I live in a gated community with 170 houses and the homeowner association has asked me to investigate some options for a camera system for our entrance area. The area has two automatic gates (unattended) and there is electric there but no phone or other networking capabilities. I am considering two cameras with a 4 channel DVR. Because I already maintain the association Website they would like me to host the DVR at my house, which would be roughly 300ft line of sight from the gates.

There are two main options that I have in mind and I'd like to get some feedback from the experts. Budget is a little tight and I'd like to get a proposal together for as little as possible and it does not have to be a high end system, a good economy system should suffice. The basic idea is to monitor the gates since they get "run over" quite frequently and if we can identify the cars then we could recoup some of the repair costs. License plate cameras are too expensive though but in most cases a good visual of the car itself should work. I might play with a camera mounted at a lower location, zoomed in on the rear of the cars as they have to stop at the gate for it to open and might get a good enough reading of the license plate that way.

Option 1:
Use a set of wireless cameras, I came across the Speco WC-2503 which seem interesting or the VideoComm ZX480SR40. The distance might be pushing it but maybe I could change the antennas to a higher gain one and make it work. Alternatively it might be necessary to get a good day/night camera and a separate wireless transmitter and put it all in an external housing.
As far as the DVR goes it does not have to be anything fancy. A simple 4 channel DVR like Speco, Everfocus or Nuvico should do. It should have some decent remote capability through a browser so the association board can operate it remotely as well.

Option 2:
Use IP/Network cameras instead with a router and install a point to point Ethernet bridge. There are some good wireless bridges with directional antennas that should make this work. The problem here is that I have no experience at all on the DVR options for IP/Network cameras. The camera selection is also more limited and I have no idea how they compare in quality to a regular CCTV camera. For the same price you probably get a much better non-Network camera instead and I guess I could use a video server and a standard CCTV camera but then we are getting so many different parts that it starts to get a little too involved. There is no guard house either so I would have to find an enclosure I can mount on a pole to house all the equipment and this is in Florida where heat might start to play a role too.


I did some searching around the forums and most postings on wireless equipment is older and at that time everybody seemed to recommend to stay away. I am hopeful that the technology has improved in the meantime and that there are some decent options available now. I believe it was rory that stated that he had some good results with VideoComm equipment. The fact that the camera signals wont be encrypted is not an issue and would not be a reason to favor the Ethernet bridge option.

Any suggestions and comments are greatly appreciated. Personally I am using ICRealtime ICR200 domes and an ICRealtime Pro DVR around my house.

Thanks
Dan

If budget allows and with 170 houses I would assume you have some room to move, I would run Extreme CCTV LPR's with an overview camera.

Another option would be Pan/Tilt/Zooms with motions tied to presets and then let the PTZ autotrack.

Of course if your just looking to see what car or person came in the gates, you could get away with an inexpensive camera. Just remember you get what you pay for and your best video shot only begins with what you see initially.

My 2 cents would be to install only a professional system, and speco is not professional. The last thing you want to do is implement this video system in hopes to give 170 homes some peace of mind to only find out it doesn't perform as everybody anticipated.

Ok, I understand your point and it is well taken. I am in fairly close range and think the Reg-X should suffice in this case. The area is also fairly well lit and I think a good day/night camera should be sufficient as overview camera, without needing IR capabilities.

What would you recommend as backhaul for the video stream? Connect both cameras to a IP video server and install an Ethernet bridge or will the VideoComm transmitter/receivers be sufficient for 300ft?

As another thought, how about a megapixel IP camera for the license plate capture, zoomed in on the target area? The cars pretty much have to come to a stop and wait for the gate, so I don't need the 30mph capture capability of the Reg-X.

Nobody has a recommendation on the video signal transmission? Should I go with VideComm 5.8GHz transmitters/receivers or should I use a p2p Ethernet bridge and use IP cameras or video servers attached to traditional CCTV cameras?

This is the hardest part I can't decide upon and any help is appreciated.

Dan

I have submitted 100 of neighborhood CCTV bids to homeowner's associations, and I end up speaking with the "representative from the howeoners association" that either tells me how it is going to be done, or I deal with an association that will not spend any money on their system.

I do very few of the bids that I turn in.

When I saw your post, I honestly did not want to participate based on my experience.

After reading a few of your posts, I can see that you are very squared away, and I wish more homeowner's associations had people like you.

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What kind of enclosure do you have at the front gate?
Do you have a brick wall that stradles in island between the entrance, and the exit?
Can you give us a google maps link to the area?

Is this a spot on the back side of a brick wall?
Can you get ATT to run you an internet connection to the brickwall, or where ever you are going to put your front gate equipment?

Is the Video Comm 5.8 transmitting in the clear? Do you want others to see this video as well?



This will "scramble" the video to the average person off the street.

I do not do much with IP cameras as most of my customers are in the entry level price range.

I have never used Video Comm products so I cannot give you advise on this.

Here is a picture of the entrance area. The neighborhood is to the left and the beach and beachfront state road are to the right.



The red circle is where there is a pole with an electric meter and a circuit panel that powers the electric gates and the pole lights next to them. There is no other structure nearby nor is there any phone service. I was going to extend the pole where the circuit panel is, to about 10-12 feet and mount the cameras on there. Then I was going to add a small lockable outdoor equipment box and wire an outlet from the circuit panel and put any equipment I might need in there. This is a hurricane area, so I want to have a good solid housing for the camera, to withstand the wind. I was thinking that a bullet camera might offer less resistance to the wind and might work out better than a traditional box camera and housing but in the end it probably is about the same. Some of the brackets I have seen online look a little weak and I definitely don't want anything plastic, which the sun will briddle up in no time.

The blue line indicates where the two gates are. I am currently planning to use an overview camera to capture the two gates and immediate surrounding areas. a 3.6 or 2.8 lens would probably give me the coverage I need. Then a little lower on the pole, at maybe 8 feet height I was going to mount another camera, either an Extreme X-Reg or a good B/W camera tightly zoomed in, to capture the license plates.

Budget is a little bit of a problem. The association is volunteer and not all residents pay the suggested dues, which covers the electricity for the gates, insurance and repairs. Most residents voted to have the cameras though and I am trying to come up with an economical solution that does not break the bank. The association did not ask for the license plate coverage, I added that as my own idea, and maybe we'll start out with the overview camera and DVR this year and add the Reg-X next year, to spread the cost. So the system should be expandable and I was looking at a 4CH DVR. Down the road they might want to add cameras facing the bridge or install a camera with a big zoom to face the beach (in the extension of the road). Once the basic setup is in place it should be no big deal to add on.

Oh yes, one thing. The location of the DVR was determined to be at my house, since I am better with technology than most and I am full time residents whereas most people around the immediate gate area are part time residents or are renting their houses. That's why the distance came to 300ft and there is some tree foliage in the line of sight.

Thanks for all your suggestions.

You are one of those "damned" Floridians aren't you??

LOL!

I have never used this DVR, but it is fanless.

http://www.aver.com/dvr/eb1304net.html

Another on this forum shoves them in to Nema enclosures with fans, and water proof venting.

I wonder if you could set this up with an evdo?

http://scorpiontheater.com/wifi.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evdo

http://www.kyocera-wireless.com/kr1-router/

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Forget bullet cams as they flap in the wind like a flag!!

I would say it is not the camera, but the mount that usually comes with them.

Use a bullet but order a heavy duty mount, and add some silicone sealant to prevent movement!

A heavy duty enclosure would be more recommended.

Take the camera down for above cat ones as you will get water intrusion no matter what the weather proofing is rated for that camera.