CCTV

Mr S

Member
Messages
821
Just wondering if anyone has suggestions on what camera's are decent and what type of box is best etc. Living on my own now, and obviously want to make sure my pride and joy, and the house are secure, especially when I go away with work. I wired in a CCTV system a few years back in my old house, and that was because the wireless systems were not as reliable, is that still the case? Happy to wire it all up and set it up, it was more the camera's and box that im clueless about.
 

Hawk13

Member
Messages
1,471
I have a Ring set up. Doorbell has a wide field of vision and monitors front and then I have 2 spotlight cameras at the rear.

Inside I have a camera in the garage and a spare that I use when away from the house for a prolonged period.

All wireless, has been 100% reliable and I can live view at any time via the app.

Subscription required (£8 pm) to save to cloud.

Perhaps not the cheapest but probably the easiest.
 

allandwf

Member
Messages
10,995
I fitted one a couple of years ago, there are so many to choose from. I went for 4 cameras, 2 with lights above the doors, and two without. I put in a hardrive that would give me 4 weeks recording. I fitted this, works well with no issues. ( Probably made in China! ) I didn't bother connecting it to my phone, as I didn't see the point of watching my house from 350 miles away for three weeks. They are more of a deterrent.
YESKAMO Wireless CCTV Camera System [Floodlight & Audio] 1080P 8CH NVR Recorder
 

rockits

Member
Messages
9,172
The world is your oyster here. However for a nice not-budget but still very cost effective and decent enough kit I would look at the Hikvision stuff. Only problem is they are Chinese so maybe not so ideal any more.

For some still decent enough kit and pretty cost effective a CCTV disty we have used in the past have plenty of options and can offer some advice. They are trade only normally but I suspect at the moment they will likely make some exceptions. They do their own SPRO kit which is fine in my experience.
https://www.luxritesecurity.com/

They are Stevenage so not that far from you and will ship by courier anyway. Just say Dean @ Rock IT Services gave you their details.

The best option would be IP camera's really just running some CAT5e to each camera with no power needed as the PoE network switch will supply power as well as data. You can get 4 channel or 8 channel or more if you need more cameras. Just connect to your Internet router with an Ethernet network cable and most have web or Android/iOS mobile apps to view. You need a Network Video Recorder (NVR) and all cameras centrally cable back to this. Most have an embedded PoE switch to connect all together and supply power over the same CAT5e cable. You can buy the NVR's with or without disks and install your own depending on what size you need. You need to calculate resolution, frame rate, length of time to hold footage etc. x how many cameras to get a total storage requirement. There are loads of good calculators on the web.

The non IP cameras are a bit cheaper than the IP cameras but use coax cabling or converters. The IP stuff is much easier and not much more expensive. Also gives much more flexibility for any future moves or changes.

Night vision can be variable with some better than others. The issue is a good day camera won't be good at night and a good night camera won't be good in the day. An additional IR illuminator can help if night vision ends up being poor. Or a security light can help as long as it isn't mounted directly above the camera. Just below is good. Mobotix are an expensive German make and their take to get around this is dual camera units with day camera for day and night camera for night! That is quite high end though really.

I wouldn't go wireless for many many reasons.

I am just about to install a new Paxton 10 in my place which is great and integrates all the electronic door access control with CCTV in a nice single platform. We have a Salto door access control system here at the moment that the Paxton 10 system will replace as we prefer Paxton to Salto now. It isn't silly expensive but isn't cheap.

CCTV is not my day job but we are so broad we have installed a fair bit of CCTV over the years and always get involved in integrating it into the customer's network/infrastructure.

Feel free to ask any questions and happy to help where I can.
 

Ryandoc

Member
Messages
1,845
I’ve had HIK Vision dome style cameras for about the last 4 years now. Really good and no issues at all.

It’s a novelty at first looking at your house but that soon wears off however at least you’d have some evidence should something happen, however valuable that is these days
 

JonW

Member
Messages
3,262
We’ve got Hik-Vision entry system for our electronic gates, and it seems really decent stuff... would like at some point to add some CCTV cameras to cover both the house and the garage...

one worry I have is whether it makes it look like you have lots of valuables you particularly want to protect, so it almost marks you out as a target?
 

Ryandoc

Member
Messages
1,845
I read once that cctv is one of the best deterrents for opportunist / local scaly wag who if they see them will move onto next house without them.

