Need help selecting DVR card

[rollajarhead 0]

I am new to CCTV surveillance (two weeks), though I have been in the IT industry for fourteen years.

 

The company I work for wants to put in a surveillance system. The cameras will be mounted inside to monitor outside activity. The distance from the camera to the focal point will vary, generally though the distance will be between 75 to 125 feet. The area to be monitored is well light. The glass in the windows is clear with no tinting. The most important parameter is facial recognition.

 

At present I am looking at the following equipment

Sony Super HAD with 420 TV lines and 0.8 lux

6-60 mm DC auto iris varifocal lens

Wireless video transmitter/receiver combo

An Intel Pentium III 600 mhz

ATI AGP video card 32 megabytes ram

40 GB hard drive

If there are other items of information needed please let me know.

 

My question is what parameters do you judge a DVR card by.

 

Frame rate? What is the recommended minimum rate?

Compression? M-PEG4 vs. J-PEG (hard drive space can be increased if needed)

Playback? Block vs. continuous

And any others I have not thought of

 

I would like to thank you for your assistance in advance.

[Thomas 0]

That P3 isn't going to cut it for most DVR type uses.

[rollajarhead 0]

Thanks Tom, I've looked around the company and have come up with a P4 2.0 GHz, 512 ram, 120 GB HD, 128 meg ATI video card. Where do I go from here?

 

Thanks

[Thomas 0]

Some things to ponder:

 

What do you need it for? Are you just observing normal motion? Are you watching something where you need to catch slight of hand, or do you need to just be able to say that Bob was in the room at 3:14? That will help figure out how many FPS you need.

 

How many cameras will there be? Will you need more then one system? If so do you need to monitor those cameras from a central place?

 

Will you need techincal support?

 

Will you have PTZ camera's, what protcals do they use?

 

Is remote access important?

[rollajarhead 0]

The system is for monitoring a large parking area; we have experienced a number of vehicle break-ins as well as vandalism. The owners want to be able to prosecute the perpetrators so facial recognition is paramount.

 

We will start out with four cameras and possibly be adding more as we progress, making scalability important. The first four cameras will be wireless, allowing us to reposition them to find the best observation points. I do know something of focal length, angle of view, and the importance of object distance. Using this is how I came up with a 6-60 mm lens. At present we wont be using PTZ though I see a need for it in the future. (It would be advantages if the system could sense motion then be able to PTZ onto the event. Is this possible?)

 

The number of systems is unknown at this time, however if in the future other systems are needed then monitoring them from one location would be important. I should mention at this stage the system would not be monitored real time. In the event of theft or vandalism the stored data will be reviewed. We are therefore needing motion detection in the card as well as being able to select a zone or zones to monitor within the field of view.

 

As for the need for technical support I would say yes. The questions I can envision at this time are setting the card up to perform the needed tasks, both in the above configuration as well as future modifications to the system. I do not believe we will need any on site assistance.

 

Remote access is not an issue.

 

If there are other items to be considered I would appreciate any input you may have.

 

Thomas I would like to thank you for your time and advice, if you days are anything like mine time is precious commodity:!: