Soundy

Yeah, some of the others here might have other suggestions for you, I haven't used the white-LED units myself. Keep in mind, of course, that if you put them on motion sensors, they'd be on only for very short periods. Running a 12W illuminator for two minutes is still no more power than running a 400mW illuminator for an hour. If it ran overnight for even four hours, your illuminator would have to draw no more than 100mW to be the same TOTAL power consumption.

Since IR is unavoidable, perhaps consider using separate IR illuminators, and run them off a separate battery. That way if that battery drains, the cameras and DVR will still be working. There are far more light hours than dark hours, and good day/night cameras like those CNBs will work great even in twilight, which means there are only maybe 3-4 hours of the day that the IR is really NEEDED - the cameras will be effective without it the other 20+ hours. If you really wanted to get fancy, each camera could run off its own battery as well, with the same concept: one camera's battery draining will still leave the other cameras operating. Naturally, you'd need to use battery isolators to ensure each battery sees ONLY its own designated load. One final thought: some guys here are really big on white-LED illuminators, rather than IR, as the white light does make for more realistic images and better identification. I personally like the concept of motion-activated floodlights instead of IR, because a bright light snapping on in their faces will chase off most guys skulking around in the dark. Combine the two ideas and use motion-activated white-light illuminators. This has the added benefit of the illuminators not being a constant draw on the batteries; in fact, they may not need to be on for days at a time. Even if you're set on IR, for that matter, using separate illuminators and triggering them off a motion sensor would be a big power savings as well.

Very good. It will give very close to a 90-degree FOV (about 85 degrees, I believe) with its 2.8-10.5mm lens. Indoor-only, plastic enclosure. The VBM and VCM models are the same guts, in outdoor-rated, weatherproof, vandal-resistant metal enclosures.

I'm kind of in the same boat as you in this case... CCTV is *a* specialty of mine (after several years' experience), but it's not "my" business as such, as I'm just a technician for another company. Like you, I'm paid for my experience, expertise, understanding, clinical judgement about what is actually happening, and what is best for a customer on a case-by-case basis... specific skills that can't be absorbed by reading the results of a Google search. Technology is changing even faster... and with the growth of IP cameras, things aren't as simple anymore as just plugging cable A into input B. One has to be an IT technician as well, to move beyond the bare basics in this industry. It also helps, as we see in other threads, to be knowledgable in construction practices, audio/visual, and any other number of disciplines... AND be able to meld them all together effectively! I had an acquaintance from another (completely non-CCTV-related) forum asking me about helping him with and possibly supplying some cameras and a DVR. I have him pretty much sold on the CNB domes... however, he found them on eBay for less than half of what I can sell them for. I'm not sure, but it's probably less than WE get them for. So I told him, I can give you the benefit of in-person, in-town support... but if it's for a home system, and you're on a budget, I really can't match that price, and I'll understand if you decide to source them from an online retailer. In fact, I HAVE from time to time been contacted by people for price quotes, based on my posts they've read here. Some of them, as far as I know, have never even posted here, they've just lurked and read posts. And realistically, how many of us here ARE direct competitors for others? I can think of maybe one REGULAR participant here who's in my area who would actually be considered a "competitor". There are a couple who work for a supplier that we SORT OF compete with, but more often simply work with. This is true with nearly every profession out there, especially skilled trades. The backyard mechanic, for example, will never put the pros out of business, regardless of handy sites like autozone.com and the plethora of car forums out there, because there are some things that your average joe just doesn't know how to do right... or how to do well... or how to do easily... or has the time for.

^Agreed there. Cameras aren't typically considered "mission critical" to the same point an alarm is, and like bpzle says, if the DVR isn't on a backup as well, there's no point in having the cameras still running... and once you have an external UPS for the DVR, it's easy enough to just plug the camera PSU into that. Keep in mind, too, that "professional/industrial" cameras are 24VAC; 12VDC is typically considered consumer-grade stuff. So far, I haven't found a 24VAC battery...

Needs more cowbell!

