IP Cameras, Multiple Locations

[illuzionx]

Hi Guys! New to the forums here!

So, I'm planning a project with my best friend who works for a small private home audio/video company. He's very good with low voltage applications and home automation.

As always we have 100 different projects going on all the time. As I always help him with his side work. This time around hes going to be helping me with cameras.

I currently own two businesses. One is a 7000 Sq Ft. Sports Bar/Restaurant. Currently equipped with older analog cameras with a DVR. I want those gone and replaced with new POE Hikvisions. There is about 20 cameras around the whole bar including exterior patio and parking lot. My manager also asked me to consider adding a few other cameras for some blind spots around the bar that the cameras don't catch. One thing to consider is that the bar is more on the darker side. With the current set up at night time it is difficult to see.

My other place is about a 20,000 SQFT manufacturing facility and also my central office for all my work. I plan on putting up about 5 Hik bullets as well. 3 on the exterior of the building and 2 on the shop floor. I don't need much more on the shop floor. I don't want my employees to feel uncomfortable since they're pretty trustworthy with everything. Pretty well lit parking lot.

In the plan's is also adding 4 Hikvision bullets on the exterior of my home.

What I was thinking is having all these run off dedicated computers with Blueiris. I would also like to be able to remotely view these on my 55" TV in my office.

Unless you guys recommend doing it a different way.
I'm open to all options. Thanks! I appreciate the help and advice you guys have to offer!

 

[Roman]

@illuzionx check out this thread that I started a few weeks back: Camera Recommendation for POS stations?

It contains a lot of good info about how to cover POS stations in a bar type environment.

As a lot of folks will chime in and say on here that either going with Hik or Dahua's are a sound choice. The new Dahua "starlight" (go to the Dahua subforum for more info) would def be a nice add due to the low light / dark environment in which you describe. Whatever brand you decide I would push you in the direction of turrets instead of bullets / domes. Bullets can create a halo effect from the IR LED's surrounding the lens and domes just plain suck (although they do have a purpose indoors being vandal resistant, etc).

Also, I would probably just go with an NVR instead of BI and keep it simple but ultimately that is up to you. Sometimes simple is best!

 

[looney2ns]

Go here and read up: Dahua

Also, in a business setting, the camera's can come into play in a liability situation. Such as a bar fight, or an industrial accident on the production floor. More is better.

 

[gmaster1]

Personally I think you're right in having the two systems separate (for many reasons). Watching a group of cameras remotely won't be an issue at all and is fairly easy to do no matter what system you end up choosing. I know many here are advocates of Blue Iris and if you're comfortable with it by all means. Personally I would lean with Blue Iris, but it's also a lot of overhead for some who want a DVR looking box in a security cabinet doing all of the work for them. I feel like in a bar setting, you wouldn't want motion activation enabled on most if not all cams but that's just me. 24/7 recording would be ideal. In that scenario, a decent NVR box would also do very well. (Again, maybe something others will have more input on in here.)

 

[randytsuch]

The one thing Blue Iris would give you is better support for Dahua and Hikvision cameras, if you get a mix.
Otherwise, its recommended to stick with the same manufacturer NVR and cameras.
With a dark bar, seems like the Dahua starlight is the ticket for the camera.
Dahua makes nice PTZ's too, if you want a controllable camera.

 

[zero-degrees]

Speaking from personal experience here - see examples below.

I have HIK dome 2mp cameras running in a brewery and taproom. I went with security domes because they blend a little bit better into the environment. I am a HUGE supporter and believer in turrets/matrix IR and that is normally what you will hear me push here for most applications. However, I went with domes to blend into our environment. We have 24'+ ceilings so it is not easy to mount these cameras and use for ID purposes - so we have "clouds" that drop down half way for lighting and sound control in the taproom - most of these domes are attached to the clouds and our doors have cameras setup for ID purposes down low upon entry/exit. Our main door has a camera at almost face height for ID purposes.

LTS hardware (private label HIK) has the ability to overlay POS transactions onto video if you want to do that. There is also some different software out there that just turns your POS desktop into an ONVIF stream so you could just stream it to a channel of an NVR or BI.

At any rate here are some images (day and night) from some 2mp dome cams.

 

[zero-degrees]

Here's a few more images I have stored from another thread last year that I used to prove a point.