Sawbones

You theoretically could put up an IR-integrated dome, AND add additional illuminators to it. Here is the picture with only the camera-integrated IR: Here is the picture with two of the super-circuits puck illuminators. They are soffit-mounted to the upper-right of the picture, just out of view. With the additional IR light, the picture improves. More IR is clearly better in this instance. The downside is that bugs will still be attracted to the IR being emitted from the camera, and it will still draw the eye of anybody creeping around.

I'd bet dollars to donuts you're right. IR attracts bugs, which attracts spiders, who promptly spin a big web in/around your IR dome or bullet-cam. It's yet one more reason to go with day/night domes and separate illuminators.

Let me give another example to further illustrate the point that separate-IR-Illuminator=better. This is a Honeywell day/night dome mounted with a separate illuminator (an Ebay special that happens to work pretty well). The illuminator is mounted about three feet away from the dome itself (A Honeywell HD4x vandal-resistant dome), and runs off of the same 12V power supply. This provides IR illumination, and the bugs that are attracted to the IR aren't flying right into the lens of the camera. This has the benefit of not tripping your motion detection. Also, if your IR burns out, or you don't like the pattern/spread provided by that specific illuminator, you don't have to trash the camera... you simply replace the illuminator. Here is what the view looks like through that setup: Now compare that to the IR-integrated dome that is the subject of this thread... remember the "spotlight" effect? No comparison... I know which view I'd rather have on my DVR. Adequate illumination that's even and not overly bright is very important when it comes to getting the most out of your day/night cameras. Integrated IR by itself is rarely adequate in my experience

Supercircuits has some day/night domes in the $250-300 range. I haven't used any of them (my experience is most with the Panasonic and Honeywell domes), but they might work for your application. You may want to consider subtracting a camera and going heavier on the IR lighting in your budget. I've found that lack of illumination is more the limiting factor at night than number of cameras. If you don't have enough IR, all the cameras in the world won't help you.

This is one of those situations where a picture is worth a thousand words... particularly for CCTV, where the picture is literally everything. I'm sure China makes some good stuff... but without the pictures, you can't evaluate it against other products on the market.

You could always set the PTZ to do a regular tour, so that it makes noise all the time. That would make it less likely to be noticed... or you could add some ambient noise to the area (let the employees have radios or something... they'd think you're just being a nice guy, when in reality you're trying to distract them)

I did this via FTP for a while with an Axis camera server and a SAMBA server... The directory was literally filled up with thousands upon thousands of individual JPEGs. The directory got so large that any attempt to browse it (explorer in windows) would literally choke/die/crash when you tried to open the folder. I've never tried it with a megapixel IP camera... but imagine how painful browsing that directory would be.

I agree. I've had two intensifiers (now in a box in my garage), and they gave a better picture than those. Try adjusting the focus with a larger screen.

I've used that particular camera, and I'd use something else... let me show you why. Here is a daylight scene, from a VERY similar model camera to the one you linked (IIRC, mine is a 430TVL model). It doesn't look too bad, right? Well... here it is at night... and imagine it without the IR that's spilling out from around that corner (that's another IR source). That's supposed to be a 100' IR camera, and it's barely making 40'. When it comes to useful IR distances, you can pretty much cut the advertised range in half. [/img] The IR beam from that camera is also pretty tight, so if you're thinking of simply mounting it closer in order to make the IR work better... don't. You can't really mount it closer to the object, or you get the "spotlight" effect, like so: (this is the same camera as the previous two pictures). A whole lot of bloom in the center of the picture, and the rest of it is completely washed out. If you're going to use IR, use separate illuminators, and plan to illuminate the entire area.

I use domes, rather than bullet cameras, and the advantages I see are as follows: Tougher... harder to vandalize Can't see which direction the camera is pointed easily concealed wiring Can't be redirected easily doesn't attract bugs doesn't attract curious eyes at night dome tends to stay cleaner than regular flat lens Dome can be turned if it gets scratched. selection of lenses (most cheap IR bullets come with one lens). I've had IR-integrated bullets (still have one deployed... Acti 1.3Mp), but I've otherwise gone over entirely to domes with separate illuminators. Yes, it's more expensive, but I find the results to be much better Maybe it's your DVR or wiring that's limiting you... because there is no comparison between the IR-equipped bullets I used to have, and the WV-CW484S domes I'm using now. The domes were more expensive than your average $100 IR bullet, but there's some truth to the you-get-what-you-pay-for saw.

