Soundy

For me, it depends mainly on the location and the specific requirements. If I'm more concerned with things being watertight, I'll use PVC (the grey plastic) and/or ENT (the corrugated flexible grey plastic). If physical security is more of a concern, then EMT (metal) is the way to go.

Now that I have both iPhone and Android phones, and my coworker has a Blackberry, I thought it might be an idea to have one thread to collect and discuss CCTV-related mobile apps. Here's what I have now on my HTC Desire HD: Theia Lens Calc IP Cam Viewer (works with Vigil DVRs, also has a bunch of demo IP cams around the world) Teamviewer client has been invaluable as well. My iPhone has: 3xLOGIC CAM (for Vigil DVRs) Voltage Drop cctvtools (very spiffy lens calculator) Teamviewer What's out there for Blackberry?

Forgot about WM - I only just ditched my WM6 phone for Android a month ago, too. I added it to the poll though, because it's about as relevant as PalmOS

Depends whether the noise is getting into the system through the power or signal lines, or both. If it's being picked up by the RG59, then moving the power won't help. Won't hurt to test it, though... it might help some, even if it doesn't clear it up entirely.

That ConnectWise looks pretty slick...

Do you watch your bandwidth on your server when you do this test? Cameras have limited number of connections in unicast........ You would have to switch to multicast to record 32 streams from one camera but I am not sure if that is a valid test either. Just to be clear, I've never actually done this... never needed to. But I got the idea the OP is just looking to test the NVR's handling of heavy stream traffic, not the cameras or the network, so I figured this might be an option... if not with one camera, maybe three or four would be enough to load up a 16-channel NVR, rather than needing a full 16.

Well, based on 3RDIGLBL's recommendation, I called up Eastern CCTV's western office, spoke with the wonderfully helpful Annie, and ordered two of these: http://www.easterncctv.com/accessories/ev16p-vps.htm And I tell ya, this thing is GREAT! Got 27 VCM-24VFs and one CW504 hanging off two of them, and they work perfectly. Terminated all my camera runs into a patch panel, then plugged into the balun/power units with 18" patch cords... slick as can be. They do sell an RJ45-to-BNC-and-power breakout balun, but those are too bulky for my purposes (plus the baluns have barrel plugs on them that I'd have to cut off to wire to the CNBs' connectors, so it seemed kinda pointless), so I just used my standard GEM mini-baluns and split out the wires appropriately: My one and only complaint is that the things are not a standard rack height - they appear to be approximately 1.5U - and the screw holes on the rack ears don't line up to any pairs of threaded holes on the rack, so there's only one screw mounting the box on either side... but they're pretty lightweight, so it's not a big deal. I'll get a couple pictures of the setup next time I'm on site. Oh, and from this experience, I can definitely recommend Eastern CCTV, they were great to deal with.

As it happens, I've recently had a major monkey wrench thrown into a job, that would make a setup like this very attractive... has anyone else used this sort of product, and is there anything else out there anyone could recommend? I've actually got something like 25-26 cameras on the job, so a 32-channel version of this would be great. The biggest catch is, I'm on a super tight timeframe, so a supplier with quick turnaround would be crucial... plus, something that feeds 12-24V over the line instead of 36V (so I don't need "special" baluns) would be ideal.

What we found with some of these is that the vibration from the pan system can cause intermittent contact because the camera unit does't always fit snugly against the back board. The "fix" was to make a "shock absorber" by rolling a short piece of duct tape with the sticky side out, then sticking that right in the middle of the back of the camera body, beside the contact block - four "thicknesses" should generally be enough to prevent the camera from vibrating and shifting, so it can maintain solid contact.

Can't you just configure one camera on multiple channels? I know I can with Vigil - I could just put in the same camera settings in each of 32 channels (in fact, I have one set up this way, one channel doing regular motion record, the other on time-lapse recording one frame every hour). Shouldn't require the camera to do multiple streams; just use the same stream for every channel.

