Hola & non-security IP cam system design

[exSHS]

Hi folks! Former wire monkey/ AV, security, home automation tech- 3yrs experience. Couldn't find quite the correct sub-forum, so here goes...

I'm currently a utility construction worker, but a close friend might need to ditch their current "business technology expert" and asked for my advice, so I'm asking YOUR advice, lol.

The Challenge: Speech and Language Pathologist practice needs a cctv system that sends live high-quality video and audio feed from the therapy room to a separate (+/- 50' away) viewing room, where a parent watches the session on a dedicated monitor in private. There are 8 separate therapy offices that would send feed to one viewing room with 8 separate, but dedicated monitors (headphones for privacy). Fully hardwired system for reliability/ security. Outdoor cams and IR unnecessary. Recording and review of all feed and occassional burning to dvd a necessity. Another necessity is the ability for each therapist to be able to have an idiot-proof button to block feed to the viewing room, for times that they are not in session. The previous build- based on a tiny work space and only two therapists- was to use wifi gopros paired with ipads in the viewing room. The business has since expanded to two floors and many employees.

Current Disaster: The self-proclaimed "business technology expert" building the system has started by adding a 115 AC switched receptacle at every camera location. This is his elegant solution to "pausing" video to the viewing room- by adding wall warts and shutting down the IP camera completely and hoping it starts up again on hard reset. His original idea was to build little "boxes" that flip over the cameras when privacy is desired (I am not kidding). I guess he didn't know that DC camera power can be be home run to a multi port DC power supply so that the whole place isn't littered with pretty outlets and cords coming out of the ceiling...He plans on using HIK IP cameras and unknown NVR to transmit over wifi to 8 dedicated ipads in the viewing room. His eyes glaze over when asked what software and hardware he will use to accomplish this- or if he was planning on upgrading the current network structure (home-grade Fios router). He seems way over his head, possibly delusional.

Solution: Remove contractor first, I assume- before any more damage is done. Next, I could run a cat5 and 16/2 (or perhaps just one cat6 for a PoE solution) from each camera location to the head end (a utility closet). But then, what kind of cabling to run from the head end to the 8 monitors in the viewing room? What hardware/ software to display and matrix the audio/ video feeds if not a run of the mill nvr? Simple way for a therapist to block camera feed for privacy? Control from their supplied MacBooks, each running nvr software in the background? Like I said, I was a wire-puller, not a programmer- so if I could at least have a framework for a system design to hand over to another camera contractor, I would be getting somewhere.

Thank you all in advance for any advice you can offer!

 

[Q™]

Yah baby. I don't know shit...but here goes anyway...

Separate the camera video from the audio. Camera microphones generally suck unless your budget is significant. But before we go any further...what is your budget anyway?

 

[nayr]

yesh you found quite an expert there hah..

your definitely going to need wired video system to get any scale out of it, and cameras with an external microphone input.. that input could be wired up to a wireless mic receiver that your instructor wears or a very sensitive one that picks up all noise in the room.

as for privacy, well.. can you just have them displayed on fixed monitors and just turn them on/off? mebe a switched outlet in the room for powering a monitor outside? that would be easiest to train.. flip switch, camera on, flip camera off (not really but the display is off and its not recording unless you manually trigger it).. If these are employees make em suck it up and realize that these offices have cameras, im pretty sure there are a billion people out there working under the watchfull eyes of security cameras, without triggering a revolt.

A Raspberry Pi can display a RSTP Stream from a video camera with ease, especially on a wired network, I have one hooked into a fixed display next to my front door and it shows feeds from a bunch of cameras at once.. you can power them with a PoE splitter so even though the display is switched off they still are running and dont have to boot back up.

 

[tangent]

Hi folks! Former wire monkey/ AV, security, home automation tech- 3yrs experience. Couldn't find quite the correct sub-forum, so here goes...

I'm currently a utility construction worker, but a close friend might need to ditch their current "business technology expert" and asked for my advice, so I'm asking YOUR advice, lol.

