Daycare/Church monitoring

[dandan 0]

I have been asked to head up the desgin and implementation of a monitoring system for our church children's rooms. What we would like to do is to have atleast 6-8 rooms with camera's in them. We would like this fed to an LCD TV where parents can watch their little darlings without having to go in the rooms. My guess is that this will require some sort of multiplexor so that we can take the 6-9 video feeds and convert them into a single signal to feed to the TV. We don't currently have any plans for recording. Can someone make some suggestions?

[scottj 0]

Just need a multi-channel video multiplexer and a monitor. You can always add recording later if needed, however if you feel you are going to do it soon it may be more cost effective to just do it now and buy a DVR versus having to upgrade later.

 

Scottj

[rory 0]

^

|

-- exactly what he said

[jisaac 0]

yep, even if you have no plans for recording then just get an extremely basic dvr

[dandan 0]

Just a couple of followup questions.

 

It seems that most multiplexors output their signal with a BNC connector for the monitor connections. How do I interface or convert this for connection to a standard LCD TV?

 

How will the picture be on an LCD tv knowing that often times the images from a standard TV source on an LCD is stretched?

 

Any suggestions of which multiplexer/dvr to get. Cost is always an issue. It would be nice to have something we can use a remote control with to change from a 3x3 view to a full screen view for one of the feeds.

[CollinR 0]

Why not remote veiwing? Most of the daycares I have seen tout the abilty to check in while your at work/on the road. It's a good selling feature.

 

 

Also the first lawsuit you have you will get a DVR so you might as well get it now.

[dandan 0]

Good question.

 

Remote viewing wouldn't be out of the question, but this is more of a church application where the parents never leave the building. Would a PC based DVR be a better choice?

[CollinR 0]

How many square feet in the daycare and playground areas?

 

If you can limit the number of cameras into the 4-6 range a Geovision 250 card would probably cover you pretty well and it's cheaper then a color multiplexer if you have a modern donor PC to put it in. If the donor PC has a TV out you can modulate the signal and add it to your TV channel list so it's available from every PC or TV in the church. A better solution would be a geovision "combo" card, it has integrated TV out that doesn't show stuff that's not needed on the TVs, works better but more $.

 

If you have a resident computer geek in the church they will have no problems getting this going, it's not the concern that most people give it.

[dandan 0]

The geovision looks like one good option....resident computer geek here.

 

 

But, back to the multiplexer question. If I get a color multiplexer, how do i do the conversion to a standard TV signal? Which models/brands are suggested?

[CollinR 0]

I don't do anything but DVRs, so I can't give you anything on stand alone multiplexors.

 

 

To get the video out you have a couple of options.

 

A BNC to RCA adapter, this one is from radio shack, hopefully local to you. Wherever you buy your other CCTV parts, they will for sure have these.

 

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102688&cp=2032058&pg=1&f=Taxonomy%2FRSK%2F2032058&categoryId=2032058&kw=bnc&kwCatId=2032058&parentPage=search

 

You can then connect to the TV as you would a VCR/Camcorder, game machine...

 

You can also modulate it to a UHF/VHF frequency and inject it into your cable or antenna TV system if you have one.

 

http://www.channelvision.com/index/47

 

You would need basically the cheapest Channel vision you can get, CCTV doesn't need stereo or surround throughput. You only need 1 channel as the DVR or multiplexor will combine or switch the camera veiws on a single channel.

[rory 0]

modulated would prbably look better on the LCD ...

but the first way is cheap.

 

not many muxes come with IR Remotes, mostly just the OEM ones.

 

High end brand would be GE, ATV, etc.

 

Budget ones would be something like the Speco Multiplexers .. but they dont have near the features of a GE CT Multiplexer.

 

If you can locate one with a IR Remote PM me and Ill check it out. If its any good Ill post the specs here for all to see.

 

thanks

Rory