Help designing nighttime detection system please

4gvnsnr

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Hey guys!

Just joined yesterday, already spent some time combing through the resources here and wow there is some wonderful knowledge. Ordinarily I would like to do more research on my own before posting a thread like this, but with cyber Monday ending today time is of the essence and hopefully you can forgive me to some extent for not having a slightly better grasp on the basics.

I need to design a system to cover exterior detection mainly at night on a 3500 sq ft building. I recently had the same goals on a previous project and purchased an 8 camera Lorex 1080p system for around $300 and it has performed reasonably well for my expectations. I don’t need many bells and whistles or super sharp recognition just basic night time detection but I do have a few concerns that I seem to be limited by with that system.

1. My Lorex system was a DVR analog setup. I know enough to see the IP systems are superior but I’m not sure if I’m taking advantage of the differences and if I should be looking strictly at IP/NVR setups or if an analog DVR system would serve my purposes fine again.

2. Software seems to be my biggest gripe with the Lorex system. I am so limited on which cameras I can display on which monitor. I basically just use a hdmi splitter and display the same setup on each monitor but for this system I would like to be able to run 4-5 monitors and control each one individually. Doesn’t seem to be possible on my current system the way I understand it’s capabilities.

3. Distance to each camera. Almost all will be attached to the building so no issue there but I would like to have one came on the front entrance and it’s 900 ft away from the building location. Doesn’t seem like running cable that far would be the way to go. Can I add one wireless camera for that? Should I just use a stand alone system for that camera or is there a way to integrate it into the same system.

After reading a few threads it’s very obvious most of you require much more out of your cameras and setups than I’ll need to. I’m guessing most of you guys wouldn’t really consider these budget ready to go systems you can buy at say Costco or Lorex. But it seems for my purposes they may just be about right if I can solve a few of the problems above. So I’m basically wondering if I should jump on one of these Cyber Monday sales before it closes or if I’ll be better off with a different type of system, most likely a more custom setup. Of course budget is an issue and I don’t want to spend more than what I need to, but I need it to do the job I’m desigjmg it for and do it well.

If my best route is building a custom setup I’ll go that route and obviously have some more time to dive in to my own research. Just hoping you guys can answer a few of these questions and point me in the right direction.

THANK YOU so much for any and all help ahead of time, it is greatly appreciated.
 

windguy

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Welcome to the forum. Even though I'm not qualified to answer your questions, my post will bump your thread to the top of the heap, at least temporarily.

Personally, I would forget about Cyber Monday deals and spend more time researching what you need so your system will meet your objectives. The gurus on this forum will tell you to do your homework before spending any money, and it's very sage advise. You have some experience with CCTV systems so you're not starting from zero. That helps.

Best of luck with your system.
 

4gvnsnr

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Looks like I’ll go back to reading and plan out a system from scratch. Thanks for the reply windguy.
 
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