Sawbones

Many modern DVRs and camera servers have a network port, which will allow some sort of network monitoring. You simply need the client software and to forward the appropriate ports through your border router (you ARE using a router, aren't you?). Some use active-X controls, some use Java, and some require their own software (some can do it multiple ways). Be more specific... what are you trying to do?

If you want bandwidth and usage monitoring from port to port on the same switch, you're looking at some type of managed switch. Those will be far more expensive (several hundred $) than a standard switch (easily < $100). Monitoring usage across a router would be far easier, and even free DIY routers (like smoothwall) give you bandwidth usage graphs. I have a managed 16-port gigabit switch in my home server rack, and it works great. Even though it has the capability, I never use the monitoring features, since my home network usage doesn't even come close to saturating the switch. ******** Edit ********* I should point out that you could insert a hub between the computers you want to sniff, or do a cache-poisoning attack on the switch, but that's probably more hacker-ish than you really want to get.

I used a 241Q server for years at my home... I still keep it around to test analog cameras. Good piece of kit, and rock-solid stable. Then again, it's linux, so I'd expect no less. I have a soft spot in my geek heart for *nix. ************ Edit ************** I replaced the 241Q with a Dedicated Micros DS2 when I doubled the number of cameras I had.

Unless you've got some extra analog cameras to connect, there's probably no point in hooking up those camera servers.

Who on earth would hoard firmware updates? Are you serious? We're not talking about nuclear missile launch codes here... we're talking about software updates that people may actually need, and sometimes at odd hours. Personally, I work a lot of nights, and often am up working on my own projects in the wee hours, even on my nights off. Having the ability to get those types of firmware/software updates at all hours would be an absolute necessity for me. As an end-user (not a commercial installer... I do systems for myself and family/friends), I simply wouldn't purchase a camera if I couldn't download updates, bugfixes, and software patches from the manufacturer. Guess I can cross Arecont cameras off my list. I won't purchase something I can't work on myself.

You could find all sorts of enterprise-grade routers that could handle that... but why would you need it? If you're talking about a simple border router for a local network (the border router is the one that handles your traffic out to the internet), your connection speed to the internet will be orders of magnitude slower than gigabit speed, making gigabit completely unnecessary for that interface. In fact, on almost any conventional cable/DSL connection, you could probably make do with an old 10baseT ethernet card for the WAN side of your router and not even saturate THAT. You wouldn't even come close to saturating a 100baseT card... and a 1000baseT card would be total overkill. For connecting different network segments, you could build your own router with Linux, an old PC, and a few Ebay'd gigabit ethernet cards for far cheaper than purchasing an enterprise-grade rack-mount router. I guess it depends on how much hacking you feel like doing.

Newegg has a bunch of PATA-SATA convertors... and they're fairly reasonably-priced IIRC (haven't bought one in a year or so).

Marc is correct. I personally have several panasonic outdoor domes in use, and they are weatherproof, but neither came with a heater or blower. Another thing to keep in mind ai that heaters/blowers often require your camera to take a different voltage than the standard 12v, so your standard CCTV power supply may not cut it.

Gentlemen, this kind of thing is why I come to this forum. I've been thinking of replacing two specific cameras on my property with megapixel models (for vehicle and facial ID), and these pictures are a great help... megapixel cameras are simply too expensive to buy sight-unseen, or "just to try it." Thank you.

Scorpion is exactly right. I had my first 4-camera system installed, and I have hired guys to crawl around in my attic and run the cables, but from that point on I've done everything myself. It helps that I'm a ham radio and networking geek, but even so, CCTV was new to me. It's been quite an education. These "installers" should have all sorts of installation "stuff"... sundries like splices, screws, plugs, wires, drill-bits, fiberglass fish-rods and tapes... it sounds like they didn't even have the right tools, and may have been picked up at the "day labor" place downtown. I think I'd pick a different crew next go-round.

