scorpion

Alarm companies hate it when customers switch from land line phones to VOIP phones. You know you have a good dealer when he checks his customer data base every day and calls you and asks about your dead phone. It will appear dead to him because your alarm has not "checked" in to the monitoring company. I cannot say all but most cable installers do not connect up to the alarm at all. They set up the "box" and plug it in to the first wall jack they see, pick up an extension and say yep you got phones! If you are a cable installer I am sorry. In these parts the cable company hires out "subcontractors" and the subcontracting company hires people all of the time. The good ones become managers and the "lost" new employee is not making any money because they have to do 8 installs a day just to barely make any money, and most likely they are delayed and dont do 4 installs. Given time they become good but they still dont care about the alarm panels.

Scruit, I know this is not related to the post, but.... Today we started a new guy. He acts like he is gods gift to the cctv industry. I think he just memorized every book he ever read about it. I could not take it anymore! I handed him a socket wrench and 4 spark plugs and told him to go change that DVR. He walked away. I thought I would here the stuff slam on a bench as he fumed away. A few minutes later he asks where are they installed??? HA! HA! HA! That got us in a good mood for the day! I still have tears from laughing so hard! I think I will have him hose the outdoor carpet out back that looks like grass. We would not want it to turn brown now would we?

Yes, those are great! You should be able to find it in any spystore. It is an MPEG recorder. I have seen them listed under various names and know them as the lynx recorder. I wish I could post a picture to show you what to look for. Another brand is called the cybereye. I am not to familiar with it and cannot give any advice on this. You can hang it on a wall. It almost looks like an a/c thermostat. You could put it on a shelf as well. The video is great off the one i am familiar with. In real time motion the storage time is short. For long periods you can set it to take "snapshots". You will have to find the right setting for the snapshots verses the storage time. If you go to far you can have snapshots spread out real far and you may miss the shot you need. When you want to view the recorded history you grab the device, plug it in to the yellow connector of your tv (composite) and the rca plug on the device. It is that simple!

When your burglar alarm is activated it will seize the telephone line (if it is installed correctly), and you will not be able to dial your house and listen in. Do you have a secondary line such as for a fax machine? In the U.S. spy shops they have a telephone that is called a Tele- Spy. Before you leave your house you pick up the phone, dial your cell phone, and hang up. When the phone detects motion it dials out. When your cell phone rings you are listening in to your house through the handset's microphone or mouth piece. The variable to this is your alarm company seizing the line. How long does this time out? What about the monitoring company calling back? A second line would be great for this phone! I have tested this phone and it works great! I am really impressed for a "gadget". I don't forsee the CIA using this but that would be ironic would'nt it? Yes this is used by the my wife/husband is cheating on me crowd so in most cases their is no expectation of privacy. If you are using this device illegally than you can suffer the full wrath of the law. 25 years will really suck! SCRUIT you have a back up for every back up! You soon will be designing for the Space Shuttle and for NASA! Ha! Ha!

Scruit, It looks like you have all of the hatches batten down and ready to go! Rather than purchase from HD (I shop there alot for tools, low voltage retro rings, wall plates with holes (I enlarge them with a dremel sander attached to my Dewalt for larger cable counts) ) can you work with a distributor in your area? Watch everyone chime back in about using rg6. Everyone will want you to use the R59. The RG6 does not have a good copper shield. For your short runs if it works I say go for it. You only need one good camera, the rest can be as cheap as you can get them. Would you use those 1"X1" mini cameras for the other cameras? Here is where I get flamed by everyone for using mini cams. OK GUYS I CAN TAKE IT! Now all you need is one really good camera! It looks like you have studied pretty good! It looks like you are dotting your I's and crossing your T's. My apologies to your child's Godmother for saying she may be suffering from dementia or the like. It was not directed at her, and I was giving advice to all of those silent members of the forum who are trying to resolve their own problems, or they are trying to absorb as much information as they start their own business. I truely hope their was a nugget of information in my post that you can use. What can I do to help you get this system in and running so we can catch this person?

Hello from Florida! Welcome to your new hobby!

BAAAAAAAA HA HA HA! I love it! MY favorite part is where he falls on the inside and all of the bottles fall off the shelf and pelt him in the head one at a time, and bounce to the floor!