I'd look at any of a number of mobile DVRs, the type intended for automotive use - these are designed for harsh environments and low power consumption. Sorry I can't suggest any specific models, I haven't used any of them myself. As far as power, you could look at using a solar panel or two to help keep the batteries charged while the power is off, especially since 3 hours may not be enough time to give the batteries a full charge. Be sure to use deep-cycle batteries as well, so their output doesn't drop off near the end of the charge. Keep in mind that the IR will drain a LOT more power than just the camera alone - if there's sufficient ambient light (nearby streetlights, etc.), consider a good low-light-capable day/night camera like the CNB VBM-24VF. In addition to excellent low-light response, they have very low power consumption (max 2.2W, according to the spec sheet). One final caveat: remember that cameras MAY provide a deterrent for some, but they do nothing to actually prevent break-ins. "An ounce of prevention" really applies here, and a good monitored alarm would probably be more effective, with the cameras as a backup in hopes of catching burglars should they get by that.

Thing about using 24V, for any given camera and any given power draw, it requires half the current of 12V, and will be less susceptible to line losses. This is largely why most "professional" cameras use it in addition to, or instead of, 12V... and why most professionals prefer it.

Those cameras only require 2.2W, so both of them should run quite happily off a single 24V/20VA supply.

^That's purdy!

I don't know that there is a "standard" level of tint that's used... I've never personally tinted a housing myself, and I don't know anyone else who has. The tinted/smoked domes I've used all came from the factory that way and are all varying levels of darkness. A couple things to keep in mind: The human eye's response to light is non-linear so while the difference between a light and dark room may not seem as extreme to you, it may be so to the camera. Likewise a dark tint may have a more extreme effect on the camera's sensitivity than it does just to you looking through it. When you're trying to hide the camera in the housing, remember that the tint works BOTH ways - it's both reducing the amount of light that enters the enclosure and illuminates the camera itself, and it's reducing the reflected light off the camera, which is what you actually see when you're looking at it (sorry for the uber-basic physics lesson, just making sure everything is in perspective). So you don't need tint that's as dark just to hide the camera. Moving the camera further back in the enclosure will reduce its visibility as well. And of course, you could paint the camera black (ideally a flat, satin or semi-gloss black) to further reduce its visibility.

Are you set on standalone, or are you okay with PC-based? Check out www.3xlogic.com - Vigil fits all your specifications, and being PC-based can easily have more drive space added. Hybrid as well, if you should want to upgrade to IP cameras later. These are spec for two of Canada's major oil companies that we service, as well as a large upscale restaurant chain.

Like Harrar says, burn-in doesn't happen with LCDs, and persistence is rare. In either case though, a simple daily reboot doesn't fix or prevent the problem; a static image is still being displayed for all but a couple of minutes of the day.

Am I to assume most ICR cameras are compatible with the Lorex entry level dvr's such as the LH-314 and LH-310? Both are the same just 4-chan and 16-chan video inputs. These are standard visible-light NTSC/PAL analog output CCTV cameras. The only thing "special" about them is the infrared filter that moves out of the way when they switch to night mode.

You want a true day/night (ICR) camera, then. Lock it in night mode so the filter is out of the way and it should clearly pick up the traffic lights.

That would have no effect on burn-in - the monitor would still be displaying the same frame and controls 23 hours and 55 minutes out of the day.

I don't know about this machine specifically, but just some thoughts: I assume the network is connected and working (you can view via the remote viewer)? Is the DNS entry filled? Without a DNS (not DDNS), those functions can't lookup domain names and may be disabled.

Even toggling through the cameras wouldn't prevent burn-in (if you were on a display that COULD suffer burn-in), as the only thing changing is the contents of the camera frames. The frames around them and the rest of the interface would still burn significantly.

You only need to connect the TX pair on the DVR, to the RX pair on the camera. And you shouldn't need a special card for it - just connect it to a serial port on the computer. RX+ on the camera will go to pin 5 on the DB9 connector... RX- goes to pin 3. Configure GV to use the serial port (probably COM1 if it's a built-in port), and make sure the comms parameters (baud rate, etc.) and camera address are all set properly to match the camera's settings.

