Church install, kind of a newbie

[grantw73 0]

Hello there, this is my first post. Site is a plethora of information, you guys are great!

 

Anywho, I currently work for a large church that has a 32 camera system, and I have been working with it since its conception. I helped install it, and did all of the DVR setup and networking setup.

 

Just trying to give you an idea of what I know; I'm a network administrator/pc technician that is trying to do another church a favor and install a basic 4 camera DVR system on the cheap. The man I talked to said "Licence plates must be captured by the system if nothing else".

From my experience with the sub-par cameras we have at my workplace, this may be a challenge to do on the cheap. If I'm wrong please let me know. Currently there are two entrances to the church lot that need to be watched. I have two potential mounting points in mind, but neither is ideal. One is about 100FT away from the entrance,(on a drive under carport side about 15-20 feet in the air) and a tree may be partially in the way, I think it would be a problem during the green months.

 

Another location is a telephone/electric pole in the lot. The pole is 150FT away from the drive entrance, and has 4 huge transformers atop it that I am concerned will cause massive EMF issues.

 

Besides the electrical/tree problems I am concerned that capturing two lot entrances (licence plates even) that are 100-150FT away and 50 feet wide may be a little more than the church wants to do money wise. I have done all the calculating that I know how to do and came up with a camera that I think will work. Its the Bazooka Super IR CZ16IRRC 16 X Optical Zoom Color CCD. Its variable zoom and supposed 150ft IR range is what has me intrigued. Also the cost, one version being $108...

 

Another thing to mention, the lighting is almost non existent at the entrances.

 

Anyway... #1 can licence plate capture be done from these ranges?

#2 is the suggested camera worth getting?

#3 Side question (is wireless dependable for CCTV? If so, what Hertz range?)

 

Thanks for the time and help, I really appreciate it!

I will check this daily if something needs elaborated on...

[Scruit 0]

If you do this on the cheap, you'll be tweaking it weekly for years.

 

Trust me.

 

Any way to get a 'true' license plate camera? ie from Extreme?

[griffonsystems 0]

some advice - dont mount anything on a telephone pole because if and when the utility guys come they will hack down your camera because they own that pole and you dont want to mess with voltage thats on that pole.

 

next if that camera can read anything at night from 150' for 100bucks it would be sold out. i would dig a bit deeper with ur client on the license plate request... then explain to him that they will need to put additional light at each entrance/exit to the lot either regular lighting(mercury vapor type good lighting) or IR lighting to start so that you can see the cars. then they will need to either trench and lay conduit to a location where you can mount these cameras, etc etc. he'll probably stop you at trench and say just give me 4 wide shots covering the lot.

 

extreme does make some of the best license plate capture cams on the market but you will be into the 10-20k range. the big issues that you need to conquer are the angle to even view the plate, the glare from the light hitting the plate to see it, the lights from the car that glare out the shot, the speed of the car, and the proper frame rate and resolution of your dvr... csi shows makes it look 2 easy

 

my 2cents

[Rebco 0]

I totally agree with griffonsystems,

The camera you mention is for lack of a better word is cr@p, I first used those cheap kinds of cameras when i started out what a mistake, i ended up spending more money later when i had to replace them for the customer. Like griffonsystems said if there was a camera that can do that for that price the that company would be rich. Like i tell all my customers CSI is not real!

[grantw73 0]

Hey thanks for the quick reply and excellent info! I agree totally, I hear the word trench and cringe, so I know he will.

 

I figured as much on the cheap camera, I couldn't imagine it getting plate numbers at 150FT during the day let alone at night

 

I failed to think of the electric company... that is their pole and I'm sure they would be more than happy to relocate my camera in the dumpster for me

 

I will check out extreme, but the guy is going to have a fit when he looks at the quote... But you are right, anything is better than cheap cameras because I know what 32 of them are capable of.

 

Thanks again!