Starting to overhaul my CCTV.... finally.. Help!?

[stabmaster 0]

Hey thanks for helping me out so much what--- 8 or so years ago? LOL. I frequent the forum but don't post. All of the CCTV stuff from years ago is so antiquated now! I ran a super new "wireless" setup back then on solar panels. I got some good responses here for being bold enough to try something so new. The wireless unit was the best I could find and it was just a piecer. Sent it back in a couple of times and it just gave up the ghost on me.

 

Now i'm overhauling. Wireless isn't what it used to be! I still have a setup and instead of wireless it's EOPL "ethernet over power line" and it has been working solid for years.

 

Literally 3 miles away exists a cool outfit (Radiolabs) that makes antennas and some pretty nice solid wireless devices, so I can go pick some stuff up from them any time.

 

I've just gutted everything and I have a "Suddenlink" cable service and an AT&T dsl service. I'm not sure which I want for porting out to the world- but I do like the idea of running android dvr or something like that. I like the Robert Chou "IP Cam Viewer" for android and wanted to run that exclusively. I don't know where i want to store it but conceivably I can go intranet to a tablet pc and a HDD. I sortof want to make everything wirelessly connected to the router. I'll go over what I have selected so far and see what you have to say.. any help is greatly appreciated! I didn't really sink any major cash in this yet i'm just mucking around at this point.

 

I checked out the IP Cam Viewer website and selected a cheap-ish camera for trying out. It's the TV-IP512WN which has CS mount lens. I already got it in and checked it out, changed the lens to some unitek lens. Unfortunately there is no "auto iris" pinout on it. It was a $150 camera so I can't expect too much, but auto-iris is still a huge upgrade for outdoor surveilance right?

 

I haven't purchased yet but I'm looking at (pretty sure about) the O2Storm http://www.radiolabs.com/products/wireless/networking/1-watt-router.php

 

I just selected this because it will be a strong wifi network. I've NEVER had any luck with routers- they all annoy me, burn out eventually, have poor support or front end.. At least I can kick the door down at radiolabs and complain if there's a problem. Also I may run "clusters" of wifi cams from various points and do repeaters with antennas, but i'm not going miles apart so i'm not stressing about this yet. I can also go EOPL on these- i've run EOPL for 5 years with NO PROBLEMS!!! it's the netgear something -- really popular device and never gives me trouble.

 

Ok so what am I missing? I don't know where or how to store the DVR, which one(s) to pick, and why. I would prefer to pick up an android driven tablet and run the IP Cam Viewer PRO ($3.99) to a usb hard drive (maybe usb 3.0?) or maybe a wireless hard drive but I assume that will be an improbability because I've done a little reading on these and they're simply not very flexible.

 

Anyways if i can get any opinions on the DVR, the storage, and the network layout I would greatly appreciate it. I realize the question is "what the heck are you trying to do here" or "how are you going to use it"-- well I can answer that- i've been running the security here for years with moderate success. I will be expanding based on the usability but I want employees to be able to pick up a tablet or their phones from anywhere and just see what is/was going on without being technical about it. This is for an RV park. Usually something happens near the facilities or some idiot from town drives in that we don't want around and I just need the employees to be able to review it on the following day. We don't have to get high res or send the files out or anything difficult. Just a "replay" of the shennanigans and tom foolery going on there. Hope this was an informative starting place (!)

 

I have other questions too.. Id like to try to contribute here as well. I've built some really cool "one-off's" for abnormal security requests.... with varying utility and success. LOL. Any help with the new gizmos and security protocols (and programs and stuff).. that would be excellent!

[vector18 1]

Netgear also makes some small wireless battery operated cameras that record onto their servers, but you

pay a monthly service charge to view and record them.