Home CCTV ?

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J4CKO

Original Poster:

41,287 posts

199 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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Anyone got CCTV cameras set up, i.e. externally that can be accessed from pretty much any device across the internet, Ipads etc ?

Dont live in a particularly bad area, far from it, just getting a new car and want to keep an eye on things

audi321

5,156 posts

212 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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I've got a Netgear Arlo setup and it's absolutely fantastic! Not cheap, but worth every penny for DIY setup, and not a wire in sight!

227bhp

10,203 posts

127 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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Read the other 16 similar threads which have been answered in the last two weeks....

J4CKO

Original Poster:

41,287 posts

199 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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227bhp said:
Read the other 16 similar threads which have been answered in the last two weeks....
Apologies, I looked five pages back and didnt see anything similar.

AJB88

12,269 posts

170 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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I've got a Swann system, had it in the garage for about 2 years so when I finally got round to getting it fitted it was kind of out of date!

I can view it using a number of different apps on Android, there is also a webviewer but you can only use this using Microsoft Internet Explorer as it uses ActiveX and I only use ChromeOS and Linux so I can't use that. To use the app's you have to do a little bit of port forwarding on your router but its fairly simple!

Costco sell Swann.

feef

5,206 posts

182 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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I have a Synology NAS which I use for local storage and a media server, however it also supports a 'Surveillance Station' app which works with IP cameras and comes with a licence for one camera as standard (can pay for additional licences for additional cameras) but that works for me as I can access my NAS from anywhere

Henry-F

4,791 posts

244 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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Be careful using a network storage device as the basis for your CCTV system. The NAS isn't designed to run 24/7 and the hard drive won't expect to be filled to capacity then constantly over written which is what happens with CCTV. Premature failure is not always ideal !

Swann are a bit naughty with their marketing claims so not my favourite product range. In particular the claims they make for their cameras are laughable.

Most DVRs these days allow either remote access or access over your local network. We often find gaps in compatibility when testing or big variations in functionality across different platforms.With DVRs I think it's as much about who you buy from as it is the hardware it's self. Of course you need decent hardware but someone who provides good after sales technical support will have dealt with that because they don't want problems.

The best way of dealing with remote access is to port forward on your router. There will normally be 2 ports. The internet port, often 80 or 8080 and a data port. All routers and networks vary so you can't give general instructions but there are sites like www.port forward.com which are a good starting point. We offer a remote set up service via a screen sharing session for those unable or unwilling to do it themselves.

I would suggest avoiding universal plug & play solutions due to the potential for security issues and solutions involving a proxy server which will be very slow other than between 3am and 4am when everyone is asleep !

Feel free to get in touch or post if you need any specific help or advice.

Henry smile

Edited by Henry-F on Thursday 26th November 09:12

J4CKO

Original Poster:

41,287 posts

199 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
quotequote all
Think I need to do a bit of research it seems, was just thinking a couple of cameras that record when there is some activity or I can connect to them over the net.

Henry-F

4,791 posts

244 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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Cameras that only record on motion run the risk of missing potentially important footage. You want the trigger patch to be as small as possible to reduce the number of false triggers. Sometimes the gaps are as important as the footage. When someone claims they turned around and went away but didn't you can't prove it because you don't have footage for that time.

As an industry CCTV is terrible for incorrect and misleading information to the point where peoples expectations are often a country mile away from reality. Spend a bit of time in the planning stage though and you can get a very effective system. Have a look at our CCTV help and advice pages. It will hopefully make you a more educated buyer and if you do have any questions please feel free to get in touch either directly or via PH without obligation.

Henry smile

W8PMC

3,345 posts

237 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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I've just taken the plunge with this system & so far so good.

http://canary.is

audi321

5,156 posts

212 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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J4CKO said:
Think I need to do a bit of research it seems, was just thinking a couple of cameras that record when there is some activity or I can connect to them over the net.
You can! See my 2nd post in this thread!

aero93

477 posts

235 months

Thursday 26th November 2015
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Henry-F - What do you think of the Netgear Arlo setup mentioned?

Henry-F

4,791 posts

244 months

Friday 27th November 2015
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aero93 said:
Henry-F - What do you think of the Netgear Arlo setup mentioned?
Sorry for the delay in responding. Just found a few minutes whilst I grab lunch !

Let me start by saying I haven't seen this product in the flesh. My thoughts and comments are based on viewing the website with a professional eye.

Do I think Arlo is credible CCTV? No I don't.

The first stumbling block is that fixed wide angle (110°) lens. At half HD (720P) the optical range of the camera is going to be very limited. You can see further but you can't get detail. I was a bit disappointed seeing one of my pet hates, they have tried to pass off a high quality DSLR image as footage.



To my eye that hasn't been taken with a 110° wide angle lens. I hate sites that are too embarrassed to use actual footage from their equipment.

Something else that I noticed was the resolution is quoted as "up to" 720P. WiFi / Interent based systems often struggle with bandwidth when multiple cameras are used. Even at trade shows I see frames being dropped. So it could be that you have to choke the image quality down in some cases. Given that we've only got half HD to start with and that über wide angle lens it doesn't bode well.

Battery life is quoted as 6-8 months. I do hope that isn't an over optimistic marketing dept measured 6-8 months. I know the thing is only working on motion (presumably some background power required) and that's another issue, I don't like motion only systems, but my experience is that people are quite poor when it comes to selcting sensible trigger zones. I presume you can programme where on the screen it looks for movement. If not then you might be in for a shock at how many triggers you get.

If someone is very close to the camera, ie close enough to touch it, then you will get a good image. Further away and I would suggest you will struggle.

