Soundy

Found this that might be helpful: http://www.nonags.com/freeware-shaplus-bandwidth-meter_3521.html "ShaPlus Bandwidth Meter remains in tray and displays the approximate bandwidth consumed for the session, day and month. This will be useful for people with limited bandwidth allotted per month."

Do keep in mind, that you won't be using that full 500kbit constantly - with any form of B-frame compression, unless you're aiming at a scene that's constantly changing, it will use far less than that on a regular basis. Even without in-camera motion detection, a static scene will generate very, very little traffic. Use a camera that DOES have built-in motion detection, that can use that to trigger the data stream, and you cut the data usage down even more. I'd say fire the thing up and monitor the bandwidth locally for a couple weeks, see how much it uses *real-world*, before giving up on the idea. Simplest way to do it is to plug the camera into any spare Windows PC (even Win98 should do), and run any sort of basic freeware/open-source traffic tool. Heck, even Windows Task Manager will show you the Bytes Sent/Bytes Received data.

If you want one that gives you actual angles of FOV, try this one: http://www.sweeting.org/mark/lenses/cctv.php If you want something a little more inclusive, and don't NEED to run it online (ie. something you can install on a desktop or laptop), check out http://www.jvsg.com/cctv-lens-calculator/ Edit: just came across this one, it's a small install, very clean and slick, and FREE: http://www.cam-techsecurity.co.uk/cctv/lens-calculator

Very top-right, where it says "0 new messages" - clicking that will go to your inbox.

I think a legend of the thread icons along the bottom would be a cool idea. It's there when you look at the thread list for a particular forum, but it would be nice to have it for the predefined search results as well (View unanswered, View new, View active, etc.)

Ah, didn't see that... but not quite the same thing, as that would, it appears, go right to the end of the thread. "View first unread" will take you to... well, the first one in the thread that you haven't read yet. Particularly handy if the thread has filled out a couple pages since you last checked in on it. Edit: just checked, the board I took the screenshot from has the "View latest" link as well, in the same place as here.

No more "go to first unread message" button either. Previously, if you looked at a thread list, any threads with new unread messages would have this button at the start of the topic line. Example from another board:

Well, that's going to depend on the video poster providing that information, regardless of the site.

I would assume this "control box" is not with you underwater So if I'm following this, the camera is already running through the umbilical to the control box up on dry land, and you need to capture the S-video output from that box, into the laptop? If that's the case, all you need is a USB capture device that has an S-video input... such as the aforementioned Adaptec Gamebridge. Install that along with the included software, plug the camera's control box into it with an S-video cable, and you're off to the races!

I'm not familiar with the setup in the GV, but I've done something along these lines with a Vigil DVR. Basically, I took an alarm output of a separate Video Analytics box, to an alarm input on the Vigil machine, then told the Vigil to send a specific preset to the camera when that input was tripped. Worked pretty well, but the problem was, Vigil only supports one alarm-triggered preset per camera (or did at the time, I don't know if they might have improved on that now). Motion-tracking CAN be done with a standard PTZ, but requires specific software to control the camera. I don't know if there's any that will integrate cleanly with the GV, but you could probably run both on the same system.

Check these out - records up to 4GB internally, no DVR required: http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/a0f3/

So the way that the connection works is that cate5e extends from the head-end through the conduit and then just before the cate5e connects to the cameras, an RJ-45 connector is inserted in a balun and then a coax connector connects the other side of the balun to the camera, right? Correct. Some baluns have an RJ45 jack and split out wire tails for other things like power, control, or audio, in addition to a BNC for video... others simply have a pair of screw or snap-down terminals where you connect one pair of wires from the Cat5e; you then split out the power/control/audio from the Cat5e jacket yourself. This all depends entirely on the camera, the balun, and how the installation is done. You could run to a sealed junction box, put the balun in that, then run coax and 18/2 from there to the camera. Some domes have sealed back-boxes with enough room for a balun inside. With box cameras, you can use environmental housings that usually have lots of room for the baluns to reside. In theory... and in practice. In fact, typical passive baluns will generally let you run video over twisted pair for upwards of 1000'. Active baluns can extend that to half a mile or more. Not that I've ever seen... with UTP or coax. Plenum cable (FT-6 rated) has an outer jacket with a higher fire-time (FT) rating (meaning it takes longer to burn through when exposed to direct flame); there's no reason the cable's internal construction would be different from riser (FT-4) cable. The main drawbacks to it are that the jacket tends to be stiffer, which makes it harder to work with sometimes; the jacket tends to be a lot thinner, at least for coax, which makes some connectors not fit it well; and mostly, it tends to be two to three times the price of riser cable. Ultimately, the use of plenum cable will depend on your local electrical codes. Usually, it's only needed for cable run through a plenum airspace (where the return air for the HVAC system runs through open ceiling areas) over a certain distance (which will be stated in code). If the building has ducted air returns, then it doesn't have plenum airspace, and you don't need plenum cable. If the cable is in metal conduit, it doesn't need to be plenum rated. If you do need to run through plenum, your code will probably allow up to 3m/10ft of non-plenum cable - this allows for "jumpers" from conduit to camera without needing to enclose the entire length.

