Lost in the world of CCTV

[RussH 0]

Morning All,

 

Following a couple of burglaries on the industrial estate I have my little shed on, I want to invest in some CCTV to keep things monitors and alert me of any potential incidents.

I made the mistake with my home system of going down the route of the cheapest (well its wasn’t the cheapest, but it was cheap). I bought a Sannce package, and to be slightly fair it does what I need at home, although I now realise I probably am not getting the best image quality for my money with such a system.

 

So I thought I would seek some advice on recommended CCTV systems as a reasonable cost. With the all the variants of 1080p, 2k, 4k etc, Im at a complete loss and you can easily get sucked in to the extreme ends of the scales of complete cheap rubbish, or OTT top end stuff that is probably more suited to a aerospace company.

 

In terms of requirements. I am looking to protect a 3 entry points externally, a car park area, and then a few internal cameras. So I think an 8 Channel DVR would suffice. Obviously need day time and night time recording, but I don’t need any super long range focusing, etc

 

Any help on recommend brands or kits that would be hugely hugely appreciated

 

Thanks

 

Russ

[BradJackson 0]

Hi Russ,

My best advice when being lost in the world of CCTV is to read up on the basics of CCTV and try to understand the difference of the cameras AHD, HD, IP. Ect. The difference between a DVR (Digital Video Recorder), NVR (Network Video Recorder) Ect and what Is compatible with the cameras. Try calling a company that supplies CCTV or Installs CCTV to give you some advice on different products to see which will suit you. Its not all just cameras and DVRs you need to know which cables you are going to use and the accessories that you will need. Also thinking about the amount of recording you would like as the resolution and quality of the camera will effect the amount of storage the hard drive will take up. I currently use this to calculate the amount of storage i will need fitting on my DVR

https://www.aventuracctv.com/calculator/hard_drive_calculator.asp

Hope my advice helped you,

 

Brad Jackson

 

Techvision Security Group

www.tvsg.co.uk

[Safetman50 0]

Can't offer opinion on type of DVR but would suggest you get at least 2 to 4 megapixel cameras, Hikvision have good features At a good price! You will find a low end camera will not give enough detail, especially on facial!

[oscarthemighty 0]

Hi RussH, So to answer your question, you should first consider what kind of recorded image you hope to have. For example, you can choose between having a highly detailed recording with low FPS or a moderate resolution with good FPS, or have both good resolution AND FPS. This would impact the storage space required for the recording.

 

The things you would need will be 8 cameras + 1 NVR:

 

1. Of all the camera/NVR manufacturers out there, you can easily find a 8 channel NVR with built in POE to save some money. You can also use your own server/PC and get a software version of the NVR to do the recording and manage the cameras.

 

2. For simple installs you can choose to use fix lens cameras with decent WDR and low light sensitivity. Select cameras with wide viewing angles to minimize number of cameras.

 

Some brand examples would be Hikvision, Dahua, ACTi, Axis, Milestone, Panasonic, Flir, Speco, Digital Watchdog, Pelco ect.