ACTi System

[casabonitaranch 0]

I am looking at installing a system at a weekend ranch house that is out in the country. The major consideration is to be able to monitor the house remotely since we do not live out there and to receive alerts when the cameras detect movement. I am looking at the survelillance kit sold by BHPhotovideo.com of the ACTi. I wanted to get everyone thoughts on the package deal and whether or not its a good deal or am i better off ordering items without getting a kit. The kit includes:

 

4 TCM-1111 IP Bullets

VS-2004 Pro VioStor NVR

2 tb Barracuda HDD

8-port 10/100 Mbps POE switch

 

 

Here is the link:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/878202-REG/ACTi_4_Camera_Value_Outdoor.html

 

 

One curious thing is why they package this with the VioStor NVR and not the ACTi standalone NVR.

[bigglebowski 0]

Couple of things to consider here. ACTI has completely revamped their product line and these are an end of life model. It may have changed but I do remember B&H was on a list of resellers who were NOT authorized resellers so your warranty through ACTI may be voided by buying there. This may no longer be accurate but take into consideration. The POE switch is only 4 of 8 ports POE. This is not uncommon as most POE switches are this way, just be aware if you plan to add another POE device to it. If you have a spare PC around or can build one the NVR 3.0 software ACTI provides for free (for less than 16 cams) can run 4 cams on a pretty low end PC.

[buellwinkle 0]

Seems pricey to me an I agree with the comment above about the TCM series being end of life. But lets price it out. Say you went with D31, the replacement for the TCM-1111 from the same store, B&H who is not authorized that I know of but lets just say it doesn't matter. $232.50 for the D31 or if you want to do better, the 3MP D32 is $266.50 so $930 or $1,066 for 4 cameras. A half way decent 8 port switch with PoE, say $70, so that leaves $688 for the NVR (or $552 if you want 3MP).

 

With that kinda of money left over, you can buy a pretty nice PC and run their free NVR 3 software (as mentioned above) for free, you don't more than say an i3 for a 8 cameras or so. But if you want an NVR, B&H sells the ACTi for $649 with 9 channels, say $75 for a hard drive and you have all the current cameras and NVR from ACTi and more importantly, you have choice, you can say get 3MP where needed, 1MP where it's good enough, you can get indoor domes for inside the house and outdoor domes where that's appropriate. My conclusion, I would not get that bundle.

 

Also, you may want to consider this. I have a vacation home in the hills, power is not as reliable as the big city (or big suburb in my case). So two things I would consider crucial, first is obvious but a UPS battery backup, second is a managed PoE switch. The reason managed is nice is that if a camera freezes, you can connect to the switch via the internet and power the camera off and back on. There's a bunch for sale on eBay, if not, the ZyXel pwr2108 runs about $240 at newegg, maybe less on sale.

[casabonitaranch 0]

Thanks for the quick responses and advice. I think I am going to go with the D32s, managed switch and use a PC. A couple more questions.

 

I have a mac mini at the ranch house. Can that be used or would i have to use bootcamp or parrells? If there is a big compatibility issue, i may just buy a new PC just to run the cameras. If I need to get a PC, are there any requirements that are important or just a baseline PC.

 

We have a deer feeder that is around 150 yards from house and is close to a big oak tree. Can I run Cat5 150 yards to a camera and if yes, what camera would you recommend that would run with this system.

 

Thanks for all the help and advice!

[casabonitaranch 0]

forgot one more -- any recommendations for an authorized ACTi online dealer? I googled and the one seller that keeps coming up is B&H.

[Kawboy12R 0]

150m is a bit too far without additional magic for a network cable run. The specs say 100m max for UTP (cat 5, 5e, 6) although you can sometimes stretch it a bit if you want to gamble. You'd need a network extender of some kind to get an IP camera working over that kind of distance.

[buellwinkle 0]

The cheapest thing for the 150yd run is a wireless bridge, a pair of Ubiquiti Nanostation Loco should do it, maybe $100 total for both. A pair of Ethernet extenders will probably cost you 2-3X more. Also, you can see if Powerline adapters would work if you have power out there. Either way, no avoiding having to have power there to run either the Powerline, the wireless bridge or the Ethernet extender.

 

To me a Mac Mini is a waste to use as an NVR because of their value but if you have and have no other use, can't you just wipe out OSX and install Windows natively? You can use Bootcamp since it's free and go back and forth, but not use both at the same time but that would be a waste of disk space having both. I use Fusion to run Windows as needed but this is my main laptop, a MacBook Air. A really cheap PC will also work as CPU requirements are very low for NVR3.