Good lord... what an installation nightmare. On the good side, it illustrates that it helps to know what you're doing, and be able to do your own job if necessary... if only to guide those who may have bitten off more than they can chew.

The recession has definitely been felt in all sorts of markets... ask any car dealership. In my own field (health care), we've even seen a drop in our census, starting in August of this year. However, in recessions, crime also tends to increase, along with the public's awareness of it... so I don't know that security-based businesses will feel as sharp a decline as some other sectors. I'm only a hobbiest when it comes to CCTV, so I can't speak from personal experience.

What lenses do you have on that camera?

That's not what I meant. It's a day/night camera, correct? If so, even it it's not IR-equipped, it still has an IR-cut filter that snaps into place at higher lux levels, which filters out infrared and allows the camera to render colors correctly. At night, that filter is moved out of the way to allow the camera to use infrared light. If your IR-cut filter doesn't snap back into place in the morning, it'll make your colors look all wonky. I've never used the camera you're referring to, so it's just a guess. The link below shows Axis's explanation of the concept. http://www.axis.com/products/video/camera/about_cameras/day_night.htm

I had several Intensifier cameras (Specotech) that I replaced for precisely this reason. Good images during the day, but absolutely worthless if the light was too low. You can't even add illuminators, since the Intensifier bullets lack an ICR, and are completely insensitive to infrared (I tried). All the night images were blurry with any kind of motion.

Ted makes a good point. If they note the LPR camera setup, they'll simply remove the plate, or obscure it in some way. That's when you'd need to count on another camera to get a good shot of the subject.

Color looks pretty off... ICR problem?

I fully agree with you gentlemen on the usefulness of IR. It's far more expensive than visible light, only provides a black-and-white images, and the image quality is worse than visible light. It's also very difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of it without mounting it (along with the planned camera), adjusting it, and actually physically looking at the images. That's why I put up the comparisons... somebody might save a few bucks on Ebay by buying what they need instead of what the marketing tells them to buy. I went with IR around my residence for two main reasons. first, it's discrete. Secondly, my HOA doesn't like floodlights... they emphasize "accent lighting" or indirect lighting of a structure (soffit-mounted down-lighting, ground-mounted accent lights, etc). I have those things on my home, but they light the home itself, and do very little to light the area around the home. IR combined with the appropriate cameras seemed like the natural (if expensive) solution. It can work... for example, here is an image from the side of my home, courtesy of a WDR panasonic dome. It's likewise pitch-black at night, but is IR-illuminated by one of the tubular Ebay lensed illuminators (providing most of the lighting, and quite evenly too), with a little help from one of the supercircuits puck illuminators (provides the spot of IR light you see on the tree in the far end of the view). I frankly enjoy playing with these things, and I don't mind throwing up a few pictures if it will help somebody out.

