POE camera system-advice, consult, recommendations

[kpke]

Looking for some free or paid expert consultation on surveillance camera installation. I am hoping to have someone come by and tell me what not to do before I do it wrong, which I am very capable of doing. Not come in the house due to social distancing, etc. I have a 4K multiple camera POE system picked out but have not hit the buy button yet. Maybe today.

And...

If you are interested in running the cables and doing camera installs how much??? Not my cup of tea and I'll have to buy fishing stuff I'm sure if I do it myself. And it'll take me twenty times longer than a pro. 1 to 2 cables need to be fished from main house to out building. Conduit is there. For a pro this looks to easy pickens. For me probably a medium difficulty job, but surely a long adventure with lots of new curse words and such.

I have some smallish electrical upgrades required so if a licensed electrician that's a bonus. Like power for the NVR recorder cabinet. 30A RV outlet installed on out building. Possibly more.

Any forum advice here would be appreciated also.

What else should I be "upgrading" whilst running network cables all thru the attic?

Has anyone done home security camera installation? Comments or suggestions on systems and???

Recommendations for the install services above?

I may contact some Next Door recommendations. There seems to be a few locals that have been praised on there.

Thanks,
PM or email Ken in Livermore

 

[cheez]

I did my own install of non-POE cameras and it was ok. We ran LiquidTight conduit on the outside of the stucco house as it has no attic and running cables in-wall is extremely difficult. If you'd like to stop by and see the install I can show it to you, I'm also here in Livermore.

 

[kpke]

Sent PM with phone number. Thanks.

 

[DannoXYZ]

For NomadicVR, I set up 16-camera installation. Five was for building security. Remainder monitored players in game-space. All went to Synology NAS. Which also ran 6 VMs (domain-controller, video-processor, etc.)

Looks like you’ve got everything in order. Only recommendation I have is to make sure you have way more storage than you think you need. You’ll want to experiment with compression settings. Due to processing-power needed it was better to do minimal-compression on camera itself (or even RAW output), then do x265 compression on server-box separately. You’ll want about 500mb per hour of compressed x265 video. Or more if you’re using h264 or whatever algorithm camera uses natively.

 

[mlm]

Make sure you pay attention to camera placement. You want cameras where you need them, not where they’re easiest to install

 

[cheez]

Make sure you pay attention to camera placement. You want cameras where you need them, not where they’re easiest to install

When I did my cams I asked a physical security friend of mine how to determine optimal camera placement. He said "You basically have two choices- either capture portals or planes." If you only have enough cameras to cover a broad area, capture the biggest planes of the building you can in the view. If you have enough cameras, cover every portal of the building. Combine the two for best coverage. The main thing he reassured me of- "you can never have installed too many cameras when you need the footage."

This means that if you have 1 camera, cover the entirety of the front of your home. If you have two, front and back. Three? Front, back, and side yard. Four? You can start to cover specific access portals- front door, back door, side door, garage door- while using entire-plane coverage where specific coverage of those points isn't the best use of the camera. The best coverage will be redundant views (from opposing angles) of every plane of the residence (including the roof if there are skylights) and specific views of access doors and first-floor or otherwise accessible windows.

 

[liveforlight]

I do all my family/friends/referrals installs.

You will want to know what Spec camera/quality. Then map out your house. To see how far you want to see and how clear.

Then Install. Placement of NVR/DVR.

Your welcome to PM me. I can help you out with questions/install/suggestions

 

[kpke]

Thanks for the replies all.

Nice to see you again cheez!!!

liveforlight, thanks I'll send you a PM with phone # for a chat. Much appreciated!

I went in to the attic yesterday AM. Not a fun place to be but I'll probably do most of this myself. Wait for a 100 degree afternoon so it's nice and pleasant up there :laughing But do need an electrician for some professional smallish 120v stuff.

 

[cheez]

Thanks for the replies all.

Nice to see you again cheez!!!

liveforlight, thanks I'll send you a PM with phone # for a chat. Much appreciated!

I went in to the attic yesterday AM. Not a fun place to be but I'll probably do most of this myself. Wait for a 100 degree afternoon so it's nice and pleasant up there :laughing But do need an electrician for some professional smallish 120v stuff.

If you need a fish tape, you're welcome to borrow mine.

 

[kpke]

You da man. Thanks!

How long is it? I'll think I could use that and I think the fiberglass tent pole type also for a couple spots. Pretty cheap stuff on amazon so may purchase. Out building to main house is about 40 - 50 foot pull.

 

[cheez]

You da man. Thanks!

How long is it? I'll think I could use that and I think the fiberglass tent pole type also for a couple spots. Pretty cheap stuff on amazon so may purchase. Out building to main house is about 40 - 50 foot pull.

I think like 25'? It's pretty long. May not make a 50' pull tho.