Upgrading an existing CCTV system

[MichelR 0]

Hi,

 

I live in a condo building built in 1990. We currently have 8 analog cameras with coaxial cabling linking them to the office on the ground floor. All the cameras are on the same floor, except for one covering an entrance on the second floor. As far as I can tell, they're all well within 100m (300ft) of the office (I think it's much less - maybe half that, but haven't done any measurements yet.) There is an analog DVR in the office that is about two years old, but as far as we know, the cameras themselves are somewhat ancient.

 

The cameras at the moment are pretty much useless in that it's impossible to identify a person: The resolution just isn't good enough to identify faces most of the time. So even though the cameras can catch someone damaging a common area, more often than not the footage is useless. So the condo board asked a few of us to look into possible upgrades to the system.

 

Cost is an issue - as with any aging building, there are things to be replaced and repaired. At the same time, we don't want to spend money on something that won't be any better than what we have now.

 

We had a representative from a local security company stop by today. They supplied us with the current DVR. He gave us a lot of information, but I was left wondering if we weren't being taken for a ride - but above all, I like getting a few opinions from different sources. Having browsed through this forum several times last year while researching home cameras, I figured I'd ask here as there seems to be a wide range of knowledgeable people here.

 

Is replacing the analog cameras by IP cameras an option, using Ethernet over Coax connectors? (we'd rather avoid rewiring)

1- if yes, is distance a problem? They're not far from the office, but far is relative...

2- the analog DVR wouldn't be suitable anymore (the rep told us it won't work with digital.) Are there digital DVRs with BNC connectors? Or maybe even some "switch" that can be hooked up to a PC acting as a DVR?

 

One of the other members looked at what was available at Costco Canada and sent me this link with a number of systems: http://www.costco.ca/surveillance-systems.html?ddkey=http:CatalogSearch

 

Assuming that's not garbage and the answer above was "yes", would any of those be reasonable for our needs? Re: the Ethernet over coax issue, I guess we'd need "converters" at both ends, since these units all seem to be for Ethernet cables. The rep told us that such "converters" are $500 a piece, but frankly I haven't seen one anywhere near that. And that's with Canadian prices.

 

In my condo unit I have two WiFi cameras on my local network with a PC running Blue Iris security software. I assume that replacing the wired cameras by WiFi would be a problem due to bandwidth or something? It's an idea that we have floated but not looked into yet. The rep told us the quality would be worse than the analog cameras, without expanding on the subject.

 

That's the gist of it. Hopefully I gave enough (and clear enough!) information to get some educated guesses from you good folks. We'd just like to explore various options before coming to a decision.

 

Thanks!

Michel

[the toss 0]

HD-CVI & HD-TVI are both hi-res analogue systems that will run on your existing coax infrastructure and give comparable quality to IP without the associated problems. Yes you will need to replace the DVR & cameras but these are usually less costly than the IP equivelents.

[MichelR 0]

Thanks for your reply. I don't believe the rep mentioned those as a possible option for better quality. In fact he told us to "just add more cameras." To me, that means installing more wiring - coax and power. While at least one area may benefit from having an extra camera, I don't think littering the ground floor with cameras is a good solution. Then again, this is not my area of expertise.

 

I ran into this link searching for the type of cameras you mentioned: https://www.security-camera-warehouse.com/knowledge-base/hd-sdi/

 

Any more suggestions/pitfalls/info are welcome. We're trying to cover all the bases before deciding on a solution, so any feedback is appreciated.

 

Thanks!

Michel

[jeromephone 6]

I would support replacing cameras but would look to avoid wireless cameras if possible. If they have a cable connection now they must have power all ready to go to wireless you still have to provide power.

[Don Stephens 0]

I ran into this link searching for the type of cameras you mentioned: https://www.security-camera-warehouse.com/knowledge-base/hd-sdi/

 

I would stay away from HDSDI if I were you. It can be very buggy if you end up with the wrong equipment, which isn't a hard thing to do with HDSDI. Stick with looking into HDCVI and HDTVI like jeromephone recommended.

 

Security Camera Warehouse makes me nervous. I already gave my input on them in another thread (second post):

 

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=44034&p=261915&hilit=security+camera+warehouse#p261915

[MichelR 0]

Thanks for the input!

 

Security Camera Warehouse is just a web site I ran into while searching for the camera types. They're a U.S. supplier (and I think they only ship to the U.S.), and we're in Canada. It's more than likely that we'll go with a local supplier, or at least a Canadian one. Just makes things easier.

[mnederlanden 0]

We actually ship worldwide.

 

-Matt from Security Camera Warehouse

 

Also thanks for checking out our site and talking about it here. If you have any questions or want me to demonstrate anything, you can always shoot me an email - matt@

 

I don't engage a ton on this site cause I don't want to be all self-promotional, but if you guys want anything demonstrated or reviewed, please let me know. I do the writing for the site.