IP Camera system for warehouse (indoor and outdoor areas)

[afortiori]

Hi,
I am looking for information on suitable IP cameras for securing our warehouse in India, Chennai. Im not a camera professional, but have been enjoying reading about the tech for some time now.

The total area to be secured includes the warehouse (60m x 100m) and the open storage yard 125m x 90m in front of the warehouse, and the office.
We have roughly worked out about 24 cameras for a good enough coverage, but now looking for options of cameras and NVR to keep the cost down and still have a decent video quality. 3 cameras are dome for indoor use, and 21 outdoor/indoor bullet cameras are planned.
I have narrowed down on ACTi E32 bullet camera as a good value for money option, any help from the forum will be useful:
1. to validate whether this camera is good value for money for the purpose, or not
2. whether the acti NVR software can be used to manage these 24 cameras (I know its free till 16 cameras), whats the cost of the license and whether its a serious software which can be used for continous recording
3. whether a PC as NVR is better than a dedicated NVR?
4. whether the E32 is available also in a 2.8mm option for a wide angle of view?
5. If we want all 24 cameras to record at 3MP and 5 fps whether
6. what is the difference between 'regular' CAT6 cable and 'shielded' CAT6 cable.. is shielded the same as armored?
7. if we use a 3MP camera with a 2.8 lens, whats the usable distance at which we would be able to see enough detail to ID a person?

Planning to run all the cameras from a 24 port POE switch which then connects to an NVR or PC for recording.
Sorry about the load of questions! even if some of them can be answered it will help a lot.

Any advice is welcome. Thanks

 

[Razer]

At home I have 9 ACTi e32 bullet cameras and they work okay, but after installing Hikvision 3mp cameras I have to say the Hikvision cameras are superior in every way so far. The ONLY thing I like on the ACTi cameras over the Hik is the ease of firmware updates using the ACTi utility. Other than that, I like the Hikvision cameras much better, the image quality is much superior, the size of the data stream is smaller, and I get a better image, install and mounting is easier, WDR works vastly better, motion detection is done in a much better way that actually captures more motion by far than the ACTi cameras.

I could go on, but for now, for the money, the Hiks are better than the ACTi cameras I would say easily. I have almost 1,000 cameras of all types now and have used many brands and for the money for general purpose bullet it is hard to go wrong with the Hiks right now. You also get great lens options, and I've used the domes too and they were just as well.

In fact I quit using ACTi domes long ago do to image quality issues in any type of low light, they were very, very bad. I was returning 4 ACTi cameras to ACTi yesterday and notices I still have two open cases with their support regarding poor low light performance and the last answer form them (almost a year ago) was that the cameras were working correctly and I would need to get other cameras. I'm not impressed with that answer.


I use dedicated PCs only personally.

2.8 may well be too wide, I use 2.8 in small rooms for the widest field of view and it works great, but for my outdoor bullets 4mm is better as they capture a very wide field and 2.8 is too wide really. 2.8 mm lens in a 1.5 meter by 1.5 meter size room will capture almost all the room when a dome is mounted in a corner, so it is a VERY wide angle shot. I actually cover rooms that small and use 2.8 and they are perfect, but for anything very large then 2.8 might be wider than you want, depends on the shot and camera locations.

Another feature on the Hiks that I like is they stay in focus, the ACTi cameras drift and need refocused a couple of times a year. Not bad when you have a few, but a hughe pain when you have 100 or more to adjust....

 

[networkcameracritic]

To the ACTi E32 is a good camera, at least as good at the Hikvision. Sure, they don't have as good a noise reduction at night, but to me there's more detail that the noise reduction sometimes muddles. But it's all personal tastes. Then there's the issue of service & support where ACTi's is far superior. Also ACTi NVR software is really good and easy to use remotely. That's not to say the Hikvision isn't good, I use both.

1. to validate whether this camera is good value for money for the purpose, or not
I think it's a good value. If you don't need WDR, use the D32

2. whether the acti NVR software can be used to manage these 24 cameras (I know its free till 16 cameras), whats the cost of the license and whether its a serious software which can be used for continous recording
The software is free for 16 cameras and about $50 retail for each additional camera. It's great for continuous recording because it flags the motion detects on the timeline and you can scrub the timeline to rapidly see video. If you want to save money, you can run 12 cameras each on two PCs or 2 virtual machines on one PC.

3. whether a PC as NVR is better than a dedicated NVR?
That's up to you but I prefer a PC because it's easily serviced, repaired, replaced where NVRs are proprietary and may not be serviceable if they have problems.


4. whether the E32 is available also in a 2.8mm option for a wide angle of view?
No, that model only comes one way. I've talked to ACTi and with the D32, you can easily remove the front plate, use like sticky tape to pull it out, held in only with friction. Then unscrew the lens, screw in a new one, focus and done. A little harder to do on the E32 but possible.


5. If we want all 24 cameras to record at 3MP and 5 fps whether
Don't understand the question but you can select the frame rate to record

6. what is the difference between 'regular' CAT6 cable and 'shielded' CAT6 cable.. is shielded the same as armored?
Shielded means there's a metal foil between the wires and the outer cover. Used when you are worried about interference from other cables, like AC power lines. We use it outdoors on project with a lot of conduit running side by side with high power conduits.

7. if we use a 3MP camera with a 2.8 lens, whats the usable distance at which we would be able to see enough detail to ID a person?
My experience is about 15' and about 25' for a 4mm lens.

 

[afortiori]

Thanks a lot Razer and ncc for the responses, they help a lot.

The E32 is about USD 340(?) each and the hikvision DS-2CD2032-I 3MP IR is just 90 USD from aliexpress. That's a big difference. Is it justified or am I comparing the wrong cameras?

So looks like a PC NVR, and 4mm lenses are the way to go, shielded UTP may not be required. Changing the lens would then not be necessary.

I like the idea of the 2 x 12 cam setups, more than the money it means that if we select the split of cameras carefully it gives some redundancy over a failed NVR PC.

Does Hikvision have a similarly functional NVR software bundled with the cameras? I don't want to save money by going with hikvision and spend unjustiable amount on licensed NVR software. Blue Iris seems promising but we are talking 50usd x 24 cameras.

My qn 5 was incomplete, it should read:
5. If we want all 24 cameras to record at 3MP and 5 fps whether an i5 PC is enough to handle the workload, and whether the 1xEthernet link (say 1 gbps) from POE to PC is not going to get choked with data from 24 cameras?

 

[vector18]

These are all 1.3mp Dahua eyeballs in a warehouse. Lenses are 3.6mm, just so you can see what they would look like. I can show you night time view if you would like.

 

[vector18]

Here is night vision for the Dahua 1.3's

 

[afortiori]

Thanks vector18 for the images, its pretty clear that 3.6mm to 4mm is the correct lens for my application. For the warehouse, its a larger one with greater height see below. But we don't want every inch to be monitored in great detail, just an overview is OK.