New IP Camera System

oppenheimer1

Hi All,
Looking for a bit of advice here. I'm planning on installing a new camera system around my house and sheds and rather than going for the older CCTV technology, I'm leaning towards using an IP camera solution. The main reason for this is the ease of upgradability and its more modular nature. I currently plan on placing 6 cameras around my site. Due to the cost, the install will take place over the course of a year, with the most sensitive locations covered first. The initial purchase will be two cameras, gigabit switch gear and the NAS.


My proposed system will consist of 6 IP cameras 1080p (£450), a Synology NAS DS214 3TB (expansion will come later) (£300) software licenses (£150) and possibly the Synology videostation for viewing on a TV(£220). As you can see this will not be the cheapest system going, mainly due to the cost of Synology products. I've been attracted to this brand mainly because of a lot of positive reviews I've read online, particularly about its ease of set up. My question therefore is what other servers and software is out there that would give me the same performance but hopefully at a lower cost? Another reason I've chosen NAS rather than a dedicated DVR is that it also doubles as a media server as well as personal cloud - making it easier to justify the cost.


I've seen the HP microserver in the bargain alerts thread and I'm wondering what kind of software would I need to put on it to get the same functionality as the Synology offering (remote viewing, continuous or event recording, high quality video)

thesteve

I use a microserver for just that. I run Windows home server 2011 on it + blue iris for the camera stuff. I also use 1080p cams (think they're dahua - bought in the US for $200,each) plus a POE switch to power them. The entire solution came in a lot cheaper than the prices you're quoting. On my phone atm but happy to give more details later if needed.

Jnealon

Blue Iris is popular in DIY circles and is discussed in detail below.


http://www.ipcamtalk.com/
http://www.cam-it.org/

Theta

http://www.zoneminder.com/ is a popular open source system....

_John_luke

thesteve wrote: »

I use a microserver for just that. I run Windows home server 2011 on it + blue iris for the camera stuff. I also use 1080p cams (think they're dahua - bought in the US for $200,each) plus a POE switch to power them. The entire solution came in a lot cheaper than the prices you're quoting. On my phone atm but happy to give more details later if needed.

Hi Steve

I am looking to build a camera system for my house; looking for effective and economical solution; a professional quote is coming very high and look forward to see if you could PM specification / brand names used so that i could build a similar one. i also would like to know how did you wire them as i know even wireless camera needs power supplied around house ; are there any other simple home dye solutions can be used to power the camera by running less wires etc..

thesteve

Hey,

I'll try and summerise my setup;

- I use these and these cameras (bought when I was in the US). They're 1080p so have a very clear picture.
- I chose these cameras for their quality, but also because they can be powered via the ethernet cable alone. Hence I bought one of these to provide the power, and save me trying to figure out how to run plug sockets to where I need them.
- The cameras are connected into that switch, and that switch is cabled back to my router. The router then hands out IP addresses to everything on the network.
- To cable the cameras, you can buy external cat6 cheap, it's like 22 EUR for 100m here. You just need some RJ45 connectors and a crimping tool to attach the connectors to the end of the cable (also available on that site). I preferred this route as mentioned, I then didn't need additional plug sockets, plus I was more confident not having to fiddle with electric cabling.


At this stage the cameras can be viewed live from a browser / smart phone (with some configuration). If you want to store the footage, there are multiple options but the most straight forward are;
- a network video recorder (like this one); these are pricy but a lot of them also have POE ports that you can connect the cameras too, i.e. you then do not need the switch mentioned above.
- if you have a computer anywhere on your network that is always switched on (like I do with the microserver), you can use software like Blue Iris (for Windows) or EvoCam (for Mac) to do the recording for you (in this case you still need the POE switch above)

This solution works for IP cameras. If you want to go down the standard analogue route, there are multiple kits out there that include pretty much all of the above, but IMO the quality of the images is not as good;
http://www.maplin.co.uk/c/cctv-and-security/cctv-kits

Hope this all helps.

_John_luke

Thanks Steve.. Thanks a lot ; this gives me good idea and choices to work on without worrying too much about wiring multiple cables around home...

oppenheimer1

Hi Steve, thanks for all that info. Just a bit curious about your microserver. The solution I'm planning to go for will also hopefully be low energy, what kind of watts does the server draw while recording do you know.


You say you're using windows home server 2011, is that still supported by MS. And finally what kind of server hardware are you running it on?

thesteve

Howdy,

I'm not sure on the microserver power consumption but it's pretty low. The specs of the latest model are here;
http://www8.hp.com/ie/en/products/proliant-servers/product-detail.html?oid=6280790#!tab=features

afaik WHS 2011 has been discontinued but this thing can run any OS. It also has an internal USB slot so you can run OS's like freeNAS from the USB drive.

RE server hardware, it's a HP microserver. I use it as a NAS also so it has 2 * 4tb drives and 2 * 3TB drives for storage and an SSD for the OS. It's an older model, a 36L I believe (1.5Ghz processor) and I stuck an extra 4GB of RAM into it.

Those microservers are frequently n sale with rebate offers, I think I paid 150 for mine so they're brilliant value. There's a thread n boards somewhere tracking when they go on sale so keep your eye out for that.

An old Mac Mini would also be another option if you didn't care too much about having 1 HD.

oppenheimer1

One final question there for you Steve. What number of cameras, kind of frame rates and resolutions can your rig handle?

thesteve

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

One final question there for you Steve. What number of cameras, kind of frame rates and resolutions can your rig handle?

No idea mate, never stressed tested it. It's got the 2 cams going at full 1080p plus one at 800x600 in the babies room and handles that no bother. That plus it's downloading and streaming video around the house at the same time.