Try this from Start->Run: "iexplore http://www.cctvforum.com" (without the quotes). Same should work using the Task Scheduler, and the appropriate URL for the camera. You should see if the camera itself supports cron scripts - I know the IQ cameras do: you write a little crontab file and then ftp it to the camera's storage, and the camera will execute it automatically. http://www.iqeye.com/spt/TechTips/V1001.pdf

I'd love to find something that integrates CRM with support-desk functions and inventory tracking, since so much of our business is after-sales service... something either web-based or with smartphone client software, since we all have various kinds of smart phones (I have both iPhone and Android, boss has an iPhone, co-worker has a Crackberry...)

My guess would be that they were looking for someone or something specific, maybe a car the cops were tracking/following. It's likely the loop detectors were there before the cameras were put up - it would be silly to expend the time and money to dig them up. or the two may still be working in conjuction.

Check the settings for an option to overwrite the drive (also known as cycle record, recycle record, etc.) - some units come with this disabled and so will stop recording once the drive is full. Enabling this option will allow the DVR to continuously overwrite the oldest video.

I have an IQ511 (1.3MP) set up to catch plates on my street... it's not the greatest, as the shutter slows right down at night, and the only suitable lens I had for it was a 7-70mm manual-iris beast, which is a standard-def lens so it's not as crisp as it could be. Still, in daylight, it works fairly well...

You won't find HDcctv cameras particularly "cheap" either - they tend to be pretty much on par with megapixel IP cameras. Keep in mind that common HDTV transmission mediums (HDMI, component video) aren't suitable for CCTV use (HDMI is distance-limited, component video requires multiple signal lines), so HD signal in CCTV requires more specialized interfaces, generally either IP or SDI. Neither is a "cheap" technology to add to a camera. BTW, megapixel IP cameras go well beyond 1080p in resolution - 1080p (1920x1080 pixels) is barely 2MP... 3MP and 5MP IP cameras are common now, and 8, 10, 12, and even 16MP versions can be had (for the right price).

Most of the big traffic PTZs I see around the GVRD are Pelco Esprit models: These can hold a wide range of cameras - IP, megapixel, thermal, analog cams with National Enquirer lenses... Those little skinny tubes you see sticking way up above the lights are generally feeding video analytics systems that control the lights... AFAIK they aren't generally very high resolution, as it's not required for the system to simply determine whether there are cars present.

What brand(s) are you using now? What sort of budget are you looking at? Are you wanting better cameras, better recorder, or both?

That camera would probably work to get started with, but it doesn't look like it includes anything for recording. If you figure you're going to continue and get a better camera later, you may be better off just spending the extra for the better camera now, and not waste your money on the cheap one.

If you're talking analog cameras, software isn't enough - you also need some kind of capture hardware, something to interface the camera to your computer and digitize the video. For network cameras, almost all can be viewed through their own web interface, and some (but not all) include basic recording software.

The VCM is the flush-mountable model with the back-box for surface mounting. VBMs are surface-only. There's a thread specifically about this: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=22339

Nice work! Steampunk CCTV

Personally I would look to get a different dome. IMO they are horrible in low light situations. If you have enough light they are ok, but if you do not they WILL NOT switch to BW mode, hence the first pic. The second pic is decent, but I had to manually switch it to BW and that means no color during the day. Kind of defeats the point of buying a color camera These pictures are FAR from representative of our experience with them. I think I've only had one that ever refused to switch modes properly, and as was discussed in another thread, the "noise" in the first picture looks more like a problem with the video codec processing B&W video as if it were color (something I've seen with a number of different DVRs).

Really beat right now so I can't put a lot of thought into the rest of it, but just as an aside, this is a great little service monitor for the price: http://www.amazon.com/Haier-HLT71-7-Inch-Handheld-LCD/dp/B001E78UQY I use a Haier 7" portable TV/DVD player, myself: http://www.amazon.com/Haier-HLTD7-7-Inch-Handheld-Built-/dp/B001OXNYIM

Now how about with motion? A number of cameras have a "starlight" mode - usually it's achieved with super-slow shutter speeds that mean extreme motion blur.