6mm, 8mm or even 12mm lens? Experience will tell you what type of lens to use. If you are looking to break in to the business buy yourself a cheap box camera and a 2.8 - 12mm lens and a 5 - 100 mm lens. Now if you are lucky it will have the mm numbers on the lens and a dot that shows you what setting you are at. When you go out to do a bid hook up your camera to a 13" tv with an extension cord with a built in triple tap, or purchase a seperate triple tap. A triple tap is a three way plug that you can plug in to the end of the cord. Now you can plug in the tv and your 12 volt power supply. Use a 25 foot premade cable (video/power) to connect to your camera. Stand on a ladder and imitate how the camera would be installed. Let your customer look at the monitor (tv) and they can direct you to the view they had in mind. Now turn the adjustment on the camera and show them different settings of the lens. What you see is what you get. Explain to them that this is not the camera for the install, and that you are only using it for reference only. By doing this up front will save you trouble after an install and the customer does not see what they had in mind. This will help out before a customer wants to back out of a deal, or wants you to pay for the upgrade to get what "he asked for to begin with". A majority of my installs are for residential houses. I am always using a 4mm lens bullet with 30 feet of IR. Bolted to a house the view will be perfect for watching a two car driveway! Now bolt one on each side of the house looking forward to the front yard (or backwards to the backyard), and bolt the fourth one to watch the back yard. Here is a trick. I bolt the camera just to the opposite side of the front door. You will not see who is standing at the front door but the video will show you who approached the front door, and you will have the driveway in the shot at the same time! Two birds for one stone! Remember that the camera cannot be to far from the driveway. At night you want the cars to be in the IR zone and not out of the night time video! A 6mm lens is the teeter totter point. 4mm and lower distorts objects in the distance. You cannnot watch a mail box with a 4mm or 2.8 mm lens. It is not going to work and you are going to have a pissed off customer! Cheap cameras always come with some where around a 3mm or a 4mm lens. This makes it "plug and view". If some one is in your yard you only care about the zone about 10 feet from your house. 9mm will be giving you a slight zoom feature. It is just like looking through a binocular. A 50mm meter lens will get you out to the middle of the street so that you can identify what kind of car is driving by.

Thanks for the heads up on the Max 255. Is this an Epse item? I have never heard of it. I have never tried the 598HIM. I have been waiting for the right bid so I can give it a whirl. For the ECL 599 the camera is ok for low bids. It is a great camera, but the real reason why I like it is because it has a decent mount and the plastic and the screws that come with it are great! ( That is for quick install for entry level work). I have ordered cameras elsewhere with the same specs and I would laugh my butt off because the mounts were so cheesy I would almost fall off my ladder laughing! Then to add insult to injury the plastics are just a joke! I may as well drill a hole in the block, fill it with caulking and stick a dry wall screw in it for all these are worth! Now for my favorite! MY bid will get turned down because " I found this camera at harbor frieght, home depot, internet and it only costs $30.00 but thank you anyways". You are welcome! Good Luck (I'll see you in the fall when it gets dark at 5pm and that 10 foot IR throw will not be enough)! I hate December! I always get those calls for help. "Help, I had this guy who installed these cameras and now it does'nt.............". It is amazing how many installs are done during the summer by trunk thumpers, and how many southern engineerings I have to fix for these people in the winter! I love this job! It never gets boring!

I feel your pain! I had a customer with a request for a hidden DVR. We came up with the idea of going in to the laundy room and taking all of the shelves out of the closet (actually a Pantry). The area was ideal construction wise. We tore in to the drywall and built a wooden box. All of the componets are parked here and we are using a Xantech IR repeater system. A piece of dry wall was screwed in at the 4 corners over the hole, and the shelves are put back in, and the paper towels and can foods hide it very well. The IR "receiver" is hidden behind a tv, and you can access the DVR from here. This is in a high rise condo and there is no attic space, no crawl space, and in fact the ceiling is concrete which is the floor for the space above! I got very lucky running my wires through this condo. I was able to pull all of the electrical lights out along a chase and I tore through the ceiling in a closet and down the path I pulled a fart fan out of a bathroom that allowed me access until I got to the laundry room. Lucky, Lucky, Lucky! On other installs I have hidden a DVR in a master closet, and I have used a pawn shop VCR as the evidence bait. I just have some wires from a multiplexor going in to the wall and thats it. Thank god for low voltage retro trim rings, and wall plates!

