Extending Qvis Falcon NVR IP camera system with Wifi Camera

[Fozzie Bear]

I am looking for a bit of help with adding another camera to my existing system.
I have an Ony-x Falcon FALC-NVR-8BB NVR and 3 bullet and 2 turret 5Mp Qvis cameras. They are all still working fine, however I need to add another camera and I can't get an ethernet cable or coax to its proposed location on the gable end of my bungalow. The ceilings are all vaulted at that end of the property so there is no loft and access to run ethernet cables. However there is an old BT downcomer from the old analogue line that I can use to supply 12v supply to the camera.

I therefore need a wireless CCTV bullet camera that will work with my existing NVR. Note that I do not currently us the built in POE ports on the NVR but have all the cameras now on my LAN using a separate POE switch.

I was looking at the Reolink RLC-511WA ( I know this has been superseded by the RLC-811WA but I only need 5Mp). I have a good strong mesh wifi network so if I connected it to that can I still add the camera to the Falcon NVR. As outlined above all the cameras are on my Lan via a POE switch so they are all on the same IP subnet.
Many thanks

 

[TonyR]

Wireless cameras can be problematic so if the "old BT downcomer from the old analogue line" is coax I would instead use a Ethernet over coax adapter. It can carry data and power:

LINOVISION POE/Ethernet Over Coax EOC Converter IP Over Coax Max 1000m Power and Data Transmission Over Regular RG59 Coaxial Cable for Upgrading Analog Surveillance System to IP Surveillance System

 

[wittaj]

+1 above.

If you can't run a cable to it, you need power anyway, so go with a powerline adapter to run the date over your electric lines or use a nano-station.

Maybe you are fine now one day with wifi cams, but one day something will happen. A new device, neighbors microwave, etc.

Cameras connected to Wifi routers (whether wifi or not) are problematic for surveillance cameras because they are always streaming and passing data. And the data demands go up with motion and then you lose signal. A lost packet and it has to resend. It can bring the whole network down if trying to send cameras through a wifi router. At the very least it can slow down your entire system.

Unlike Netflix and other streaming services that buffer a movie, these cameras do not buffer up part of the video, so drop outs are frequent, especially once you start adding distance. You would be amazed how much streaming services buffer - don't believe me, start watching something and unplug your router and watch how much longer you can watch NetFlix before it freezes - mine goes 45 seconds. Now do the same with a camera connected to a router and it is fairly instantaneous (within the latency of the stream itself)...

The same issue applies even with the hard-wired cameras trying to send all this non-buffer video stream through a router. Most consumer grade wifi routers are not designed to pass the constant video stream data of cameras, and since they do not buffer, you get these issues. The consumer routers are just not designed for this kind of traffic, even a GB speed router.


And avoid Reolink unless all you care about is what time it happened...maybe....and it is best to match brand of NVR and camera to ensure functionality, especially as it comes to Reolink...

What you mean a missing hand isn't normal LOL :lmao (plus look at the blur on the face and he is barely moving and this should be ideal indoor IR bounce and it struggles):

How about missing everything but the head and upper torso

The invisible man, where can he be. Thank goodness he is carrying around a reflective plate to see where he is LOL (hint - the person is literally in the middle of the image at the end of the fence)

I've seen better images on an episode of ghost hunters

And of course, this is an example from Reolink's marketing videos - do you see a person in this picture...yes, there is a person in this picture.... Could this provide anything useful for the police other than the date and time something happened? Would this protect your home? The still picture looks great though except for the person and the blur of the vehicle... Will give you a hint - the person is in between the two visible columns:

Bad Boys
Bad Boys
Watcha gonna do
Watcha gonna do
When the camera can't see you


Here is the unofficial Reolink thread.

You can see all the attempts people have provided to demonstrate the quality of Reolink, and they are all a blurry mess at night or missing body parts or other messes.

We have challenged someone to provide a clean capture of someone moving at night with a Reolink and as you can see with 20 pages, nobody has yet to provide a usable image with motion at night.

Reolink's algorithm is designed to produce a nice bright static image at night and that comes at a cost of blur and ghost and missing body parts at night.

