Need advise on Hikvision system and cams for quiet zones

HI,

I have a basic CCTV system around my home mainly as a deterrent but also as a way to see who's at my door etc. We need to add more cams as we are getting work done and a premium caravan will be parked on my lawn for 6 months of the year (more to protect)

I am not interested in buying more cams for the cheap chinese DVR as image quality is only 'good enough' to see whats outside. Instead I am willing to invest a bit in something that will at least be a noticeable improvement.

I am thinking of using a lower end Hikvision DS-7608NI-E2/8P with two DS-2CD2032-I to watch the front yard from the roof line(one will watch the driveway and most of the yard, one at the opposite side looking down the side of the caravan and back across the garden to the other cam(overlapping views will cover 95% of the yard)

A dome camera(Hikvision DS-2CD2132F-IS) will also be put in near the front door in an undercover porch type area about 12ft from the door and looking towards the door from side on and covering two of the only 3 windows at the front(this is also lit by security lighting)

I'm hoping these 3 should be adequate for reasonably good image clarity and also at night? Max distance from any cam to the road is maybe 40 feet but I only care about my property.

Am I on the right track for a reasonable system for the money? I am in Australia so all will be sourced via ebay as it's about the best option for me.

What I also need are a few IP cams that are sturdy and reliable to cover boring areas that see no traffic and are only there to keep an eye on movement. They do not need to be great, just waterproof dome cams or bullets that will give at least as good an image as a sony 1/3 CCD type cheapy. Not sure the more expensive Hikvisions are needed for these areas.

The whole lot will have battery backup via a modified UPS with bigger SLA battery system.

Any suggestions would be great

(ps I didn't do an 'introduction' post as almost none have replies anyway haha!)

So is the above system going to provide adequate image clarity and compatibility? I have never used an IP system but hopefully being all one brand should make it easier.

And any cheap IP 720p cams that will cover the backyard or should i just save a few dollars more and buy all the same Hikvision gear as budget allows. So far its already about $1000au to replace the 5 I have and will need probably 2 more to cover the can and also my new workshop doorways.

Thanks for any info

Hi,

You're in luck, as this is a very similar setup as I'm getting installed at the moment (4 cams done, 2 left to do).

I opted for the Hikvision DS-7608NI-E2/8P (with 2*4G drives, although even with 6 cams my storage is a touch excessive)

You seem to consider it to be lower-end, but I think its hugely capable for a consumer device.

It does very good motion detection, but you can also set up regions on any cam, to exclude certain areas etc.

You can also draw a 'line' or quadrilateral and have it trigger when someone crosses the line in a given direction (or both if you want). I'm a software engineer so its quite rare that technology impresses me much, but I was impressed by some of the features on it.

with two DS-2CD2032-I to watch the front yard

I think these are bullet cams? I avoided these for the sole reason I cant stand the look of bullet cams.

Instead I opted for 5 Hikvision dome cams, and a mini-dome to go in the porch/front door area (all 3MP).

All of the dome and mini-dome cams are smaller than I expected, but the image quality is excellent.

I cant say I know a huge amount about different CCTV models, but I did research my purchase throughly before deciding on HikVision ones, aswell as getting some expert advice from the CCTV guy who is fitting them (he's an ex-Bosch CCTV engineer but still recommends HikVision), so just trying to share what I've learnt recently.

I'm hoping these 3 should be adequate for reasonably good image clarity and also at night?

You'll be happy with the cams I think, in terms of clarity and night vision. The NVR software lets you tweak many aspects of it anyway

One issue might be your security lighting. If its triggered by PIR (which coincides with when you most need the cams to be capturing), it could interfere briefly with the cams motion detection, and also the cam will revert back to non-night vision mode, meaning you'll mostly see the area which is lit up and very little in the darker areas.

Not sure the more expensive Hikvisions are needed for these areas.

So what I learnt is that many different vendors IP cams are designed to be interoperable with the NVR, via a standard known as 'ONVIF'.

But even if a vendor says their cams are ONVIF compatible, there are various levels of ONVIF support and not all vendors adhere exactly the same standards (especially when it comes to controlling PTZ cams).

For this reason I'd just stump up (infact did!) a little more and buy fully HikVision cams to go with the NVR, so you are guaranteed they all sing nicely together.

The way I saw it, it's something you buy once and it'll lasts you for years, so there's little point trying to cut corners just to save a few pounds. There is a lot of awful crap on Ebay if you are just looking at "Brand-X" models.

If you've any questions about the Hikvision setup, drop me a line and Ill try to help (like I say though, my field of expertise is IT rather than CCTV)

The whole lot will have battery backup via a modified UPS

Just curious, modified in what way?

- Paul

Thankyou very much for the reply!

It's a fairly large investment to do it all at once and there will now likely be 7 cameras in total meaning a $1500Au+ system which is not a number to sneeze at for me! I have 5 cameras at the moment, 3 of which just watch boring stuff(side gate, rear of house/laundry door and the patio area) all of which are protected by two black and 4 legged animals with teeth so I'm not fussed so much about that area but I will need to buy at least 2 cams to cover the important stuff straight up(main driveway and front yard cam and door cam)

If I don't buy at least 2 cams straight away, I will lose a significant portion of my coverage! I do agree however that for simplicity, I should just save my coins and buy identical cams all around(probably 4 domes, 3 bullets total)

I've ordered several cat5e cables in various colours which I will run in the mean time so that once I get the gear, I can do a pretty quick changeover(assuming I can quickly learn how to set up an IP system as I am an absolute noob!)

One of the cables is 50m(150ft) which will go to a camera over my new workshop doors which will be built in 3-4 weeks. Have never run a signal cable that far before!

Have also already acquired a 1500VA APC UPS to protect it all and stop dropouts during power dips and I will re-use the 2TB drive from my old DVR for now. Hopefully might be able to sell the old system and cover one of the cams or something?

Anyway thanks for the advice!