So you want some infrared illuminators to use with your security system? You've probably looked at the dark, grainy images produced by many security cameras at night, and wondered if there was a way to brighten up those images. First, some background. As anybody with a video surveillance system knows, most day-night cameras do NOT function in complete darkness. They switch to black-and-white mode when the ambient light drops to a low enough level, but even a low-lux-sensitive camera is blind without some sort of supplemental light. Fortunately, CCDs (the actual "eye" inside many modern security cameras) are sensitive to wavelengths of light that are invisible to the naked eye, specifically the near-infrared band. It's possible to brightly illuminate a scene with infrared light, while having it appear pitch-black to the unaided eye. Some cameras, including many cheaper bullet-cam varieties, include some form of built-in IR. At first glance, this would seem to kill multiple birds with one stone: camera and supplemental light source in a single package, less wiring, simplified installation, etc. However, there are significant drawbacks to this arrangement. One notable limitation is that camera-mounted IR sources attract bugs... lot of them. Humans can't see infrared light, but many insects and animals CAN... and they're drawn to that light; the proverbial moth-to-a-flame. This is mostly an annoyance, unless you're using motion-detection with your cameras, DVR, or camera server software. In that scenario, the bugs flying into the lens will continually trigger your motion detection, and fill up your storage media with all sorts of images that you don't want. This greatly increases your signal-to-noise ratio, and may lead you to turn off your motion detection entirely. Camera-mounted IR also gives away the location of your cameras. The vast majority of IR sources for security cameras are in the 880nm range. These are dimly visible to the naked eye as a dull red glowing light, and they may catch the eye of the very person you're attempting to discretely observe. There are IR sources that are truly covert/invisible to the naked eye, however these run in the 940nm range, and are significantly more expensive. It's also more difficult to find security cameras with good spectral response to the 940nm wavelengths, meaning that your regular CCD cameras may not benefit from the expensive 940nm illuminator you just purchased. Many dome cameras also have built-in IR, some of which can be reflected back within the dome, interfering with the functioning of the camera. In addition, the polycarbonate domes that are frequently used on vandal-resistant cameras cut down on the transmission of the IR light, robbing your camera of yet more performance. Fortunately, it doesn't have to be that way. This is where IR illuminators come in. Illuminators run the gamut in terms of price, features, durability, water-resistance, etc. Even with all their differences, most modern illuminators have similarities in that they are LED-based, and run on DC current (requires a power supply). I was surfing Ebay one day, and my curiosity got the better of me. They have a number of LED IR illuminators for sale there, and I wondered if any of them were a bargain (you can easily spend $1000+ on a high-end illuminator!) I ordered a handful of them, along with a couple from US-based super-circuits, to see how well they would work. First two: Link to supercircuits (model on left) Link to Ebay (model on right) Second two: Link to Ebay (model on left) Link to Ebay (model on right) Last one: Link to RayLED (british company) Here is the scene where these lights will be tested. This is a daytime view, through a 420TVL day-night armored dome camera. This particular camera has built-in IR that is advertised to go 100 feet. However, as you're going to see with the camera and most of these IR sources, their "estimates" of range are wildly optimistic. You can pretty much cut the advertised range in half right off the top. The distance to the corner you can see in the picture is about 40 feet, and the illuminators will be tested by being mounted about 20 feet away, just off-camera along the right-hand wall, roughly focused on the same spot perpendicular to the camera's view. If that doesn't make sense, it will as soon as you see the pictures Daytime view: Night time view (with only the built-in camera IR operating). Ignore the IR light you can see coming from around the corner... that's another IR source and another camera. We're mostly concerned with the area between this camera, and the corner: First, the super-circuits model. As you can see, it throws a dim pool of IR light, with a fair amount of dispersion. In contrast to what you're going to see from some of the other illuminators, it's more of a flood light than a spot-light. You can barely see me standing at the edge of the illuminated area. I will be standing in exactly the same spot for all of these pictures. Second, we see the round, puck-like, 40-LED Ebay model. Compared to the super-circuits model, it's brighter, and the beam is tighter. It also gets quite a bit hotter when operating. Third, we hook up the square floodlight-appearing Ebay model with 140 LEDs. This one's the brightest of the lot so far (as you might expect with the higher number of LEDs). It also has a cooling fan inside that whirs audibly when powered up. However, there is no visible vent area for the hot air to escape the case, leading me to doubt the effectiveness of the cooling fan. The included power supply also died within an hour of being hooked up. Fourth, we connect the tubular round-lensed model. This one seems to be a much higher-quality unit, and also gives one the ability to focus the IR beam by adjustments to the lens. It provides very even illumination, without hot-spots, though it's a little dim compared to some of the other lights. Last, we hooked up the RayMax50. This industrial-strength thing puts out some serious IR light, and adjusts from a 120 degree beam angle to 180 degrees (you're seeing the 120-degree setting in this picture). The angle adjustment allows one to illuminate the entire side of a structure with a single device, if desired. This all comes at a steep price, of course; almost ten times the cost of some of the other units: I can't say anything about long-term reliability with any of these units, but they all do seem to work as advertised, with the aforementioned caveat about the limitations of their stated range. Even the RayMax doesn't seem to reach out quite as far as company literature claims. I should point out that ANY of these illuminators would be sufficient for a person wearing a proper set of NODs. I tested all of these illuminators with gen2 and gen3 NVGs and found that even the cheapest illuminator (or simply the camera's built-in IR) literally turned night into day. It may be hard to appreciate in these pictures, but the entire area we're viewing is pitch-dark to the naked eye... positively stygian... but wire up a couple of these illuminators and don a set of NVGs, and it literally turns it into daylight with even second-gen goggles. Hope this information helps somebody. ****************** EDIT ******************* Second set of pictures, taken with the same illuminators, in the same order, only these are from a WDR panasonic dome.

