New system for my lake house

[grege 0]

I have a lake house and currently have a Foscam looking at the driveway but I didn't do enough research and their cameras are horrible. I would probably want to go with a 8 channel NVR with 4 cameras to start with but that would give me the ability of adding cameras later. I currently use Blue Iris to monitor the Foscam.

 

Here is a overhead view from Bing Maps so not the clearest. I put red lines around the house and the detached garage. The other house is my sister's. And the green lines are approximately what I would be looking at.

 

My thought is one camera on the garage pointing at the house. One on the front left corner pointing up the driveway. One camera in the back pointing towards the dock. Not sure where to put the 4th camera yet. I thought about one on a tree pointing at the dock. I would have to run a cable to the tree. There is no networking cables going to the garage yet but it is doable since I have a retaining wall and can run it below that. I walked it off and the run would be between 150' and 200'. Is that okay? Any suggestions? I've been looking at Dahua but they seem very hard to get in the USA.

 

[buellwinkle 0]

Getting Dahua is not a problem as they started creating more distributors in the U.S. but the prices have gone up to provide U.S. warranties and support. WrightwoodSurveillance.com carries Dahua but the prices are higher than previously when people got them straight from China or smaller resellers got them from China in bulk and resold them here on eBay or Amazon.

 

But speaking of Dahua, they make a really cool and unique 1080P PTZ dome with powerful IR illuminators that can illuminate a block away. I can send you a link to where it's being used as a webcam with views across the water 2 miles away. It could be that one camera replaces several of the Foscams by establishing a patrol of various areas you want to cover like cover your backyard and your boat dock with one camera.

 

To do what you want to do with fixed cameras, get cameras with varifocal lenses. These are like a manual zoom that lets you set the focal length to what want. The problem with fixed lenses is they are typically wide angle and seeing a boat a few hundred feet away may not even be recognizable, trust me, the dock for our lake house is about 500' away and with a 6mm lens, all I can tell is that it's mine because of the teal canvas, otherwise it's too far away and a 12mm focal length would double the size of the boat in the image or I can just buy a larger boat. With Dahua that would be something like the IPC-HFW3200C.

 

As for number of cameras, we have 4 outside, one for each side and a few inside to cover the house while we are gone. Never had the urge to put more in. Each one is hardwired by an electrician to a central location for recording.

[grege 0]

I actually sent an email to WrightwoodSurveillance.com yesterday and received an email last night saying they were currently out of the office but would get back to me this morning. Not sure where they are located but it's afternoon for me already and nothing yet.

 

I'd love to see the link.

 

The IPC-HFW3200C was the camera I was looking at for that exact reason. As for the NVR I was thinking of the NVR5208P. I have Blue Iris but thought a dedicated NVR might be a better idea. What are you recording to?

[buellwinkle 0]

I'll PM you the link, not sure if the person wants everyone looking at or not.

[grege 0]

Sounds good.

 

I was looking at WrightwoodSurveillance.com and comparing the ACTi cameras mounting to the Dahua cameras mounting. The ACTi has more of the mount I am familiar with where I could mount it on the side of a house and point it in any direction. Is that possible with the Dahua? The mount comes out of the back of the camera so it's hard to see how you can adjust it.

 

I do like on the ACTi how you can replace their pigtail with a Ethernet cable and run it thru a flexible conduit to a weatherproof enclosure or right inside your house. How does ACTi compare to Dahua? I'll do some searching on that too.

 

 

[buellwinkle 0]

Not going to kid you, the Dahua is a PITA to mount. You'll need to make a hole about 1" square to fit the connectors through and screwing it in while holding a heavy camera is also fun. But the look is very clean, no wires showing, so a trade off. ACTi has cameras similar to the Dahua in style like the E44 and I'm not crazy about that either although slightly easier to install as you mount a ring to the wall or eave and then attach the camera to the ring via a collar.

 

Also, ACTi has an alternative mount for the E32 for example that is thicker and has a path for the wire to go through, the PMAX-1103.

[grege 0]

So with that Dahua mount, could you put in on the side of a house and have the camera 90 degrees to the base? Does that make sense? That ACTi mount you can spin the camera in any direction just wondered if you can do that with the Dahua mount.

[buellwinkle 0]

Yes, I have one mounted on the side of my house looking down the side so it's almost parallel to the wall. They rotate in 3 axis, so you can move the camera up/down, side to side and rotate it. You then tighten allen screws to hold it in place.

[grege 0]

Good to know. It's really hard to tell that from the pictures I see on the internet.

[grege 0]

Buell,

 

I think I am leaning towards the ACTi cameras. Mainly because of the mounting and the way the cable comes out with the flexible conduit. I already have a weatherproof box mounted on my garage and thinking about the other mounting places I plan on using I think that would work out better for me.

 

Going with that plan, which ACTi bullet camera should I look at? I was thinking D42 because it is 3M and has the vari-focal lens but then I saw the E42 that added WDR and didn't know if that would be good to have. Also, I saw on one of your reviews where you said that with all ACTi cameras you are entitled to use their software. I already have Blue Iris so would you recommend Blue Iris, the ACTi software, or buying an ACTi NVR to record video and send out emails?

 

Thanks for your help!!!

[buellwinkle 0]

I have a E32, works great, WDR is good, price is good and E42 would be the same camera but with a varifocal lens.

 

I use BlueIris and ACTI NVR software on the same PC because of all the testing I do. With ACTi NVR, the camera does all the work, so CPU stays pretty low, sometimes at zero percent unless you are viewing, this allows you to use slower cheaper PC's and put more cameras on. The interface is the same if on the same PC or remote, so that's nice where BlueIris has a very scaled down web interface. With ACTi NVR you can view multiple cameras at the same time during playback so you see a synchronized playback on a timeline which is cool as a person say transitions from outside to inside from room to room. If you already have BlueIris, install both side by side, same cameras and see which you like better.

 

The actual NVR is works well and may be the way to go if you don't already have a PC to put the software on but since you have BlueIris, just install the free NVR software on the same PC. Just note their software works only with ACTi cameras where BlueIris is generic and works with lots of brands so that's another trade off.

[grege 0]

Sounds like a plan. I have an older PC running at the lake house but we are upgrading a server at work this week and I think I will move the one we are replacing down to the lake house. I'll compare specs first but I think the server will probably have better components. It pays off being the IT guy and owner of the business.

[buellwinkle 0]

I ran ACTi NVR software on an Atom processor PC from 3 years ago so whatever you find will be fine.