Electronics & Appliances Best Posts in Thread: CCTV

CB, the guys I used were ok - ish. What I mean is they did what I asked them to do. They installed the cameras and NVR (Network Video Recorder) I wanted in the places I wanted them. They ran the cables the way I wanted. All done cleanly and with care. Do they know how to set up a system with alarms, yes. Would I have let them choose were the cameras should be placed and aimed, no. To be fair, I didn't give them the chance to suggest placement and aim. Would I let them choose the make and models of the cameras and NVR for me, no. What I would say is don't accept any installers component suggestions without researching them first. Having experience with CCTV at our previous home I knew what I wanted before calling around. I knew I didn't need solar powered cameras as our place is already off grid with enough production and battery to not worry about the cameras going down with every brownout and I didn't need to place one where a cable couldn't go. Cloud storage has one big advantage, they can't take your hard drives or memory cards with them. I opted not to pay for cloud storage and go with 12tb of HDD in a secured NVR. Now if I told how I know it's secured then it wouldn't be as secure. Two 6tb HDD gives me 30 days of 24/7 mainstream recording, of all my cameras. I have a mixture of 2mp (1080p) and 4mp (4K) cameras. Some suggestions are to have some cameras obvious to passers by on the street or visitors to the house. Have CCTV warning signs. CCTV is not a deterrent if no one knows you have them. Have some less than obvious cameras that will capture people that aren't deterred but think they are sneaky clever. When you do have visitors, don't show off your monitor or phone app. No one but you knowing what all is covered is being secure, which is also a deterrent. I say that knowing 100% coverage is often not possible or going to be too expensive. PTZ (Pan Tilt Zoom) cameras are fun to play with but cost about the same as four to six fixed cameras. All cameras will digitally zoom, with some level of pixelation. Better cameras will have a small 4x optical zoom. Features like motion sensing, line crossing, AI, facial recognition, substreams, bit rate control, tracking are the most common possible camera features. Mainstream is your 2mp or 4mp. Ideally what your NVR records for playback when something of interest comes up. Substream is just a lesser resolution, primarily for using less phone data when viewing remotely. A good camera can do both at the same time. If you go with an NVR they generally come with connections for 8 cameras, 16 cameras or 32 cameras. Those aren't set in stone as cameras can be added via a POE (Power Over Ethernet) switch.
I'm rambling. I worked with Michael at AnnexTech. https://www.facebook.com/annextechx/

 

CCTV is a must in my opinion; our system I sent from Japan and the wife had installed. I will find out who she used to install. I'll be heading home sometime next week so can definitely help you out on sourcing things as I have a lot of experience with cameras and security systems.

Shawn