Madmak

After being in the industry for over 15 years with a large security integration company I have finally set up a system for myself. Installation has been entirely DIY and equipment has been sourced non-retail so the budget was kept to a minimum. Below is the equipment that I currently have installed: 1. Front yard - Pelco Spectra III SE - recessed in soffit 2. Rear yard - Pelco Spectra III SE - recessed in soffit 3. East Yard - Pelco IS151 - recessed in soffit 4. West Yard - Pelco IS151 - recessed in soffit 5. Driveway - Pelco IS151 - recessed in soffit 6. Garage - Pelco IS151 - recessed in ceiling 7. Main Floor Front - IS90 - recessed in ceiling 8. Main Floor Rear - IS90 - recessed in ceiling 9. Second Floor Hall - IS90 - recessed in ceiling 10. Master Bedroom - IS90 - recessed in ceiling 11. Second Bedroom - IS90 - recessed in ceiling 12. Third Bedroom - IS90 - recessed in ceiling 13. Basement Hall - IS90 - recessed in ceiling 14. Basement Office - IS90 - recessed in ceiling 15. Security Room - IS90 - recessed in ceiling Pelco MCS16-20 Camera Power Supply Pelco KBD300A PTZ Controller Pelco DX7016-480 DVR The DVR is on loan from work as I am not sure what I want to use permanently. For a DIY system I am leaning towards a PC based setup that I can work on and upgrade. The cabling was a huge challenge as everything was retrofitted in an existing two story house. All cameras were recessed into the ceiling or soffit as I much prefer the way they look installed this way but it involves alot of patience. The Spectra's are in black outdoor enclosures recessed into black soffit and they look great. Head end is in a dedicated security room in the basement along with a 70 zone Ademco BA system. Multiple BA points are used to trigger PTZ cams to presets like yard gate, shed door, BBQ, garage OHD, front and back doors. The keyboard can be plugged into the security room or the theater room (52"TV) to control the PTZs. I have always been very interested in this industry and passionate about doing things right, this time it's for me. Any recommendations on a permanent PC based DVR setup are appreciated as I have little experience with them. I have always used the big name brand equipment in the past. Thx.

You should review the images a little closer and you will see that nearly half of them are relative close up shots and half are overview shots. The PTZs outside are not intended to identify someone a half a block away. They do, however, have several presets each triggered by gates, doors, security system, etc that turn them in to identification shots when needed. To cover what I want to see with close up images would take 200 cameras and thats not feasible. Your truck window shot would make sense if I parked my truck in the same spot every day and within inches each time, but what about the stuff stolen out of my box? or when the other side gets keyed? Don't forget about Murphy?!? I ususally just park in the garage. The camera that caught the theft was not a day/night version, it was temporary and has now been changed. All outdoor cameras are now day/night. I've designed hundreds of CCTV systems and the only thing consistent with them all is that there is no such thing as too many cameras. I just finished a large casino with 250+ cameras and stuff still gets stolen and people still cheat every day. Hind-sight is always 20/20. Or should it now be HD, or BluRay, or Megapixel???

They are day/night cameras now, this one was installed just days before it was stolen. The PTZs were aimed in different directions - Murphy's Law.

I made a few copies of this clip (CD and soft copy) for the local RCMP but they didn't investigate it at all. I even went to the effort to visit a nearby Calgary City Police precinct and showed it to the auto theft division guys. They at least kept it to refer to when they catch future criminals and seemed interested in the evidence. I was hoping to be a good neighbor and help catch these guys as they broke in to several cars in the area that night. If only the day/night PTZ was aimed a different direction at the time I would have had far better video and probably would have been more useful to the cops. I do use the clip as a selling tool to prove noone is immune to random crime, not even a veteran of the industry with clearly visible BA and CCTV signage. The day I drove my truck home from the repair shop fixing the damage from the theft I stopped at a light in front of a nearby "rough" high school. No less than 25 kids pointed at my truck and nudged the guy next to them to look as well. I think they all knew who had my truck for the week it was gone.

