CCTV suppliers that don't bs you and know what they're talking about

[ike5547]

I'm sort of a newbie on cctv. I've found that there are too many suppliers and products falsely advertised, either by outright omission, misleading claims, or outright falsifications.

CCTV guys, what are your favorite suppliers, websites or manufacturers? Lenses/cameras/accessories.

I basically don't know where to look.

 

[ike5547]

In other words, who can you trust?

 

[luckylerado]

ADI

 

[nhfire77]

It depends-

If your customers are looking for professional grade IP surveillance your camera choices are limited to a half dozen brands that you get what you pay for- Axis (they are the #1 manufacturer for a reason and can be $$$), Arecont, Vivotek, Samsung, Panasonic and Pelco. American Dynamics is a good product, I just prefer to stay away from Tyco products in general


I use HIKvison a lot more and it's a solid product as long as the project requirements and customer expectations are properly defined in the planning stage


For recorders, it all depends on cost. Budget go with HIKvison or another Chinese embedded NVR that ADI or Tri-Ed will help sell you. If you can handle building your own PC use Milestone. If you want it to just work first time out of the box and the budget is there Exacq. Hands down they are the best end user experience for a simple interface.

Who is lying to you? PM me, I'm interested

 

[ike5547]

Who is lying to you? PM me, I'm interested

No persons in particular. Just an impression I have from searching around the internet and looking at advertising. Especially from the more inexpensive brands.

I'm definitely leaning toward PC based systems and VMS software.

 

[Rampage_Rick]

It depends-

If your customers are looking for professional grade IP surveillance your camera choices are limited to a half dozen brands that you get what you pay for- Axis (they are the #1 manufacturer for a reason and can be $$$), Arecont, Vivotek, Samsung, Panasonic and Pelco. American Dynamics is a good product, I just prefer to stay away from Tyco products in general


I use HIKvison a lot more and it's a solid product as long as the project requirements and customer expectations are properly defined in the planning stage


For recorders, it all depends on cost. Budget go with HIKvison or another Chinese embedded NVR that ADI or Tri-Ed will help sell you. If you can handle building your own PC use Milestone. If you want it to just work first time out of the box and the budget is there Exacq. Hands down they are the best end user experience for a simple interface.

Who is lying to you? PM me, I'm interested

I concur. I switched to HIKvision for the low end after Honeywell/ADI axed their Capture brand. Our high-end is Vivotek into Milestone Enterprise on Dell R7x0 servers.

 

[tom baker]

I have a Bosch system, Bosch cameras and VIDOS software. IP cameras, work great.

 

[ike5547]

I'm looking at Milestone right now. Not too excited about the license fee for each installed camera. We're probably not going to exceed 16 cameras, though.

Are there any decent VMS software systems that don't have this per camera license fee?

What's available that's Linux based?

 

[nhfire77]

I'm looking at Milestone right now. Not too excited about the license fee for each installed camera. We're probably not going to exceed 16 cameras, though.

Are there any decent VMS software systems that don't have this per camera license fee?

What's available that's Linux based?

exacq works with Linux, but it also has license fees. But it also just plain works every time without major issues or troubleshooting. Milestone is similar.


What are the project requirements and client expectations?

 

[ike5547]

What are the project requirements and client expectations?

Good camera optics, hardware and resolution. 1920 x 1080 indoors mostly; some 720p. 5 MP outside, WDR, auto iris, hopefully IR corrected lenses, other stuff.

VMS) Stability, user friendly, good analytics, bookmarks and flags, mobile access, alerts, etc.

I've reconciled myself to the camera licenses. Doesn't come out of my pocket. Windows too.

HIKvision looks inexpensive. Especially the multi-language stuff. Is that a huge PIA? I'll get paid by the hour no problems to deal with it. No loss of face or income.

 

[ike5547]

PS)

Re: No loss of face or income.

I care about this customer and want to get them a good deal.

