Soundy

So... you want them to push a button to open the door, then swipe their card to record their access? Seems like a system that's designed to fail, as most people will be too lazy to swipe if they don't have to. If you're just recording when employees come and go, a cheaper method would be a proper time-clock setup. Otherwise, the option would be a swipe-activated access system, where they HAVE to swipe to unlock the door (although fire code would probably require a crash bar or paddle or similar exit option that doesn't require a swipe).

Note that I suggested a box camera with C/CS lens... so there's really no limitation on the lens size or selection. It doesn't have to be THAT camera, that was just a generic suggestion (I was searching for a picture of a megapixel box cam). Use whatever model suits the job. The point was, you're limited to lens sizes that will fit when using a standard "dome camera", so... think outside the box (pun intended) and put a box cam and lens inside a dome housing.

More information is needed. Define "grainy". What cameras? What DVR? What resolution/quality/framerate settings? Still captures of the cameras, both day and night, would help.

(And... excellent point, too )

Sorry to hear about your loss I know it's a rough time and you're probably anxious to get something in place, but you're right not to rush into something and end up with a system that doesn't meet your needs. Others here will have some more specific info for you on a basic standalone DVR system, but I'll address a couple of your other questions. First, DO NOT go with a pre-packaged, all-in-one system from your local big-box store. Most of the stuff is below mediocre, and you'll generally get cameras that are kind of middle-of-the-road as far as field-of-view - not wide enough to capture a decent area, not narrow enough to get a lot of detail. As an example of my front-and-back-door cameras, I have a Bosch B&W camera at my front door, and a CNB day/night camera at my back door, both set at about a 2.8mm lens length, giving close to a 90 degree field of view (forgive the poor image quality on the back door, I have a hacked-together wiring setup right now, using some of the existing Cat3 phone wiring in the house): My son and I coming home this afternoon (door is on the left edge of the frame): Coming in from walking the dogs this morning (door at bottom-right corner of the frame): Both cameras are about 1-2 feet to one side of the door, and only a couple inches higher, mounted in the overhang soffit. They give a pretty good view of whoever is standing there. "Night vision" is a misnomer and really shouldn't be necessary - this is the back door with only a 13W CFL porch light: Ditto the front door (the Bosch camera doesn't do as well in low light): Other considerations: if your grandmother has an internet connection, most systems will allow you to connect to the 'net to allow you to view the cameras (both live and recorded) remotely. If you have a smartphone (iPhone/Blackberry/Android/etc.), many DVRs have apps for those that will let you view the cameras from your phone. If she doesn't have internet, it might be worth looking into a low-end broadband package for this purpose. If she has an alarm system, a DVR with alarm inputs would allow you to tie the two together, so if the alarm goes off, it would send you an email or SMS and allow you to check the cameras (some will also automatically attach images or video clips to the email). If she has a "Life Alert" type system (emergency help button on a fob that hangs around her neck or wherever), that might be able to tie into the system in the same way, so if she hits her button for assistance, it will let you know by email or SMS and let you check in on her.

I'll give you the answer, because it's dead simple and doesn't require sharing any "trade secrets": Megapixel box camera: Appropriate megapixel lens (this one is rated 8-80mm for 1/2" at 3MP, manual/auto iris and standard or day/night variations available): In-ceiling dome enclosure (such as this Pelco DF-:

They're very good cameras, IMHO. Not the "best" out there, but currently, the best VALUE (best image/features for the money), at least out of what I've seen and used. Really, the TVL thing has gone the same way as the "megapixel race" with digital still cameras - everyone is selling more and more megapixels with little mention in the marketing of much else... and of course, no mention of the fact that even a fair-sized leap in megapixels has very little effect on overall image quality: 12MP is only marginally more detailed than 10MP, for example, and the difference is utterly irrelevant if you're posting all your photos to Facebook and printing them on 4x6 paper.

Hey Max, can your email handle large attachments? I'd like to send you a sample of a PDF I've done up, to see how it works... about 5-6MB.