I hear you loud and clear Rory! I have an Orbix 8 that everyone wants to buy! It is no longer sold, and I found out the hard way. It was on the web site for a long time then poof when you need it the most it is gone! I have noticed this with other models as well. I am glad that the comet 9 and the comet 16 never change! I wished they carried the network version of these. For the network version I have to order them from another company out of Texas. I would not mind the flip flop so much if the features were getting better, and better, or the price was dropping over time. I use the ECL 599 camera on every residential install that is requested at entry level pricing. I recently used the 599LR and was really disapointed by the night time IR video. It is referenced at 60 feet of IR and at 30 feet the video was not there. I have a camera that I order from Uriel/ AVS. It is a "ball" camera that sits on a frame. IT is a 4 - 9 mm Vari Focal Impact resistant, and it is vandal resistant. This camera really pulls it weight (or at least for its price range). This install is asking for two more cameras and I will not be using the 599LR this time around. As usual it is a bid process that is entry level, and I cannot use the correct camera for the application. Thank you Uriel!

Thanks for the link kensplace! Interesting.

Ha! Ha! Ha! It is not going to happen!!!!!!!!!! OK! I will give it a shot! Video sytem under $1200.00? You will have video of the "action", but you may not have facial recognition! Facial recognition is the only way "beyond all reasonable doubt" to catch this guy! A SYSTEM UNDER $1200.00. HERE GOES! This is not directed to kensplace. This is directed to all of those who read this and have a need to pick and choose from what I post. Please do not be offended with anything I have said. These are just in general and not for any individual. There are various ways to go about this. Ask 10 installers and you will get 10 different answers. I will only describe in simple terms and you will have to modify to your needs/price for your system. 1. Come up with a travel path that this individual is walking. Where does he park. I assume he parks in the driveway so that he can load up the goods. Does he walk through an open garage and enter through the house through here? Does he enter the front door with a key? Does he go around the back and enter through a door with a key? Does he shake a "locked" sliding glass till he gains entry? Please do not answer back " no he can't go around back because of fence/row of vicious thorn rose bushes/backyard dog/locked screen porch". I am being general and I do not have pictures to give you a better idea. Once on the inside of the house what is his travel path? 2 The travel path is important. I want to use the least amount of cameras than the situation calls for. If I know the travel path than I can place a very good camera at a "cross roads". A living room, or a hallway is what I am trying to describe. Does he enter on the left side of the house and travel to the right side of the house? Put a high quality camera here and use less than desirable cameras else where to document the action. The key location, and a good camera should get you facial recognition. 3 If you have some idea what he is prone to take this will help. I ask is he (or she) going after family heirloom items? Why did they live there? Are they family, or married into the family? Are they acting in the interest of someone else because they have knowledge, or entrance? If you can create a "profile" than you can leave out some bait! Put a camera on this! 4 Do not go based on this persons idea of what is going on. Be a detective and assume nothing and ask the worst questions to yourself and eliminate these issues one by one. Is this person a little out of touch? Are they suffering dementia? Are they falsly accusing someone for some reason? I have installed a lot of systems and I have become "jaded" after finding out the truth to some of my installs. When I deal with those with dementia, I just cannot take their money! It is not right. OK if they are indendently wealthy and this gives them a peace of mind then there is value to this install. Are they trying to just get something on someone. You better not deal with this person, they may turn on you when they do not get what they want. This person can also be the type to say your system does not meet the standard that you were supposed to install from the forefront! Now make it right or I want my money back. You messed it up now you order the high resolution, long throw IR, with XXmm lens with vari focal, with electronic iris, with IP66 rated, with impact resistance with a silver platter, with a velvet pillow or I will tell everybody what a worthless company/individual/installer that you are!!!!!!!! Sorry! Maybe I am the one with issues! If you are a first time installer expect this. It may happen once and it will change how you do business for ever there after. If you are a "buddy" doing a favor it may be possible to disapoint the one you were really trying to help! 5 PARTS SELECTION Cable: Premade cable with ends allready attached are ok. Do not use this for outside installs that are wrapped around the house. Through the attic and down a wall is ok! If you are mounting the camera 30 feet from the recording device, go ahead and order the 100 foot cable. Six