CCTV_Suppliers

Has anyone used the software available from Genetec? Here is the url: http://www.genetec.com/English/Pages/Default.aspx Any pros, cons or any info will be greatly appreciated. Thanks,

Yup... I remember $1,000 vicon piece of crap... but people were paying...

Not much you can do... You mentioned that you sent it in for repair and it crapped out withing a week... Looks like you have a good reason to call them back and give them piece of your mind... heck, I will do it for you if your want The touchtracker you are referring to is not field repairable nor I will ask you to do anything with it except with air duster, try to clean the exterior and whatever else it reaches out... there are micro contact switches internally, including for the joystick that fail often... The only fix is to replace them all internally and not one that may have failed... if one of them fail, the rest will fail shortly... If it is under warranty, you can ask them to advance replace this unit... and dependent who you purchased it from, that company should get involved... If it is not under warranty, can I call them on your behalf? I'd like to have some fun with their repairs department (The National Repairs Center).. All you have to do is to call them and tell them what they have done (or better not done) and demand a replacement to be sent overnight... and if not, take it one step further and ask to talk to the manager... I know that they will take care of it for sure. Any questions or need help for someone to call on your behalf, let me know... I will not mind...

Sanyo and CBC make some very cost effective 4 channel DVRs. Some come without any hard drives, so you can add as you need. Both manufacturers offer embedded systems, so this will be plus for using and not being worried for any updates or otherwise pertinent to Linux or Windows based systems... They are simple to use and easy to program. Dependent which model you get, you can have them with or without CD burners... I do not like CD burners when I know that I can connect to it locally or remotely and extract what I need and then burn video images on my local computer. I will send you PM on some options. If interested let me know.

The main trick is to make sure that your MAC address matches with the software key that normally located on either a door (on desktops) or the cover (on rack mountable version).. If you do not have it, then... that is when the problems start.. Also, I will strongly recommend to replace existing power supply with at least 450W and with 80% efficiency... Since you are at it, change all the cables with rounded ATA (if PATA drives) or better locking based SATA cables... and lastly, always change all the fans in the back and add another fan on the front (if it is a desktop, there is a space right behind were capture card is mounted)... RAM, well, my preference is always at least 512MB... You may get an argument from AD reps, who are part of this forum, but if you are able to view Windows Task Manager activities while Intellex is running (by the way, this feature is disabled in the Intellex via Regedit setting), then you can realize how hungry the Intellex really is for more RAM... Good luck and I am sure you will have excellent working machine... and please share with us your results when you are done...

My suggestion will be to go with their latest Data distribution box. Do not have the exact part number right now.. then what you need to do is to assign the protocol to operate RS485 (some wiring must change at both ends to and from the Sensormatic domes)... However... I know that the Data distribution box is costlier than adding another Sensormatic dome.. so you have to weight both sides of the coin - will it be better to spend more for data distribution to control all the domes or just add another sensormatic dome and you are ready to rock and roll.... that question is for your management.. as you stated before, they do not want to spend money... Good luck and let us know.

When you are restoring the Intellex on a new drive, it installs everything fresh and then you can program everything, including the camera names. When you state that the old drive suddenly worked, chances are good that you had a bad power supply, otherwise when the drive is bad, it is not recoverable (unless you know how to change internal components of the drive).. The easiest way that you can bring your previous system back is to perform "complete hard drive" copy... It works just fine... There are quite of few "hard drive" copy utilities in the market and I do not have any preference which one.. This way not only you get your complete system up and running, including no need for the software key, but also you will retain all the camera names and all the other system settings.

Hey bud, it is taking longer time than usual with Checkpoint tech support to identify these components... The problem is that similar packaged data acquisition box also used for various other models, so they can not identify exactly which one it is... Power supply and the rest of the components are no brainer... The main issue is that they think this data box is very old (one of their earlier models) that may not have the flexibility that newer models have... if so, nothing could be done to interface with UltraDome VII's... and the only option is to get the translator from Sennetech... If you can give me exact part number, then we may have a chance... The older data acquisition boxes from Checkpoint were not, well, user friendly and there is very little info in the market. Checkpoint tech support thinks that they are, as newer models should have the product code or part number visible on the front of the units... Sorry bud, I am doing everything possible here and without this additional info on their data acquisition, not much of anything else is worth trying...

Thanks much...

I have been getting a lot of positive feedback about their product line, so we decided to pursue possible agreement as integrators... Price to me for any product is relative to the performance and acceptability. If their pricing is higher than most, may be they offer features that justifies such costs. The important aspect that matters to me is the justification of end users - they dictate like or dislikes and justification of costs.. and not what any company may think about their respective products. Have you worked with them before? I understand that they offer training courses on all their product lines, including their access control and license recognition software... and apparently someone has to go to Canada or to one of their regional offices for such training... Thomas, any info that you can share will be greatly appreciated. If you want, please PM. Thanks much!

Do you want to post some urls, some information pointing to what you are referring to?

We do not want you to have any problems with the boss... I will get back to you beginning of the next week... after talking to Checkpoint... Only wished that I had the actual product codes, as it would have been much easier to talk to them...