Hey, if you're taking suggestions... this is maybe a little beyond the scope of a single upgrade now, but it would be really cool to have design software that would do what I'm doing now in a separate process: Load a site's PDF floor plan into Illustrator and remove extraneous stuff Add icon for camera locations and numbers (numbers reference a separate spreadsheet) Export to new PDF Load that PDF into Acrobat Add screenshots or still exports from site cameras Add link to a camera's icon so someone clicking the icon gets a popup showing that camera's view (actual photo, so the site can check that current views match what they're "supposed" to look like). Export the whole thing to a new PDF that the site can publish on their SharePoint system.

I recommend this idea as well - it has the added benefit that a bright light snapping on will entice an automatic reaction in most people, particularly prowlers, to look around at the source of the light... which if the light is fairly near the camera, then gives you a nice, straight-on, well-lit, full-color view of their face.

Greeter probably didn't even know there was a camera there. You'd have to talk to the Loss Prevention people to find out.

CNB's whole Monalisa line claim 600TVL.

This is what it boils down to. TVL can be a decent relative comparison between two otherwise-similar cameras, but these days, so many manufacturers are fudging the numbers, it's become largely irrelevant... and there are so many other factors that can have bigger effect on the final image quality.

If the DVR supports external network I/O modules, like the Advantech models I mentioned, you don't need to do a bunch of hinky stuff to hack stuff to work...

Hey hey HEY! This is a family venue!

We can't really tell you "which is best" because the two have overlapping ranges and truthfully, either should work fine - between 5 and 12mm, both will give identical coverage (assuming both use the same size sensor). A better idea might be to decide which might be better for something else (whether you need a wider or tighter shot for another area), then use the leftover one for this area.

Multi-camera package systems are junk. The DVRs are junk, the cameras are junk... and if they use the pre-made all-in-one cables, those tend to be junk as well. If the cables use the all-in-one DIN connectors, you'll also be effectively locking yourself into that manufacturer's equipment as well, since very few use the same pinouts, and NO quality equipment uses the DIN plugs, so you'll be relegated to only junk equipment in the future. Since these appear to at least have separate video and power connectors, I'm guessing the power uses barrel connectors? You could get chassis-mount barrel jacks and put several of them in a blank plate, or use spring terminals, like your structured wiring might use for speaker connections. Do yourself a favor, though, and consider piecing out separate DVR and cameras, so you can choose cameras specific to each purpose rather than just a bunch of poor one-size-fits-none toys.

Lots of extenders out there... a couple examples: http://gemelec.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=706&category_id=68&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1 http://gemelec.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=709&category_id=68&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1

Because such cameras are usually used in "professional" or "commercial" installations with a central power supply, and an included supply would be extraneous. Including adapters is fine for cheap cameras for home systems and DIY, where the installer isn't likely to have them already, but don't kid yourself, even with a $500 camera, if the manufacturer had to include an adapter, the price would reflect that extra cost, and your average professional wouldn't be pleased with having to foot the extra cost for a redundant component. Any electronics retailer should carry them. Or since you already have multiple cameras, why not look at a central power can, like this one? http://altronix.com/index.php?pid=2&model_num=ALTV244

Get rid of the crappy built-in-IR camera, get a proper low-lux day/night camera, and add some outboard illumination if necessary. Be aware that "night vision" (a very misleading term) in these cameras is simply a series of infrared emitters and basically just works like shining a small flashlight on your subject: the closer you are to the light, the brighter it is.

Hmmm, a few thoughts... I'm not aware of any CCTV systems that will do beyond 30fps, whether you're talking IP or SDI. NO system will do 0 lux without some kind of illumination or light amplification (eg. "night vision goggles"). All the lenses on that page are F/2 at best, which sharply reduces the amount of light you get through (typical CCTV lenses are f/1.4-f/1.6, which gives around 50% more light than that; f/1 would allow twice as much light). NTSC video standard does not support HD.

