Camera locations for new home

Hi folks! I'm building a new house and I'd like some expert opinion on camera placement. My plan is to run eight cameras with a dedicated NVR unit, preferably one that can interface with an alarm panel (the Dahua N52B2P looks to be a good fit). Here's a link to pictures of my property and floor plan so y'all can take a look:
For reference, the garage faces south and the front door faces east. The basement layout has been slightly modified; the window on the north wall is now further west, and the entertainment room is now more closed off for better home theater acoustics.

I'm also running an Elk M1 Gold alarm panel and an ISY994i Insteon/ZWave controller, so I'm open to integration suggestions.

CloudZ1116 said:

Hi folks! I'm building a new house and I'd like some expert opinion on camera placement. My plan is to run eight cameras with a dedicated NVR unit, preferably one that can interface with an alarm panel (the Dahua N52B2P looks to be a good fit). Here's a link to pictures of my property and floor plan so y'all can take a look:
For reference, the garage faces south and the front door faces east. The basement layout has been slightly modified; the window on the north wall is now further west, and the entertainment room is now more closed off for better home theater acoustics.

I'm also running an Elk M1 Gold alarm panel and an ISY994i Insteon/ZWave controller, so I'm open to integration suggestions.

Click to expand...

Welcome @CloudZ1116

Please do see the cliff notes as mentioned in the new member intro section.

As you are on a corner lot, I would expect that you will need more than 8 cameras once you have discovered and explored the realities of the limits of security cameras.

Thus, plan to get the 16 port version of the NVR or a PoE switch.

Remember to over cable ( N+1+ ) while you can, as once the dry wall is up it will be more work to cable.

Impressive build. You will want more than 8 cameras though. Even if you don't want them now, plan ahead and run cable to the locations.

1 - front door
2 - patio door
3 - basement egress window
4 - garage door
5 - front walk up
6 - driveway

These are the basics.

Then I would look at "washes" that cover all sides of the house as well. That's another 4 minimum.

I'm a fan of indoor cameras that focus on exterior points of entry. That would be another 4 cameras. These I would integrate with your NVR or VMS to only record when the alarm panel is armed in "Away" mode. Or use multiple output relays to trip inputs on the NVR or VMS when a single door is opened when the alarm panel is set to "Home". This is useful for catching your kid coming home after curfew.....wake up the next morning and you can play it back over lunch (as if they will be up for breakfast....lol).

Anyways, that's 14.

Put your alarm panel near your network rack. And yes, put in a proper rack. 1 switch and patch panel per floor. Separate POE switch and patch panel for cameras. Install wire access points (Ubiquiti units are not that expensive and work great!). Go with a real router.....not an off the shelf all in one unit. Put your modem in the rack with your network gear. It might sound like overkill now.....but down the road you will be kicking yourself when you discover weak Wifi here and there or you wish you had ran those extra drops to what was supposed to be a bedroom but is now an extra office. My house is 100 years old. If I had done the last remodel, cable routing would be so much easier!

cage771 said:

Put your alarm panel near your network rack. And yes, put in a proper rack. 1 switch and patch panel per floor. Separate POE switch and patch panel for cameras. Install wire access points (Ubiquiti units are not that expensive and work great!). Go with a real router.....not an off the shelf all in one unit. Put your modem in the rack with your network gear. It might sound like overkill now.....but down the road you will be kicking yourself when you discover weak Wifi here and there or you wish you had ran those extra drops to what was supposed to be a bedroom but is now an extra office. My house is 100 years old. If I had done the last remodel, cable routing would be so much easier!

Click to expand...

Some additional thought-points:
- you might opt for domotica/home automation - think about how to integrate that
- you might opt for vlans to tightly secure your network - and openVPN for remote access
- you might opt for UPS (maybe limited to your networking gear & cams+NVR, but probably larger)
- you might opt for additional cabling (2-wire versus UTP) for intercom/automated gate --> there are models with relay to open/close doors!

It's better to have a (redundant) cable somewhere in the garden terminated in a reversed bucket than having to dig open your newly made garden and drill holes through your walls.

Good luck!
CC

Y'all have convinced me, eight channels simply won't cut it. I figure I'll pick up this bad boy. BHPhotoVideo sells it for $560, but I'm guessing I can get it cheaper from Andy?

I will definitely be getting an appropriately sized server rack. I already have an Elk M1 Gold alarm panel and ISY994i home automation controller standing by for install, and I plan on running wired sensors to every window and exterior door, along with a myriad of other sensors.

Thanks for all the helpful tips!

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@EMPIRETECANDY
kingsecurity2014@163.com

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My standard welcome to the forum message.

Please read the cliff notes and other items in the wiki. The wiki is in the blue bar at the top of the page.

Read How to Secure Your Network (Don't Get Hacked!) | IP Cam Talk in the wiki also.

Quick start
1) Use Dahua starlight cameras or Hikvision darkfighter cameras or ICPT Night eye cameras (https://store.ipcamtalk.com/) if you need good low light cameras.
2) use a VPN to access home network (openVPN)
3) Do not use wifi cameras.
4) Do not use cloud storage
5) Do Not use uPNP, P2P, QR, do not open ports,
6) More megapixel is not necessarily better.
7) Avoid chinese hacked cameras (most ebay, amazon, aliexpress cameras(not all, but most))
8) Do not use reolink, ring, nest cameras (they are junk)
9) If possible use a turret camera , bullet collect spiders, dome collect dirt and reflect light (IR)
10) Use only solid copper, AWG 23 or 24 ethernet wire. , no CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum)
11) use a test mount to verify the camera mount location. My test rig: rev.2
12) (Looney2ns)If you want to be able to ID faces, don't mount cams higher than 8ft. You want to know who did it, not just what happened.

Cameras to look at
IPC-HDW2231R-ZS
IPC-HDW5231-ZE
IPC-T5442TM-AS
IPCT-HDW5431RE-I
DS-2CD2325FWD-I




Read,study,plan before spending money ..... plan plan plan
Test do not guess

CloudZ1116 said:

Y'all have convinced me, eight channels simply won't cut it. I figure I'll pick up this bad boy. BHPhotoVideo sells it for $560, but I'm guessing I can get it cheaper from Andy?

I will definitely be getting an appropriately sized server rack. I already have an Elk M1 Gold alarm panel and ISY994i home automation controller standing by for install, and I plan on running wired sensors to every window and exterior door, along with a myriad of other sensors.

Thanks for all the helpful tips!

Click to expand...

No problem! It's always fun to spend someone else's money....haha.

Before jumping on that NVR, see if it has external alarm inputs. Otherwise, see how it can integrate with the other panels. As per my previous post, say you have interior cameras but only want them to record when the alarm panel is set to "Away"....how do you set that up? Maybe you and the misses go out for a romantic evening leaving the kids at home.....but you want a snap shot every time an exterior door is opened sent to your phone for later review. A lot of options are available when you can integrate everything.

Oh.....and take the time to learn how to program everything yourself. Even if the alarm panel is monitored and setup by a third party, make sure that you get the installer codes so that you can make changes as needed.

Best of everything to you!