WizCam

Thanks for all the responses .. They have been very helpful and informative. Rory .. great illustration also. I guess it really depends on the client when it comes to this issue. What kind of performance and durability they require and expect. I know this issue will rear its ugly head again. FYI... I had the client purchase his own monitor since pricing was his main issue. Thanks for the advice on that scorpion. I was teetering on whether to suggest that to him, and since you mentioned it ... I explained that a lot of small office type customers purchase their own monitors to suit their needs and budgets. He's happy and I'm happy. One armor dome IR camera; w/ 4 port, non-networkable DVR & USB port in under 3 hours makes that insurance salesman one happy individual, and myself a happy one too. In the future however I'd like to really have a good base knowledge of CRT (best quality) options ... and VGA / LCD options. I think cosemetics, price and quality of image all place various importance on a client by client basis. I'm actually very knowledgable about good quality broadcast level TV monitoring equipment ... but how that translates to CCTV use is yet to be seen. I've been busy since before "Super Tuesday" Presidential Primaries working satellite ops for the company I work for fulltime ... today is off day so I'm just finding the time now to check this forum. Thanks for your replies in my absense.

I've had plenty of requests for reasonably priced single channel DVRs. There are a lot of small office and home owners that just want a camera on their front enterance. I've tried to convince some to get 4 channel DVRs for just for expansion purposes ... they don't bite sensing an upsell. Even thought it's for only a little bit more. Consumer wins out here. Give em what they want.

Those are observations I've made myself. I try to set up more covert hi res facial ID cameras. I call it the "Uh Oh" cam because one of my installs actually caught an intruder at my friend's garage. It had no audio ... but you could read the guy's lips .... he said "Uh Oh" after he took many pains to avoid detection from the cameras (including two decoys) only to realize he had been caught by my hi res ID cam. After that he tried to disable it to no avail .. which only caught a better closeup. Follow up law enforcement ... he only got pinched for trespassing and breaking and entering. He took off without taking anything ... and actually got recognized by the investigating officer at home depot when he was off duty. Go figure. Trial still pending last I heard. Bottom line .... I've learned that just blanketing an area with cameras doesn't equal surveillance. As was mentioned above ... you can only see the how it was done ... not the who ... unless you set up the cams to get facial ID. What a client may think requires only 3 or 4 cams might actually require 5 or 6. It all depends on the property. I go into every job scoping with an open mind and reference my past experiences.

How about in NJ? In NJ they have a list of all certifications and licenses on their website. None of them include CCTV surveillance installation. For burgular and fire alarms yes. I've seen a whole assortment of different types of companies installing CCTV ... they don't list licenses .... everything from Home Theater, Security, contractors, home automation and electricians with CCTV services ... true enough that Security (burgular alarm companies), contractors and electricians are licenesed ... but they are licensed in a specific discipline. I've called local gov't municipalities, lawyers and the state gov't but none could specify a license for CCTV .... they do mention burgular alarms, electricians and the such .... Of course to do business in this state you have to be registered as a company. That is all they could confirm. Just trying to do due diligence. If anyone knows for sure can they link the statute... Thanks.

I've been researching the pricing and quality between traditional CRT Monitors vs. VGA monitors. I've found that the camera resolution is slightly degraded when viewing the video via a VGA output to VGA monitor ... some grabbing in the video also when an object moves quickly through the field of view. CRT monitors have little if any resolution / quality degradation and if I was a client that is what I'd prefer to use. Most people it seems want the compact sleek design of a VGA monitor to view the CCTV systems ... but the price is higher, and the video quality is degraded vs. CRT. Some CRT video monitors are also pricey but the video resolution is an obvious improvement over VGA. However with the more bulky housing of a CRT monitor it seems to be a turn off to some people. How can you present the trade-off between the CRT vs. VGA monitoring without turning off a client? I once suggested that since the DVR has both VGA and CRT monitor outputs that they should get both. Of course this seems like I'm trying to upsell two different monitoring systmes (in a way I am), but in all seriousness. If a client insists on high resolution imaging from a camera, they should be viewing that camera from the best possible monitor, and if they don't want to part with a VGA option ... then they should include the CRT option as well. So my last question is ... where can you get reasonably priced CRT & VGA monitors that don't make a client feel like they are paying to much. I'm not trying to sell monitors ... I'm trying to sell CCTV systems. I'd only mark up the monitors like 10% plus shipping. I once considered buying a cheap 13" color TV with RCA video input at Walmart just because the monitor was the sticking point on getting the job for a 1- camera installation. I wasn't going to pay more for a monitor than a camera and use that as a loss leader. Even with that compromise the client balked. Now I'm supposed to present him with a new proposal this February.