The catch here is that it's just JUST one little hole through the brick, if you're going for a covert camera, although that works fine if you're mounting some form of standard housing (bullet, dome). Of course, running to a basement is a nice idea, but usually easier said than done, since you do have a floor in between, and it likely won't be easily accessible for drilling - it's not as simple as just tying a weight to the wire and letting it drop all the way through. Well... it MIGHT be, if the brick was all H-block and there might actually be a continuous cavity all the way down... Anyway, I think pulling off the casing is a good place to start - it should come off without much effort, is cheap and easy to replace if necessary, and getting behind it will at least give you a better idea of the rest of the wall's construction - everything up until is speculation based on other experience that may or may not apply to how your particular house is built.

I think the best way to estimate this, would be to find someone with a similar system on a smaller scale, and extrapolate from there. Like, if someone has three fixed and two PTZ cameras using all the settings you're after... then you look at the space they're using, and if you're doing, say, 30 fixed and 20 PTZs, you can multiply their usage by 10 and get an approximation of what you'll need. Case in point: first store we did for a new (at the time) client had analog and five 1.3MP cameras. They wanted 90 days' retention, and were happy running an average of 4fps on all cameras (three or four of the analogs are CIF, the rest are all 4CIF). We started with 3TB internal storage in the DVR, and found we were getting about 28-29 days... so we calculated from that, that we'd need around 10TB total. We added a 6.5TB RAID array (8x1TB, RAID5), fine-tuned some of the camera settings, and now they get almost exactly 90 days (varies between 90 and 92 depending on activity and such... sunny days and summer months with longer daylight tend to create more contrasty scenes and thus need more storage... little things like that). We've used those figures subsequently as a basis for calculating the storage needs on subsequent sites that we've done upgrades and new installs. One advantage you have here is that you're not dealing with any megapixel cameras, so it will be a lot easier to find existing systems to get estimates from. Unfortunately my numbers won't help much, particularly since we're running far lower framerates, and not using H.264 (the Vigil DVRs record in MJPEG; 3xLogic actually claims their AZTECH codec can recompress that better than H.264 in many cases).

The thing you need to realize about these tools is that they can give only VERY ROUGH estimates based on VERY BROAD assumptions. They can't predict how much movement a camera will really see, they can't predict how "compressable" scenes will be, and they can't account for how well you do or don't configure motion detection and analytics. Depending on the codec used, it can't account for variations in different manufacturers' implementations either. Looking at your chart, for example, even with constant recording, the actual amount of compression will be a lot less on the PTZs if they're running constant tours... the same with cameras that are looking at constant motion vs. scenes with less movement. As far as the analytics data itself, it should be only a small fraction of what the video data takes, and shouldn't significantly affect your calculations. Best bet is to over-spec by a fair amount - it's better if the client sees they're getting more days than spec, than less.

Like I said, my suggestions were typical of my experience... I've rarely known these sort of door casings to be caulked, other than maybe a small cosmetic bead. My current house has no caulking at all on the casings - the casing is attached by copious brads, which are easily extracted from the pine jambs. In the event you do break the casings, the chance of finding suitable replacements will vary depending on the design - most I've seen are a very plain, basic wedge cross-section. Before undertaking removing the casings though, it would be a good idea to check the design and then check that a suitable replacement is readily available from your local building supply. As for color, it looks like a pretty standard brilliant white to me... color matching shouldn't be a problem.

There's often some spacing there, as door frames are typically made a bit larger than the jambs to allow for adjustment/alignment of the jamb and door during installation. Note I say, TYPICALLY, based on my own experience (worked construction with my Dad for many years), but it may all be different in your case depending on local practices and different building codes. Plus I don't think I ever worked on a brick-structure house, so the doors may be installed differently (I have done all-concrete construction though, and wood doors are done about the same...).