Soundy

Sure... do you want the $200 option or the $20,000 option? The question is far too vague: What size store? How many cameras? What are your areas of concern (paypoint, retail aisles, etc.)? What sort of incidents are you worried about (retail theft, employee theft, robbery, etc.)? What is the layout? And most importantly, what is the budget?

I can't find anything that states the cameras require 500mA. Specs may say that they need a 500mA USB port, as that is the max current that a USB *root device* port is supposed to supply, by spec... a port on a bus-powered hub is supposed to max out at 100mA, which would likely not be enough to run the camera, which is probably why they would specify a 500mA port... doesn't mean the camera would draw a full 500mA.

I doubt those cameras really draw more than 100mA each. Power is not likely to be your problem.

That mic would probably work, but seems rather... cheap and clunkly. Really, just about any basic mic will do; personally, I'd recommend a dynamic type, as you won't need to power it. You'd just run it into one of the four RCA audio-in jacks on the back of the unit (area 16 on page 8 of the manual). To connect to the TV, you'd need a cable with RCA plug on one end (for the TV) and BNC on the other (for the MON OUT on the DVR). Or at least the proper adapters. Be aware that audio recording is illegal under most circumstances in some areas... if you're just recording inside your house, you may be alright, but you should still check with your local authorities.

Then you would connect to your company's "outside" IP address. Easiest way to get this is, when you're at work (or remoted into the work computer), go to http://www.ipchicken.com - that will display the "real-world" IP address of the company's connection. From outside the company then, you would point your browser at that address.

Depends on the level of detail you need. Yes... although 600' is a bit of a long run for analog video over RG59; you may need a booster. Ummm, you CAN... although if you're talking about 120V/240VAC, I would STRONGLY recommend against it. Not only is there a good chance of interference, but it's not very safe, and contrary to just about every electrical code in existence. If you're just talking 24/28VAC, then yes, that's fine. and any suggestions on wire type would be great. I'm guessing twisted pairs with Baluns? That's one option... would make cabling easier in some cases, as you could run up to four video signals over a single Cat5e. Definitely not - you'd be lucky to get a reliable, clean signal at 20', nevermind 1200'. Whether you CAN isn't so big a question as how much it will cost - almost anything is possible with the right budget.

Audio surveillance tends to be much more restricted than video surveillance in most jurisdictions - in some, it's not admissible as evidence, in some it's illegal altogether. You should check on the laws in your area before proceeding with this. I found this in relation to the D of C: http://www.rcfp.org/taping/states/dc.html

That's amusing - you say "these cameras are good but my suggestion is you use following security cameras" and then don't list any specific cameras or any USEFUL details about them. Unsuccessful spammer is unsuccessful.

Ah, here it is - ICM Corp. Check out the "DB System Starter Kit" here: http://www.icmcorp.net/ICM_featuredproducts.htm

Andy, sounds like you're stripping the sheath too far back, or using the wrong connectors. If you're using FT6 (plenum) cable, the sheath is a lot thinner than with FT4 (riser), and standard connectors won't get a tight fit. Make sure you're using the proper connectors for RG6 or RG59, too, since the two cables are different thicknesses as well. One thing you can do is to strip the sheath a little short, so the center barrel of the connector causes it to bulge out a bit... slip the collar into place first, then shove the barrel in, and it should make a good, tight fit even before crimping. Steve, those look alright, although they seem a little overpriced to me. I use GEM's connectors, mainly (both crimp and compression), they're solid and work great with my SealTite universal compression tool: http://gemelec.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=116&category_id=22&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1 Trying to think of the other connectors I've used... can't think of the brand. They're really nice, including a plastic guide for the center conductor/pin... come in a funky (and frustrating) tube pack of 25. Same manufacturer makes a really slick "starter kit" with an assortment of "stubby" connectors (F, BNC, RCA, etc.), compression tool, and stripper/flaring tool. Would love to get the kit, but can't really justify it since 99.99% of my connector use are BNC and all the others would be wastage.

Not dumb... just maybe overkill, and unnecessarily convoluted. Regarding editing, you're probably going to need to do that anyway - as it is, you're looking to capture a 12-hour period and cut out a 3-4 minute piece of that to use; at that point, what's the difference of you're snipping it out of a 24-hour period? Of course, either way, you could set it to record on motion, and then you wouldn't have the non-activity periods at all. I can't speak for other DVRs, but using Vigil as an example, searches show "bars" on a timeline depicting where recording occurred... with motion recording, you get a broken blue bar - anywhere there's blue, there's been video recorded. Makes it dead simple to find a contiguous chunk of activity. Vigil's well out of your price range, but that just gives you an idea of one way to do it. Now here's a thought to further streamline things: if you go with an IP camera and install the NVR software on your office/webdev PC... anytime you know there's going to BE a "flurry of activity" in the shop, you can just fire up the software, let it run for a while, then shut it off when you have sufficient footage. Then you have the clip right there, ready to work with. If you only need one new clip per week, it shouldn't take long at all to get several good "candidates"... and then you don't have to sift through 60 hours of video (12 hrs * 5 days) to find it.

