Monitor Your Assets

Here is a link to a great article on John Honovich's site: http://ipvideomarket.info/report/casino_video_surveillance_design_case_study

Also known as AVTech AVC787. Demo unit - very gently used and in pristine condition. Includes original box, packaging, manual, software (CD) and remote control. $500 or best offer. "MPEG-4 real time compression format Extensive recording time - 320GB Remote surveillance on mobile phone via GPRS, or on PC through internet connection Easy file backup methods with USB flash memory, AP, DVD R/W (optional), and CD R/W (optional) Alarm trigger recording will send alert with images to designated e-mail and FTP address Advanced motion detection function and convenient search function. Multiplex function (recording, view live, playback, web function, and more) Web function supports MJPEG compression format for transmitting over the internet Remote Event Trigger Recording. Web surveillance supports multiple viewers simultaneously Support covert screen for live view channels IR remote control of the system and PTZ through RS-485 Support PELCO-D protocol Hot point to control the ptz. 2 HDD bases built-in, each can support more than 400GB"

Not too far! I was traveling on I77. Just noticed that there was a posting for spools and boxes of wire by another member. Those might end up being of better value to you.

I'll check it out. Wish I knew a week sooner as I just drove through NC!

How quickly do you need it? I have some a spool or two sitting in my garage that I'd like to unload, but I'll only be back in town next week.

With a 3MP camera, my vote would be for the L22 lens - wide angle. You should have enough resolution to narrow in on your target. For comparison, here is a L43 image. The distance between the camera and the closest post (where the rail meets) is 20' or about 6m.

Hi Richard, There is more than one way to skin the cat. A "centralized" approach could be used where all IP cameras record video to a central source. There are several different software packages available for purchase that support a variety of cameras - search this forum for some great feedback from members. A "decentralized" approach can be deployed using Mobotix cameras where all storage can take place on camera. You then Mobotix's free software to connect to one or more Mobotix cameras for viewing/searching/management. You can later choose to centralize your footage if you'd like, either through FTP, NFS or a common Windows/Samba share. I like the Mobotix approach because it is flexible and it minimizes the startup costs. Begin with one camera and an SD card up to 16GB without any other hardware/software costs. Repeat as required. Want to centralize your video at a later date? No problem - add a NAS box. Not happy with Mobotix's free software? No problem - go buy one of the many applications that support Mobotix cameras.

Great camera, but ultimately depends on how/where you are using it. Have you considered the dual lens models that have both a day *and* a night lens?

I'd love to be a part of that, especially for Mobotix products.

Are you able to show us a sample image?

For home, I use a 3COM 10 port switch (3CDSG10PWR). It's a managed switch, has one SFP port (just in case), is rack mountable and has a quiet fan! http://www.3com.com/products/en_US/detail.jsp?pathtype=purchase&tab=features&sku=3CDSG10PWR For customers, it's generally a case by case basis. The bigger shops tend to stick with Cisco because it's well documented and well supported. Yes, you can use Cat-6 instead of Cat-5. The current/popular flavor of PoE (802.3af-2003) is rated at 15.4W, but one must account for loss over the length of the cable. An upcoming flavor of PoE (802.3at) will deliver 24W of power.

logmein.com Secure access without the need to poke holes in your firewall.

Mobotix offers an "I/O" box that connects to their cameras via serial or USB, depending on the camera. This IO box has input and output contacts to control devices including lights, speakers, intercoms, microphones... You can then, for example, turn one outside light on only when video motion in specific areas is detected and turn another light on when motion is detected using the camera's PiR sensor. http://www.mobotix.com:80/eng_US/Products/CamIO

As someone who recently switched to mac, I feel your pain. I'm not certain if you're after a DVR only or a complete solution, but Mobotix cameras (no DVR required) work well with nearly any browser (IE, Firefox, Safari, Camino). It supports "server push" via jscript, java and ActiveX. ActiveX is required for audio support and MxPEG viewing. I use Safari 98% of the time for administering my Mobotix camera and use the free client on Parallels when I need to. I have found the web server to work very well using the iPhone too and will be publishing some articles on that soon.

I agree with ver2go. Generally speaking, 1 fiber run is more than enough for 20 cameras. For 20 cameras, you could use something like a Cisco 3560E-24PD which offers PoE on every port and 2x 10 Gigabit uplinks (realized only when using SFPs). You'll be looking somewhere south of $5,000 for the switch itself, without SFPs.

Can you provide us with the following information? - camera 1 IP: - camera 2 IP: - camera 3 IP: - camera 4 IP: - camera 5 IP: - camera 6 IP: - camera 7 IP: - camera 8 IP: - switch 1 IP: (please include full IP config inc. subnet mask, gateway...) - switch 2 IP: (please include full IP config inc. subnet mask, gateway...) - Which ports do you use to link the two switches? GBIC or twisted pair? - Does the LED on the panel indicate that you are connecting at 1000Mbps between switches? - Which cameras are on switch 1? - Which cameras are on switch 2? - Which switch is the NVR plugged into and which port is used? If it's streaming from 8 IP cameras, you'll likely need 1000Mbps for this link too. - What FPS is each camera configured for? - Is it possible to run additional CAT6 lines between switches? The model you chose supports "link aggregation" - combine bandwidth of up to 8 ports instead of running fiber. - Were any other switch features changed from factory default, such as "spanning tree"? - Anything interesting in the logs? Does "monitoring/statistics" report any errors? Dropped packets? If so, which port(s)? I agree with Sawbones - smells like a bandwidth issue, but you need to help us help you by providing the details above so that we can identify the bottleneck.

No, sorry.

Hi Chris, I finally got around to the "exposure experiment" where I captured low light motion with three different maximum exposure times: 1/10, 1/30 and 1/60 which seems to be the sweet spot. You won't be able to recognize a face in the image, but instead, a partial license plate is exposed. All images were taken while briskly walking up the stairs. For reference, the distance from the camera to the closest pole (where it meets the rail) is 20'. This experiment was done twice - once with the outside house lights on (~0,8 lux) and once off (~0,4 lux). The links below include 3 images each as an animated GIF so that one can see the difference. Each image includes the available light and exposure time as well. Enjoy! M12D-IT exposure samples w. little light M12D-IT exposure samples w. less light

I've experienced similar grief at a site in Las Vegas. v2comp: does the code apply to cat5 plenum cable as well?

No doubt the dedicated B/W lens is a big help for the M12D. The Axis 223M can not come anywhere close to this performance. I would estimate it requires at least 7 stops more light. Each stop is 2x, so 7 stops is 128x more light. Or, approximately 0.1 lux in 2 seconds. Two second exposure time is an eternity when someone is walking; subjects are just a wispy blur. Would love the opportunity to measure the M12D SEC in low light. Best, Christopher Hi Christopher, I hope to have some time this week to provide some samples with my M12D-IT at night with different exposures. In the mean time, here are a few (!) Mobotix cameras that are open to the public. Unfortunately, there is no way of filtering for M12D SEC cameras. http://www.123cam.com/category-webcam-Mobotix.html

Looks interesting! I look forward to reading about your results.

Agreed! In the URL below, Mobotix even includes some lighting tips. http://www.mobotix.com:80/eng_US/Products/Camera-Functions/Day-Night

Power supply frequency?

Curious - did you get to the bottom of this?

Forgot to mention, the following exposure times are available, max & min, per lens: 1/8000, 1/4000, 1/2000, 1/1000, 1/500, 1/250, 1/90, 1/60, 1/30, 1/30, 1/5, 1/3, 1/2, 1/1