Jump to content

WookieBoy

Members
  • Content Count

    8
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Community Reputation

0 Neutral
  1. Thanks again everyone, Nice to see so many helpful replies to a post! CooperMan, I'm a little concerned about the 10 meters between camereas thing... I can't get 10 meters between cameras on a face of the building as my building is not 10 meters wide. In this instance, and because of other obstacles on my site, it's impossable to cover it with just the one camera. Is this information accurate as in stated in the law or is it an accepted guideline? I've been in touch with my local Police force and they seem to know nothing about it... Am still witing for the CPS to get back to me as they were the next port of referance recomended by the Police... I'm a little concerned about this for obvious reasons as I can't provide adequate cover for the site with one camera and with the two out front at the moment, the cover is good, but the cameras are only 7 or 8 meters apart, therefore making any evidence 'legally suspect'? On another issue, I've done a complete U-turn on my recorder and bought a GeoVision DVR card as I got offered an amazingly good deal on one by the UK importer... So thanks to you guys (you know who you are) It's now residing in a twin Xeon machine with ooodles of drive space and running smoothly so far. I'm extreemly impressed so far with the software and the quality of the images. Only complaint is that the manual is a little confusing as it only explains the features in order, and offers no advice on setting up the system or in which order you should configure the settings... so if anyone from Geo is reading this, 4 out of 5 overall guys. Well done But have a word with whoever writes your manuals maybe? As a final comment, I'd like to say this on the subject of falsifying a digital watermark... As someone who does use Premier and other video editing software regularly for compositing and general video editing, I can honestly say that even if i knew how to falsify the watermark, adding or changing recorded video unnoticably is not as easy as you may think. Compositing video streams takes immense processing power/time or specialist equipment and even then it's more often then not, quite obvious the video has been played with unless the added shots are filmed especially to fit into the existing video. I think the watermark is there more to remove the possability of tampering 'in the eyes of the law' as a good lawyer could stand up in court and argue that it's theoretically possible to tamper with video evidence if it's not watermarked. And since most 'general public' don't know about watermarking, an 'expert witness' can use that as a 'surprise counter' to the argument of tampering. Or alternatively, it's arguable that to tamper with the video and retain a credible, uncorrupted watermark is more effort than it's worth in reality... Just my thoughts on the subject. I'd rather my recorder was watermarked as it removes the posability that i could be tampering with any evidence i present.
  2. Thanks alot guys, you've given me a fair amount to look into there. I think I'm leaning towards a stand alone DVR simply for reliabilty and easy of use. As for positioning and security of the DVR itself, I'm going to install it in my server rack as this is possably the most secure place in the building as it doubles as my gun/fire safe and is not in an obvious place (ie it's an 8guage steel lined locked room on the mezzanine, behind a false wall and only accessable via a ladder which goes with me when i'm on site). I briefly thought about using the explosives/ammunition safe then quickly ruled that out for obvious reasons! As for the cameras, i've decided to install a couple more on the rear of the premisies after my prowler incident last night (see my other post in introductions) so am now looking at 8 (with later expansion to 12 for the internal ones). I checked out the images i'm getting from the ones i've installed on the front of the premises and am plesently surprised by their quality. During daylight, i could see the flies annoying the builder i've got intslling the new doors and at night i can read number plates on the vhicles on my driveway and see peoples faces on the street as they pass by! I'll try to post some capturerd images once i get a DVR on the buisness end. Any recomendations on a standalone DVR then guys?
  3. WookieBoy

    2 monitors, 1 camera??

    As a video engineer in corporate events, if i was caught on site with a T-conncetor, i'd be shot! Twice! I'd definately agree with the Distribution Amp method. Will save you sooooo much hastle in the long run and even top quality rackmount 12 output amps will only set you back £50-100 so a 2 channel will be easily bought for £40. I reccomend Extron, Procon or Kramer. If you can't find a stockist, they turn up regularly on eBay as we're moving away from composite video and more toward highdef RGBHV stuff these days, therfore most larger AV companies will be selling theirs off...
  4. WookieBoy

    Need Help To Keep the Wife Happy!

    Hi Willie, I don't know where you are, but here in the UK, most DIY stores sell something like the radioshack kit that Ultimate mentioned. Hoever, they're not great but they are dirt cheap. I have seen a better (but not much) camera with a PIR switch mounted in the bracket of a wall light (the victorian style carriage lamps you see on the outside of porches over here) and I think RS ( www.rswww.com )sell a 'door intercom' system, though i doubt it'll fit in the trim round your door... Don't know if that's any help
  5. WookieBoy

    Hello from ol' Blighty!

