AVCONSULTING

Great link. Explains things very well. And yes in answser to the question about distribution amps, use the same cable.

I hope you have your British passport up to date so you can hop the first jet to Australia or Canada. I'm afraid the next headline we read will be about you and it won't be good. And I thought Los Angeles was dangerous. What happened to the happy island paradise advertised on TV?

CCTV video transmission is at a different wavelength than RF transmission and aluminum is a poor conductor and poor shield at those frequencies. I'm sorry that I don't know the exact frequencies involved but this has been from many years of experience in both the RF and video industries.

Unless it is a very short run you'll most likely run into very high loss of signal strength and also probably pickup electrical interference. If you already have the cable give it a try first by just laying out the length you are going to use. Don't install it first only to find out you have problems.

RG59U copper braid generally comes in two qualities. Low cost is about 70% braid and best is 95% braid. The price difference is very little so it is best to insist on the 95% copper braid cable.

Rory is correct about the term explosion proof. They are designed not to cause an explosion in an area like oil wells, natural gas facilities, etc. They will not survive an explosion.

Anyone had experience with this line? Interested in hearing any comments regarding it. Thanks. http://www.inetcam.com/home/default.aspx

http://www.vitekcctv.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductID=41 In your area, Martins and Tri-Ed carry this item. http://www.vitekcctv.com/Distributors.asp

Sometimes in the setup menu area you have to make sure that the cameras are activated. Go into the area for camera setup and make sure that it hasn't been skipped.

Never heard of him. Must not be a major player in the CCTV market. What is his speciality?

http://www.cbcamerica.com/cctvprod/computar/vari/vari_pdf/HG3Z4512FCS.pdf

Silent Witness Artic Hawk http://www.silent-witness.com/support/docs/V60_093004.pdf

A lot depends on the distance you are going to run. Remember that CAT 5 doesn't handle voltage real well over long distances since the wire is very thin compared to the 18 gauge in siamese. Also good siamese has about a 1000' maximum range for video.

So far the Panasonic series of wide dynamic range cameras has proven to be the best around. I don't know their current pricing structure but the performance is incredibly good. Worth paying a little extra.

The Sanyo is an outstanding camera. I sold hundreds when I had my old distributing company and never had problems with them. If memory serves me that is a 1/2" format camera so make sure you check for lens compatibility. You'll need an auto iris 6mm lens, the 4mm is a 1/3" format size. It is very small so will fit in any standard housing.

http://www.inetcam.com/products/MobileGateway.aspx

I think Rory checked out that ProVideo and didn't like it very much. You might want to PM him or most likely he will see this post since he is checking things everyday. I know it is confusing with so many DVRs out there, many the exact same DVR under different names. Best bet is to find a local supplier and go in and try them. You can never tell how good they are until you actually see one and play around with it. Hopefully there is someone near you with a good selection.

Nuvico and Vitek are identical DVRs. Both made by the same company so in choosing one of those look for best price. Both use composite video output for the monitor so you could either take that and modulate it and then feed it into your TV RF distribution or you could run new cables and use a standard video distribution amplifier. One other possibility if the TVs aren't too far from the DVR is to run the monitor output into a small RF transmitter and then put receivers at each TV. Vitek/Nuvico come in 8 camera versions so if you have 9 cameras in mind then you'd have to go to their 16 camera system. The reliability is very good, nice resolution on the playback, and you can hook up any standard USB port recording device like a CD/RW to store video clips for permanent storage.

Here's a good start to find DVR suppliers. http://www.iscwest.com/app/homepage.cfm?appname=180&moduleid=324&linkid=1700&locparam=adv&campaignid=82&iUserCampaignID=13344982

Back focus may or may not be needed and is usually employed when using zoom lenses so that the focus is good from very wide angle to telephoto. Sometimes on a fixed focal length lens you need to backfocus if the lens won't focus using the lens' own focusing knob. Using neutral density filters when focusing is necessary if you are using an auto iris lens. Because depth of field varies depending on the amount of light you can have a very good focus during the day and find out that at night you have a blurry picture. What you need to do is fool the lens into thinking it is night time and then focus. This will prevent problems later.

Do you want color or b/w? Also the wider the angle you use the less detail you are going to get. What exactly are you trying to accomplish?

If remote management of multiple sites is a top priority then go with the Intellex. It has probably the best multi site remote software I've ever seen in a DVR. Otherwise the best value for the money is Geovision if you have the ability to build a good computer around the board.

I can think of only two companies that could provide your requirements and they will be pretty expensive. Here are links to the U.S. sites and I'm sure they have overseas offices nearer you. http://www.nice.com/ http://www.nice.com/solutions/enterprise/gaming.php http://www.pi-vision.com/ http://www.pi-vision.com/treasure_island.htm

Well thought out with very good multi site remote abilities. http://www.americandynamics.net/products/intellex_home.aspx

I believe this is the same type of model so all programming would be the same, just differences in overall recording time. If he has the manual maybe you could get him to copy it for you for a small fee. Here is the Ebay link. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=46974&item=3866839796&rd=1