Please find some my observations below: I will contact with Checkpoint next week to see if I can get the additional information to identify the models and then I can view the specs and their manuals... We worked with a similar type of setup while back ago and we made it work without translators.. however, if we can not confirm the above Checkpoint components, it will be shot in the dark... but it is worth exploring... If we can not identify all the components, then the only other way to control Sensormatic PTZ domes is to use data translators from Sennetech. The pricing will be around $1,000 or more, as their translators vary based on protocol conversion and hardware requirements, but they cover most of the data protocol translation basis in the market. Another angle I can ask you to think about is the following.. Dependent how many stores you guys have with your company and how many of these Checkpoint systems that you guys bought, it may be cheaper route to consolidate and yet keep each manufacturer equipment intact.. What I am suggesting that if there will be a need to spend money for translators to establish communication between Checkpoint keyboard/matrix switch with Sensormatic Domes, then the cost for such translators will almost be the same as getting another Sensormatic dome and eliminate the entire conversion... If lets say you guys have several stores and these stores have combination of both equipment from both manufacturers, sometime it is more economical to move domes to match up with their respective controllers or vice versa. This way you do not have to worry about translators, rewiring, reprogramming, etc... Lets say you have five stores and each store had the same Sensormatic systems with number of domes, all you need to do is to pull one of the store's Sensormatic system, distribute all the domes to individual other stores and then install Checkpoint system with its own respective domes... Just a thought, since I do not know how many stores you have, how many of these Checkpoint systems your company bought nor how many Sensormatic PTZ solutions you have in respective stores. What do you think?

To put them outside, don't think it should be environmentally protected against rain, dust, snow, etc?? Either you can put these into a housing with heater and blower (dependent where you live in the country). There are only few minidomes that I am aware of that come with hi res b&w camera and in the minidome packaging and also with IP66 packaging... but the pricing is higher than your budget..

Here are few choice competitively to your pricing (and less in most cases): 1. Bosch LTC 0355/20 - 570TVL 2. GE KTC-115CC - 600TVL 3. GE KTC-515 - more expensive than KTC-115CC - 600TVL 4. GE KTC-540E - more expensive than KTC-515 - 600TVL 5. Panasonic WV-BP334 - 570TVL 6. Sanyo VCB-3384 - 570TVL All these models from this lineup can deliver the goods.. I do not have a favorite, but I can tell you that the most cost effective are the model(s) from Sanyo and GE KTC-115CC from the above linup...

Very odd... Few other things you can try... As you mentioned, without hard drives, the same problem exists.. It now looks like pointing to the motherboard... How old is this unit? If it is less than three years old, you stand a chance to get this repaired at no additional costs (except shipping costs). If you are not sure the warranty status, call Panasonic (let me know if you need their technical and customer support line) and they can identify if this unit is under warranty... with any luck, it could be under warranty (this model was introduced less than three years ago) and they may ask for receipt... regardless, insist getting the warranty status and chances are good that they will cooperate (I have not seen them turn down warranty repair, may be little frustrating at the beginning, but they will do it). As for the HD500... if you are noticing rust, then it may still be ok as long as such corrosion is not savier (you stated that it still works).. and has not introduced any short... You can tell if the system is working or not... use some dust blower to remove all the dust internally and then use contact cleaner (it is a liquid spray that cleans contacts and dries withing few minutes).. This way you can remove the dust and the collected residue away from contacts and components and hope that nothing is damaged beyond repair... I guess final test will reveal if this will work. Give it a try.. and let us know.

As I said, it is a great box and it has many advantages and disadvantages compared to similar platforms from other manufacturers. I worked with this platform a while ago and it did deliver the goods as the company stated... I did not care for the proprietary formatted exporting of the video as well, because in many court cases, courts want something basic on Media Player, etc... At that time we were told that they are working on a "fix".. Otherwise, it is a great choice, not cheap, but great performer...

Where did I note that I do not like it? My comments were as follows: It is a great box and does very well. Is this comment mean that I do not like it

Here is a suggestion... I do not remember what type of power supplies they use, but I have seen power supplies gave in over period of time.. so, look into replacing it... also, make sure you assigning the appropriate master/slave tabs on these drives.. That also could be giving you the same results...

I may be interested in one of the Sanyo's. Can you shoot me an email. brian@corrmediasolutions.com Brian, sent you e-mail earlier today...

WJ-HD500A has been discontinued for a while and was replaced by WJ-HD316A... If you have this HD500 model, it is a 16 channel recorder... As for HD220 model, it is a 8 channel recorder... much less in feature and according to Panasonic, it is capped to maximum 320GB (we have taken it up to 1TB with no problems)... HD220 series systems are what Panasonic like to call, "entry level" systems.. Works fairly well considering all its features... and mainly designed for small businesses and even homeowners (still very expensive in many cases compared to more cost effective DVRs from different manufacturers)... Here is where you can find most of HD220 pertinent info: http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ModelDetail?storeId=11201&catalogId=13051&itemId=95250&catGroupId=14463&surfModel=WJ-HD220/160&displayTab=O Here is where you can find pertinent info for HD316A: http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ModelDetail?displayTab=O&storeId=11201&catalogId=13051&itemId=88391&catGroupId=14463&surfModel=WJ-HD316A/250 HD316 model was designed for mid-range and for high end customer base... fairly expensive... but delivers exceptional performance... There is yet another level of Panasonic DVRs that came in the market recently... It is WJ-RT416 series and here are some of its info: http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ModelDetail?displayTab=O&storeId=11201&catalogId=13051&itemId=178440&catGroupId=14463&surfModel=WJ-RT416/500V The most current and complete Panasonic DVR lineup is here: http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ModelList?storeId=11201&catalogId=13051&catGroupId=14463 If you had the choice to use any of these items, I'd say to go with HD220 model.. fairly easy to work with, very clean GUI and easy to operate...

Looks like AD multiplexer is Robot mv19p-30 and brand new... I have only three of the Sanyo Multiplexers left... Did not know that it will have an interest.

Which PC system or better yet, which capture card based system are you referring to?

VST_Man, could you be referring to AVE by any chance? http://www.americanvideoequipment.com/

Here is one of my favorite: http://www.maximumpc.com/forums/index.php