Reolink: Deconstruction of a dangerous misleading youtube review "Finding the BEST 4K Security Camera NVR Package (Reolink vs Amcrest vs Swann)"

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Wireless cameras can be problematic so if the "old BT downcomer from the old analogue line" is coax I would instead use a Ethernet over coax adapter. It can carry data and power:

LINOVISION POE/Ethernet Over Coax EOC Converter IP Over Coax Max 1000m Power and Data Transmission Over Regular RG59 Coaxial Cable for Upgrading Analog Surveillance System to IP Surveillance System

Many thanks @TonyR Unfortunately the BT (British Telecom) downcomer is only twin cable and not coax. It was for the old analogue telephone network but is capable of carrying 12v to power the camera.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

+1 above.

If you can't run a cable to it, you need power anyway, so go with a powerline adapter to run the date over your electric lines or use a nano-station.

Maybe you are fine now one day with wifi cams, but one day something will happen. A new device, neighbors microwave, etc.

Cameras connected to Wifi routers (whether wifi or not) are problematic for surveillance cameras because they are always streaming and passing data. And the data demands go up with motion and then you lose signal. A lost packet and it has to resend. It can bring the whole network down if trying to send cameras through a wifi router. At the very least it can slow down your entire system.

Unlike Netflix and other streaming services that buffer a movie, these cameras do not buffer up part of the video, so drop outs are frequent, especially once you start adding distance. You would be amazed how much streaming services buffer - don't believe me, start watching something and unplug your router and watch how much longer you can watch NetFlix before it freezes - mine goes 45 seconds. Now do the same with a camera connected to a router and it is fairly instantaneous (within the latency of the stream itself)...

The same issue applies even with the hard-wired cameras trying to send all this non-buffer video stream through a router. Most consumer grade wifi routers are not designed to pass the constant video stream data of cameras, and since they do not buffer, you get these issues. The consumer routers are just not designed for this kind of traffic, even a GB speed router.


And avoid Reolink unless all you care about is what time it happened...maybe....and it is best to match brand of NVR and camera to ensure functionality, especially as it comes to Reolink...

What you mean a missing hand isn't normal LOL :lmao (plus look at the blur on the face and he is barely moving and this should be ideal indoor IR bounce and it struggles):

How about missing everything but the head and upper torso

The invisible man, where can he be. Thank goodness he is carrying around a reflective plate to see where he is LOL (hint - the person is literally in the middle of the image at the end of the fence)

I've seen better images on an episode of ghost hunters

And of course, this is an example from Reolink's marketing videos - do you see a person in this picture...yes, there is a person in this picture.... Could this provide anything useful for the police other than the date and time something happened? Would this protect your home? The still picture looks great though except for the person and the blur of the vehicle... Will give you a hint - the person is in between the two visible columns:

Bad Boys
Bad Boys
Watcha gonna do
Watcha gonna do
When the camera can't see you


Here is the unofficial Reolink thread.

You can see all the attempts people have provided to demonstrate the quality of Reolink, and they are all a blurry mess at night or missing body parts or other messes.

We have challenged someone to provide a clean capture of someone moving at night with a Reolink and as you can see with 20 pages, nobody has yet to provide a usable image with motion at night.

Reolink's algorithm is designed to produce a nice bright static image at night and that comes at a cost of blur and ghost and missing body parts at night.

Reolink: Deconstruction of a dangerous misleading youtube review "Finding the BEST 4K Security Camera NVR Package (Reolink vs Amcrest vs Swann)"

Thanks for responding @wittaj
I take on board your information about Reolink cameras and will look for an alternative. Unfortunately Qvis don't appear to make a bullet wireless camera so I am going to have to go with another brand. Similarly I know wired IP cameras are the best choice but in this situation I dont have ethernet connectivity to the camera location. Nor is there mains power so ip over power line with a Homeplug or similar is not achievable. All I can do is run 12v to power the camera over the old BT cable. However I have a mesh wifi system using TP-Link EAP245 access points that has excellent coverage so I don't believe signal strength will be an issue.
Thanks again for the advice.