Sawbones

Did you manage to take any pictures of the dome?

He might be doing indirect lighting on purpose. Sometimes strong IR sources are better when bounced off of a nearby object or surface.

I agree. The picture is taken almost right underneath that streetlamp.

I think online tutorials are a great idea... remember the man who was trying to figure out how to mount a camera on his soffit? Basic stuff like fishing walls, mounting and wiring, camera and lens selection, infrared deployment... If it saves somebody from buggering up their walls or ceiling, it's worth it.

That's good advice. That way you can always use baluns to run analog over the cat5 if you choose not to go full IP.

You're wanting a hybrid system then, as opposed to a purely analog, or a purely IP-based system.

The forum has slowed considerably for domestic US users as well.

two 4.0mm Arecont lens http://www.arecontvision.com/index.php?section=product&subsection=product_details&product_id=32 These are the lenses that received with our demo camera. So those are both fixed-iris lenses? Is there room within that small 4" dome to put a larger varifocal lens on the 3MP imager? Something like a 4-8mm auto-iris?

Speaking of the lenses, do you know exactly which Arecont lenses you have?

Any chance you're going to add network storage capability to the SMB line? It should be trivial to add, and with the proliferation of multi-terabyte network storage appliances on the market, that feature downgrade represents a substantial limitation for small business buyers. That and the one-remote-client limitation put Milestone/ONSSI out of the running for me.

That's beautiful. I loved the "oh sh*t" moment at the end, when the two criminal "utes" were scrambling around. Too bad her surveillance system couldn't have been better... it kept cutting out, and facial ID would have been difficult with that picture quality.

Network storage is the answer. You can run Cat5 anywhere, even into a secure location like a safe room or an even more hardened location like a safe, provided your temperatures don't get too high in a small space. If they want the video, make 'em work for it.

Nice how-to's, Scorpion... and your pictures weren't so bad.

Wait... the "workers?" Somebody didn't know they were being recorded? Careful of legalities... that "candid camera" type stuff is frowned upon in some places.

That's a nifty setup, scorpion.

There's a variable lens on that camera. Can you zoom in with the lens, then reduce your resolution on the DVR? That would probably take care of your interlacing problem.

The interlacing artifact on those images is pretty striking. Wouldn't simply changing to a progressive scan camera take care of that combing effect? ************** Edit ****************** What sort of cameras do you have on that system?

Static IPs are often an additional "feature," and thus an additional charge. I have the business-class service from my ISP, and static IPs (up to several) come with that, but a residential-class connection often has an up-charge for static IP addresses. On the other hand, as long as your cable/DSL modem and firewall stay powered up (mine runs off the same rack-mounted UPS that powers the rest of my networking gear), you may only change IP addresses a couple of times a year with a regular dynamic IP. If that's the case, the additional charge might not be worth it.

What Soundy said. Most embedded systems are simply some variant of an x86 PC on a proprietary motherboard, with a proprietary case, and a proprietary form-factor power supply. Why not get a generic small-form-factor PC and make a PC-based DVR/NVR? It's not like there are no encoder cards out there, or a lack of PC-based NVR software suites. I'm partial to the IBM Thinkcentre PCs, and have an NVR based on one of those in my rack right now. I also have a *nix-based caching proxy/firewall/content-filtering PC based off the same form factor on the rack shelf above it. Thinkcentres are dirt-cheap on Ebay (approx $300 for a core2duo with 1-2GB of ram), and they're much quieter than the rack-mounted embedded DVRs I've encountered. If something breaks in a PC-based NVR, you can easily find the parts online and replace them yourself... or upgrade the hard drive... or upgrade the memory/processore... or add another encoder card... or replace a seized-up fan... or swap out a dead PSU... or... or... or... It sure beats sending the unit back to the manufacturer, being without it for a week or so, and paying for a tech to replace a simple part. For instance, a hard-drive upgrade. That's a commodity part... even DVR-rated drives are only $100-150, and it takes a tech 30 seconds to swap it out. That should cost 200-300 dollars... but it inevitably costs more... plus the cost of shipping a heavy item like a DVR... plus insurance... I've done the embedded thing, and I'm moving to PC-based.

Seagate's always been my default go-to choice for hard drives... but I'll be honest, this latest debacle has shaken my faith in them. Undoubtedly that decision was made by some pencil-necked admin/lawyer at Seagate, and I'm sure it was strictly for business reasons... but it's pretty poor form not to acknowledge a screw-up like that.

Never seen that particular glitch.

It's about time they acknowledged this... the online community has been talking about this problem for months.

I had to google her... what a sad, misguided individual (at least by my American standards)

A couple of questions: Can that dome be wall-mounted and still maintain its weather resistance? How wide is the field of view with those lenses at... say... 20 feet?

It's not just the cameras that have very very basic security... some of the DVRs do too. Segmenting your network is really the way to go, particularly with a large number of IP cameras.