Community CCTV?

[cosmicnet 0]

Hi,

I've been trying to figure out how to create a community CCTV network. I've had cameras for 7 years, for the last couple of years I've given up on DVR units and have a PC instead. I'm just about to hook up 3 more cameras including a PTZ dome, but my plans for the neighbourhood are much more ambitious...

 

When something happens, car broken into, criminal damage, etc., people tend to as me if I caught it on camera. What I would like to create is a local CCTV network. The rough design is:

 

• Each household involved would have their own independent PC based CCTV setup.
  
• These would be connected to the internet.
  
• We'd each have a password protected login and be able to view cameras on the network live
  
• A server, probably at my house, would act as backup, and store timed images from each camera in the network
  

 

Obviously, step 1 is the easy part. I'm not yet sure as to how best achieve the rest.

I'm a software engineer, but I don't have much experience with CCTV systems. I certainly don't want to develop any software from scratch and want to use something off the shelf, preferably open source.

 

Any advice you can offer would likely save me an awful lot of searching and reading.

 

 

Lyle

[vector18 1]

have your neighborhood put cameras all over their house, put their dvr on the internet, and share the URL of each dvr

to the neighbors you want to share them with, and give them the passwords to log in. Most people do not want their

neighbors to be able to log into their camera systems, so good luck with your cctv community.

[cosmicnet 0]

I was aiming to feed each camera to a central dashboard behind a single login. Obviously that's going to be more difficult to setup, but surely it's possible?

[vector18 1]

That would mean constant upload from everyone's house and would eat up their bandwidth. Also, that would mean the same cameras on their property would still be viewable from anyone in that community. Either way you set it up, I'm sure people would not like that idea.

[cosmicnet 0]

The cameras would only be viewable by people with authorized access. i.e. only people who have joined their cameras to the network or have been otherwise approved. No one would be forced to join. They could disconnect at any time. In other words, it doesn't matter if some people don't want to have their cameras connected. I already have people who do. In the UK we have something called neighbourhood watch, this ties in nicely with that.

 

I'm well aware of the bandwidth consumption, the cameras would only need to do a full feed when someone is viewing. I would be surprised if there wasn't CCTV software with bandwidth throttling, should it be needed. Most people don't care or worry much about their upload bandwidth being used as they are mostly downloading.

[vector18 1]

In that case, a rather inexpensive way IMO, would be to run a server running PSS and add everyone's dahua dvr as a device and let people log into the server. It actually seems like a friendly idea and a nice way for the neighborhood to feel safer. I'm for NY and everyone here is out for themselves so something like what ur looking for around my way is almost impossible, lol

[cosmicnet 0]

Thanks, so I should use the software from here?

http://www.dahuasecurity.com/download_2_4.html

 

Run a server, then make sure all their PCs are running the same software? I'll have a poke about with this, the site seems rather lacking in documentation. Would dahua be the only software to do this or are their options? Do you know of any decent guides to this or something similar?

 

It's like that in London, fortunately I'm miles from there

[vector18 1]

There are other options I'm sure, but this is how I would try to do it. Everyone would have to buy a compatible dvr for the software though. They do not need a PC and run pss. Only the server that everyone will log into needs to run pss. You enter everyone's dvr into pss and log into their dvr's. Than you can open as many clients as you wish all at once.

[ak357 0]

There are other options I'm sure, but this is how I would try to do it. Everyone would have to buy a compatible dvr for the software though. They do not need a PC and run pss. Only the server that everyone will log into needs to run pss. You enter everyone's dvr into pss and log into their dvr's. Than you can open as many clients as you wish all at once.

 

Plus if u really concern about reliability of whole system

run host monitoring tools against all DVRs with reporting back to you

[MR2 0]

When people are paying for the power and having their internet hammered... bad idea

 

your BEST idea is if your houses are close enough... Run wireless Camera's, beef up the antenna, store it yourself.

 

DVR's are always a crap idea, NVR is what you want, can I suggest you look at community funding for this before you spend a cent? if they won't pay for it, why waste your time, even if their words lead you to believe they care.