam which because it isn't being run perpendicular to a number of I-Beams doesn't offer the option of fishing. So I then walk out the cable to the end of the I-Beam and hope on the ladder and start to tie wrap it to the top of the I-Beam. I find this avoids the accumulated friction of pulling the entire cable length, and with twists and turns it avoids many of the corners that force you to gather cable slack around the corner so that you can pull the next length of cable. (Some people install cable pulleys to avoid this friction) but the enevitable forces you to eventually return to this location in order to get the pulley back, unless your going to leave it there which would defeat the economical gains) This makes having 2 people pulling the same cable less necessary and it also increases productivity if you have 2 people installing because they can each focus on seperate tasks. I also generally find that all things being equal I prefer to pull relatively speaking from the camera side. I find that the most common paths that cable legths share are generally closer to the DVR side, which makes sense because all cameras are terminated there. I have found that the alternative, pulling from the dvr side to the camera side can cause the common paths to become twisted and then difficult to branch in various directions, (accumulated friction) that results from the cables dragging on each other. Pulling from the camera side minimizes this I find. CCTVMAN

This seems like an effective solution for minimizing or atleast being able to accomodate clients that change their mind about camera positioning, but doesn't this throw off your estimated installation time? How do you estimate for the cable installation? This seems like the most variable entity and I find it difficult to be accurate while also maintaining a competitive price. CCTVMAN

Hi J, Where did you get these stats? Would your company be a close to this average? CCTVMAN

Is the premade cable you are using actually rg59 as the video cable? Where I am from I am accumstomed to it being an RCA type cable. CCTVMAN

Yes, Im refering to the RCA premade cables. I just wanted to check with you, from your experieince these cant be considered weatherproof or used outside correct? CCTVMAN Huge difference in cost down here. I can buy premade locally retail for $25 for 150' Video/power cable. This is not RG59 though, it is simply RCA type. Comes with RCA-BNC Adapters. I buy 250' RG59/18AWG Siamese for $186 .. then add the connectors at $2.50 each. Simply the difference is in the quality of the video, if using low quality cameras (cheap budget cameras for example) there is not a noticable difference, but if you are using high quality cameras, best to always use high quality cable, such as RG59.

This may sound like an even stupider question, but you're and installer? and you pay retail? You dont get any wholesale pricing? If you compare it this way yes, i suppose their comparable. But I don'y pay retail, do you? do most installers? CCTVMAN Its not that much more economical if you think about it, I guess it depends on what your charging. My retail price of premade 50' Cables: $25 Retail Price of non-premade is: 50' Cable @ $0.40/ft: $20 Twist On BNC $1.50/each: $3.00 2.1mm Pigtail: $3.00 Total: $26.00

I've never really understood the importance of an individually fused power supply. I can appreciate the esthetics of the case and its tamper resistance when locked but why not just put all the cameras onto one power supply and let them share the current? Is it because there is a single point of failure that would cause the entire system to go down? The current would vary as different cameras draw different amounts from the PS? The fuse protecting the individual cameras themselves? Thanks cctvman 2-Centralised - such as Altronix, Pthree, etc, basically an Individually fused Multiple Channel Power Supply. The Voltage type will depend on which cameras you use, 12VDC is more common with DIY gear, while 24VAC is typically used amongst the pros .. depends though on the camera once again.

Doesnt this get difficult depending on where the camera is going to be positioned? I can understand if its low and they just gotta hop up a couple rungs on the ladder, but are customers really willing to do this if they gotta go up 15 feet or more? how do you get around this?

Hi all, This is my first post on here. I am security installer in Toronto, Canada. I have seen a few cctv installs locally that make use of wallmount PC Based DVRs. I was just wondering if I could get some feedback on how many of you out there use it and if not why? It seems like a good idea to me, keeps things out of the way, doesnt consume desktop space and because its wallmounted i would be inclined to think that someone messing around with it when their not supposed to be would be more noticable as opposed to it being on the ground or on the desk with all the other computers in the room. Any comments are appreciated. Thanks