[casabonitaranch 0]

Thanks for all of the advice. Here is the system that I am planning on going with. Any comments, suggestions or recommendations?

 

Lenovo 3rd Gen i3, 6GB DDR3, 1TB

Netgear R6300 router

Zyxel ES2108 managed switch

4 - ACTi E32 3MP bullet

1 - ACTi E53 3MP indoor dome

1 - ACTi E72 3MP outdoor dome

[buellwinkle 0]

Sounds like a very nice home system.

[bigglebowski 0]

Are you doing POE, the Zyxel ES2108 doesnt seem to have POE.

[buellwinkle 0]

I'm assuming he meant the ES2108PWR that is PoE.

[casabonitaranch 0]

Thanks guys, yes i got the PWR model! Thanks again.

[casabonitaranch 0]

Installation question. Do I go camera to switch to router then to computer? Or camera to switch to computer then to router?

[Kawboy12R 0]

Depends on other network traffic and who you talk to. The "best" way is cameras to switch to separate NIC in the computer dedicated to camera traffic only, then computer to router via the other NIC (probably the built-in port). The easier way that most home DIY installers use is cameras to switch to router and computer to router. That runs the camera traffic through your router though. Not a big deal for a camera or two but can bog down network traffic through the router with lots of megapixels going through it. That "easy" way works best for cameras->switch->NVR->router topology so network traffic only goes through the router for remote viewing. You'd probably be better off doing the cameras->switch->separate NIC in computer route. The NIC won't cost anything at all compared to the rest of your hardware and a rent-a-geek can handle installation and configuration if you're not comfortable with doing it.

[casabonitaranch 0]

I need some help trying to view these cameras over the internet and on the ipad app. I have installed all of the cameras. I have the cameras PoE to the switch, the switch to the router and then router to computer. I can view the cameras on the computer but I cannot figure out how to view them on ipad app or remotely from a website.

 

I have been through ACTi website and all of the their help docs are for older version (ACM series and TCM series) and none have the instructions for setting up under the new IP Utility program. For example the "How to watch live video using Iphone" refers to a web configurator that is completely different then the IP utility. It refers to streaming method of TCP Only and the IP Utility doesn't have anything like that.

 

When I try to view on the ipad app, I continue to receive "connection failed."

 

Thanks.

[casabonitaranch 0]

I must have changed something because now when I try to log in on iPad app it says Account or Password error. I have typed in my NVR 3.0 account and password and even tried the admin and 123456 and nothing works.

 

Any ideas? Thxs!

[chucky 0]

Depends on other network traffic and who you talk to. The "best" way is cameras to switch to separate NIC in the computer dedicated to camera traffic only, then computer to router via the other NIC (probably the built-in port). The easier way that most home DIY installers use is cameras to switch to router and computer to router. That runs the camera traffic through your router though. Not a big deal for a camera or two but can bog down network traffic through the router with lots of megapixels going through it. That "easy" way works best for cameras->switch->NVR->router topology so network traffic only goes through the router for remote viewing. You'd probably be better off doing the cameras->switch->separate NIC in computer route. The NIC won't cost anything at all compared to the rest of your hardware and a rent-a-geek can handle installation and configuration if you're not comfortable with doing it.

 

One quick question on these configurations:

With the dual nic card setup would all components be using the same setup on the IP addresses (192.168.1.x), Gateway 192.168.1.254), and SubNet Mask 255.255.255.0)? or would the POE switch and the NIC card dedicated to the cameras be setup differently? Evample: 192.168.0.x, 192.168.0.254, 255.255.255.0

 

Thank You

Chucky

[Kawboy12R 0]

The IP addressing for the separate NIC isn't the same as your router's 192.etc numbers. Try searching on here for "dual nic setup". Lots of threads by people more qualified than I am to explain dual NIC setups. Don't rule out older threads for advice, either. Soundy has a nice setup with topology pictures here.

[chucky 0]

Thanks for all of the advice. Here is the system that I am planning on going with. Any comments, suggestions or recommendations?

 

Lenovo 3rd Gen i3, 6GB DDR3, 1TB

Netgear R6300 router

Zyxel ES2108 managed switch

4 - ACTi E32 3MP bullet

1 - ACTi E53 3MP indoor dome

1 - ACTi E72 3MP outdoor dome

 

Nice looking system, which supplier did you end up purchasing through? I can see concerns about using a unapproved suppliers especially dealing with lack of support, returns, or warranty issues that could arise.

 

Thanks

Chucky