MetzLyov

pengguna, my vote goes with wireless with seperate antennas... and it works!. You do not have to worry about anyone hacking the video or otherwise... just make sure that the antennas are placed in line of sight... Thomas and Data have offered the most cost effective options, but then you can not use them... I think installing the wireless may be more expensive than the options offered by both of our members, but it is probably the only choice you have.. Levon

jjman, can you please tell us what cameras are you using? If your cameras come with Varifocal Lens, then you do not need to move them at all, rather adjust the lens to cover the distance of your choice... DVR will give you better results on the playback picture quality and extended storage compared to your Quad/VCR combo... Levon

Calvis, what is your application or the intend of use? Rory did put a solid assessment. Here are few questions for you to consider: Do you care for a warranty of 3 years for a camera equipment? Do you care that cameras perform exactly what their specs call for? Do you want them to work right out of the box? Do you want a help when you need it at the time of the installation? How important is it for you to know that your warranty will be honored by the manufacturer without any questions? If you can answer the above questions with "yes" answer, then you are looking for a quality and dependable equipment and that is not cheap to come by... However, if one of your answers is "No", then you are looking for some cheapo equipment from some unknown brand and as Rory said, "You get for what you pay for"! Levon

Data, All your points are well taken... I can see that you want to make this mini-domes to work in a night condition, but it will never deliver the goods, regardless how you adjust it or to calibrate. Carefully read its specs and see how they describe the product - specially when they state "Extended sensitivity with NightSense". Extended Sensitivity? If this was a true day/night camera, they will state it, but read the words carefully... This camera was never intended for day/night application, rather in an invironment where the lighting conditions are not what is called "perfect". What Bosch really trying to do is emulate the Wide Dynamic Range camera feature and nothing more... They do not want to call it as such, rather a different marketing fluff... I have seen the screen shuts on what you posted and regardless what you do, you will not have a clean picture at night as this dome is a color with 540TVL resolution. Levon

Data, I am sorry man... this is done! I am a man of integrity and I never wish to cause anyone any harm intentionally or otherwise... Best of luck to you my friend and hope to see you in the CCTV Arena in the future! Levon Postachian

Our friend in Australia (I wish that I knew your real name), if I had known that you would take this matter this seriously and this close to your heart, I would not have made any comments and I very much apologize for it! You are correct, I am new in this forum and I jointed it October last year. I will never intend to have anyone leave this forum under any circumstance if my comments are so harsh or offends anyone... I am very sorry for calling things the way I see them. I have and always will call the spade a spade and that is my character and that is how I always have been in my entire career, and I know that I will not change no matter what! I never shown any bias to any specific manufacturer, rather shown every manufacturer's advantages and disadvantages and believe me, I had few to call me and telling me to cool off, but that will never happen. So, I have a proposal for you! Please do not leave this forum. I never judged anyone's position in this forum based on when they joined, but I guess seniority does matter. I was not sure when you started and never made a point to check. However your contributions are essential to the structure of this forum and expertise that is necessary to sustain and to grow. I firmly believe that you are a great value to this forum and my suggestion is for you to stay. Instead, I am leaving for good and I do not have to think twice about it. I do not ever want to put anyone in the spot, whether if such person is wrong or may be out of line nor want anyone to feel bad about anything they say or do. I know you, Herm, Rory, Data and many others are a great team and really keep this forum together. I just can not accept the fact that I have to second guess for any comments that I may have to make nor ever will! Again, very sorry for any inconvenience that I may have caused you. This is my last 519th post and I wish everyone the best life can offer, a good health and great business ventures... Levon Postachian

Data, I have wired my house with 16 cameras using nothing but CAT5E and baluns to transfer vide and then I use video modulators for all my 8 TVs and I can extract any video regardless where I am in my house... I can tell you that it works with spades and it was much more cost effective than using siamese cables or any other combination... Levon

Jonathan, see what they say. The best form of an approach is very polite but demanding voice. If they say that they can not help, ask to speak someone higher up... Since I am not familiar with what they sell, I can not make any comments. If they misrepresented their products, then you actually have a better recourse than you think... How did you buy this equipment? Was it on the credit card, debit card or a check? Levon

How many channels DVR and how much hard drive capacity? Levon

Data, call it what you will... I call it the way I see it... and by no means I mean any harm or disrespect, rather facts! Levon

Data, because it works As I suggested, calculate approximate siamese cable & BNC connector costs and compare to CAT5E cables and balun costs and if it makes sense (it normally does) then go with it... Levon