months down the road they may have a new issue to resolve and you can move the camera to a new location. A 25 foot cable is going to leave you stuck! If you use wire outside use a good quality wire that can handle the outside environment. Just because you friend has an obcene amount of "wire" in his garage and you can help yourself to as much as you want DONT!!!!!!!! Use the correct wire for the correct job. Stick to good copper r59 with good two conductor for power. Please do not use the 6 conductor wire even though he has a mile of it for the taking! Sorry I know it is for free. Power Supply: I use 12 volt 400 ma power supplies for each camera, but make sure the power supply matches what the cameras needs. Do not skimp with a 200ma for outdoor IR. You will have a failure and you will have to go back and order another and replace it. May as well get the best you can get up front. Also anticipate a future upgrade! Start with a good power supply and you are good to go! CAMERAS: I do not know what to tell you. You need the rigtht camera for the right job! Read the prior posts and you hear "HAD", EXVIEW, LOR, AGC, BACKLIGHT COMPENSATION, etc, etc. Fail to follow everyones advice posted here and you will leave those individuals the right to say I TOLD YOU SO. Tip: In nightclub and bars businesses, there are always those owners who want everything for nothing and wanted it installed for free! Great! These clubs are dark and no camera is going to work! BUT! I have used a minicamera that is B/W , retails for $100.00 or so, and it works real good! Believe it or not! It is not a perfect video, but what do you expect for cheap! I do not know if this camera will work for kensplace, but test it and give it a try. Do not use this for the main facial recognition camera! If I am installing a one or two camera job on the inside I try to sell an outdoor IR, 66 rated camera. Vari focal if I can. I know this sounds like over kill for this kind of a job, but what about 6 months down the road and they have a new issue? You can move this camera outside to solve a new issue, and when it is over you can move it back inside. Baby cribs come to mind. If all of a sudden there is a peeping tom in the news and everyone is freaked out you can move this camera outside to the 14 year old daughters window and then later move it back to the crib on the inside. When they get a new bank account and receive a new debit card in the mail you can put this camera outside to watch the mail box until the card comes in, and you can move it back to the crib. Now the system is flexable and can meet future needs. Yes you spend more money up front but you never have to buy another camera for each freaked out moment that comes along! RECORDING This is a variable!!!!! I would suggest going to a thrift store and buy a couple of VCRs. Get a multiplexor for multiple cameras. DO NOT USE A SWITCHER! Switchers will show your cameras one at a time. First camera one then camera two, then camera 3, the cam..... HEY wait! What is going on at camera 1?????? Now I see camera 4! GRRRRRR! OK now I see camera 1! Hey what is going on at camera 3? GRRRRR! A multiplexor will show 4 cameras in a quad view all at the same time and you can record them all at the same time with a vcr. THRIFT STORE / PAWN SHOP VCR TIP: Ha! Ha! You got what you paid for!! OK! Make sure you can bring it back. At least for a trade in if they will not give your money back. HERE IS WHAT TO LOOK FOR! Plug it in. Push the channel select down. Channel 6, 5, 4, 3, then 2, it then should go to L1 or AUX. IF this happens you are in luck! This activates the composite video input on the back (or in the front), instead of the screw in part for the cable feed, or the coax connection. The composite connection is the yellow rca video input. If it does not do this be ADVISED! YOU will need the remote control to activate the yellow composite input. If it does not have a remote control stop! Do not buy the VCR! If it has a remote test it with batteries! You will have to press "GAME" or "SOURCE", or "INPUT". Make sure you can activate the video in with the remote control. Test it with a dvd player and a tv! Now buy an 8 hour tape. I recommend at least 7 tapes. Mark them Sunday, Monday, etc. etc all the way to Saturday. Now put todays tape in for recording. Down the road when you need to look at past history you have at least one weeks worth of history. If you need 24 hour recording you need to have three 8 hour tapes for each day and someone has to push record three times a day!!!!!!!! You are better off getting a DVR. IF you get an entry level one make sure it has networking! DVR: Get a DVR with networking even though you do not need this. This is for future use down the road. Entry level DVR will most likely use Jpeg or J2000, or wavelet compression. It is a bit grainy but it should do the trick! Buy the DVR yourself and rent it out for the price you paid for it, and continue to rent it out and make some money from it. Yes you can rent to various other people who are in need! You can trade your services for something you need in return! I hope this helps someone out there! Good Luck!

Hey Agent_Jay23 OH! OH! I just ordered my first nubix 8LT. Thinking about what you have said I will be confirming your problems or I will be allright. If it is as bad as you say it is, I may be switching to the IC Flex.

