Hello! Looking for suggestions

[maxaud]

hey guys! New here and been roaming the forums looking for advice on what camera setup to go with. A lot of the more detailed posts are getting a bit more dated so thought I should post and get some current suggestions.

I operate a commercial storefront, and storage facility. We currently have a couple cameras but they are terrible. Looking to upgrade to a new system and am not sure where to start.

I have three areas I need to cover with unique specifications.

1. Storefront - commercial area with foot traffic 6 days a week and a garage bay. Three areas here that could use coverage. They are roughly 15x40 rooms and probably only need a camera at one end of each. Not concerned about employees but probably wouldn’t hurt to be able to see and check on them when I’m not there. Power is abundant and I can run cables where I need to.
2. Parking lot - this is where we see majority of theft. It’s 1/4 city block and has UHaul box trucks and personal vehicles that commonly fuel siphoned. I have power along one edge of the property but running any sort of cables may be difficult so cameras may need to be wireless. Distance from the main building may also pose a problem at the far edge of the lot depending upon the equipment. Not a great deal of light either so night vision would be needed.
3. Storage units - another 1/4 of the city block is covered by storage units. We would like to monitor entrances and see who hits buildings with vehicles. We don’t see much in the way of theft as we require specific locks. There is power ran on most of the storage units and we bore a pipe under ground if we need to run cable from the main building to the storage units. Wireless would be preferred but wasn’t sure what is possible for long distance as the furthest point is 500’ from the main building but we do have line of sight. With how the storage is laid out the best vantage points would be looking down long rows of units so a camera that can see a long ways would be good.

I was thinking a 16 channel unit is going to be a must (3-4 inside, 5 in parking and main entrance, and the rest in storage).

Looking to be notified when motion is found at late hours.

My brother uses Reolink stuff at his house and the ease of setup and viewing is nice but wasn’t sure if it would be good fit for a commercial application or the quality of connection and viewing would be compared to better models. A neighboring gate station uses Dahua cameras I think and they seem good but I had trouble working with his DVR trying to extract footage of someone on one of his newer higher quality cameras so there must have been some compatibility issues there that I would like to avoid in the future.

Your advise would be greatly appreciated! You’re talking to a complete noob so please keep that in mind. Thank you.

 

[TonyR]

Welcome to IPCT!

If you have not done so, read the Wiki up top and pay special attention to its Cliff Notes.

In a nutshell:

• Avoid Reolink.
• I suggest POE, 2MP Dahua Starlight Varifocal turrets or IPCT Night Eye turret cams.
• Avoid bullet style cams (spider webs) and domes (UV & ozone attacks dome).
• Don't get too wrapped up in megapixels.
• Mount on appropriate box to protect the cam's pigtail and to allow smaller hole for Ethernet cable.
• Use CAT-5e or 6 solid copper cable (No CCA / Copper Clad Aluminum); with jacket rated for application.
• Consider Blue Iris VMS software on a capable PC; it's superior to any NVR & only $50 (on sale now!). Highly configurable motion detection and flexible, dependable notifications on an app for smartphone or tablet, iOS and Android.
• Use POE switch with the Blue Iris server PC

 

[bigredfish]

^^^^^
Good advice there

 

[SouthernYankee]

welcome to the forum

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

Read , study, plan before you spend money.... plan plan plan.

 

[looney2ns]

Did anyone mention to avoid Reolink junk?
Most of the info here that has been posted in the past two years, is still very much relevant.
Avoid Wifi, unless you are using something like this, which can make any camera "wireless".
https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-NanoStation-locoM2-2-4GHz-Outdoor/dp/B00DCNRTAG
Stick with Dahua, IPCT brand, and Hikvision cams.
Review-Dahua Starlight IPC-HDW5231R-ZE 800 meter capable ePOE

 

[TonyR]

Did anyone mention to avoid Reolink junk?

I did, in my first bullet in post #2.

Avoid Wifi, unless you are using something like this, which can make any camera "wireless".

I know that and meant to say it but.....was just checking to see if you were paying attention, man.
Thanks for sayin' it!

 

[looney2ns]

I did, in my first bullet in post #2.

 

[maxaud]

Thanks for the quick helpful responses. Much appreciated.

Been reading the cliff-notes to try to educate myself.

I have a few questions that weren't 100% clear.

1. By being limited in my parking lot to just power connections (street lights) and no internet connections other than Wifi, I'm assuming I'm required to have a non-PoE setup and using something like the NanoStation?
2. Does anyone have an example network diagram of how this would be wired showing any switches, injectors, etc? Any other diagrams/maps of other common setups?
3. The NanoStation, does this simply extend the grab the wifi signal and offer a port as if it were on the network?
4. Above someone stated that MP shouldn't be a high priority. I'm not disagreeing and have seen posts about better night vision with smaller cameras, but we recently had a fuel theft and the vehicle drove through a parking lot past 4 cameras 2-4MP. We weren't able to make out the license plate until they got in front of a 6MP camera that was in low light. Is there a good middle ground to have good night vision but a decently clear enough screen to make out details? Having the license plate number gave me the owners address the same day the incident occurred.
5. If I were to go with a Dahua setup, are the brand specific NVR features worth it or is Blue Iris the way to go (keeping in mind I'm a novice)? What limitations do I see with Blue Iris that people don't commonly mention?
6. Someone (or maybe two someones) mentioned staying away from wifi cameras. Is this dues to connectivity issues?

Thank you.

 

[pozzello]

You probably want a few 'overview' cams that may be higher rez and wider field of view (lower mm numbers of the lens, 2.8 or 4mm)
to see 'what is going on' over larger areas. But to ID people, you need cams zoomed in to 'choke points' like doorways & gates,
using a tighter FoV (high numbered lenses like 12mm, 25mm or even higher for longer distances to the target area)...

I would plan on placing one or more cams dedicated to get license plates at the entrance/exit of your facilities...
2MP is plenty for plates, as long as you are zoomed in to the proper area and can get good IR to the plates as well.
figure those cams won't show you anything BUT plates. IE, don't count on them for anything else.

wifi cams are simply not as reliable as hard-wired cams. The Ubiquity device mentioned is probably more reliable than any individual
cam's wifi, but best if everything can be hard-wired. you need to run power to a wifi cam anyways, so if your'e gonna run a wire,
make it an ethernet and run power over that too (PoE). Another option MIGHT be PLA adapters (that run the network connection over
a powerline), but you can't know if that'll work until you try it on your wires and at full distance...

Blue Iris is LOT easier to track down and extract the footage you might need for any incident than most NVR's. So if the NVR's have been frustrating to you, BI should be more satifying, tho there is obviously a learning curve...

 

[TonyR]

@maxaud ,

Below is a Ubiquiti Layer 2 Transparent Bridge using 5GHz radios. It requires excellent LOS (Line of Sight).

If your parking lot lighting is 120volt (or it's 240 volt and you step it down with a transformer to 120 volt) you could power the passive POE injectors BUT....each light fixture or pole would need its own PEC (photoelectric cell) so that the power to the pole would be hot all the time...if all poles/fixtures were switched from a central PEC and lighting contactor you'd only have power when they were ON at dusk/night.