Security cameras- the basics of what you should know.

 

Hi Gang..

 

I spent some time talking a home security camera guru. We did not discuss everything, but here are some of the things to think about when looking at a video home surveillance system.

 

 

Why do you need/want a camera system Or closed circuit TV system-

There are 2 main reasons.

  1. Evidence for the police or other authorities
  2. early warning for people who are actively watching.

 

Cameras are a PASSIVE security system.  They are not reactive, and they don’t call or do anything. It just takes pictures.

 

What it ISN’T—Not active- won’t do siren or call cops, etc.

UNLESS you go really high end and that will do that and more. But those systems are REALLY expensive.

 

RECORDING: Local vs cloud recording vs hybrid

Local- the  is hard drive is there, onsite.

Cloud- uploads to someone else’s server, often referred to as “the cloud”.

Hybrid- Saves locally and then upload to cloud.

RING and NEST doorbell- mostly cloud. There is a fee that you pay monthly for them to store your video.

Local- added cost of local drive, but no extra monthly fees. The hard drive CAN be expensive and for a surveillance grade drive, it will be not cheap. May or may not be online portal- that is expensive to set up, but then gives you access to your cameras and video from anywhere you have internet access.

Hybrid—More usual for business.

 

Different cameras

Doorbell- recommended for everyone—RING, NEST etc. $100-150. May have to upgrade your doorbell electrics (wires, relays, etc). Should be installed by professional. CAN be installed by tech savvy home user.- Note—Need a good network- WIFI or wire depending on what else you do..    Need good network- it is on the edge of the house.

                WIFI – More common.

                Wire- (power over the wire)- Need to pull CAT5 wire, which can be expensive.

Flood light cam- When flood light is activated, camera comes on. Should have flood lights, should have cameras.

Turret cameras-

Full motion- Pan tilt zoom - $500-700 at the low end, and they go up from there.

 

Lowlight for outdoors vs. standard for indoors.

Night vision- If you have large yard, should get an IR (infrared) flood light and run it all night. IR is not visible, so it won’t piss off the neighbors.

 

COAX (legacy systems) – Only if you already have legacy stuff and are upgrading.

Power over Ethernet (POE)- power runs from Cat5 wire. This is the new stuff. Does not need electrician, or permits, etc. BUT you have to run the wire. NO wall warts for power transformers, so you save outlets and save visible annoyance.

 

Cat5 wire-- - Talk to good network engineer, and buy GOOD cat5. Do NOT buy copper clad aluminum, buy solid copper. Should run about $150/1000 ft retail. Get good quality copper. This will not be cheap.  

 

If running cameras outside—you must get cable that is rated to be buried. It will be better shielded and insulated. Otherwise it will breakdown and lose signal.

 

Need a POE switch- that coincides with the camera you are using. If you are using a low power POE camera, then you can run a low lower POE switch. If your camera requires more power (for running higher optics, or night vision or IR) then it will require a high powered switch.  

 

Good quality will not be at Best Buy, or Costco. If money is an issue, buy 1 camera and add additional.  The $500 8 camera systems are crap.

A good camera 4 system, installed should be about $1500-2000.  The hardware will be $100-150 per camera to start, plus the rest of the system, which can include cloud recording, which costs monthly plus installation.


Make sure you get a hard drive (HD) rated for surveillance systems. Standard HD will NOT survive the experience. A solid state drive is awesome, but you are looking at some serious bucks for good storage.

 

A lot of systems professionally installed are Hikvision- that has Chinese phone-home system. The Chinese ARE monitoring you. Not can, ARE.  It is banned on DOD systems because of spyware.

 

SOFTWARE

Milestone- software that runs the cameras, but it is not spyware. Can do up to 8 cameras for free. Used by the military.

UnifiProtect – another software pack—Really good stuff, but may be more expensive. 

 

Cheap systems have major security flaws, they don’t have good updates.

 

Ring and Nest are OK, but they are subscription based.

 

How about  inside cameras- Maybe. Check local laws before you install, they may require disclosure, etc, before you run a nanny-cam. Think about it before you install one. There are reasons to do so, but all circumstances call for it.

 

Motion alerts are expensive, but may be worth it.

 

Get cameras that are at least 3MP. Don’t need 4k or 8k cameras, but get a quality camera.

 

Remember they are PASSIVE security, and they still require that YOU take action. Don’t call the police just because you saw something, take a look at it, and check to make sure that you need to. Is that a home invader or the Amazon delivery driver? Look carefully.

 

You should NOT get a cheap system, will be much better with a high end system installed by pros.

You need someone who is an IT professional, not a bubba electrician who also does plumbing and security systems.

Make sure your pro,  has a DCJS (Dept of Criminal Justice Services)  certification for security systems.  This is more than a background check, this also ensures that hey actually know what they are doing when they are installing a system.  

 

Thanks for reading

Jason

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stop The Bleed

Image
 Hi gang, This month is National Stop The Bleed Month. So I am going to start off with a link to Stop the Bleed, a FREE trauma medical class, that is about 2 hours long. It concentrates on how to deal with massive hemorrhage by tourniquet, wound packing and chest seals.  You can find a class near you here:  https://cms.bleedingcontrol.org/class/search I only found 2 classes in Virginia that have been scheduled, both in Northern Virginia. If I get enough feedback, I will try to see if I can contact someone around here to teach one to us. Here are some infographics from Dark Angel Medical, that give you lots of information.   This diagram is the basics. TQ for the limbs, wound pack the junctions, and chest seals for the thoracic cavity.  This image has the major tips. Thats all for tonight. Jason
Read more

Water filtering and Shopping

  Hi Gang.   Many of the people who are predicting collapse are predicting that the first line of attack is the water supply. So, what do you do if the water supply is tainted? Well, that sort of depends on WHAT it is that is in the water. There have been several attacks on the computer system forcing the release of chemicals (particularly chlorine) into the water. MOST of these chemicals will off-gas into the air if allowed to sit for 24-48 hours, but not all. I have been using the Brita pitcher for a while now, and it does a fair to middling job of removing the chlorine taste from the water. According to the test data, its pretty good at removing the other particulates. I previously used a Zero Water pitcher. It was supposed to remove more of the “stuff” but I found that the water did not have a good taste, it was just … “off”.   But what do you do in a “grid down” situation? The Berkey Big Berkey is supposed to be very good, but it claims cannot b...
Read more

Snowing... Is it a disaster?

Well, I hadn’t planned to write about snow this week… it was supposed to be security cameras. But, it snowed.   Lets talk about preparation for a snow disaster.   Lets talk about what kinds of emergencies can occur in snow storms, particularly on the east coast, and then talk about how you can prepare for them.   There are 2 categories, generally of problems that you may face. The first is home. The second is transportation/cars. The second is a bit easier to discuss, so lets start there.   CAR In your car, there are only a few things that are possible issues. You get stuck somewhere due to snow. You crash, and get stuck somewhere due to snow Your car breaks down. If you get stuck somewhere, the easiest solution is to have a snow shovel or military entrenching tool in your car. Dig yourself out. This is the easiest problem to fix. You may need help, but in most cases a shove is all you need. There are also some tra...
Read more