I saw in your profile where you have used a nubix 8 and you had issues with the DVR. I mostly use the comet 4, the comet 9, and the comet 16. I recently started using the nubix 4 LT. The comet 4 is a really low budget entry level DVR, but I love the comet 9, 16, and the nubix 4 LT. Through another distributor I have ordered the comet 9, and 16 under another part number but the other company has the network version of these DVRs. With Eclipse you can order the Orbix series, which I have never ordered, but will some day to test them out. I do have a 3 year old orbix 8 that is rock solid and still running. It is no longer with the line up but if I see this on ebay I would buy it for the right price. This is one of my in store demo models. I dont have much experience with nubix8. I am really sorry to hear about your problems. I know how you feel! I always want to order a product and test it before I sell it. These days I can afford to do this, but this was not the case in the past. I wish you the best of luck!

I purchase all of my products from Security Cameras Direct and from EclipseCCTV. I like using Eclipse because it is a one or two days shipping. It is really nice to get stuff in quick! Yes I have had some problems but no big deal really. They once did not have the item that I needed in stock. I also once needed to order an entry level DVR and an entry level PTZs. The DVR had issues with controlling the ptz. In turbo mode it worked great but with wide swings I could not set a preset. Out of turbo mode it would tilt up and down and zoom, but it would not work left and right. They sent me a 2nd unit out right away (great service) but the 2nd unit had the same problem. It turns out the problem could be fixed with a firmware update possibly. This is the first time I ever used this particular DVR. It is really great for entry level product! Mpeg 4 looks good, over the internet it looks good, and you can use IE to look in also! I have been using this DVR alot lately (for non PTZ uses). My solution ended up paying more for another model, but the mark up was good and I had no problems and the customer was happy. Everytime I have ever had to talk to tech support I can tell they understand what I am talking about. They are not reading some tech support advice off of a computer monitor. Yes in some cases out in the field I have needed to contact them and had to wait till they called back. The prices are really good that I am aware of. I am really glad they do not charge $600.00 for a 500 GB hard drive like another company! I do alot of custom up jobs and so I never order cookie cutter "kits". I order everything a la carte. I do about 20 installs a month and most of the residential orders are entry level pricing. I cannot compare this company to commercial grade product distributors, but I am happy where I am. They also carry strikes, maglocks, and related equipment. If they carried burglar alarm products I would be very happy! If you could try every company out there over time I am sure they will all disapoint you one way or another. Some companies are really bad and some appeared bad at the time and have regained my trust over time. I stand by Eclipse and they have my vote. Have your business tax ID ready before you call. PM if you need the phone number.

Rory, What is overlay? I had a problem with a stand alone DVR. Remote viewer worked great on newer PC w/ XP SP2, but did not work on older computers. Client had a wide selection of computers so no trouble on this job. I saw in the begining of this post where you mentioned overlay. I tested an older comp in the shop w/ 2000. Updated video card, and MS update and remote viewer from distributor instead of disc. Screen says something to this effect. Video overlay not initialized....program is shutting down. Thanks

She is always Right! (she might be reading this, just play along). Ha! Ha! Ha!

Thanks! He is the post author, I at least owe him that. For others, at least I can take a flame. Is someone deserves it, I can throw it with the best of them! If you can't take it don't dish it! Thats my motto! My wife accuses me of bloating my post count!

Thank you! You are correct. I apologize. I did not mean to disrupt the postings. I should be more clear when I write "advice for others". I know a lot of do it yourselfers read these post and I just wanted to have a bell go off because someone else had found a solution to their problem. Again I apologize to those just starting out in the business for the first time, or the DIY that just needed a trick to save hiring a digging crew. Thanks!

I sell many styles of covert cameras. Do a google for covert cameras and you should see computer speaker cameras, pencil sharpener cams, keyboard cams. There are devices that are about 2"X4" that have a camera and a recording device. It can do motion picture for a short period of time, or it can take a series of snapshots for longer periods. You could easly take this out of the office at lunch and plug it in to any composit input tv to view! I love covert cameras and networking! I have many time called in on the phone pretending to be someone else and just "hassle" the janitor, or whoever. My favorite is to call in and scream dj voice style "For $1000.00 WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE RADIO STATION! Sir bring me a _____ (fill in the blank) down to our radio station and we will give you $1000.00! You have to get it here withing 12 hours! If they fall for it and show up at the radio station they will just look like fools! I had a problem with a janitor. I typed up a bunch of letters chastising the cubile owners of how dirty their cubicles are! This is just disgusting, and I refuse to clean your cubicle from now on! Clean it yourself! Your mother does not work here! On and On etc, etc. Please be advised I am reporting you to HR! I came to work real early and layed these "letters" in everyones cubicles and then I left and came back at my regular morning time. This worked because we did not have card access, or cameras. WOW! I have never seen so many people pissed off at a janitor so much in my LIFE! Everyone thought he wrote this letter and they let him have it! No I did not leave any fingerprints on these "letters". OK you do gooders go ahead and flame me! I hope he gets a job with you so you can see what he is like!