If you just want to put a couple of cameras up inside your property then this is a possible solution. Pray your internet is working well and wireless CCTV is notoriously fickle when it comes to working through walls etc. In Europe we are limited in terms of max power for non licensed wireless transmission. There are lots of things sharing the same air.

For outdoor CCTV which is what our customers generally want I think it is an expensive folly.

One final though. If you need to change bits in the future or something fails how easy would it be to get replacements outside of the company - who might have moved on to a newer system by then ? I like industry standard technology with standard fittings etc so you are not forced to change a whole system if 1 element fails.

Purely my thoughts on scanning the website.

Henry smile

Oh, and whilst I remember: How much is the cloud based storage? I would suggest aiming for 3-4 weeks rolling footage, unlimited access to review, make back ups etc. I got the impression you were given 7 days free. On going monthly costs soon mount up over the lifetime of a system.





Edited by Henry-F on Friday 27th November 13:58

Henry-F

4,791 posts

244 months

Friday 27th November 2015
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ash73 said:
If you want more than a couple of cameras AHD and HD-SDI technologies are worth a look, the latter is slightly better but requires thicker cable. All the encoding is done on a central DVR so the camera units are cheaper than IP ones.

Make sure the cameras have an IR cut filter, sometimes referred to as true day/night, without it the colour reproduction during the day is crap, which is important for identification. I tend to buy cameras with a manual zoom lens too.
I'm not sure you have chosen the best HD technologies out there. HD-SDI has always been a fit of a gap fill. Limited transmission distance, had to be co-axial cable when CAT5 is the way to go for future proofing. AHD is cheap, up to now not the ultimate in terms of image quality.

We put our money on HD-TVI on the basis it has good compatibility, is forgiving in terms of what cable is used so great for upgrading existing installations, open development platform. Having tested it for a year we are happy it's a credible technology. Definitely vario-focal cameras rather than fixed lens cameras for the majority of applications though you do need to take each location on it's own merit.

Henry smile

feef

5,206 posts

182 months

Friday 27th November 2015
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Henry-F said:
Be careful using a network storage device as the basis for your CCTV system. The NAS isn't designed to run 24/7 and the hard drive won't expect to be filled to capacity then constantly over written which is what happens with CCTV. Premature failure is not always ideal !
Eh!??

NAS is designed to run 24/7, I've never heard of a NAS that's designed to be turned on and off throughout the day, how could I use it's remote cloud backup facility if it wasn't on 24/7?

The one I have has 4 disks in RAID 5 with 8Tb of space, comes with mail-server, web-server, VPN server and other systems which are designed to be on 24/7, and the surveillance station software has a setting that allows you to control the disk quota for the app so it never fills up the disk

ajprice

27,317 posts

195 months

Friday 27th November 2015
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Saw this on the gadget sites this week, Ring doorbell https://ring.com

Webcam in the doorbell, WiFi links to phone so you can see the video feed of who is there, motion detection can alert you before they ring the bell. If they smash your doorbell, don't let them in hehe

Henry-F

4,791 posts

244 months

Saturday 28th November 2015
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feef said:
Eh!??

NAS is designed to run 24/7, I've never heard of a NAS that's designed to be turned on and off throughout the day, how could I use it's remote cloud backup facility if it wasn't on 24/7?

The one I have has 4 disks in RAID 5 with 8Tb of space, comes with mail-server, web-server, VPN server and other systems which are designed to be on 24/7, and the surveillance station software has a setting that allows you to control the disk quota for the app so it never fills up the disk
My understanding was that NAS will go into idle mode when drives are not being written to or having information retrieved to preserve the hard drives. If you are constantly feeding HD camera footage to the NAS it is prevented from going into idle mode.

I am happy to be corrected if my assumption is wrong and constantly streaming HD camera data doesn't increase load on the NAS drives.

I like having CCTV and computers / network separate. By all means access the CCTV over your network as and when you want to but don't use it as the main method of data transfer / storage.

Henry smile

feef

5,206 posts

182 months

Saturday 28th November 2015
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Henry-F said:
feef said:
Eh!??

NAS is designed to run 24/7, I've never heard of a NAS that's designed to be turned on and off throughout the day, how could I use it's remote cloud backup facility if it wasn't on 24/7?

The one I have has 4 disks in RAID 5 with 8Tb of space, comes with mail-server, web-server, VPN server and other systems which are designed to be on 24/7, and the surveillance station software has a setting that allows you to control the disk quota for the app so it never fills up the disk
My understanding was that NAS will go into idle mode when drives are not being written to or having information retrieved to preserve the hard drives. If you are constantly feeding HD camera footage to the NAS it is prevented from going into idle mode.

I am happy to be corrected if my assumption is wrong and constantly streaming HD camera data doesn't increase load on the NAS drives.

I like having CCTV and computers / network separate. By all means access the CCTV over your network as and when you want to but don't use it as the main method of data transfer / storage.

Henry smile
My NAS is a cloud station and time machine backup so as long as my laptop, phone or ipad is on or alive, it's continually updating itself and those devices, it also 24/7 handles remote downloads which run through the night and syncs with another NAS at a different location

Certainly, if it DID have a pause, it might go idle, but it never does

The drives I've install in it are NAS specific (WD Red) and I only upgraded recently to increase storage size, the old drives (8 years old) are still working fine

A lot of the writing is handled by buffers so a data 'write' doesn't mean an immediate disk write

SVS

3,824 posts

270 months

Saturday 28th November 2015
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W8PMC said:
I've just taken the plunge with this system & so far so good.

http://canary.is
Interested to know more ...

rigga

8,727 posts

200 months