 

[ike5547]

PPS) I'll always be around to personally maintain the system unless I get killed or something.

 

[egnlsn]

Another vote for ADI.

 

[nhfire77]

PPS) I'll always be around to personally maintain the system unless I get killed or something.

If the customer will generally use mobile devices to view (not desktop) and rarely have to pull footage use a HIK recorder and their cameras.

If they will routinely be reviewing footage use exacq (or milestone) servers with HIK cameras.

For the challenging lighting conditions use Axis cameras, nothing compares on image quality in low light and back lit scenes.

There isn't anything wrong with Samsung, panasonic or other big name cameras, but there is a good chance HIK makes or used manufacture them.

ADI sells a lot of digital watchdog equipment but I prefer the other brands

 

[low_voltage]

Lately local companies in our area started using Digital Watchdog NVR's along with Hikvision and/or KT&C IP cameras as Hikvision manufacturers then both but DW's NVR is better with certain features.

 

[ike5547]

I've got a server lined up from dell. How many mistakes do you think I made?

Windows server 2012
Xeon version 3 processor 3-point-something GHz
8GB RAM
Gigabit NIC
Going with NAS for storage (unselected) probably RAID 5
Whatever the defaults are on their graphics and sound for entry level servers.
Some SAS 6GBPS external ports
Don't know how many PCIe slots I get. Whatever is default with Dell, I guess.
Assuming a random number of USB 3.0 ports.
SATA 1 to 4 onboard controller - no RAID
500 GB HDD

I can build them but I think that costs more these days.

 

[Rampage_Rick]

Looks good, though I usually add a quad-port gigabit NIC to keep the camera traffic separate from the rest of the network.

Example: One property has 24 megapixel cameras connected to three 12-port POE switches (8 + 8 + 8) Each of the POE switches is homerun to the quad NIC.

 

[nhfire77]

Looks good, though I usually add a quad-port gigabit NIC to keep the camera traffic separate from the rest of the network.

Example: One property has 24 megapixel cameras connected to three 12-port POE switches (8 + 8 + 8) Each of the POE switches is homerun to the quad NIC.

Windows server is overkill IMO. You don't need the Xeon class processor for that few cameras, but it won't hurt. Ensure the OS Drive is on an SSD not HDD.

If a 2nd GBit NIC is cheaper you don't need a quadNIC for less than 64 cameras. I've pushed 250+ MB/sec with 58 cameras on a single NIC through cascading GBit switches without issues.

Use enterprise drives in the NAS WD RE or SE, or seagate equilant. (WD purple is fine with raid if you don't mind an occasional failure). Buffalo is my preference NAS. What VMS are you going to use

 

[ike5547]

Windows server is overkill IMO. You don't need the Xeon class processor for that few cameras, but it won't hurt. Ensure the OS Drive is on an SSD not HDD.

If a 2nd GBit NIC is cheaper you don't need a quadNIC for less than 64 cameras. I've pushed 250+ MB/sec with 58 cameras on a single NIC through cascading GBit switches without issues.

Use enterprise drives in the NAS WD RE or SE, or seagate equilant. (WD purple is fine with raid if you don't mind an occasional failure). Buffalo is my preference NAS. What VMS are you going to use

Going with Milestone. The "entry level" package from Dell didn't offer SSD's as an option. I did, actually, select an additional NIC card with the one that comes with the package. I've also spec'd a number of managed gigabit switches to improve their existing network and handle the cameras and Milestone client software to workstations. I'm segmenting out the CCTV network infrastructure from the rest of the network. All the switches have IGMP support.

I selected one 180 watt, 10/100 24 port, POE+ switch with two gigabit uplinks to start us of with some cameras. The uplinks are mini-gbic slots.

I'm hearing from them now that they are going to want a lot more cameras than I initially thought.

 

[GoldDigger]

...

I'm hearing from them now that they are going to want a lot more cameras than I initially thought.

Thank goodness for conservative design in the basic infrastructure!