Help with my education please

[Renegade 0]

I have an IT background and am generally able to handle tech stuff of all kinds. I have installed my own security system with coverage of 18 windows and a couple of floor sensors in the past, but have little to no surveillance knowledge. I'm wanting to build a surveillance system for my home and office that I can grow as I can afford it. I'm just going to lay out what I think I want to do and please correct me with what I should do where needed. I have plenty of computers at my disposal that I can dedicate to this project and was thinking that a DVR card would be a good place to start, but I'm way open minded to a dedicated DVR if that is a better way to go long term.

 

Initially, I plan to focus on a good card that I can build around and probably just add a camera or two at a time as I figure out what fits my needs well. I plan to start with a good DVR that will handle at least 4 channels with a decent frame rate and from what I'm reading it sounds like starting with an 8 channel card might make more sense even if I only plan to do 4 cams. The main purpose of this system will be perimeter surveillance to a DVR that has basic control that I can access remotely even if its just by a remote desktop connection to the main unit. I would like to be able to have my wife who works at home access the video at the same time I access it. Then after I figure out what I'm doing at home I will either duplicate or upgrade into another system for my office.

 

My house is a brick two story with a garage that sticks out about 20 feet on the front of the house with a 30ft two car wide drive way and one medium size tree in front of the house that doesn't shade the driveway at all. The entrance is recessed just down a sidewalk that runs along the side of the garage and the front porch is about a 6ft square that is covered. Above the garage near the front porch overhang is an area in my office that I would like to locate my system as its heated and cooled and has access to the area above the front porch and has access down the eaves of both front corners of the garage. My first camera or two will be focused on covering the drive way as that has been a problem with teenage vandals even though its fairly well lit with coach lamps. The next area will be the front porch or door camera and I'd like to have audio available here as well so my wife wouldn't have to risk going to the front door when she is home alone. Then general coverage of the front and back yard would be nice with possibly a few inside cameras later, but I'm guessing my budget is going to give out before I get to the door camera as I prefer to buy quality stuff that will last me. One good camera that would cover the driveway during the day and especially at night will get me by for now and eventually it would be nice to look into something that could cover the street area in front of the house as well as possibly being able to control it to swivel and zoom as needed.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read my overly lengthy question and offer me some help.

[scorpion 0]

You can buy a kit in the box, but beware that cameras that come with the kits are wide angle, and will have a distance distortion, and they are rated 30 feet of IR, and that is effective at 15 feet. Any thing beyond the 20 foot mark from where the camera is mounted will require a higher mm number lens. Measure from where the camera is mounted out to the area where you want to view, and double this distance for your IR distance, and buy cameras that fit in to this spec.

[peterbriss 0]

I guess it depends on where you want to end up with this.

 

You may want to go with the card and have a system that may work with IP cameras as well. Then later on you can get a megapixel camera to cover the whole front of the house.

 

Field of view is a big deal though. It's all about setting your expectation of what you will be able to see realistically. The wide angle fixed lenses are fine for fairly close objects. If detail at a distance is a concern then you need to consider using a varifocal lens.

 

 

Peter

 

http://www.cctv-security-systems.com/cctv-field-of-view.html