But taken with a pinch of salt, more and more people have cctv anyway and the amount of posts on social media with people catching burglar bill on their cctv so how good a deterrent it is is anyone’s guess.

But as said at least you may have a known face to hand to the old bill
 

Gazcw

Member
Messages
7,783
I have them on the front of the house and cover the drive and path. Had some burglaries around here and although you could not see faces, you had times and number of people and even one had a distinctive limp. The police couldn't be arsed to even look at footage. That and a simple hoody to defeat them means they will only ever be a deterrent for younger kids now. Possibly!
 

rockits

Member
Messages
9,172
I don't think it makes much difference to most burglers these days.

The only reason my house will get new ones and other stuff it has is that it becomes the guinea pig and test bed for lots of stuff we sell, install and maintain.

We were broken into in our old office unit a few years ago. We had full CCTV video and audio of before, during and after the break in. Also they left fingerprints, foot prints and some tools they used were left behind. Nothing was ever done or found by the police.

The burglers knew there were camera's outside and inside but were clearly not bothered at all.
 

D Walker

Member
Messages
9,827
Guess that’s why I have a kukri knife down the side of the bed and Catman has his butterfly knives!!!
As long as I wake up of course. I’ve thought about cctv but it seems looking at the stats we have next to no crime here at all. Refreshing actually.
 

rockits

Member
Messages
9,172
I have a couple of options here but hope I don't ever need to use them. I will have no issues with doing so if required though.
 

mjheathcote

Centenary Club
Messages
9,038
Quite happy with a few wifi yi cameras around the house/drive/garage.
More useful for just checking up while on holiday, or having a laugh while on the sun lounger and seeing it is raining at home!
I've also recently added alexa, which ties in nicely with the yi cameras to view the cameras on the TV through amazon TV.
For additional security all our external doors now have sensors linked to alexa, with a few routines.
Main one is for notification on the alexa in our bedroom if any are tripped, more thinking of breakin for car keys. Also notifies on my phone if away. The direct plug in alexa with motion detection add-on is also good if anyone breaks in through a window.
You can create routines so loud music starts playing if tripped, or dogs barking, lights turn on etc!
 

CatmanV2

Member
Messages
48,794
Guess that’s why I have a kukri knife down the side of the bed and Catman has his butterfly knives!!!
As long as I wake up of course. I’ve thought about cctv but it seems looking at the stats we have next to no crime here at all. Refreshing actually.

Problem is you have a significant chance of escalating things very fast if you pull something like that.

Not my first choice, therefore. And the constabulary will probably take a dim view of me using them under the whole 'reasonable force thing. Hopefully I wouldn't need them anyway ;)

C
 

midlifecrisis

Member
Messages
16,229
Guess that’s why I have a kukri knife down the side of the bed and Catman has his butterfly knives!!!
As long as I wake up of course. I’ve thought about cctv but it seems looking at the stats we have next to no crime here at all. Refreshing actually.
I know that you are short but I wouldn't have put you down as a Gurkha ;)
 

lifes2short

Member
Messages
5,834
cant beat a good fully monitored with police response alarm imo to protect house and your pride and joy, we do have covert cctv as well, quite handy to catch courier companies out;)
 

Contigo

Sponsor
Messages
18,376
ARLO, wireless cams, can add up to four, alerts and triggers recording on movement, Awesome
 

Mr S

Member
Messages
821
Cheers Rockit, much appreciated. Some of what you have said means nothing to me, il do some research and maybe drop that company a line thankyou. My old set up was Co ax and was just a little time consuming to wire up, but wasnt too bad once you got into the swing of it.
 

sionie1

Member
Messages
1,316
Problem is you have a significant chance of escalating things very fast if you pull something like that.

Not my first choice, therefore. And the constabulary will probably take a dim view of me using them under the whole 'reasonable force thing. Hopefully I wouldn't need them anyway ;)

C
Unless you also keep a cloth and metal cleaner next to them.... then you can ‘prove’ they only happened to be there as you’d been cleaning them, and not that you slept with them there every night.
 

CatmanV2

Member
Messages
48,794
Unless you also keep a cloth and metal cleaner next to them.... then you can ‘prove’ they only happened to be there as you’d been cleaning them, and not that you slept with them there every night.

Using them, even if I had them to hand, I would expect would gain a very dim view (and not entirely unjustifiably) I recall when I was young and (more) stupid some of the things we were recommended to do to demonstrate that we were being reasonable.

Not sure I'd bother now:

69272

(only joking)

C