camelot-forum.co.uk

Hi all,

Slightly off topic - but I was wondering if any of you have experience of home security camera systems that you’d be willing to share. There are loads available & at a wide range in price. Reviews of almost all on Amazon, for example, show some criticism of most - hence asking.

Ideally I’d like the following:

Support for upto say 8 cameras
Am ok with central storage - as opposed to cloud based
Am happy with wired cameras, might need to odd Wi-Fi one
Mainly outdoor
Would like to have an app for remote monitoring/alerts

Thanks - Rob

Where are you based

Lincoln - I’m quite happy to do DIY

Before you select any system it would be wise to do a small single sheet privacy impact assessment.

The common sense requirements and suggestions are listed by the ICO in their guide for domestic CCTV.

If you think these do not apply to you then pay heed to how very sideways such a installation can go.

Your assessment will also help you select a suitable system, essentially you do need to justify why you are even installing a real CCTV system and your reasonings for remote monitoring in particular.

From there you can then work out a technical requirement for each camera i.e. Identification vs Recognition vs Detection - the common rule of thumb for resolution for identification of a face is 40 px in favorable conditions and 80px in challenging ones - if your assessment warrants such ability this will then be useful as you may not need to go to court if the time comes as the footage itself or most likely a local officer will be able to submit the footage rather than your own account.

This may sound arduous but in my opinion people do owe it to eachother to think before impacting privacy with such systems, the rules and suggestions are common sense and on the flip side a robust system helps combat criminals. You can check various news stories where neighbours enter battles about CCTV or you will know instances when footage is so bad it's unhelpful.

I have Hikvision/HiLook cameras, they’re pro-quality cameras with good functionality and record to an SD card inside the camera. I have them connected to a PoE switch backed up by a UPS so they work in a power cut too.

I'd highly recommend Blue Iris.

It's cheap, a one off payment (unless you want updates and even then it's cheap), has remote apps and works with many different cameras. You just run it on computer. I just use cheap Chinese cameras and have excellent results. Look for 'ONVIF' as a standard com protocol.

+1 to Blue Iris, got a motley collection of cameras and all are automatically found during its scan. Loads of flexibility on setup.

We've got 2 Reolink cameras installed, one outdoors for security purposes and one monitoring a barn owl nest box indoors. They both record to SD cards in the cameras and are downloadable via long Wifi links to the PC. Live view at any time and playback of recordings are available on my PC or phone app when I wish. I installed them myself fairly easily once I'd sorted the 2 X 150 mts Wifi links to the remote locations. In daylight they are colour and IR over night, or all the time for the barn owls in the shed. We have a backup genny so power failures are not a problem as the cameras reset very swiftly after the slight interruptions. NO connection just a satisfied customer. We avoid the Cloud for everything.