Researching Surveillance System for Home.

[jonboy385 0]

Hi. I'm new to the forum. I've been reading many posts trying to learn before asking questions already answered.

 

I'm looking into a surveillance system for my house. Reasons:

1) Robberies in the neighborhood

2) Very recently, somebody drove by taking a photo of the house.

3) Very recently, female, young 20s, looked like a druggie knocked on the front door asking to use the phone. We live up in the mountains, so it was unusual.

 

It seems like some people may be scoping out the house.

 

My main concern is cameras outside the house.

 

Budget: $3k (just for hardware; I have allowed another $500 or so for install). Can raise budget if needed.

 

System: NVR

 

Wiring: CAT6

 

Camera 1,2,3 → Hikvision DS-2CD2032-I → Bullet, 1080P, 30M IR

One on each side of the house and one in backyard

 

Camera 4,5,6,7 → HikVision DS-2CD2T32-I3/I5/I8 → Bullet 1080P, IR 80M

2 covering each side of the driveway.

2 pointed on the street.

- These are the most important for me. Facial and license plate recognition is the biggest concern for me with this surveillance system.

- I want a camera that can see perfectly at nighttime.

- I want a camera that will read a license plate and get a crisp facial photo from 50 feet distance.

 

QUESTION- Will the camera HikVision DS-2CD2T32-I3/I5/I8 be sufficient for license plate / facial recognition from 50 feet (maybe 75 feet) distance)? Will the IR allow for facial/license plate recognition at 50-75 feet distance? If not, which camera will?

 

QUESTION- HikVision DS-2CD2T32-I3/I5/I8 ---- what is i3/i5/i8? Are these different versions? What does it mean?

 

Camera 8 → Hikvision DS-2CD2032-I → Bullet, 1080P, 30M IR

In front of my door.

I would like audio recording on this camera.

 

QUESTION- Hikvision DS-2CD2032-I --- does this camera have a microphone for audio recording outside the front door? If not, how do I add a microphone to it?

 

QUESTION- are these cameras okay in 110F heat and heavy rain or 30F freezing temperature? Should they be enclosed?

 

NVR:

Hikvision DS-7616NI-SE/P or Dahua 4216

QUESTION- Which is better?

 

QUESTION- Should I go with a computer and dedicated cards or a NVR?

 

Method of recording:

Will record by motion detection. It seems not logical to record 24/7 when there is no motion.

 

QUESTION- Is it the norm to record 24/7 or with motion?

 

Hard Drives:

How much hard drive space is needed to record with motion only for 14 days and 8 cameras at full 1080p? What about 30 days?

 

Cloud Backup:

Thieves are smart enough these days to look for a DVR/NVR with a location of cameras, so I feel cloud backup is a must.

 

QUESTION- Do the NVR's I listed allow for cloud back up?

 

QUESTION- what is the normal technique of recording to a cloud?

Pictures from each camera every 20 seconds?

Backup everything motion sensed?

Auto backup everything both to hard drives and to cloud?

 

Alarm:

I was looking at the SimpliSafe alarm system. I like that it is user installable and customizable. I'm thinking of purchasing it and putting motion detectors in the rooms. If motion detected, to call cell phones.

 

QUESTION- is there a reason to connect the alarm and surveillance system together? Is it possible?

 

I probably have more questions, but if I can get these answered, it will definitely get the ball rolling for me.

 

GENERAL QUESTIONS:

Am I missing anything?

 

Given my budget, would you remove/add/change anything?

 

Is Hikvision a good brand? Is there better?

 

An installer came by and stated he uses Eyemax. Anybody has experience with Eyemax?

 

Do I need a POE switch?

 

Also, if somebody knows a good installer in Los Angeles, please recommend.

[jonboy385 0]

I did not. I never got answers...and just been busy.

[1dwn5up 0]

Same here. Lots of views, no response.

[zr1 0]

Lotta topics, but I'm procrastinating doing some stuff...lol

 

Hik 2CD2T32

 

I like Hik's 3MP stuff...and especially this larger bullet cam. Their 4MP cams are even better.

 

- I want a camera that can see perfectly at nighttime.

 

The nighttime shots aren't as good as daytime shots. They see in the dark with IR and low light...but it won't be perfectly. And the 4MP cams aren't just higher resolution, they also give better nighttime performance.

 

In practice, I typically divide the cameras advertised IR distance in half as that's where the image will be a noticeably better.

 

- I want a camera that will read a license plate and get a crisp facial photo from 50 feet distance.

 

Lighting

Optics

Resolution

 

Lighting (and the light-gathering performance of the cam) is big here. Good thing is the Hik's are great at this.

 

Optics - at 50 feet...if you know where the vehicle is going to be, your lens might want to be around 20-28mm to get close enough to the license plate as well as to provide a little fudge factor of the vehicle being a bit to the left or right.

If the vehicle has space to be left or right of that telephoto lens, then it may mean more cameras or other options.

A 12mm lens might be a good compromise if there's a wider field of view that's needed...but you'll need to combine this with good resolution to be able to pick out the details of the plate number.

 

Resolution - 3MP only goes marginally wider than 2MP (it does have more vertical resolution by quite a bit). Going to 4MP gives much more horizontal resolution.