Thanks for this great info. So if coax is used PTZ cameras need a separate cable run (siamese cable?) for power or an electrical plug near the camera? But if cat5e is used, PTZ camera can get their power over the same cat5e cable over which the camera transmits video? Is this true for most PTZ cameras for just for some PTZs? It would mainly depend on the camera's power needs and the length of the run, but yes, most cameras can happily be powered over the Cat5e. This is true of both fixed and PTZ cameras. With "standard" wiring though, PTZ also needs an additional pair for its control signal. I've never done a direct comparison. There are 12VDC-only cameras that are more expensive than "similar" 24VAC or dual-voltage cameras, that are better in other areas (and sometimes just more expensive because of a brand name). There really SHOULDN'T be a significant difference - the addition of a rectifier and voltage regulator technically shouldn't add more than five bucks to the manufacturer's cost of a camera, although it does require a bit more space, so you won't find them in very small designs. The most common way is for all the cameras to share one central power supply, preferably with individually fused outputs, but multiple central supplies can also be used, or even a separate "local" supply for some or all cameras. There's no hard and fast rule as to how it HAS to be done, though - sometimes some creativity is needed just to make things work. A central supply is done mostly for convenience and ease of maintenance.

It might help to start off with something like, "You know how, in apartment buildings, they can tune a channel on the TV and see the security camera? Well, I wanna do that at home with my FiOS..." - might help them clue in a little quicker to what you're after.

You can't plug it in directly - you need some sort of video capture device. I use one of these to plug cameras into my laptop for adjusting/focusing: http://reviews.cnet.com/search-results/adaptec-gamebridgetv-avc-1410/4505-5_7-31653718.html What does this cable/three-pin connector normally plug into? The pins are PROBABLY video, power and ground, so you'll need something to split out the video and power pairs, then take the video feed and plug it into the capture device.

You would need to use a video modulator in between the termination box and the splitter (assuming the splitter isn't internal to the box). The other catch is, your service needs to provide a "hole" for the modulator - a channel that carries no other content. If you go through your channel guide, this will often show up as a blank channel named "Security Camera" or something along those lines. Of course, that all assumes that the Verizon set-top box supports analog video at all. First thing you might want to do, is contact Verizon to ask if their boxes will allow the insertion of a CCTV camera. Since this is a function normally relegated to apartment or condo towers, you might have to talk to someone in business support, rather than residential. If the boxes are fully digital and don't support this sort of analog signal being inserted, that will probably end your quest right there.

I mostly like the GVI and NVT tool-less units, although we use the MuxLab ones for VGA feeds (and the component versions have been handy in the past for multiple cameras on one line). I like the ones with a small body and BNC tail for their ability to fit inside camera backboxes.

Wow, I skip out for a couple days and the thread explodes Rob, IP cameras CAN run over coax, using devices like Veracity HighWires, but that will add substantially to the cost, as they retail for probably around $500-$600/pair. On the other hand, analog video will run nicely over Cat5e using baluns... I've had no signal problems with even cheap ones (the main thing I find, as they get cheaper, is that they're more likely to have intermittent connectors or other such physical issues). Unfortunately, where you DO run into problems with baluns, is when you're using cheap 12VDC-powered cameras that use a common power and video ground - the baluns introduce substantially more length to the video line and once you get two or more cameras connected to a common power supply, you get ground loops and interference. The one sure cure for this is to use 24VAC cameras when you're using baluns... and that probably doesn't apply to most of the cameras these guys are recommending. If they've been using them with baluns, that would explain why they think baluns-over-UTP gives poor signal. As far as your previous question (a couple pages back) about the length of ethernet runs, the spec for Cat5e is 100m, which works out to about 330'. Cat6 will, I believe, approximately double that. The other thing to take into account is that Cat5e is currently the same price as, or cheaper than, coax... and since you can run power over the Cat5e as well (plus control, if you have PTZs), you don't need to run power alongside the coax, which saves some money. Now that's somewhat offset by the cost of the baluns, but ultimately they should come up pretty close to the same price either way. In your case, I would definitely recommend going with Cat5e over coax... IF the cameras are all 24VAC-powered (I haven't tested it in "lab" conditions, but I've noticed that dual-power 12VDC/24VAC cameras don't seem to have the ground-loop issue when powered with 12VDC; I attribute this to the power supply isolating the power and video grounds from each other). 24VAC also has the advantage of having less than half the current draw of 12VDC, and thus less voltage drop over longer runs, especially with the thinner 24ga. wires in Cat5e. We've recently done a bunch of upgrades and new installs for a major client, and have pretty much standardized on all-Cat5e for their analog cameras. Those cameras are CNB domes, with Panasonic CW484s for front-door ID shots; all are 12DC/24AC dual-powered, all are running on 24VAC, and there are NO noise or interference issues. All these sites also have 3-5 IP cameras (IQA11 1.3MP domes) and are powered by PoE; they love the megapixel cams in general and will eventually want to start replacing the analog cameras with them, so having the Cat5e in place is just future-proofing the job.

Means you can tilt, twist, and turn the camera in three directions. Usually this means you can tilt the camera up and down in its yoke; you can rotate the entire yoke and camera assembly in the dome; and you can rotate just the camera inside its yoke.

It will depend on the exact sensors you use and the quality of their construction, but if you've had them working fine outside already, I'd say there's no reason not to keep using them. Just some general advice would be to try to keep them out of DIRECT weather, like wind and rain...

Agreed - I even have a PTZ on one site, running a *mix* of 18/2, RG6, RG59, and Cat5e for video and control, works just dandy.

There are several others inside the restaurant that look great, when I get a chance I'll grab some stills from them.

"Here's the daytime shot (note that we only had a chance to get a rough focus before the rain started and we had to close them up, so they're not as sharp as they should be)"

No warnings popping up here from Avast or NoScript... what AV are you using?