    Thanks all for the warm welcome! Well, it seems that being done has made my whole family a little paranoid now. We had an exciting evening last night as heard someone moving around at the back of my house (in the fields behind which our house backs onto). Police were called and arrived an hour later by which time our dog had scared them off, although I had an interesting conversation with the officers who came round. It seems that if our prowler had crossed the fence into our garden and our (rather large and exuberant dobermann) had attacked them, then we could be sued by the erstwile burgler! WTF is that all about?!? Aparently, we need to put up signs on our fence warning that we have a dog? I'd have thought the barking and snarling would have been a dead give away myself! ;o) Anyway, as to the subject of security review I've just ordered a new main and side door for my unit to replace the old wooden ones. Hopefully that'll be enough to slow them down and make so much noise when they're forcing their way in that it'll put them off or alert my neighbours. In addition, i've installed a basic (ie not monitored) alarm system inside my unit with an (extreamly) loud bell on the front wall and PIR detectors covering the two entrances and the window. My neighbour nicely fabricated me a set of steel bars to cover the window which i'm about to install today. All in all, I now realise how lax my security was before. Then again, I was brought up in this village and until recently, the last incident of crime was in 1974 (before I was born) when somone vandalsied the public phone box in a drunken fit of rage. I suppose we're all a bit lax here and it's just taken the rest of the world's criminal element a while to notice...
  6. Hi all, Firstly, I'm not sure this post is in the right area of the forum so apologies if i messed up. Ok, i'm sure you get this all the time, but I'm in need of some advice. I'm looking to install a small cctv system onto my house and storage unit adjacent to my house. I've got some reasonable quality day/night cameras that do PAL resolution and have installed them in usefull but more importantly highly visable positions on the outside of the buildings. The coverage is good with each camera covering the approach areas to my house and unit and also each other camera to capture attempted tampering. Now i'm looking for either a DVR card or stand alone system to record the feeds. Having looked about a bit, i've been a little overwhelmed by the quantity of available systems from a variety of manufaturers. As I have a background in IT i was favouring a PC based system, but from what i've seen, the stand alone DVR's have a better capture resolution which struck me as a bit odd. (even more so now i've read a few posts on this forum!) My requirements are for 6 cameras (with a possable future expansion to 10 if i install some internally later) to be recorded in a decent resolution. I'd also like to be able to access the feeds and recorded footage remotely through my network if possable as I work away on site alot. Another consideration is that while i'm away from the house/office, the only person who could perform admistration duties would be my 'Hapless techno weenie' sister... which made me lean more towards a standalone DVR. My budget is modest at upto £1000 or so, but I'd prefer not to spend all that if I can get away with it as it's money I could use elsewhere. Still, you get what you pay for and would prefer to spend a lump of money now on quality than a trickle from now to eternity on replacing/fixing cheaper gear. Also, any ideas what the laws are regarding submition of CCTV footage here in the UK? Is there some sort of standard I should be looking at? I've seen mention of 'digital watermarking' (whatever that is)on a few of the standalone DVRs, but nothing on any of the DVR cards... Cheers in advance for you advice! Wookie
  7. WookieBoy

    Hello from ol' Blighty!

    Hi all, just a quick message to say 'Hello, I'm a newbie here!' I'm not really in the CCTV buisness. I work in video and lighting for concerts, exhibition stands and corporate events here in Europe. However, having just had the better part of my buisness stolen from my small unit on the side of my house (while i was at home asleep! ) I've taken it upon myself to learn... quickly! Most annoyingly, they stole a box of CCTV cameras i use in nightclubs for video relay of DJs and dancers! How's that for ironic! As part of my buisness is in temporary IT installation and another part is in cable and camera installations, I'm hoping there will not be too much of a learning curve... Thanks in advance for all your helpful advice, and I hope i can impart a few pearls of wisdom myself from time to time. o/
  8. WookieBoy

    component spec for ideal GV1480 system

    Hi Freeflyer and All, I'm on here seeking advice when I saw this thread and thought I might offer some in exchange. I'm not sure what the power requirements are of you GeoVision card, but if money is no object, the PSU's in the world for most seriously power hungry applications are by PC power & Cooling. They're mainly aimed at hardcore benchmark nutters like some of my friends and you'll be paying well into the £350+ price bracket, but they're rock solid and pretty indestructable with extreemly low RFI emmisions. Probably overkill, but you said money was no object! If, like me, you're running on a budget, a very good PSU is the Tagan modular series. Their 900watter comes in at just under £200 inclusive and has 14(!) SATA connectors, 7 Molex connectors, 4 PCI-E Power connectors, a 8 pin power connector, a 4 pin power connector, a Molex > FDD converter and they also supply an IEC lead with the same fancy shielded wiring as the PCI-E connectors. Nice huh!? As for you decision on a RAID card or using the mother board on-bord RAID, here's a little snippet of little know information that may sway your descision... To my knowledge, Win XP will not talk diretly to MOST on board RAID controllers unless they're based on the Adaptec chipset (which most aren't, they're usually S.ilicon I.mage L.imited). So to make them work, the windriver has to act as translator between the card and the file system. As a result, using RAID functions uses system resources but more importantly, software RAID pages the drives constantly and thus puts alot of extra strain on them. Form my point of view (as a video tech for rock 'n' roll) this is not a good thing a reliability is paramount and for the extra money, i'd rather run a Rocket Raid or adaptec card in my machines then save a few quid on using the onboard one. However, i've been told that the onbord cards are fine and don't suffer this problem if you're not running them in RAID mode. I would emphasise that this information isn't verbatum, just what i've been told by a few people in my industy an a couple of IT techs I know... Anyways, I hope this has been useful to you and anyone else who is thinking along these lines Good luck with ya system!
×