The Challenge: Speech and Language Pathologist practice needs a cctv system that sends live high-quality video and audio feed from the therapy room to a separate (+/- 50' away) viewing room, where a parent watches the session on a dedicated monitor in private. There are 8 separate therapy offices that would send feed to one viewing room with 8 separate, but dedicated monitors (headphones for privacy). Fully hardwired system for reliability/ security. Outdoor cams and IR unnecessary. Recording and review of all feed and occassional burning to dvd a necessity. Another necessity is the ability for each therapist to be able to have an idiot-proof button to block feed to the viewing room, for times that they are not in session. The previous build- based on a tiny work space and only two therapists- was to use wifi gopros paired with ipads in the viewing room. The business has since expanded to two floors and many employees.

There's no way wifi would cut it for 8 cams under typical conditions.

Speech Language Pathologist complicates things a bit depending on how high the bar is for video / audio quality. Inconvenient in some ways, but the highest quality video would be from a video camera hooked to a monitor directly via a long HDMI cable or HDMI Base-T adapter.

IP cams can probably do the job, but you'll need one you can hook a high quality external mic to. Ultimately some testing will be required to eval if a particular cam / mic solution will do the job (don't buy all the cameras up front, start with 1).

The privacy sounds like you only want parents to view their own kids / no one to view it the parent isn't there. I've got a few ideas for ways you could handle this spinning in my head, but cost and complexity varies widely (some options are not idiot proof). You could do something they control from a button / switch in the room or some kind of authentication to view for example.


Off the top of my head here's how the "dream" system might work (custom programming or hippa compliant vms solution if it exists, could be a bit expensive):
-Software based NVR that's tied into scheduling software.
-Knows when rooms should be occupied and by what patients, videos are saved in a way that associates them with a particular patient.
-In viewing room parents have to enter an id of some kind like a phone number to activate the viewer based on who's scheduled to be in a given room.


KISS option:
Traditional video cam in each room, each patient has their own SD card, HDMI cables (or equiv) to viewing room. You want privacy, unplug the cable. Give the SD cards unique volume names so you can back them up more easily.

 

[exSHS]

Yah baby. I don't know shit...but here goes anyway...

Separate the camera video from the audio. Camera microphones generally suck unless your budget is significant. But before we go any further...what is your budget anyway?

The budget isn't set, per se...as they have no idea what the system will cost. That said, they are expecting to pay thousands. The current guy is saying $4k range.

Update: Friend phoned the guy after talking to me. She expressed concern over some points I laid out, also delicately mentioned that I had raised the points...boy , did he get upset and offended. Instead of confident, informative reassurance, he says" if you don't like the way I'm going about it, why don't you have your BOYfriend do it?" Very professional...Anyway, she's having him over the business later this week for a meeting to go over the plan one last time before he continues work, or he's out. I'll keep you all current.

In the meantime, thanks for all the input and keep it coming!!!

 

[ICU cam guy]

My company builds and installs camera PC's that can handle from 1-36 or more IP cameras. Many of the cameras have great audio reception. Out software is very easy to understand as well. If you have any interest in more specifics, please PM me.

Jeff

 

[exSHS]

Ooo...some great ideas guys! I was kinda locked into the mindset of adapting security cam architecture and forgot HDMI! Some cable runs could actually fit under max HDMI cable length too. The others could run HDbaseT over cat6. I even installed a few Wyrestorm singles and 8x8's. Now what kind of HD cams and some DVR solution...more research!

 

[tangent]

Ooo...some great ideas guys! I was kinda locked into the mindset of adapting security cam architecture and forgot HDMI! Some cable runs could actually fit under max HDMI cable length too. The others could run HDbaseT over cat6. I even installed a few Wyrestorm singles and 8x8's. Now what kind of HD cams and some DVR solution...more research!

No matter the exact route you take, perform incremental tests. In other words don't blow the budget upfront on something that may not get the job done. Buy 1, run cables to one room, set up one rPI if needed, test.

To me it seems like effective storage / organization of the video (by patient) is probably actually one of the most important features. The trick is how do you pull it off and how automated is it.