Soundy

Welcome aboard!

Vigil supports Micros 3700 directly.

That wiring is so ghetto... I'm amazed that it did work properly before. Baluns are the proper way to run video over UTP.

^This is also why you see the big streaks/trailers when the cameras panned past the studio lights on old TV shows (particularly things like game shows that went straight to tape). The first thing they taught us with using the broadcast cameras was to ALWAYS lock down the tilt when leaving the camera, lest it tip up and aim into the bright studio lights.

I'm not sure what cameras I am going to use. Actually I would love some recommendations. I need the cameras to be color with decent night vision and POE compatible. Any recommendations for indoor/outdoor cameras? Looks like for the NVR I am trying to settle with the Qnap VS-2012 since it appears it will meet the needs of this project. -Manny I'll have to look up the model of a HIKvision camera I saw in action recently... it's watching the same parking lot as a couple Arecont AV3155DNs, but at night, when the Areconts go to B&W, the Hik stays in color... has as good as or better picture, and possibly less motion blur. Does the QNAP support HIKvision at all?

It's not PHYSICALLY separated, no. I did that on a couple of sites (separate NIC in the DVR for the company LAN), but it actually proved more useful to simply have the one multi-homed connection. Edit: here's a little quick'n'dirty network diagram... Yup, that would be the most common way to do it. It's only Layer 2 managed, so it doesn't really work as a router itself. I'm not aware of a four-channel version of this switch. Other than the PoE, I don't think it wouldn't provide that much more functionality to you than a quality four-port router. I'd love to find a broadband wireless router with PoE on the LAN ports, but so far I've not seen anything.

Looks like the same hardware as the TS-239 Pro II storage unit. Should be solid... we've been using the TS-439 Pro II, TS-859 Pro, and TS-859U-RP (depending on the specific site needs) and they've been running great. Main difference is that the 239 won't do RAID5 (that requires at least three disks). The storage units have very basic NVR functionality as well as assorted other features (media server, webserver, etc.); the VS units, as far as I can tell, are the same hardware, just with firmware more specialized to NVR implementation. http://qnapsecurity.com/liveDemo.asp

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

It does have some management capability and QoS support, but I've never needed to use either - these are dedicated to the surveillance system. The only other connection is a "jumper" from one of the 10/100 ports to the client's LAN, which has its own firewall and VPN back to head office. On all but one site, the DVR and cameras are on their own 192.168.2.* network, while the stores have their own 10.0.* networks, so there's no "cross-communication" anyway - the DVR is multi-homed on the 10.0.* network for remote access, but that's it.

It does have some management capability and QoS support, but I've never needed to use either - these are dedicated to the surveillance system. The only other connection is a "jumper" from one of the 10/100 ports to the client's LAN, which has its own firewall and VPN back to head office. On all but one site, the DVR and cameras are on their own 192.168.2.* network, while the stores have their own 10.0.* networks, so there's no "cross-communication" anyway - the DVR is multi-homed on the 10.0.* network for remote access, but that's it.

Oh, and switches.... we're using mainly the Linksys SFE-1000P. Eight 10/100 PoE ports for the cameras, two GbE/fiber ports for the DVR and NAS. They are STELLAR performers. One site I just used a simple D-Link DGS-1005D five-port GbE switch, as the Linksys was located on another floor, and it works fine. Another, I was limited to running it through the site's 10/100 switch, and that seems to be holding up alright too (been in there a year+ and no complaints from the site about network speed). But mostly, we really like these Linksys models - they retail around here for just a hair over $300, not bad at all for what you get.

I've been just creating multiple 2TB targets (or one target with multiple 2TB LUNs with newer firmware that supports LUNs) and mapping them all as individual data drives. I worked around that on the last one by making all the LUNs into one spanned volume - kinda ghetto, but it works. They kept telling me it's impossible in XP... I kept telling them that it works fine out-of-the-box with the Enhance arrays. The last one, their tech finally claimed that it SHOULD be possible, so I let him remote into the machine and try it, but he couldn't make it work... that's when I came up with the spanned volume idea. The tech finally admitted that Enhance must be doing something extra in their system. I understand that it IS theoretically impossible with XP, but... again, Enhance worked around it somehow. However, the QNAP arrays are a good bit less expensive, and since the DO do the job with only this minor annoyance, they've been the unit of choice.

It's been solid for us, we have a half-dozen or more of them in service... only problem I've run into is that it won't let me create targets over 2TB in WinXP... something that hasn't been a problem on the Enhance Technology arrays we've used.

I don't really have a budget per say. I'd say lets keep it as much as possible below $2,000. I do realize that the NVR's cost as much as 4 times the price of a regular DVR. Not necessarily - after all, there's no capture hardware needed; all most of them charge for is the per-camera (or per-group-of-cameras) license. Using the Vigil as an example, the DVR, hybrid DVR, and NVR systems all use the same software; the DVRs/hybrids just include the analog capture hardware... naturally, at an additional cost. Certainly, give the QNAP a look (make sure you're looking at the dedicated NVR boxes at www.qnapsecurity.com, rather than the main qnap.com site).

Well, "NAS" being a generic term meaning "network attached storage", iSCSI is sort of NAS by definition But yes, we're accessing them via iSCSI - Vigil doesn't support SMB shares for storage (they claim it's too unreliable).

If the DVR actually logs the POS data as text, it should be easily searchable. If it overlays it on the video, then... no.

Oooo, good eye! I haven't even SEEN a tube camera since I worked with Plumbicon broadcast cameras in post-secondary training

You don't need the ground wire in normal installations. Just ignore it and connect the brown and blue as indicated on the attached flag.

We're using the QNAP NAS units for outboard storage for Vigil NVRs, they're really nice units. I've fiddled a bit with their online demo of their NVR, it seems decent (at least from an operation standpoint; I haven't played with the configuration pages). Definitely worth a look. You could also look at the Vigil NVRs (www.3xlogic.com) - yeah, they're Windows-based (actually a highly-customized build of Windows XP Embedded), but I certainly wouldn't call them "junk". They use quality components and are very solid machines. They're also on the pricier side, but it's very feature-laden software (POS integration, analytics, "smart-search" of recorded video, etc etc). It also supports "Virtual PTZ" with any attached camera (including analog cameras, if you're using a hybrid box).

Hi yes i have seen the avers pos working. even collecting data from the scanner. and also ever push on the till will display on the avers. it also logs voids. it is best not going though the printer ports as it only then sends data when till opens. best from display pole. Agreed, I think this is more an issue of the POS setup or output used, rather than the DVR. A printer port will usually be designed not to send data until commanded to, usually once the transaction is complete. The ones I've set up, the TVS or DVR are set to recognize "Polewatcher" text, and the POS is set to use that function on the output port. This is normally intended for the pole-mounted displays that show the customer what's being rung through, AS it's being rung through. There's no reason ANY DVR shouldn't be able to log that data on-the-fly.

The 110V input doesn't necessarily indicate anything - I have, sitting in a box somewhere, still working (although dim), a variant of something like a Panasonic BP214 with a grounded line cord coming out the back...

Welcome! Whereabouts in Canada are you looking at?