Is this a system to monitor the employees of an armored transport, vice a system to monitor the exterior of the vehicle for employee safety? Or is this for a police/SWAT vehicle to allow the team to monitor the exterior of the vehicle without exposing themselves to incoming fire? There are some commercial systems for the latter application that include FLIR and such. Lenco would be the company I'd approach for that... IIRC they have a system like that in their armored vehicles.

Yeah... I watched that video on youtube. Kudos to you for putting the screws to that guy. I don't know what that hothead thought he was doing... that kind of thing could get you shot in some places.

What a let down... I thought this was a thread about linux-based video analytics.

I hope he gets some jail time. No matter what your politics are, that's not right... and in the middle of an election? He needs to burn.

I'm currently experimenting with a handful of different illuminators. I'm spending my own money, and I didn't feel like spending 1K on an extremeCCTV illuminator, so I ordered an array of cheapos from Ebay (Hong Kong specials), and a couple from supercircuits, like this one: I've got about half of them in my hands so far, and the supercircuits models provide the most even illumination of the lot... they spread about 45 degrees, and provide about 15-20 feet of usable IR (nowhere near the 30 feet advertised... buyer beware). A couple of those scattered along a hallway, alleyway, or the side of a building might do just fine for a short-range application. At $50 each, you could also get a handful of them for a fraction of what an extremeCCTV model would cost, though with admittedly less range. What's nice is that you'd get redundancy, and you're not hosed if an 8-900 dollar illuminator goes tango-uniform on you. ************** EDIT **************** Update time: Got a couple of these: They're roughly the equal of the super-circuits models in terms of illumination, and at the same price point (approx $50 each). The Ebay model linked above (can be found here: http://cgi.ebay.com/Outdoor-Waterproof-IR-Led-Night-Cam-Array-Illuminator_W0QQitemZ230298047206QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item230298047206&_trkparms=72%3A1423%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14 ) has the advantage of allowing you to adjust focus and beam spread... it also looks more waterproof than the super-circuits model. At this point, the Ebay model has the edge. And then there's this model: Not nearly as impressive. It's certainly very bright, but only about a 30-degree beam spread (much less spread than advertised). It also has moving parts... an internal fan that audibly whirs when the unit powers up. It also ran for all of an hour before crapping out... literally flickering off-and-on for the rest of the night. I'd avoid that one. I also have a couple of these: They're a bit brighter than the super-circuits model... but with much less beam spread. They're much more of a spot-light than a flood. They also get pretty damned hot when running, and I have doubts about their weather resistance. So that's what I know so far.

Be careful jacking up the frame-rate. As other posters have already pointed out, it decreases your recording time, and there's definitely a point of diminishing returns. I also found that jacking up the frame rate made my DVR (a Dedicated Micros DS2) respond more slowly to commands from the DVR's built-in webserver. As an alternative, if your DVR does motion detection, run a slower frame-rate as a default setting, and increase it when the motion detection gets tripped. That way you're not burning hard drive space on 15FPS of static image.