!HELP! - Farm CCTV System required... No CCTV EXPERIENCE!

[andymet87 0]

Hi all...

 

Being the one in the family that can actually use a computer it appears I have gained the task of rigging our farm up with a CCTV system. Im pritty good with computers to be honest. Can build them and do nearly everythingthing short of writing a program! Im also good with TV systems having installed a few of them... But no experience of CCTV of any sort!

 

So then, I have been asked to build something that can....

 

1) record all vehicles (& number plates) entering and leaving the farm day & night. (Distance of 30 metres from camera)

 

2) record footage from several locations (up to 6/7) around the farm day & night (distances from 20 - 40 metres)

 

3) Have the DVR in the office which is attached to the farmhouse. This is around 80 metres from the farm buildings.

 

4) Be able to view the live CCTV footage on the TVs in the house.

 

 

And I have been asked to produce this miraculous system for around £300!!!! A tall order me thinks!

 

....I have established that I can use Balons to utilise Cat5e cable on the run from the house/office to the farm. And that I need a modulator to put the signal from the DVR onto the TVs in the hoouse.

 

...I have a pc that I was thinking of using as a DVR and leaving it on permanently however I think that the system needs to be as simple as possible for the operators!

 

...The cameras will all need to be able to stand up to outdoor weather conditions and I have been asked that the video quality is perfect and you can see faces etc, even in the dark!!!

 

Now getting this for around £300 is I think highly unlikely! I am open to suggestions and hopefully someone with a lot more knowledge will be able to help me out a lot!!!

 

Many thanks all in advance!

 

andymet87

[tomcctv 187]

Hi andy. if £300 is your budget for the full system then i would say dont install cctv. the reason why i say this is. for that price you will be looking at crap. as in real bad recording very very bad picture quality to the point that you yourself wish you never wasted your money. just being honest with you

[Birdman Adam 0]

Yea 330 is definitely not near enough to set up a good system.

 

Now if you were to be able to work with a proper budget, the actual setup won't be too bad. Sounds like you can definitely handle it.

 

If you choose good hardware then you'll have a great system.

 

It's not too much different than hooking up a TV system (minus the cameras and lots of wires).

[andymet87 0]

Cheers for the responses!

 

How much would it cost to install a system such as the one I outlined? Say we were to install 3 cameras to start with?

 

Im sure I can get my dad to put the budget up if needed! - which we all knew would have to happen.

 

What about a camera like http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=351984&C=Froogle&U=351984&T=Module? Is that any good?!?!

 

And yea I wasnt too worried about setting it all up, just buying it in the first place.

[Henry-f 0]

DVR - use a stand alone CCTV DVR unit. By the time you've bought a good video capture card and programme for your PC you'll almost be there and the hard drive in your PC isn't designed to run 24 / 7. budget £250 for a good DVR and 1TB hard drive installed, formatted and ready to run.

 

Cameras - reading a vehicle number plate at 30-40 metres is way beyond the capabilities of most off the shelf cameras from the high street. we do a 6-60mm camera that can read a number plate at 60 metres but it's £200. A 9-22mm camera will read a number plate at 15 metres and we do one for around £110.

 

Reading the plates at night is a little tricky. We do a specific ANPR camera and whilst compared to what's out there it's a bargain it's still £250 and it will only read up to 15 metres. Our 6-60mm camera can be set to read plates at night but it needs a little bit of work on site. we can supply it there or there abouts, you'll need to fine tune.

 

For the rest of the cameras budget £60 for small fixed lens cameras, £100-150 for larger more powerful cameras with zoom lenses which you can adjust during installation to frame your chosen subject (that's essential if your system is going to work well for you).

 

The cat5 / balun cabling is an excellent choice, make sure you don't send the 12 volt power down too long a length or you will get a voltage drop at the camera.

 

I think 3 good cameras and a DVR is going ot set you back £700-750 plus Vat form what you are describing. You can save a little if you reduce the distances involved.

 

If you need any help or advice (I think you are UK based) feel free to contact us and I will try to advise. We've actually supplied a few farms both for security and livestock monitoring (no, they aren't stealing stuff - checking up on their well being when giving birth etc !!).

 

Not trying to transcend any forum rules by giving prices for our cameras, merely want to give an indication of likely cost.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Henry