I just like Fred discovered an intense interest in doing this for a career. It is only a slight deviation from my current fulltime job .. and I've been installing cams for friends and family for 3 years now. What I love about this industry is really helping clients to improve their safety and security. Burgular alarms help indicate of a break in ... but CCTV identifies perps, and also helps in many other ways. Like they say .... a picture says a thousand words. I haven't had any correspondense with Rory yet .. but his posts are very informative and helpful. Scorpion .. don't change a thing about how you write ... I find your articles and postings very animated and informative. War and Peace versions are appreciated ... never too much info. Good Luck to you Fred

I installed a DV3 from Nuvico about 10 months ago and it has excellent video quality in realtime, and pretty good in playback mode. I also have it hooked up to the internet for a client, but he had to order a new T1 line in order to use it. His existing network had firewalls that prevented the DVR from being used on his network. Once that was done it was easy setup. I setup the client's laptop to enable him to view his facility from anywhere. I setup the event logs to email him at certain times of the day after business hours if there was motion detected and if there was power loss or video loss. He has used his verizon wireless card in the mountains to view his office in the middle of no where. The only couple of things about it that I personally found negative was the price, and the complexity for the average person to use. It was a 4 camera port unit and I really had no margin for marking up the price. I made my money mostly on labor. Shipping cost chewed up some of the profit also. I also had to come back and create a cheat sheet and explain each menu, as the client was a brilliant business man, but technically challenged. I find that less expensive entry level consumer models are simple to use and really easy to teach the user how to operate. Maybe the playback quality isn't perfect, but in most applications it is good enough to satisfy the requirements of the end user.

Thanks for the welcome Pegasus .. Thanks also DVR man ... I'm in the Monmouth County / Ocean County area ... Haddonfield ... that is near Philly ... right?

Hello all... I've been skimming through this forum for about 7 months now every now and then and feel it's time to register and be part of this society of professionals. I have decided to pursue a business in CCTV sales and installation utilizing my background as a satellite tech, tv broadcast and cable television professional over the past 18 years. The last 3 years or so I've been doing odd jobs on the side in various low voltage installations for friends, family and even some friends of friends with a co-worker of mine. We were trying to break into the home automation industry, but it requires way to much R&D on the latest and greatest, and it is very difficult to keep up with installation techniques & vendor offerings when gear is changing, and some companies use propriety parts. We received lots of CCTV requests, but my partner didn't want to do that, so we turned away that work. Eventually, we decided to snuff out the home automatin biz, and just keep working our regular jobs in TV. I still had the itch to do a biz, so I decided to do CCTV by myself, and so far I've left those clients happy with my solo work. I didn't really charge them very much .. basically just was having them pay a little bit over cost, and a few bills for my time. I felt I was learning, and we benefitted from each other. Them in the form of pricing, me in experience. Now I want to step it up a notch. I've learned what to do and more than that ... what not to do. I really enjoyed reading some of your members' posts the last 7 months and feel my prospective clients will benefit from my increased knowledge base. I still need to learn more about some of the installation tools and CCTV gear that will enhance my productivity, and my client's final product. Seems like suppliers of CCTV gear, electronic tool suppliers want to sell you everything under the sun. I've been working with the basic tools that I have used in my TV career. I've been doing F-connectors and BNC cables for ages. The whole power supply thing for me with cameras is something new to me. I know the whole purpose of CCTV is to provide the clients with piece of mind that they, their premisis, employees and love ones are safe and secure; and that should something happen, that they feel confident they have something to provide law enforcement with evidence to help them in their investigations. I really have to give a shout out to Scorpion ... because his posts were not only animated and well written, I found them very informative. There are also a bunch of other people on this forum that really enhance the experience of me learning more about this industry. Thanks to all. I hope that I can also pass along some of my experiences and knowledge to others as I improve and gain more experience someday.