Seeking advice for systems for multiple homes

[wayne47 0]

Myself and several neighbors have been having petty theft in the area and we have agreed to do something to monitor the area concentrating on night time (there is usually sufficient activity during the day to deter nefarious activity). Referencing the picture below, the houses at 2, 3 and 4 are all committed to spending money, we have not had a chance to talk to the owner of 1 yet (out of town) but suspect they will be interested as well. Thinking DVR per house, assorted cameras, ideally with some way to alert us when there is traffic after midnight. We are also thinking that motion activated spots on each driveway would be a good idea. With only 3 neighbors using this section of street, we'll cope with the occasional neighbor returning home late.

The south west corner of house 4 has a clear view of the intersection so that's one good thing. Trees are an issue, as can bee seen. Several people expressed interest in door cameras as well. For guidance, the street is about 30 feet wide.

Having many posts in this forum, budget is frequently mentioned. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we are willing to commit significant, but not unlimited, resources to this project.

Looking forward to responses.

[lindsayspop 0]

I can't tell from the aerial view what kind of street lighting -- if any -- you have. It's not apparent that there's much illumination for picking up license plates and so forth. In the absence of street lighting you might consider attractive but powerful yard lights as one form of deterrence.

I'm not a security pro like many of the guys on this forum but another thing you might also invest in is motion activated lights located strategically on vulnerable areas of each house. High up on the eave of what appears to be some pretty tall homes, they might be a deterrent in their own right as well as a supplemental source of lighting to the cameras you choose to install.

[wayne47 0]

No street lighting. As i mentioned in my OP, we are thinking motion activated spots on the garages at least. Not sure if there's some way to share the cameras between houses.

[ronp 0]

Dakota Alert has several models of vehicle detectors - detects large moving hunks of metal. The receiver has relay outputs that you can attach to the alarm inputs of your DVR. See: http://www.amazon.com/Dakota-Alert-DCPA-2500-Cycle-Probe/dp/B00443BDHS/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1345380935&sr=8-7&keywords=dakota+alert

 

I have an Optex motion detector, too. If both go off I know it's a car. If just the optex goes off I know it's a person (or a bear). Either way, the DVR starts recording on the alarm input.

 

Some might argue to just use the motion detection built into the DVR but I have too many spiders and moths that trigger the motion recording.

[shockwave199 0]

Not sure what you mean with all the neighbors. You all want your own cctv systems? That's good. But what's the group project aspect of the thing? If you have no street lights, you should all install exterior lights, first off. Motion is ok, but dusk to dawn lights can be even better. You want to light up the area, not keep it dark until motion. Darkness draws in the wrong element. Lights deter them. Lights also help cameras see better at night.

 

For a great 8 channel dvr for short bucks, but full featured, I still love the q-see 408-5. It comes with a 500gb hard drive in it. I have two and they work so well- really an excellent dvr. Look at my vids in my signature for a review on it, and cameras I use. All good product to consider for you all. This could be a something to consider for your driveways and such and you can get creative with how you apply it. My review on it-

 

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If one or more of you want to take neighborhood watch to the next level, a ptz monitoring the fronts of properties is excellent. Some vids I did of mine, looking over things out front for all of us-

 

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If you're all ok with it, if you get the same dvr's such as a 408 you can use multi client software and actually load in some or all of each others cameras. You could give each other rights to watch perhaps one front exterior camera of everyone else, so anyone who's up at night can open the software and have full view of their own system, and also one front camera of everyone else too, all in the same software- hence multi client software. That kind of thing is a serious commitment to a neighborhood watch, as all would have to be ok with one or more exterior cameras being viewed by the others. Browse all my vids. I tried to cover a ton of stuff for residential. Good luck to you all!