Site pic uploaded - What Cameras/NVR needed?

Mango Joe · 22-04-2021 1:03pm #1

Hi All,

I'd really appreciate it if you could please look at the below image and advise the right product to select, the best amount of cameras to go for and their placement and focal-length etc. to cover it.

I've included some general distances which should hopefully make it easier to recommend the right cameras for the areas involved - These aren't camera locations I've picked or anything - just showing the lie of the land.

I'm keen to get a decent system in, willing to throw a reasonable budget at it but not spending a fortune - Enough to do the job well I suppose, I want faces and number plates to be clearly visible from an appropriate distance.

Its a typical Irish Bungalow - Running CAT 6 through the attic to soffit/fashia should be reasonably easy - That wine coloured rectangle is the Garage which doesn't have existing conduit for an easy CAT 6 run unfortunately so this means that ideally everything would be on the house itself.

Final question - Is a traditional NVR system the best route here? Have played around with an EZVIZ camera which saves motion detected clips to the cloud and it seems pretty effective for a small monthly fee?

Is the alternative to have 24/7/365 recording to an NVR that's wiped every x amount of days? Could anyone advise on the hard drive space required to comfortably manage this data volume - Rough estimate even as I know it depends on video quality etc.

Thanks all - I know there's a lot there & I'm not being lazy, I will research as much as possible too - just hoping to get the benefit of your experience and expertise rather than going alone and making my inevitable mistakes through being new to all this.

PS We've Hikvison cameras at work that seem very solid so have a preference for this brand.

altor · 22-04-2021 1:57pm

To get reg plates you would need anpr cameras, not cheap, look at location of the camera as where you are looking to fit wont suit.
You can also get veri-focal cameras but again you need to look at what you want to be covering if a fixed lens will do a better job.
You will always get some blind spots using cameras unless you really want to go over board.
Look at possible routes into your property/access routes also.

Mango Joe · 22-04-2021 3:22pm

Thanks for your reply - Re the number plates mention - I don't need automatic number plate recognition or anything remotely like that, just that I've heard a few times over the years of people having security camera footage where the number plate wasn't distinct enough to actually read off the numbers and digits for Garda tracing or whatever or else that people's faces were blurry and the footage was therefore useless.

I presume this was more of an issue years ago with older analogue cameras and so on - but still I want to make sure that if I go to the trouble and expense of doing this I'm above whatever common sense baseline there is as regards sourcing quality kit.

Not sure what you mean re "look at location of the camera as where you are looking to fit wont suit." ? If you mean in relation to those lines on that image, they were just there to roughly show the general distances involved as I thought that might be key to picking a good focal length for the various cameras. I'd then mount the cameras in the best possible spot afterwards - I haven't decided on any locations as of yet, I've edited to OP to make this clearer, sorry if I confused things....

Will walk the perimeter and identify all routes of entry alright - Thanks again for the help.

altor · 22-04-2021 9:46pm

Mango Joe wrote: »

Thanks for your reply - Re the number plates mention - I don't need automatic number plate recognition or anything remotely like that, just that I've heard a few times over the years of people having security camera footage where the number plate wasn't distinct enough to actually read off the numbers and digits for Garda tracing or whatever or else that people's faces were blurry and the footage was therefore useless.

I presume this was more of an issue years ago with older analogue cameras and so on - but still I want to make sure that if I go to the trouble and expense of doing this I'm above whatever common sense baseline there is as regards sourcing quality kit.

Not sure what you mean re "look at location of the camera as where you are looking to fit wont suit." ? If you mean in relation to those lines on that image, they were just there to roughly show the general distances involved as I thought that might be key to picking a good focal length for the various cameras. I'd then mount the cameras in the best possible spot afterwards - I haven't decided on any locations as of yet, I've edited to OP to make this clearer, sorry if I confused things....

Will walk the perimeter and identify all routes of entry alright - Thanks again for the help.

I meant in terms of if you did decide you wanted reg numbers then having the camera far away from the driveway entrance or angle to the entrance to look at it again but from your response you don't want this and just hope to catch a reg plate with a higher quality camera.

Even with HD cameras you can still have issues the more you pixelate a picture zooming in. Choosing the cameras for the area of view will help. Have a look at the different lenses used in cameras. There are plenty of comparison sites.

Rustyman101 · 22-04-2021 9:51pm

funny one re number plate recognition, friend of mine had an issue few years ago, cctv would not show digits, wildlife camera with sd card did.

kirving · 22-04-2021 10:32pm

Number plate recognition in the daytime is fine once you have the correct angular resolution.

At night though, it's a much more difficult task, particularly at distance. The biggest enemy is the ability of your light source to illuminate the registration at distance.

Infrared lights tend not to be very powerful, which means your camera exposure time needs to be longer to gather the same amount of light. If the car is moving during this exposure time, then the registration will be blurred.

I think you should invest in a motion triggered visible light, or alternatively have another close up camera, positioned to cover a choke point which all vehicles will pass.

In addition, a 4K would certainly be advised, but the lens need to be of good enough quality to support that resolution, and then the lens and sensor must be assembled accurately enough to achieve the best focus possible.

For reference, here is a crop of a Reolink RLK-810A 4K camera at 16m distance, but this has an 87° horizontal field of view, so approximately 44pixels/degree.

Homer · 22-04-2021 10:35pm

I have a hikvision ANPR camera and it’s fantastic. Never misses a reg regardless of day/night and the speed of the vehicle. Well worth the money.

Mango Joe · 23-04-2021 9:43am

I wonder if anyone on here can recommend a good supplier for Hikvision equipment please?

Someone mentioned there's a lot of grey market stuff available and want to make sure I buy from a good source at reasonable prices and that its authentic!

machiavellianme · 25-04-2021 11:40pm

Mango Joe wrote: »

I wonder if anyone on here can recommend a good supplier for Hikvision equipment please?

Someone mentioned there's a lot of grey market stuff available and want to make sure I buy from a good source at reasonable prices and that its authentic!

Try rfconcepts.ie, they're Belfast based but should be able to sort you out.

Site pic uploaded - What Cameras/NVR needed?

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