It's not Axis Camera Station software I worry about, it's Windows. Windows is the weak link on any PC running Windows. Nuuo is out of the running since it only supports remote browsing with IE. The Exacq software looks very interesting. Exacq runs on Linux, if that's what you're after. Ph34r teh penguin.

I haven't used any of the Mobotix stuff, so I can't answer your last question. As for the lighting in that picture, it's a combination of IR, and some ambient light from a streetlight 50 feet or so away (the streetlight is behind and to the right of the camera... you can see a shadow being thrown forward and left from one of the pillars... it falls right across the corner of that welcome mat). It does motion-blur slightly more at night compared to daytime, but I'm still playing with some NVR settings to see if I can get that to go away. I can't say what shutter-speed it's using. ************ Edit ************* That camera replaced a Speco Intensifier that slowed the shutter speed something fierce... anything moving turned into a dark blur. The Acti cam is light-years ahead of the Speco.

I have a 1231 deployed to cover an exterior door... it's a fine camera for that application. Here is a night-time image:

How averse are you to "rolling your own" with COTS hardware?

# 100' IR Range With 56 Degree Beam Spread # Semi-Covert 840nm Wavelength # Photocell Automatically Detects Darkness to Preserve Energy # Uses 168 LED Light Source For Extended Life # 12VDC Operation for 225$ - nice Eh... the price is right, but those things are pretty obnoxious in appearance.

When you're taking the pics, can you make sure you get one of the mounting side of the dome? It will need to go on brick, and I need to see if I need additional holes, or a home-brew mounting adapter.

Exactly... that speed bump camera is what I was thinking of... I'm still impressed by that thing. What an elegant solution.

I think Scorpion is the man you want...

how is it possible to NEVER us IR? do you mean just domes or IR in general? I don't recommend using IR unless you have a good reason for doing so. In almost all ways, the visual results are inferior compared to simply adding more visible light to the scene. As for camera-integrated IR, it's never as good as they say, covers about half the advertised distance, draws attention to your cameras, attracts bugs, and the polycarbonate domes really cut down on the effective distance of IR domes. You're virtually always better off going with separate illuminators. I did so in my current application and have been MUCH happier.

Those video servers are not PoE... I'd use a standard rack-mount gigabit switch.

Choice of networking hardware is critical for highly-saturated networks like yours... and that includes choice of NICs. Here's a link to get you started: http://ixbtlabs.com/articles2/gigeth32bit/gig-eth-32bit-2.html That's a nifty review by Xbit labs on a number of gigabit network cards, where you can actually see the differences created by drivers, frame-sizes, OS, brands, bus-width, and so forth. There's a lot of tweaking you can do to get the maximum out of your network, but I think a simple upgrade to gigabit would serve you well.

The video server you're describing does 640x480 at 25FPS for each channel. We'll assume a 35kb frame size, and each server has four channels... so that's: 35kb * 25FPS * 4 channels = 3.5 megabits per second. Each four-port server is going to put out 3.5Mb/sec of data, multiplied by the number of servers you have, plus the PTZs... (feel free to correct my math) Conservatively, we're talking about a steady 70-80 Mb/sec of data from different network sources, and maybe more... which once you figure in protocol overhead from that many different network sources, could easily saturate a 100Mb switch and lead to drop-outs. Soundy is right. You need a high-quality, full-gigabit switch... preferably enterprise-grade. The switch you have isn't a dirt-cheap consumer-grade switch, it's just not fast enough.

This is a gigabit network, right?

Cat5 has been around at least ten years...

Camera arrived in one piece, and works great. I already have it mounted and powered via PoE... delivering pictures as we speak. Thanks!