Monitor remote parking lot

[JulieX 0]

We use a parking lot one block away for company vehicles, and we'd like to monitor it with a video camera with a DVR for recording. The lot is already well illuminated at night.

 

The owner of the building adjacent to the parking lot has agreed to let us use their building to do this, including mounting a camera on the side of their building. Since the location is not physically adjacent to ours, a direct connection between it and our offices is not possible. And there is no line-of-sight, so wireless is out.

 

Since both locations have a working DSL connection, I'm thinking of installing a good camera with its own DVR at that location, and access the DVR as needed from our offices over the Internet.

 

How does that sound? Any better solution?

 

I was looking at some equipment and see DVR's start with 4 camera inputs as opposed to a single one, which is all we need for the one camera. (There will never be more than one camera there.) Is the $450 or so wanted for brands like Q-See and Swann typical? Are they worthwhile brands? The DVR will have to be IP addressable.

 

What about the camera? Color would be nice, and those seem to be around $250, again for the same brands.

 

I'm not terribly constrained by budget, so I'm willing to spend more for a worthwhile and tangible benefit.

 

Any comments and suggestions are appreciated.

 

Thanks.

[msecure 0]

If you can place an antenna outside of both the buildings & the distance is not more then 500m then I would suggest using an IP Camera in conjunction with a long range wifi AP.

[securitymonster 0]

A networkable DVR will work great for this application, especially if your neighbors have agreed to allow you to use their building to mount cameras and store a dvr. Throwing an IP to the DVR is the least of your worries.

 

You'll want to stay away from Q-See and Swann as they are as budget as budget gets. I've used some of those machines and they last no more than 10 months before you run into problems. I've worked with quality budget equipment and I think you can expect to pay at least $700-$800 for the DVR with the features your looking for.

 

On the camera side of things, if your primary concern is in the evening, you will have a hard time with color so you might look into a B/W camera. Plus you'll get a little bit higher resolution with a B/W. I would suggest a low light box camera with a varifocal lens, you will then need an outdoor housing as well. Having the ability to throw any size lens on this camera will come in handy too as most bullet style cameras are have fixed lenses and/or small varifocals.

 

Here is what you'll need to get the system up:

 

DVR

Cameras

Camera Lens (if needed)

Housings (if needed)

Power supply, most likely a 4 output distro box

Wire/Cable

Connectors

 

Once this is all hooked up, all you'll have to do is configure the DVR to your likings and then network the DVR. Networking can be as easy as port forwarding off a router.

 

Hope this helps, welcome to the board and feel free to ask any questions!

[JulieX 0]

Thanks for the reply. I looked at your website and notice that it has a lot of Optiview products. Is there a big difference with their quality? The prices don't seem much more than the Q-See and Swann.

 

After a quick glance through the products, came up with the ECO-4 teamed with the CL-550. Would that do the trick?

 

I should say that at night, this parking lot is well lit. But don't some cameras switch automatically to B&W if ambient light is too low for color?

 

What about the Panasonic line?

 

Thanks again to everyone.

Edited February 17, 2006 by Guest

[securitymonster 0]

The ECO4 is about the lowest I would go for this application, it has very limited network access, basically view live and recorded video, thats about it.

 

The CL-550 may or may not work, depending on how much light you have in the parking lot. The camera has a 0.6 lux rating and should be fine. The nice thing is that this camera is outdoor rated and ready to go with a 5-50mm varifocal lens. There are alot of options for cameras out there!

 

Optiview is budget as well, the difference is that we test them and support them as they are a good product for the price. Q-See and Swann are just really budget and not too many people carry them other than Target, Fry's, Walmart, etc..

 

Not all cameras switch to B/W at night, those cameras that do are called a "Day/Night" camera. There are variations of these and generally the more you pay, the more you get.

Edited February 17, 2006 by Guest

[JMANOFNVS 0]

Dang Monster you are never this helpful before. Because their ID is JulieX doesn't mean its a girl1 There is one channel networkable DVR's out there but they are usually around the same price as a 4ch and you should never say never especially with CCTV. How far from were the closest spot on there building to put a camera to the furthest spot in your lot? and the closest? and how wide at each point? Reason I ask is you might not be able to cover the whole lot with one camera and odds are if you can you won't be able to make out any details of a perpitraitor if there was an incident. Also if there is light in your parking lot you could but cameras by them and tap the power then shoot the video wireless accross to the dvr.

[JulieX 0]

The minimum distance is about 20 feet, the maximum about 100 feet. 45 degrees should cover everything in the lot.

 

How about the Panasonic line?

[rory 0]

Do you have any spare PC's lying around ..?

 

If so you could try a GeoVision GV250-2 channel card, it will run on Via or Intel Motherboard Chipsets, AMD or Intel CPU, and I had it running as low as 1.5Ghz with 32MB video though at the cost today a 128MB video card is cheap.

 

Anyway consider that also.

 

Otherwise an IP camera and put it on their internet like you said.

 

Check out Acti.

 

http://www.acti.com/ProductsV2/Product_Catalog.Asp

 

You could also use a standard Camera, any type, and a Acti Video Server, then use an Acti Video Transcoder on your side, and output that into a regular DVR.

 

Another option is to repeat it and use wireless, use a (Office) TX - > RX (Repeated Point) TX -> RX (Camera). Costly but that will work and get real time non networked video back to your office to record to a regular DVR.

 

A single IP camera will probably be best for what you want to do though, there are several Acti Reps on this forum.

 

Rory

[rory 0]

Cameras, how far from the camera is the start of the field of view? In otherwords how far away from the car park will the camera be?

[JMANOFNVS 0]

Panasonic line?? The WVCS964 is awesome and some of there other cams are nice too..little expensive..but the 964 ptz would do the job with the right dvr, but a fixed cam with vf lens you will either be able to see 20-30ft with detail or 90-100ft give or take alittle but not the whole area well enough to try to catch a crook. Do you plan on installing this??? If so do you know what you are doing? Whats your proffession if you don't mind me asking??

[securitymonster 0]

julie, goto this site and fill in the blanks, then tell us what size lens it calls for.

 

http://www.webcamsoft.com/en/faq/lens_calc.html

[Jasper 0]

Panasonic line?? The WVCS964 is awesome and some of there other cams are nice too..little expensive..but the 964 ptz would do the job with the right dvr, but a fixed cam with vf lens you will either be able to see 20-30ft with detail or 90-100ft give or take alittle but not the whole area well enough to try to catch a crook. Do you plan on installing this??? If so do you know what you are doing? Whats your proffession if you don't mind me asking??

 

Your funny Julie should have never put an "X" at the end of her name. Now you are asking her what she does for a living.

 

Yeah she knows what she's doing. She got you guys to respond didn't she. No disrespect intended towards you Julie. This just struck me as funny.

[msecure 0]

She got you guys to respond didn't she.

 

Well, next time if I need help quick, will register a new female nick & post the question!