cvasara

In the past week, we have been asked by two different school districts, if we sell, install, and maintain camera systems for school buses. While we have installed fixed camera systems at the schools, we have never sold, or installed a bus system, and really don't have a contact or supplier that provides, school bus systems. One of the school districts gave me a proposal from PRO-VISION Video Systems, as well as their brochures. They are located in Michigan, we are in downstate Illinois. None of the suppliers for electronics systems we use, handle school bus systems. I'd like to respond to our clients, and wonder if anyone here has any suggestions, or direct us to reliable suppliers for school bus systems? Thanks for any help and suggestions the forum might have.

Hi again. I'm not sure the 'made in America' tag works well with cameras, DVRs, and a lot of other electronics equipment, including the communications products we sell, install, and service. I guess I wasn't even aware that the video equipment that most of us sell, and service isn't from offshore. So, at this stage, I don't see that as a problem. What I do see, is that it isn't easy to find a company, a supplier, who is in the supplying business, to an independent company, such as ours, I'm talking about the school bus type systems. We don't have any problem with suppliers for fixed video equipment, or even camera systems for police cars, But school bus type systems are quite a different story. That is why I came here.

Thanks, ssnapier, for your reply. Yes I do understand that 'they' will want to explore additional features, I really think that in this rural area, just watching and recording those "Little Darlins" is where the school districts would like to start. I think cost would be a real deterrent to adding those bells and whistles. But that too, allows for additional sales opportunities, and I really don't think they are that difficult to add to a system. A basic GPS tracking system, will record date, time, route, speed and a stand alone system to do that is rather inexpensive. We are located in Midwest Illinois, (Galesburg / Monmouth / Roseville) I'm sure that tells you exactly what cornfields we are in. Basicly, we are a communications sales and service company, that works with fixed security camera system. Pretty basic stuff.

Good Afternoon: I have been selling and setting up SPECO DVRs over the past few years, and adding an external "My Book" one Tb hard drive, or two, has been relatively easy, and has worked quite well. In the past year, I Have been ordering, selling, and installing a US-DVR-E216480, with a 500 Gb HardDrive, mainly because of the excellent 'real human' telephone support that they provide. What isn't provided, however, is 'in the field' addition of an external, low cost harddrive. I believe these DVRs have a Linux operating system, and I have yet to figure out how to add a low cost "MY Books' or similar Harddrive to them to increase the video storage capacity. To add additional storage to an existing E216480 requires that the unit be returned to the supplier, and if ordered with two or three Tb when purchased new, can be expensive. Is there a way to do that? A good step by step procedure would certainly be helpful. Thank You

Thank You for your reply and help. Looking at the Seagate website and spec sheets, it appears that the largest HD is a 1Tb. I would think that there is room inside the unit for additional harddrives. I can open it to see what is there. I do have 3 1Tb My Books just sitting around, so I think the first thing to do is plug one or more in and see if the unit recognizes it. Thanks Again.

Thanks for that information from you guys. I guess I thought all OS resided on the hard drive. If that isn't true, then where would it be, and how do i tell with this model where it is? I'm not overly concerned about the warranty issue with this particular USAG unit, as it is going to be in my office as a demo for others to see. I can worry about the warranty issue at a later date, should I sell this particular unit. That is what I did with the Speco that I had mentioned above. Most customers (that I have) don't need 2 to 4 Tb of storage, as the units are checked every day, and viewed on the 'net' for any changes, but I wouldn't mind a storage time of 30 to 40 days, on 16 cameras recording virtual real time 24/7. Perhaps my thinking is not the norm, but to me, what doesn't happen is just as important as what does. (Police mentality, I guess.) I guess I need to see where the OS resides on these units that I have put into service?

Good Evening, and thanks for your reply. It is a United Security Associates Group (USAG) stand alone DVR model # US-DVR-E216480. USAG is located in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Thanks

I think suicide would become an option at that point. I have installed systems for Costco and they do not use that stuff. With that said, and your point is well taken, can you recommend a decent DVR and a 16 camera system that you use in a limited budget system? Is the main problem with grainy/quality with the cameras, or is it the DVR? I'm using A Speco DVR model DVR-16TNDVD and the Speco cameras are CVC627, and the video looks good right to a monitor but not very good at all through the DVR. The DVR cost was over $1,300.00. I was thinking about one of the Q-See systems thinking that I could substitute in the cameras for the Speco ones and test the differences. Thanks