Helping a friend

[HMC8403]

A friend asked me for assistance for his strip mall whose 10+ year old camera system had failed.

So far have installed cameras at the parking lot entrances to capture license plates and two Color4k-T180s for overview of the 330 foot parking lot. Before someone comments, the 180 Cameras are intentionally aimed high to capture street traffic as there are occasional accidents and police ask him for footage. I still need to play with the camera settings whenever I find time.

I just ordered a bunch of B442E-ZE cameras and coax to IP adapters from @EMPIRETECANDY and plan on fitting them in the existing camera housings that are around the property. Hopefully that will be an easy task.

I’m open to suggestions.

 

[fenderman]

Personally I would aim the cameras to capture more of his lot. That should be his primary concern. If he wants a cam for street traffic, setup another. Unless there is another cam capturing the rest of his lot closer to the camera I would aim it down.

 

[TonyR]

+1^^.
Helping out LEO would be great but not at the sacrifice of your friend's surveillance needs. Sure, additional cams for that street action to help LEO would be more money but their needs are secondary to those of your friend's . Perhaps they could be added later when funds are available.

 

[bigredfish]

Might consider a slightly tighter shot on the two exit/LPR cams...

 

[The Automation Guy]

I would agree that the "parking lot" camera need to cover more parking lot and less street. The fact that you are not covering the spaces below the camera is an issue for me. Honestly I think you can still do both - just lower the camera angle so it's not getting the buildings across the street, but I certainly would place the emphasis on the parking lot if I couldn't cover everything.

 

[HMC8403]

There are old coax cameras that cover the storefronts, sidewalks and the line of parking spaces closest to the building; will get them online as some as my order of cameras and adapters arrive from Andy.

For the two LPR cams luckily the area is well lit even at night. All the cam settings are still on Auto and plan to adjust next weekend. The one cam further back is zoomed in all the way and mounted it there because we temporarily ran out of cable; I probably will move it closer if we can’t get a clearer shot after I play with the camera settings.

 

[Ri22o]

I'll 8th the not worrying about the street and let LE get what they can get.

 

[Flintstone61]

The LPR looking at that Ford Expedition, would get 99.9 of the plates if it were set to B&W with IR on 24/7/365. The other cams can detect the vehicle color and other details....
Some folk have been succesfull with Color -day/ B&W-night, but sunset and sunrise hours can screw with your plate reads for 1.5 hours of each day in that mode.

 

[Flintstone61]

The other cam that works as LPR in color and B&W with less fuss is the 4mp bullet from Andy....I have 2 of them running.
EmpireTech IPC-B54IR-Z4E-S3 1/1.8" CMOS 4MP WDR IR Built-in Mic AI Net