mjp24coho 0 Posted January 24, 2012 I have a few real general questions that I'm hoping youa ll can give me some direction on. I have a remote, off-grid cabin where I want to install some network cameras to monitor the place remotely. However, the remoteness makes this complicated. I'll be signing up for Satelite internet, and power the cabin with a solar panel & battery system that runs while I'm not there. My goal is to use 3 Panasonic BL-C201A wired IP network cameras. Here are my questions: 1 - I would like to wire the cameras using a wired router - is it possilble set the cameras to record still images (every X minutes, or whenver movement occurs) to a hard drive attached to the router. There will be no camera connected to the system when I'm not there - can a hard drive be attached to the network/router and have each camera record the images to the drive? 2 - If the above structure works, I want to be able to remotely (over the internet) view the pictures recorded to the network drive. Will that work? 3 - Because I'm forced to use satelite internet (only option), I am very limited on uploading capabilities (limited memory), so I don't want the cameras to automatically stream video up to the internet. Can they be configured to only upwards stream when I want to view/monitor the cameras live? I'll likely only want to view live video feed 1-2 a week for a few seconds, so as to not exceed the FAP memory upload restrictions from the satelite ISP. As you can tell by my questions, I'm a bit clueless on where to turn to design this system for my needs. Hopefully my questions are clear. Any advice/direction would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Soundy 1 Posted January 24, 2012 Honestly, I think you'd be better off with a standard DVR and analog cameras, in this case. You're not using megapixel cameras and not viewing them live directly over the 'net, so there's no real benefit to IP cameras and a storage drive, other than complexity. A good standalone DVR will let you record at higher resolution and stream at lower resolution/bitrate to save your data cap. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mjp24coho 0 Posted January 24, 2012 Would the DVR approach still give me the ability to remotely view live video at times when I wanted to ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dvarapala 0 Posted January 24, 2012 The thing one hears most often about satellite Internet access (besides the 500ms lag) is the extremely low uplink bandwidth. Your live video streaming may end up looking more like a slide show. If possible, you should try it out before you commit and make sure you can live with it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Soundy 1 Posted January 24, 2012 Would the DVR approach still give me the ability to remotely view live video at times when I wanted to ? Absolutely. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Soundy 1 Posted January 24, 2012 The thing one hears most often about satellite Internet access (besides the 500ms lag) is the extremely low uplink bandwidth. Your live video streaming may end up looking more like a slide show. If possible, you should try it out before you commit and make sure you can live with it. OP, you should talk to our member Hidden Mountain, he's doing this and yeah, found pretty much what dvarapala says: satellite is REALLY SLOW for remote viewing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SEANHAWG 1 Posted January 24, 2012 If you are using hughes net, you must upgrade to their more expensive static IP service to make this work. Keep that in mind. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HiddenMountain 0 Posted January 24, 2012 The thing one hears most often about satellite Internet access (besides the 500ms lag) is the extremely low uplink bandwidth. Your live video streaming may end up looking more like a slide show. If possible, you should try it out before you commit and make sure you can live with it. OP, you should talk to our member Hidden Mountain, he's doing this and yeah, found pretty much what dvarapala says: satellite is REALLY SLOW for remote viewing. I wish I could give you all the answers you need but we're still fiddling around with our system. I don't have lots of time to spend on it, so it has taken a back seat for now. You say that satellite is your only option. You must be way out in the boonies then. Like the others said, hugenet is not a very good option. We have two ISP's here, Hughesnet and a line-of-sight one, and between the two we have yet to get a remote view of the place! A cell tower was put up recently so we now have the option of HSPA 3/4G but it's so freakin expensive, we're only using it through our phones. The line-of-sight ISP owner is hesitant to open up all of the ports so we can remotely control/view our cameras. He's worried that it'll use too much bandwidth and make it so the others in the area might suffer slower internet speeds... There are so many variables to consider here. A lot depends on your location. If you're in the southern US, snow isn't a big concern. If your in Iceberg Alaska, then solar probably won't work... I am far from a geek here, so my knowledge of all things electronic is very limited, but my experience is, the less power you need the less power you have to produce. We have an analog CCTV system. 7 cameras; three indoor and 4 outdoor. The outdoor cams have to have heat/cooling, so there's a few amps right there. The DVR has to be on 24/7 so there's a few more. Lighting comes from some motion sensing LED spots. Tell me more about your system, and I'll share what little knowledge I have.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mjp24coho 0 Posted January 26, 2012 Yeah - I've heard the same concerns about satelite internet. I'm looking at WB, but haven't signed up yet It's a cabin I use only on the weekends - about once a month. I mainly want the internet so I can remote monitor the cabin, so I don't want to sign up if it won't work the cabin is in Southern Utah - 12 miles from the nearest town or ISP. I don't even get cell reception out there, so 3G/4G isn't an optino. I make my own power (solar and battery), so any system I end up using needs to be power minimal. I'm new to the whole remote system monitoring, so I'm not sure what the best option is to make it work. Primarily I want something that can take periodic pictures during the day (predetermined times and whenever motion is detected) and save the pictures on a local hardrive connected to the monitoring network. I want the ability to log in once every few days to view the pictures. I'd also like the ability to view live