I've been reading this forum and other places, trying to learn as much as I can about security cameras, and am hoping I can get some advice. We are building a new RV park, and want to put in a security camera system. We got one bid from a local installer, but it was around $15,000 which is well beyond our budget and it didn't exactly meet our needs, and it is a rural area without a lot of other professional options. We can get someone to do the actual installation, but I'm hoping that we can buy the cameras etc ourselves and get a system that works for us without spending so much money. Also that way we can more easily and affordably adjust the system as needed (add a camera or two, change out for different type of camera, etc). Here are our needs, and my thoughts so far:
1. We plan on installing 10-12 cameras; most indoor, some outdoor.
2. We would like to be able to archive data for 1 week. 3-5 frames per second sounds like plenty (maybe a little more in places where cash is handled).
3. Not all of the cameras will be within 100m/cat5e cable distance from the central server/switch, however there will be wired internet service to a building within 100m of all cameras (hopefully; not planning to use any wireless cameras for now, but would be nice to have that option if needed), so all can be connected to the network via ethernet cable.
My current thoughts:
1. The Hikvision cameras seem very well thought of here, and reasonably priced, so looking at them.
2. Thinking of using Blue Iris software. I put together computers for friends and family as a hobby, so I think I can handle building (or just buying from Dell) a server to run Blue Iris. I'm not sure about the storage part however, as it seems this will need a lot of storage space especially if we end up adding more cameras (depending on frame rate etc). Thinking a small NAS storage device, such as a small Synology box, may be the way to go, although I have no experience with those and don't know if that will work for the very high volume of writing it will take to archive data from 10+ cameras. I have seen threads on here where people have built Blue Iris servers with Xeon processors and used > 24 cameras, so hopefully that can work.
3. Thinking of using a PoE switch to power the cameras, and lightning arrestors inline for any outdoor cameras.
I appreciate any advice.
1. We plan on installing 10-12 cameras; most indoor, some outdoor.
2. We would like to be able to archive data for 1 week. 3-5 frames per second sounds like plenty (maybe a little more in places where cash is handled).
3. Not all of the cameras will be within 100m/cat5e cable distance from the central server/switch, however there will be wired internet service to a building within 100m of all cameras (hopefully; not planning to use any wireless cameras for now, but would be nice to have that option if needed), so all can be connected to the network via ethernet cable.
My current thoughts:
1. The Hikvision cameras seem very well thought of here, and reasonably priced, so looking at them.
2. Thinking of using Blue Iris software. I put together computers for friends and family as a hobby, so I think I can handle building (or just buying from Dell) a server to run Blue Iris. I'm not sure about the storage part however, as it seems this will need a lot of storage space especially if we end up adding more cameras (depending on frame rate etc). Thinking a small NAS storage device, such as a small Synology box, may be the way to go, although I have no experience with those and don't know if that will work for the very high volume of writing it will take to archive data from 10+ cameras. I have seen threads on here where people have built Blue Iris servers with Xeon processors and used > 24 cameras, so hopefully that can work.
3. Thinking of using a PoE switch to power the cameras, and lightning arrestors inline for any outdoor cameras.
I appreciate any advice.