 

Coverage Plan

Your covereage of the different cameras sounds...like you've thought it out. But you being on site will give you a much better idea of where the cams need to point and what they need to see. Something like YouTube videos or an online "simulator/lens calculator" can give you a general idea of what cams can do like this one:

http://polarisusa.com/lens-calculator

(I'm not affiliated with that site)

 

QUESTION- Hikvision DS-2CD2032-I --- does this camera have a microphone for audio recording outside the front door? If not, how do I add a microphone to it?

 

Several Hik's have an audio function, like some of their domes or big bullets...but I don't think the -032 mini bullet does. It'll take some research to read through the specs of their cams.

 

QUESTION- are these cameras okay in 110F heat and heavy rain or 30F freezing temperature? Should they be enclosed?

 

Being here in Arizona, I can say that the Hiks do great in 120F heat and exposed in the sunlight too. They also do great in heavy July Monsoon rain (and dust storm/haboobs too).

But we don't get the freezing temps here.

But protect the wiring from sun/water.

 

NVR:

Hikvision DS-7616NI-SE/P or Dahua 4216

QUESTION- Which is better?

 

I work more with the Hik's, but I've done the 'hua's too. Both are very well done.

However, when I'm doing a system from the ground up, I most always go with a single brand when I can.

Compatibility - While the ONVIF protocol helps, it's not 100%. Sticking with a single brand mostly means the devices will be compatible.

Service - If doing Brand A/B mixing on an install, if something goes wrong, when calling either of the two companies, they often point the finger at the other company and I'm left with something still not working (and if their return policy is not Costco-like, they may not even RMA for a return).

But when buying a single brand, the company can't play that card and I'm able to have things swapped out way easier.

So if you're going Hik cams...for company service, I'd say go with a Hik NVR.

 

QUESTION- Should I go with a computer and dedicated cards or a NVR?

 

Time-honored discussion, and you'll see many views on it.

PC: pricier for doing just a few cams. But when you get a whole bunch of cams, the PC can be cheaper than the big 32+channel NVRs.

The PC is also "more" upgradeable later...swap out the cards and upgrade any software.

The PC does take more TLC though as you're the one maintaining the operating system.

 

NVR: It does all the same functions the PC does..remote viewing, motion, etc.

Less cost for 1-32ish cams.

Much less TLC...near-fire-and-forget after you set it up.

Upgradeable? Only to the # of channels the NVR was designed for. If it's an 8ch NVR...than 8 channels is it.

 

The techie-hobbyists certainly like the PC route for tinkering/bragging-at-family-reunions.

But my business customers almost always like the NVR option as they want to focus on their business and not think about the NVR maintenance.

 

QUESTION- Is it the norm to record 24/7 or with motion?

My government (and casino) customers like 24/7.

But my business customers almost always go with motion recording.

* much less hard drive space

* much easier to locate a motion event than sifting through 24/7 of recording

 

How much hard drive space is needed

There's some calculators on the net. Google for "security camera hard drive calculator" then fill in the specs of your system.

 

I feel cloud backup is a must.

The movie Terminator 2 sure showed the world that cloud backup is necessary, right?

But just backup the important stuff. Most of my small business customers might have an extra drive in the NVR or a NAS drive on site for backup, but none of them do off-site backup for video. It's just way too much data which would gets expensive for your ISP bill to transfer some 2TB of data a month.

If one is concerned about a theif trying to locate a semi-hidden NVR, then use a NAS drive backup somewhere else on the premises. Better hidden...and it won't impact your ISP data bandwidth (though you may want to go gigabit on your LAN).

 

Alarm:

Some people do like the alarm sensor more than the motion-sensing on the NVR. Though on the NVR, the motion sensitivity and even the areas on the image can be tailored to what you want sensed.

 

If motion detected, to call cell phones.

 

Story time:

Some moons ago, I was geeking out at home, and set up an NVR to text me when it sensed motion (actually it emailed to my cell phone's text-messaging email). I thought I had things figured out well enough.

I went on a week-long trip, no problem. I got probably 8-10 alerts a day, some were shadows of a plane flying over the house during the day, or oddities, but no issue, I was cool with that.

A couple of weeks later, I turned on the texting thing again, then went camping with the family for a week. While I was camping and out of cell (and internet) range (yeah, no practical reason to set up the texting, just geeking-out with a little experiment)...during that camping trip, a computer monitor that was in sleep mode died. But it didn't die and go black, it just showed a flickering white screen. So for 4 days, the NVR is sending me text messages nonstop. When I got back in cell range, it took several hours for the 15,000 text messages to come through (and it took several more hours to delete them all).

 

Motion sensing is great and really good for recording on motion. But it's still a dumb computing device...as the local police dept. will tell you why they don't allow non-human alarms to call the police station (they already spend countless hours going to people's homes visiting false alarms).

 

Do I need a POE switch?

POE switches are great when they're needed. Some NVR's have POE jacks right on them. Or you can use a POE switch (or POE injector with a regular switch) to get the power going down the network cables.

 

POE switches (switches in general) really shine when you have a few cameras on the other side of the facility from the NVR. Then you just need one network cable to get to the other side of the facility and run those bank of far-away cameras into a switch on that far-side of the building.

[jonboy385 0]

I greatly appreciate the detailed and catered response. It confirmed many things that seemed logical and read else where. Some good tips as well.

 

It's interesting that one Ethernet cable can carry video from multiple cameras via a POE switch.