gthms

Indoor. in a cold room type environment used for processing meat. no windows or roof windows. Pressure washer. No arson event but a device overheating or causing a spark could cause the whole plant to be lost. (happened before) Camera is for observation/detection only. Target sze estimated at between 10 and 15% of vertical screen size. No facial detection or recognition is required. Standard wide angle lens 3.5mm 1/3" or equivalent should be fine. Both. Area will always have the same lighting conditions (lights on) Cant get away with that. It is almost a clean room environment, anything that would not normally be there will look out of place. It is a trade union issue. Basically it needs to be housed in something that wont look out of place in the work environment, which is basically a PIR, a smoke detector, or a horn speaker. We have looked at putting it into an emergency light fitting but the electrical maintenance personnel might find it. The main issue I have is finding a covert device that wont look out of place and has an IP65 rating. Metal box wont work as it will look out of place, and the product I put in will need to have the designated IP rating for the area or the client wont sign off the job. Sorry for not being more specific initially. Again, any help appreciated.

Hi, I have a requirement for a number of covert cameras which need to have an IP65 rating or better. Preferably 380 TVL or better, Smoke detector or PIR type would probably work best. Does anybody know of a product that would fit the bill. I know I could make one up but the site is prone to fire and for insurance and fire and safety reasons, the client requires a product that is rated for the environment, which oerates at about 8 degrees celsius and is power hosed daily. Any help greatly appreciated.

On the DVR

I am trying to connect to multiple DVR's remotely on one site using Control Centre software which I just bought. All Geo 1120, Ver 8.01. I can connect to the one with the default port numbers with no difficulty. However when I try to change the port numbers on the other machines the menus are grayed out in the network settings section, and it does not allow me to change the port numbers. I am logged on as administrator. I know I have probably missed something obvious. Any help appreciated

Probably a bit late now. I came across a similar problem a few years ago. Couldnt get 12v through on a cat5 that had already been cabled. I used a big 24V supply and then used a 24AC to 12DC transformer at the camera. Still working 4 years later. Not an ideal solution but its worth a try.

I have some modest experience with fibre, in the CCTV field mainly for audio, video, telemetry, contact closure, and ethernet. While there is a goodly ammount of information online, I would suggest that anyone seriously considering getting into fibre, get some training, accredited or otherwise. It is relatively straight-forward but the equipment cost associated with both the installation/commissioning and the specification of the end user equipment can be high. My experience is that we partnered with a specialist in running and specifing the fibre cables, and we concentrated on the termination side. On the termination side we worked closely with a couple of suppliers who were strong on product support - pre and post sale. Also we hired the splicing equipment for the early installations. All of our installers did accredited training before going near an installation. Expect any decent course to be a few days in duration. That IFS course looks good. Try to make sure that whoever does the training is going to include practical experience for participants with laser and mechanical splicers and with testing equipment and will have a range of typical installations on display for you to play with. All that said.. CCTV installations using fibre are in principal the same as using CAT5 transmission, you get a bunch of rack mounted kit that eventually presents as a BNC or ethernet in the case of IP, and you plug that into a DVR/Server. If you buy pre-made connectors your main work is in joining (splicing) the fibres on each end. From a CCTV perspective on distance, multimode fibre is similar in range to active CAT5 transmission, although there are significant differences in the security of the signal and in the life expectancy and capability of the cable itself, in my experience there are few clients outside of government, military, and law enforcement at present who will justify the additional cost. On the longer distances single mode fibre does not have a competitor, and it is here that fibre is a 'must have'.

Try powering the camera locally (temporarily), as this will resolve if it is a power issue or not. Sounds too long a run for 12V on one pair. If this is the longest run, and power is not the issue, you might consider trying an active receiver for the CAT5 at the DVR end. Failing that I would be loking at the camera for the problem.

If you have tested the point a to point b overground with another cable, then it is probably not a ground loop problem. I had a similar problem recently (coax was run close to a high voltage electricity line). We got horizontal lines on the picture. I used a high frequency interference blocker which solved the problem. Transmitter and receiver, transmitter needs 12V power. Cost about €100 from cop security in UK. Last resort would be to run a CAT5 instead of coax and put passive baluns on either end, they are generally good on all interference.

You should not have any interference with the video signal on that (or greater) distances. Just make sure the CAT5 is unshielded. If 1 CAT5 to each camera you can double up on the pairs for power with 1 pair for video. Also there are 16 channel passive receivers out there (rack mounted) if you wanted to save some space in the cabinet

I think Geovision have an IP server that will do the job. However if you have a static IP on your broadband connection you should be able to enable the webcam feature on the geovision card to view. Alternatively use dynamic DNS.

On that distance CAT5 with active each side should just about get there, although you are at the higher end of the tolerance. I havent found active working very well beyond 3 KM, you will get a signal beyond that but I find the picture quality drops off. Unshielded Cat5E external cable in a duct. Your alternative at the 3-4 KM and beyond distance is single mode fibre, you can bring video and telemetry and contact closure over the fibre. Multi-mode fibre has about the same range as active baluns, so I would go with single mode once I get to that distance. Watch the budget with the single mode, it could easily double your project cost. For power, if you dont have power at the camera end I would run mains on an SWA cable, you may want to bring an extra circuit for lighting. If you have power at the camera end you may want to look out for ground loop isolation issues. Although if you are using 12V DC you should be OK.

We have done something like this with a march networks unit using 535 TVL day night before. We found lighting the area with metal halide on a photocell to give the best results. Cameras, lights, comms and DVR's were backed up to a UPS (2 hours) with a generator backup. Also used an Adpro FastVU transmitter linked to a monitoring station to monitor cctv footage and inform key holder in the event of a power outage, in case power outage was not accidental.

Have you looked at the WAKU telescopic ladder, fits inside the van and can telescope as an A frame ladder or can be used as a straight ladder. Still it is not great above 20ft although we generally use a lift above 20ft more for health and safety than anything else. Never had to replace one yet and they are in use pretty much every day.

We have used a product sourced in the UK called kablemate. It is triangular plastic coated with rubber on the edges,and bars that are housed in the plastic sides when it is not used so it can be carried flat. Our installers love them and they save a lot of space. Also the plastic sides come preprinted with a warning sign, and the whole thing comes with a carry case. I think you can buy them online, do a search for kablemate uk.

A little more information on the nature of the footage you require, whether you wish to include till feeds with video, what type of searching or reporting, and whether you would be satisfied with motion based recording or not, and what level of archiving you are considering a month, a year etc. may alter the suggestions below. But for what its worth here goes... The archive of the recorded video footage is probably better recorded at each site, unless the fibre network is a private one and the leased lines are a very high bandwidth. If the fibre network is private then it is probably single mode fibre and you would need to know the number of fibres left over on your cable. The system for recording and archiving can be either embedded or PC based. PC based units can include more usability features but I find a little more likely to crash. Embedded units tend to be more secure from a network viewpoint. The choice of unit should be based on how closely they meet your requirements, and there are options both ways. If you have the bandwidth and the storage I would go for IP, but it will be costly. A lot of IP cameras can give you megapixel images which analogue cameras will not. If you are recording locally, then analogue cameras should be fine. Your recording solution will come with its own software. Specific software to integrate with POS for POS & DVR integrated reporting is available from some suppliers. An alternative to the above options is that you outsource the storage to an ASP who would archive video remotely which could be accessed online. I have only seen this option used with analogue cameras.