POE security camera system?

[newalarm]

So we are on an alley. So I am not too worried about night as there are usually street lights around that provide sufficient light, plus we have motion activated lights all around. The only issue would be in back yard, if person stopped moving.
 
I guess only reason to have the machine connected to the web would be to check on cameras when away. Or monitor from work. If alarm goes off, I could check to see if everything is ok. Peace of mind.
 
My priority would be getting a descent base system with software that is fairly intuitive, and some good enough cameras that I could keep them for as long as possible.
 
I think with POE it is possible to put two cameras on one cat6 cable with a splitter?

 

[pete_c]

I think with POE it is possible to put two cameras on one cat6 cable with a splitter?
 
No.
 
You can utilize a mid span injector POE switch.  I have a few of these that I experimented with a few years back.
 
These come from a company called Tycon Systems Inc.  Very robust stuff from this company.
 
I am still using them today.  Tycon Systems Inc.

 
Mostly though use the larger Tycon 24 port power managed POE switch for touchscreens / cameras.
 

I purchased this one used for some $50 a few years back.  (along with the smaller ones  - new old stock).

 

[newalarm]

Here is what I am looking at:
** denotes priority cameras. 4 total cameras are priority.
 
Front porch. **
VIEW: 45-55 degree view. Would cover packages, mailbox, front door and front window. (but not people walking up to door). Could maybe add separate camera for walk up to door, or maybe a door bell camera? Don't yet have a doorbell and would like to incorporate some smart system with doorbell and video so I can see who is at front door from all anywhere in house, or smart phone.
DISTANCE: 10-35'
 
Side of house, side entrance, alley. **
VIEW: 45 degrees, up to 70. 45 degrees should cover more than enough.
DISTANCE: 20-35'
 
Rear of house, South Facing:** I ran a wire up to the soffit of the house. In retrospect, that was a little too high. I could possibly bring it down, but it could also cover a good area. problem is it is south facing. May have issues in winter months with low sun.
VIEW: 50 degrees to cover alley and portion of yard. or wider to cover more, with understanding that I loose detail.
DISTANCE: 30-60'
 
Rear garage doors:
I could put one or two cameras back there watching doors.
 
Rear of house, North Facing. **
One camera covering rear of house.
VIEW: 65 degrees.
DISTANCE: 15-25'

 

[newalarm]

BaduFamily, Thanks for your post. I would need to read up more on this but wonder if it may be a bit out of my experience level for now. I would like to avoid too complex of a system as it then requires too much time down the road to troubleshoot when problems arise. I will see what kind of computer I can get.

 

[pete_c]

4-5 POE cameras should not be an issue.  The new HD IP cameras do not draw that much power.  (LED's do add a bit more power draw).
 
You can go slow with the endeavor picking / purchasing one camera to see how it fits for you.

 

[BaduFamily]

BaduFamily, Thanks for your post. I would need to read up more on this but wonder if it may be a bit out of my experience level for now. I would like to avoid too complex of a system as it then requires too much time down the road to troubleshoot when problems arise. I will see what kind of computer I can get.

 
I can't speak to your experience, but I think the tricky parts for someone may be setting up the VM and the SMB ( foo ) mount points.
The camera stuff is pretty straightforward.
 
here's how I set up the doorbell:
 
our doorbell thing is an OnQ system, including intercom. It's rather closed ( from my POV ) but fine. For more $ one can get a camera _in_ their 'doorbell' which distributes video but I skipped on that.
 
as it is I put an Elk keypad at the front entrance on the inside. The OnQ 'doorbell' has a relay, which I connected to the Elk Keypad. When someone rings the doorbell I get an event in the Elk system.
 
Nice! This means that I not only get the door bell chime ( theme from the Jetsons ) but an announcement from the Elk just for kicks.
 
the next step isn't for everyone - I wrote some code which sits aside my automation. This code is monitoring the systems, and in this case picks up the Elk front door event and pushes a HTTP request to the Axis camera pointed at the front door to start recording still images and emailing them to the family. There is a yuge tablet thing in an alcove near the front door getting camera feeds as well.
 