For a mere 50m, you should be able to run video, control, and power over a single Cat5e (especially if it's using 24VAC power vs 12VDC).

PTZs will often display the baud rate, ID number and protocol on-screen when they first power up...

That actually helps a lot, and in fact, opens up some other options you might consider. For example: you might find it more efficient to use a camera (or cameras) that records internally, to flash memory - the card (usually SD) could then be taken to a computer to offload the video. Or consider a network camera that could be directly accessed by the web developer. If you do the web updates in-house, you could even set up your main PC as a basic NVR (network video recorder - many IP cameras include their own free software), and record directly onto the computer that you'll be using to process the video. Since you need the video to end up on a computer eventually, this would make that path more direct, and cut down the equipment count. For web use, you're probably looking at keeping the video to CIF (352x240); although VGA (640x480) or 4CIF (704x480) would be doable, it's usually a good idea to keep the stream size down, not just for more efficient viewing, but to minimize your bandwidth. You can also limit framerate to 15fps and few people would even notice the difference. Are you planning to covert the video into Flash, similar to YouTube? Or post it in Quicktime, WMV, or other streaming format? If you really wanted to geek out, you could display a live "shopcam" on your website - no editing or ongoing maintenance required.

There are lots of options out there... although I deal mostly with higher-end PC systems, so I'm not familiar with them, but there are plenty of others here who can give you some specific suggestions. Lots of additional questions, though: How many channels do you need? What resolution do you need? What framerates? How long do you need to store video for? Do you need remote viewing? Do you need to export to flash or CD/DVD? By "time lapse" do you mean you want to record stills at particular time intervals? This is a standard function in almost all units; scheduled recording is less universal, but still fairly common. A little more detail as to exactly what you're trying to do would help us narrow down the suggestions.

No. The solution, as already discussed in your other thread, is to connect directly to the DVR from outside the company, rather than remoting into a PC that's then viewing the DVR. Since your company probably has a static IP already, DDNS would not really help anything, other than giving you a domain name to connect to, rather than an IP. Locking this thread - please continue the discussion in the original thread: viewtopic.php?t=25128

This.

By "time lapse capability", do you mean constant (vs. motion-activated) recording? The other feature you're talking about is generally called "scheduled recording" - a number of systems have it.

Depends where you can source them... our wholesaler often has a deal on where you buy "X" amount of labels and they throw in the labeler for free. Cost of the labels is usually about equal to the cost of the labeler itself, so it's essentially a half-price deal.

You can't; a mod has to. But do you have access to the dealer forum?

The problem with interfacing to HomeSeer is that not all cameras will let it simply grab a still image, either. Some allow you to grab a still with a simple URL (IQEye is an example - http://camera.ip/now.jpg is all it needs). Others won't show you a thing unless you go in from a browser, load an ActiveX control, and then login to the camera (HIKvision and Arecont for a couple examples). The former type SHOULD work with your HomeSeer plugin... pretty sure the latter will not. That's why you need more info from the plugin developer as to what cameras are supported. As far as iPad/iPhone viewing, most cameras will let you view their web interface directly, so you don't require a separate app, but you would need one that works without ActiveX or Flash. Some will also send their video stream from a URL, again allowing you to view it directly without the need of an app. If you want to view recorded video, however, you'll need either a camera with built-in recording, that also has an app or supports multi-browser viewing, or an NVR that meets those same criteria. A camera that simply writes to a NAS may not allow you to pull the recorded video back off for playback. But first things first: if you want it to work with HomeSeer, you need to find out what cameras will be supported, and narrow your list down to that...

Twist-ons are fine... IF you do them properly. If not, they'll fall off at the slightest provocation. Regular crimp-ons are fine, but a hassle if you lose the center pin during assembly. Personally, I prefer compression type.

I wouldn't run video over UTP for more than about 20-30' without a balun... even then, there's no guarantee the signal won't be noisy. If you have devices (encoders, DVRs, whatever) with UTP video inputs, chances are those inputs actually have baluns on them internally... which means you'd need to add a balun at the camera end. Rather than splitting the UTP for the PTZ, I'd recommend running the UTP into a balun, then splitting the coax output to your two destinations, ideally using an active video splitter.

"Common sense" says that everyone's requirements are different. You may not need to identify someone at the end of that few-hundred-foot driveway... someone else might find that important. At that range, you're not going to get significant detail at the end of the driveway, if you use a wide enough angle to cover the full width, regardless of what resolution camera you use. So you need to determine what level of detail you require vs. the field of view - do you need to identify people, or just capture general activity in the area? IR coverage to "a few hundred feet" will also not be achieved with built-in IR, so you're looking at external IR illuminators... possibly additional units along the length of the driveway. If there's ANY ambient light (street lights, etc.) you might be better off looking at good low-light cameras instead of fussing about with IR. You need to see if your HomeSeer software has a list of specific cameras it supports, because not all IP cameras communicate in the same "language". You also need to confirm whether it supports megapixel cameras, or just VGA-resolution IP cameras. All the cameras suggested so far are megapixel, which won't do you much good if the software doesn't support them.

Greetings from the Left Coast