Help with new residential system

[nemesis 0]

Sorry for not doing an introductory post but we're building a new home and have realised that if I don't run some cables in the next few days the walls will soon be lined making life a lot harder. I have a limited understanding of CCTV - currently I have two D-Link wifi cameras but at our new place I don't want to rely on wifi and would rather PoE so I don't need to run extra cables to where all the cameras will be.

 

So here's my wish list:

 

Four to six external cameras:

IP, POE, IR, prefer domes. One PTZ would be great provided I can control the PTZ from an iOS device.

 

DVR / NVR:

Not sure what difference is but I'd like a recorder that doesn't rely on my computer yet something I can view on a computer.

 

Features:

Motion detection push notifications and emails to an iOS device

Ability to monitor and playback on iOS would be great

 

Our set up

We're in Australia and are installing a 'Hills Home Hub' and cat 5e to most rooms. At the moment its just frame and some rough wiring done so I have access to run cables now. The hub is in the garage and the cameras will mostly be upstairs under the eaves. I have full access to the attic / ceiling cavity.

 

I want to run some cables now but wasn't sure whether its best to either

 

a) Run them all to the hub and somehow then run them to the PVR/DVR from there

b) Run them all to somewhere like an upstairs cupboard where I want to hide the DVR/NVR and run one single cable from that location back to the hub.

c) Run all the cameras to a PoE switch in a cupboard upstairs and from there one single cable down to the DVR/NVR

 

I'm not sure if it really even needs to run to the hub in the garage or can it just plug into any data point in the home? Finally - is there any way to be able to watch the images on the tv's within the house?

 

Would love any suggestions re set up or gear. Thanks in advance!

[zr1 0]

You can plug the cams into any data point in the home...however:

 

Internal Network speed capacity

If:

* your network is 10/100

* you have a bunch of cams

* the cams are running a good resolution

Then you may be bumping up against some network limits.

 

However, a gigabit internal network for 5-20 cams should be fine (Google for a camera bandwidth calculator)

Another solution is to run a single cable per camera all the way from the NVR to each camera. This way the cams regular data won't be on the rest of the network traffic. And if the NVR is POE, then bonus, your power is already a done deal too.

 

Power

Ya gotta power the cams somehow. Whether from a central location via power wire or POE, or if you have different cameras getting their power closer to their location. Whether you use a separate power line or have power put into the Cat5 cable to the camera to make use of POE.

You can also have POE-injectors here and there to get power into the cam's Cat5 at some point.

Power is power...the camera doesn't care.

Doing POE from the NVR directly (if it does POE) or using a central POE switch or POE-injector does simplify wiring and installing for some installs.

 

Hub

We used to use hubs in the 90's, but going to a switch does better traffic management for the internal network.

 

DVR/NVR

Just naming...DVR is the term used for analog devices...but with IP cameras, we all try to sound cool and use NVR for those

 

PTZ

They're really cool.

Kinda fun too.

They also give a really good "wow" factor when you show off your system to somebody and control the camera from your phone or something.

However, for a system that doesn't have a live person monitoring it all the time, it most always makes more sense to put 2-3 cameras in the PTZ location and just record all the angles all the time as the PTZ will only record in the direction it's pointing at the time. Plus 2-3 regular cams is sometimes cheaper than a single PTZ anyway.

 

TV watching the security cams

There's several different methods...

Wire a video cable from the NVR to the TV of choice...a long HDMI (within HDMI limits) or such, then just tap the "source" or "input" button on your TV. That's view-only and no controlling.

Another way is to get a little USB plug-in Android device to your TV such as the Amazon Fire TV. Sure, it does the Amazon stuff, but you can install Android apps it and get a security camera app. That'll give you view and control from your TV.

[nemesis 0]

Thanks so much for the reply.

 

I think its only called the 'hills home hub' but has switches mounted inside the box that you can expand later on. Kind of modular system.

 

From the switch in the hub there is about 8 runs going to various points in the house. Its all cat 5e. I'm thinking of running a cat6 cable to the linen cupboard where I want to put the NVR. As the house is being built now I can easily run a cat6 cable from that cupboard to each location where I'll have a camera. There's a power point in the cupboard next to where the NVR will go so provided I get a POE one that should work then.

 

Is there any recommended PoE NVR or any to steer clear of? I'll have about 8 cameras but ideally would like a bit of flexibility should I ever want to expand that. I want something that will do push notifications to an iOS device as well.

 

Re watching it on the TV I have the new apple TV and I've noticed quite a few CCTV viewing apps are available on that. Hoping by the time the house is all done and cameras are in there will be something suitable on that for viewing.

 

Thanks again for the info. Off to run the cables tomorrow hopefully!