Check it out below. http://www.cctvfootage.com/video/Bye-Bye-Ridgeline-wmv

I uploaded the video clip and will post the link once it has been reviewed by the site.

I get 6 or 7 days of full time recording at 240 fps total. The Pelco DX7100 has a 480 GB hard drive but it is a few years old so the compression and reloution technology is nothing like the new DVRs. This amount of time is more than I need. I don't like motion recording, Murphy's law means you miss the one clip you need. I do have several triggers on the PTZs though that move the cameras to preset positions, ie the yard gates, the garage door, the shed door, the front door, the back door, etc and preset tours on BA alarms.

3 pics is maximum per post. Here are a few more. You can see me in the monitor picture taking the picture. What size of video file can be uploaded here? I have a great one of 5 guys stealing my truck from the driveway when the system was half done.

Here are some pics. Things have changed a bit since the original design. 1. West Front Street PTZ - Pelco Spectra III SE - recessed in soffit 2. East Front Street PTZ - Pelco Spectra III SE - recessed in soffit 3. West Back Yard PTZ - Pelco Spectra III SE - recessed in soffit 4. East Back Yard PTZ - Pelco Spectra III SE - recessed in soffit 5. Theater Room PTZ - Pelco Spectra IV SE - recessed in ceiling 6. East Yard - Pelco IS151 - recessed in ceiling 7. West Yard - Pelco IS151 - recessed in ceiling 8. Driveway - IS151 - recessed in soffit 9. Front Step - IS151 - recessed in soffit 10. Front Entry - IS90 - recessed in ceiling 11. Kitchen - IS90 - recessed in ceiling 12. Family Room - IS90 - recessed in ceiling 13. Second Floor Hall - IS90 - recessed in ceiling 14. Basement Hall - IS90 - recessed in ceiling 15. Office - IS90 - recessed in ceiling 16. Security Room - IS90 - recessed in ceiling Pelco MCS16-20 Camera Power Supply Pelco KBD300A PTZ Controller Pelco DX7016-480 DVR

I told her it was to protect her jewelry box. She's not convinced.

Nothing fancy with the head end yet - not alot needed. I probably did wear a Pelco shirt at least one of the days I was crawling around in the attic as I have a few of them - good guess!. I'm not really a huge Pelco fan but because I use their product so often I am very familiar with it and I know what it can and can't do. There is alot of CCTV equipment out there these days and knowing what I was spending money on was important to me. All cams are on copper braid RG6 and 18/2. PTZ control is just cat5. All runs are less than 100ft. I'll post some pics here when I can. You can see the Spectra's mounted this way on the Pelco site. That is alot of cameras but there is no such thing as too many cameras.

Pelco makes an environmental backbox for the Spectra that is designed to be recessed but working in these tight spaces can be tricky. They make the Spectras look pretty small. I've been doing some reading on the PC based systems and there seems to be a few video cards that work quite well if the PC is properly designed. My fear is spending a whack of cash on an embedded unit an not being able to keep it current. I will track down Divis. Quite a few of the locations took most of a weekend to run to just one camera. I was able to get to all prime locations without any exposed cable and only a couple access holes to repair. The recessed main floor ceiling cams took some guts as I had to cut the camera hole first to be able to drill the top plate for access down the wall with an right-angle drill. The second floor cams weren't too bad but in Canada our attics are full of blown-in insulation (yuk) and repairing the vapor barrier is crucial. I would like to find a nice DVR with full network capabilities. Alot seem to have limited remote software. I will be loging in via the LAN from my home office PC for most use and would like full functionality.

Just a couple hints as I too have a two story house and just installed two cameras. A test run at the eaves proved to be much too high. I was lucky and found a way to cable to the front garage eave at about 8 feet and a rear door eave at about 10 feet. This provided a much better image. The cameras are a Pelco Spectra IIISE and a Spectra IVSE in the environmental recessed back boxes with clear lower domes. They look great as they are black housings in black soffit. I have set several inputs from my intrusion system for each cameras presets and the locations allow for a 360 degree view of the front and back yards for patterns.