Yes, they are PC based, using an embedded version of Windows XP. The MVR is a micro-form-factor PC. Of course. What would you be planning to add? This is exactly the same idea as GeoVision: a Windows PC with a software- or hardware-compression capture card running the appropriate DVR server software. Only difference is, GeoVision is a DIY setup, while Vigil is a complete turnkey system, so you don't have to worry about the hardware and software. And, personally, I think it's a much cleaner, more efficient, and more intuitive interface and operation. They are nice units, especially if you're looking for a complete home storage/backup/server solution. They include webserver, ftp server, "cloud" accessibility, UPnP media server, are accessible via standard Windows networking, and most if not all support iSCSI. Most also have dual GbE ports, so you could keep your DVR and network cameras on a separate network from your home system, to minimize traffic impact. The QNAPs are also a turnkey system running embedded Linux. You install the drives, fire it up, and either perform basic RAID setup through the front panel display, or do full configuration through the web interface. One the drives are configured, it's ready for use. You would NOT run your OS off the QNAP, or off any sort of network storage. I wouldn't say it's impossible to do, but regardless of the storage you use, it would be terribly complex to set up, and I don't think you'd find it very efficient. You'd need some way for the system to connect to the storage before you could even load the OS (a PxE-capable adapter would support this, but you'd need a PxE server somewhere on the network to receive the requests), and I'm not even sure Windows can be configured to boot over a network. My experience, RAIDed OS drives are a PITA to deal with if something goes wrong. My suggestion is a smaller OS/software partition (20-30GB), and once everything is configured and working, make an image of it to another drive with Acronis or Paragon or similar disk-imaging program. If the system drive goes, you just swap in a new drive, and restore the image. As long as you have good cooling for your machine, you should get years out of the drive anyway. Or go with a smaller (32GB or so) SSD drive for your OS. I've even seen Vigil setups that boot off an internal CF card.

Vigil will fit all those requirements (mobile viewing via third-party apps). Basic 16-channel systems are available with both software-compression and H.264 hardware compression cards. Systems can be expanded to 32 channels (16 hybrid, 16 IP-only) with a software upgrade. Full scheduling and alarm support is present. Since it's a PC-based system, a variety of DDNS services can be used (I use DynDNS client with EasyDNS.com) I don't believe base systems include that level of alarm I/O, but they do have add-in cards, and it will also work with a variety of network-attached I/O modules (we use Advantech ADAM-6060 units regularly, which is a six-in/six-out, but there are 8-, 16-, and 18-channel versions available: http://www.advantechdirect.com/eMarketingPrograms/L021113P1%20Sensor/ADAM6000_page.htm) We also use NAS storage for one of our clients: a QNAP or EnhanceTech RAID array, connected via iSCSI, is used for all primary storage, and the DVR's internal drive is reserved as a "backup" destination, in case the array is offline. On analog-only sites, I'll just use a basic five-port gigabit desktop switch to connect the two, and tie into the network... on sites with IP cameras, I like the Cisco SFE1000P switch: eight 10/100 PoE ports for cameras and a network uplink, two GbE ports for the array and DVR.

Perhaps you could define a budget range. I could recommend some very solid machines starting in the $3500 range...

Nobody's berating you, just pointing out that those prices are pretty standard once you factor in labour, time and materials. You may look at it and think, "hmm, should be easy to cable from here to there" and then find it takes four times longer than you expected... the professional looks at it and plots out what's going to actually be required to get the cable from here to there and comes up with a more accurate estimate of time based on his own experience. Even without the VMS, labour could add up fast, depending on the installation. If conduit is required, for example, that can be time-consuming. Concrete or brick construction takes longer to work with than woodframe. Solid vs. drop ceilings slow things down. if plenum/FT6 cable is required, that can increase costs significantly. It's not ALL margin. Edit: note that professional labour quotes will usually include the use of proper equipment for safe work... for example, rental of a manlift, if it's going to be needed for outside work. A DIYer may be fine working two stories up off a ladder... if a pro does it, and WCB sees it, $#!t will hit the fan. If he falls and gets hurt, it's even worse.