video feed once a week, if possible, for a minute or two. Given those specs/desired uses, I'm open to any suggestions regarding the best way to make this work. Any benefits to analog CCTV (I assume with a local DVR) over webcams with a local harddrive connected to the router? As I said, I'm fairly new to this technology, and am looking for suggestions on the best way to make this work. I'm trying to do all the homework I can before making any purchases. Thanks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SectorSecurity 0 Posted January 27, 2012 Any benefits to analog CCTV (I assume with a local DVR) over webcams with a local harddrive connected to the router? As I said, I'm fairly new to this technology, and am looking for suggestions on the best way to make this work. I'm trying to do all the homework I can before making any purchases. Thanks Why connect a hard drive to the router? I see this adding complexity to the setup as most times they need to be added as mapped network drives and most likely a standalone DVR running an embedded linux build will not support this. Having the HDD connected to the router will do very little to reduce the amount of traffic generated. If you have tons of money to spend whack in a Riverbed WAN optimization appliance which will help optimize the traffic, I kid I kid, those things are in the 10's of thousand $ range. I think this is all going to come down to the upload speed you are able to get. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Soundy 1 Posted January 27, 2012 Any benefits to analog CCTV (I assume with a local DVR) over webcams with a local harddrive connected to the router? Yes: it'll be infinitely simpler to do on a budget. To do it PROPERLY with IP cams and network storage, you're looking at substantially more expensive equipment. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HiddenMountain 0 Posted January 28, 2012 Yeah - I've heard the same concerns about satelite internet. I'm looking at WB, but haven't signed up yet It's a cabin I use only on the weekends - about once a month. I mainly want the internet so I can remote monitor the cabin, so I don't want to sign up if it won't work the cabin is in Southern Utah - 12 miles from the nearest town or ISP. I don't even get cell reception out there, so 3G/4G isn't an optino. I make my own power (solar and battery), so any system I end up using needs to be power minimal. I'm new to the whole remote system monitoring, so I'm not sure what the best option is to make it work. Primarily I want something that can take periodic pictures during the day (predetermined times and whenever motion is detected) and save the pictures on a local hardrive connected to the monitoring network. I want the ability to log in once every few days to view the pictures. I'd also like the ability to view live video feed once a week, if possible, for a minute or two. Given those specs/desired uses, I'm open to any suggestions regarding the best way to make this work. Any benefits to analog CCTV (I assume with a local DVR) over webcams with a local harddrive connected to the router? As I said, I'm fairly new to this technology, and am looking for suggestions on the best way to make this work. I'm trying to do all the homework I can before making any purchases. Thanks Southern Utah is absolutely beautiful. I used to take Hwy. 89 from I-15 to Flagstaff on my way to Douglas AZ and back... Yeah, your options are very limited. Unfortunately, you would have to leave your cameras and DVR (assuming that's the route you took) on all of the time. That would be a huge power drain. Then the satellite modem would also have to be on. Assuming two analog cameras, a cheap DVR and your modem alone, you would have to have 10 to 15 Amps continuous power supply. That would have to be some PV array and battery bank! You might think about hooking up a timer so that it only powered it all up at your peak power times, but if you are trying to catch the bad guys, that would be a crap shoot as to timing... Unfortunately, satellite internet has horrible ping rates, so like the boys said, you'd be lucky to get a bunch of still images. It's better than nothing, but you can forget controlling a PTZ cam. I wish I could be of more help to you, maybe the guru's who do this for a living can give you some better advise. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HiddenMountain 0 Posted February 19, 2012 While our OP seems to have moved on, I found this today and am wondering if this is the reason for his wanting live surveillance... http://cryptogon.com/?p=27611 It would seem that the character in question is giving the owners of remote cabins in the area the willies. He needs to be stopped, but my question is, Is he the only one? Living in a very remote area ourselves, I have met a few of these types and have had things stolen by them, thus the reason for my CCTV system. To the OP, did you ever get anything figured out for your cabin? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sawbones 0 Posted February 23, 2012 While our OP seems to have moved on, I found this today and am wondering if this is the reason for his wanting live surveillance... http://cryptogon.com/?p=27611 It would seem that the character in question is giving the owners of remote cabins in the area the willies. He needs to be stopped, but my question is, Is he the only one? Living in a very remote area ourselves, I have met a few of these types and have had things stolen by them, thus the reason for my CCTV system. To the OP, did you ever get anything figured out for your cabin? I think they've ID'd that guy... but he's still on the loose. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ryattus 0 Posted March 23, 2012 Have you made any progress on this project? I too have a remote off-grid cabin but our property is in central Utah. We've been toying with the idea of remote monitoring for some time and would be interested in any solution you find. Thanks! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
norcaldad 0 Posted March 29, 2012 I had experience with WildBlue Sattelite Internet- latest was about 2 years ago for a property out in the country. My experience reminded me of the early days of dial-up and expensive - remember measured rates? (if that is what they called it - I forget). Perhaps things have changed. YMMV Yes, they identified the guy - but I think he is still out on his own: Outlaw mountain men, extremists roam the Rockies: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46762631/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/#.T3QIoTEgerk Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