So, newalarm, what this is an example of is integrating a 'doorbell' with the Elk system. The key here was to of had the Elk keypad near enough to the door to run a wire through the framing. If you're still in construction you could run it a bit further. SO likes the keypad near the front door but I imagine many others would find it clunky looking.

 

[drvnbysound]

I have my Elk system tied to my doorbell, the one the builders installed, and at one point I had a rule that would change the input of the TV in our MBR to the input where our DVR was wired. Basically, if we were in there watching TV, the TV's input would automatically switch and show us who was at the front door. No separate code or anything special really.
 
Today, I just have the NVR send me a text message whenever there is motion on the camera that is facing our front door.

 

[ecborgoyn]

So we are on an alley. So I am not too worried about night as there are usually street lights around that provide sufficient light, plus we have motion activated lights all around. The only issue would be in back yard, if person stopped moving.

Do you have reliable AC power?  Maybe I'm overly 'paranoid', but I'd like at least some of my camera locations to have IR illumination that would be battery-backed (via the POE source).  Street lights and motion activated lights are great, but I also like 'defense in depth'.  Do you plan to have a UPS for the POE switch(es) and the recording machine?
 
We don't have significant power outages, but we are always a bit 'extra concerned' when the house/neighborhood is dark.
 
Just my $0.02.

 

[newalarm]

we do not have very many outages due to buried lines. and when we do, it is in the middle of the day on a nice day. I also put locks on my shut off switches outside to prevent tampering.
 
I would most likely put an UPS. Or i have thought about the partial house battery pack since we have solar.

 

[newalarm]

So I have a Dell Optiplex 745 with Core 2 processor and 4 gigs or ram. Would that be sufficient for a linux machine?

 

[ecborgoyn]

I think with POE it is possible to put two cameras on one cat6 cable with a splitter?
 
No.

 
Yes, technically speaking there aren't splitters.  BUT there are POE+ (11at) powered switches that provide two POE (11af) power sourcing ports.  I know that Netgear as such a device but there might be others.  Depending on location, this device might need to be an extended temp range 'industrial' switch and I'm not sure if this exists..  SO if running a second CAT drop is VERY difficult and/or expensive, one can deploy this type of switch.

 

[drvnbysound]

So I have a Dell Optiplex 745 with Core 2 processor and 4 gigs or ram. Would that be sufficient for a linux machine?

 
Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad?

 

[newalarm]

Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad?

 
Duo...

 

[drvnbysound]

I'm not sure how "optimized" ZoneMinder is or how well it's performance compares to BlueIris, but I know with all the settings that I've been able to tweak on a Core2Quad (for someone else), I wouldn't try putting more than about 5 cameras on a Core2Quad @ 1080p, 30fps w/ motion detection on all cameras. Again, this was with BI.
 
My guess with a Core2Duo is going to be closer to 2 or MAYBE 3 cameras @ 1080p (2MP). I have no idea how it would perform if you start looking into something like a 5MP camera like was mentioned earlier. All I could say is get a camera and try it...
 
Two things that make a pretty significant difference with BI are 1) direct-to-disc recording (no additional encoding), 2) utilize time-stamp from camera rather than an overlay by NVR.

 

[JonW]

y guess with a Core2Duo is going to be closer to 2 or MAYBE 3 cameras @ 1080p (2MP). I have no idea how it would perform if you start looking into something like a 5MP camera like was mentioned earlier. All I could say is get a camera and try it...
 
Two things that make a pretty significant difference with BI are 1) direct-to-disc recording (no additional encoding), 2) utilize time-stamp from camera rather than an overlay by NVR.

 
I'm getting ready to install Blue Iris with a Hikvision 3MP camera for testing and will build it out to 8 or 10 cams.
 
I'm going to run BI in a VM.  My host server has 24 cores and 96GB of RAM.  I can either run BI on one of my existing Server 2012 instances or spin up a new Server 2012 or a W7/W8/W10 instance to host it.
 
Any thoughts on the best host OS and proc/ram allocation?