Rory, I concur, the special application cameras are and the domes are excellent, little on the pricey side, but they deliver the goods... Levon

Jonathan, we wish that you could have stressed your requirements with this forum members before your purchase. If anything, you could have gotten several great and more cost effective options that you may not be aware of. My suggestion is to contact them and stress your dissatisfaction and see what they can do. You should always give them the chance to fix the problem before taking any actions. If they do not comply and give you a run around, then take other measures.. Levon

CCTV_Australia, all due respect to your knowledge and expertise in the CCTV industry, my point for you was not to have you leave, rather take a constructive critisizm when its due... I will state it again that modesty is a very important key element that now you are part of Bosch! It does not matter how long you have been doing this nor how much you know about this industry or the products within, the main point is to share the information and make it available to others. If you feel that I have attacked you professional reputation, I appologize for that and that was not my intention. Rather, as a manufacturer rep, we want to look up to you for the guidence and the information that Bosch specs sheets do not provide and that is where the major value exists. Your posts are great and very valuable, all I have stressed was to keep "sales pitch" for Bosch equipment out of mix and that is all. I do not see other manufacturer reps leaving this forum when people make negative comments about them or their products and you should not either. However, you are a man of integrity and I can see that you do not take critisizm very well, which in my opinion is not a good professional trait... I do not want to see this forum being commercialized by manufacturers or their reps, otherwise it will loose its intentions of existence. We do not want members to be hesitent to make their opinions count, as in my case.. If this forum gets commercialized, I will be the first to leave and will never look back! I have had discussions with some of the members of this forum who are the manufacturers reps and some of them tried to slow me down (I guess they figured out who I am) and guess what, I told them to stay out of my business. With all the changes occuring everyday in this industry, you can always learn regardless on your professional expertise and if you stop learning, might as well pack your bags and leave the industry... I have been in this industry for over 26 years and I am still learning everyday and I am a man of integrity and able to take any critisizm that will teach or shape my knowledge. I will however retaliate on an unjust critisizm, but will not leave this forum because of it! Levon

Closest GE "factories" to me are on in Southern California and another in Oregon. Well, I call them factories, as they use them to assemble already built boards and cases... Mainly, these facilities are for warehouse locations and a plant to assemble the final product and this is something what most of them to anyway. Does GE make all their product ground up? I do not think so, however their final assembly and testing happens here in U.S.... As for their cameras (excluding the domes), they are substandard even now... The chipeset is from Sharp and the quality of the picture is below standard, therefore they are not doing well on their camera yet. I know this, they have a newer "manufacturer" of their cameras in China that started using Sony chipsets and I have seen some their latest and greatest stuff, but they still have a lot to do... Panasonic may have the worst reputation in customer service, delivery schedules and more importantly, the worst pricing, but GE still can get some lessons on Panasonic's cameras technology, the performance and the quality... I am sure GE will catch up and surpass everyone else at one point, but for now, their are far distant in this area... Levon

Casey, just run CAT5E for all your telephone, internet and for your security cameras. For the camera equipment, just run a single CAT5E per camera location. Since this cable comes with 4 pairs, you can use the first pair to provide your power for the camera (regardless if you are using 12VDC or 24VAC) and the second pair to transfer the video. Then you have another 2 pairs still available, just in case if something is wrong with one of the pairs (short, open)... Besides, it is a thiner cable so running it is much simpler and easier... AS for what is a video balun and without getting too technical, a balun is a small transformer which converts an audio, video, or VGA signal from unbalanced to balanced and vice versa. By doing so, baluns make the necessary impedance adjustments for A/V signal transmission between different wiring systems. With the correct hardware, you can easily extend CAT5E cable up to 1,500 direct run without any loss of the video signal quality. Here is another very interesting option for your to consider: Make sure all your surveillance camera, audio, video and all the cables are run in a centrilzed location in your property. This way, you will have a single location to connect, disconnect or add any equipment of your choice... Have you ever considered using video modulators to be able to view all your cameras in different TVs at different rooms? This gear is available for homeowners and this way, regardless which room you are, you can switch the predefined channel of your TV and see the pictures from all your cameras. Levon

Data, in one of the posts, I made it clear that NightSense cameras are not true day/night cameras. Specs are well written by Bosch, but what you confirmed is what I have stated... It is a good camera but should not be confused with true day/nights and should not be used as a day/night application... Just wandering which ones did you use? LTC 0485 series or LTC 0610 series? Even thought the LTC 0610 series is a better camera, but the price????? Levon

