Camera System Recommendation - New Home Construction

tbraden32 said:
moving in two weeks, the camera cable is hanging from the ceiling, but on the left side close to the wall, there we be a hanging light centered in tthe porch. looking at the house - garage is to the right
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Some better pictures with your camera flash turned on standing on the porch would be helpful.
A hanging light fixture will make camera placement and selection even more difficult. You may end up with a camera that pretty much only sees your light fixture.
Hard to advise until the light is installed.

Do what you can to make sure they leave you with as much of the ethernet cable as possible and don't just hack it off. Maybe ask them to push extra cable back into the wall/ceiling.

Did you take any photos mid-construction before the walls/sheathing went up?
Did they run Ethernet to the doorbell or just your typical bell wire?
 
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You've got a very nice looking house.

Based on what they did on the front porch, I think it would be hard to make good recommendations for any of the locations they pre-wired without seeing more pictures of the house and what they did.
 
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tbraden32 said:
Here are some picture of close up of porch.
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I can't quite tell what material is on the ceiling from the pictures. Is it vinyl?
Most likely you'll end up removing and or replacing a bit of it to get the camera to a better location.
 
Only one cable to each location.

Hmmm...

1) Doorbell - look for a quality IP POE video intercom product.

There's a lot of movement in this space, so you maybe able to get something which works OK today, and later get something better.

2) If you need 2 different views I like the following camera:
Review-Dahua IPC-HDBW4231F-E2-M Dual Starlight Cam

Otherwise a nice Dahua OEM turrent should do you well.

DO remember to test out the possible locations ONCE you have installed the light fixture.
 
mat200 said:
Only one cable to each location.

Hmmm...

1) Doorbell - look for a quality IP POE video intercom product.

There's a lot of movement in this space, so you maybe able to get something which works OK today, and later get something better.

2) If you need 2 different views I like the following camera:
Review-Dahua IPC-HDBW4231F-E2-M Dual Starlight Cam

Otherwise a nice Dahua OEM turrent should do you well.

DO remember to test out the possible locations ONCE you have installed the light fixture.
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The photo quality isn't great, but to me the doorbell wiring looks smaller and is probably just bell wire not ethernet cable.
 
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tangent said:
The photo quality isn't great, but to me the doorbell wiring looks smaller and is probably just bell wire not ethernet cable.
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hmmm... well that would be very unfortunate.

It's too bad, too often folks are getting to this stage of planning camera placement too late in the build process to properly route enough cabling to better locations.
 
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tbraden32 said:
Yes- lesson learned for sure. The doorbell is just doorbell wire- what WiFi doorbell do you all suggest?
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Hi @tbraden32

WiFi doorbells - hmm, I don't think we really have a clear winner that I would like to install. Too many compromises in one form or the other.

Do you know if the wire was stapled down or tied down in any way? ( wondering if there is a way to use it as a pull for a cat5e cable )

update: Do you have pictures before / during the mason work?
 
tbraden32 said:
DB11?
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ehh, you're probably better off with a plain old push button for the time being.
I wouldn't bet on it, but maybe one of the two dozen doorbells at CES this year won't be a piece of shit once it actually makes it to market.

If you can't wait, the hikvision is one of the better options currently.
 
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tbraden32 said:
Here are some picture of close up of porch.
Click to expand...
It's too bad they didn't drill the hole for the cable in a better spot.

Before the final building inspection, grab a bucket to stand on and stuff at least 3-5 feet of cable back into that hole just in case some genius decides to cut off the excess. A dab of silicone or some tape may be required to keep it up there.

You will need to experiment with camera locations after the light fixture is installed.

Generally you're better off if you can keep a camera by your front door 5-7' off the ground. I think I would surface mount a junction box (one made to specifically fit your choice of camera) to the stone and run conduit painted to match the stone up into the ceiling.

The location of the hole they drilled is pretty disappointing. They could have at least drilled the hole in the groove between the pieces, then it might be workable. Picking the middle of that wall as opposed to a corner makes will make it much harder to see people approaching the door and face of people at the door. This is why I would try to move it closer to the door. It would be easier if it were vinyl.

Here are some locations you could put a camera. The red ones would be my choice. Green and orange are mostly to show that it really would have been hard for them to put the wire in a worse location as these locations would work far better than what they did. The green location is less in your face but if the camera were zoomed in enough or had a large enough lens it would work pretty well
upload_2019-1-14_22-22-14.png
 
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Question - what is to the left of the entrance way? An attached garage maybe?
 
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