Good idea to pretest the wire by running along the ground for a mock up. I would be very leary doing this because I would be afraid of a horse tripping on the wire. But then they may trip while you are trenching, you know murphy's law! Here is some advice for others. TRENCHING PROJECT FOR DO IT YOURSELFERS Take your shovel stomp it in the ground as deep as you can, pull it out place it next to your "trench" stomp it deep, and continue till you get close to the destination. When you go to bury the wire, lay the wire along your trench and shove a 3 foot or 4 foot 3/4 plastic pipe over the wire and then stick the end of the conduit in to the "trench" facing up and "push" or "pull" the conduit. When you have practised and have got this technique down it should leave the wire buried in the trench. When you are done you can pull the wire up and out and reuse it for other projects. Ask your local cable tv installer how to do this technique. WARNING: This is not recommended for permanent installations! This is only for covert installs for private detective cases, law enforcement cases or short term surveillance. Check your local codes for how deep to bury it. Watch out for sprinkler pipes etc. You may need some tools to chop large roots or prey you do not need to use a chain saw to cut huge roots! Please read the available posts and educate yourself. Ask the pros. You may hear them say bury the wire in plastic conduit. Good advice! Protect the wire as much as you can! There are those that use Sprinkler tubing for conduit. This is great because there are no breaks in your conduit allowing water intrusion if the glue technique fails with regular plastic conduit. CURVES WITH CONDUIT If your are running a long distance with conduit such as to a barn, boat dock, gazebo, or outbuilding try to use the conduit to make your turns. DO NOT USE 90 DEGREE ELBOWS! USE SWEPT ELBOWS. IF YOU CAN, DO NOT USE ANY ELBOWS AT ALL. The reason I say this is if down the road if you need to pull new wire for service it will be much easier to pull through the conduit. If you use 90 degree elbows you will never be able to pull that wire out of the conduit! Swept elbows will allow you to pull the wire through. This is dependent on how many elbows you have on your run. Try to use only two swept elbows. One coming up out of the ground at the house, and one coming up out of the ground at the destination end. I know you dont need to do this, but do it for me when I come along in a few years for an upgrade! If you are doing a gazebo, dock, etc have a box somewhere between coming up out of the ground and going to the camera. This will make repulling your wire much easier! OVERHEAD CABLE RUNS Watch your height, remember it is going to bow in the middle. If it is not mounted high up enough it may choke someone or as we say clothsline someone. Cable companies use a coax that has a siamese wire running with it. They place a round ring at each end of the wire and the ring goes in to a hook on the telephone pole and the other end hooks to the side of the house. This helps keep tension off the coax. I apologize for deviating from the post but I just wanted to pass some advice to those not in the business who read these comments.

I sell a lot of the wireless cameras that Scruit mentioned. We have an Insitute of Technology nearby and they take flying lessons and alot of them have model rockets, and planes. They really enjoy putting the MC III on these! For this application these cam/xmtr/rcvr work great! These can be trouble some for some cctv applications. Those that wonder why the video works at those distances has learned why they mount antennas really high on most applications. Around these parts of East Coast Florida if you own a high rise building you are bombarded by every radio, amature radio, cell phone, business radio etc etc.

I like using solar panels to recharge batteries. Now if I could just get them to stick around after cat 5 hurricanes so my customers would be happy to see the vacation home remotely. No I have not tried embedding them in concrete but that may be next! Power outages today are nothing compared to 20 years ago. Brownouts are more of a concern. In the old days we used to call the company Florida Flicker and Flash.

There is an Mpeg 4 DVR that is listed with a Texas Surveillance distributor, and a Miami Surveillance distributor. The product is an excellent entry level stand alone DVR, and with all of its features, and it can use remote software, or IE. Through server E / Video Viewer, or IE the picture looks great. This DVR is listed on the respective companies web sites and through their respective catalogues as having PTZ control. I cannot speak of the Texas based supplier, but I did order one from the Miami base distributor. I love the product even though it is an entry level product. It worked fine (using video server E, or Video Viewer)! For local control you will have to buy an external controller, or use a computer and the software, and control the PTZ through the LAN.