Casey, do you know who much siamese cables will you be using? Dependent on amount of cables being used, another option that most of the homeowners that we worked with run CAT5E cables and then using passive baluns and they work great... If you are running a lot of cable, I will suggest to do some cost comparison between siamese cable and BNC connectors cost vs. CAT5E cables with passive baluns costs... Dependent which one is lower, then I will suggest going with that route... All the homeowners that we worked with that is runing cables on a brand new construction of a property always used CAT5E cables and baluns and the overall costs were cheaper than running siamese cables... Just a thought... Levon

Rory, I concur... They offer a good gear, but is not "fix all" solution... Levon

HTAccess, there are no American made brands. The companies operating in U.S., regardless if they are based in U.S. or not, they all get their gear made in Far East under some contract... Here are some of them... (I will exclude Bosch, as our friend from Australia already posted it: 1. American Dynamics - http://www.americandynamics.net/home/default.aspx - they mostly bring everything from their factories in China and from Puerto Rico. 2. Panasonic - http://panasonic.com/business/security/home.asp - mainly from Japan and China 3. Sanyo - http://sanyo.com/industrial/security/products.cfm - mainly from Japan and China 4. GE Security - http://www.gesecurity.com/portal/site/GESecurity/menuitem.f76d98ccce4cabed5efa421766030730?selectedID=656&seriesyn=false&t=prod - they make the equipment all over the world. And others. They all make PAL equipment, some you can get in U.S. some you can not... Levon

Our friend in Australia, it is a good business to be very modest specially now when you work for Bosch directly. Instead of "sales pitching", I think you should just answer questions in a manner that does not interpret you selling Bosch. Do not get it wrong, but sometimes when I read your posts, it seems you trying too hard to defend Bosch and you should not.... Bosch product line has its advantages and disadvantages and it is this Forum that identifies such issues... I can lay down quite of few issues that I am sure will make you very mad regarding some the Bosch flops, but I do not. Even though you are representing Bosch, it will be a good business for you to jump in any topic on Bosch after everyone already made their statesment, instead of making your biased point of view. Think of this for the moment. If every manufacturer's rep becomes part of this forum, everyone of you will start defending their respective product lines regardless on what our opinions are because you have to... Heck, you job depends on it... Instead, I suggest for you to make some recommendations or some correction on the topic, rather than trying to turn it to a "sales pitch". I can tell you this - some of our members are from the majors - from Sanyo, from American Dynamics, from Panasonic and recently, from GE Security and I do not see anyone of them making any sales pitch effort. I talk to them sometimes and they like this forum, but it will be very difficult to identify who they are (for obvious reasons). Rather, they watch and jump in only when they want without any "promotion" of the brand or any form of "sales pitch"... As a manufacturer rep, modesty is very important! Levon

Digia has both VGA and BNC output ports... Here is the spec sheet: http://www.gesecurity.com/portal/beans/mdme_presentation/jsp/Download.jsp?ID=493&DID=5545 Levon

AMI, These Ganz cameras are good product and will provide excellent results and coupled with varifocal autoiris lens, you are getting a bargain... I have another approach to this situation: Color Mini-Domes that already contain the high res color camera, the varifocal autoris lens and the works.... Ganz does produce one of the most cost effective Mini-domes and within your budget... and delivers the goods.... As for battling with reflective surfaces, that requires a different solution and the pricing will be higher than your budgeted figure. What I will recommend is to use the Mini-domes in the areas that you can and then use few cameras with wide dynamic range technology (noted by Rory) that will cover the areas with light reflection (you do not have to worry about "stray reflection of mother natures heat lamp to fry a camera"). Levon

Anyone used this DVR before? http://sanyo.com/industrial/security/digital_video_recorders/index.cfm?productID=811 This is a 4 channel DVR. According to specs, it is a 30FPS Real Time recorder all the time! Ethernet inputs 3 picture quality settings (Standard, High and Super), RS-485 port, Resister Alley switch and is based on half chasis. This model is extremely popular in gaming industry due to its ease of operation and functionality... Any comments will be greatly appreciated... Levon

I belive American Dynamics (or ADT or Sensormatic) were not there either? Well, ISC is not what it use to be... I spoke with few of the majors and they feel that it is total waste of money and effort to attend this show... I take it that it was filled from manufacturers from Far East??? Levon