Hello everyone!
Long time lurker, first time poster.
Like many new people here, I am looking for help in setting up a system for my home. I know coming here is like asking what the best fishing rod is to buy, what kind of laptop to buy for home, or best knife to buy to a chef. There is no one system that will work for all situations, but I am sure that there are probably several for what I am looking to do. I am not looking for a Ferrari, but I am not looking for a Chevy Spark either. I am looking more along the lines of an Accord or Camry. A solid reliable solution that will get me what I need without being over complex or breaking the bank.
Specifically I am looking for an easy to use POE system for observation and detection, mainly for my wife's use when I am not home, and package detection.
My situation and "need to knows":
My wife has a business out of the home with packages regularly being delivered and clients stopping by. On average, we have about 6 cars come and go per day and on busy days up to 20 vehicles (License plate detection is not needed)
I have a flagpole property in a very wooded area, with a gravel driveway length of 465 ft where it transitions to being paved for the last 85 feet. At that transition, there is a designated 2 car parking area for clients.
The house is a traditional 4 bed/2.5 bath traditional colonial house with the 2 car garage on the left side (straight pull in, so you see the garage door when approaching). We do pull our cars in the garage, so we do not need to monitor cars in the driveway.
The front yard and paved driveway area is about 120ft wide total and 80 feet deep.
It is so wooded that in the summer, despite having the entire front yard covered with landscape lighting by 13 overhead landscaping lights 30 ft up in mature oak and poplar trees (to emulate moon lighting) you can not see any lights from the road. Looking out from the house where I am going to place the cameras, there are no hotspots from said lights.
The front yard is so well lit that if you park at the transition, you do not need any additional lighting to make it safely to the front door with ease. There are no other houses around me to cause ambient lighting issues, even in the winter.
Circling to the left of the house is a gravel driveway which leads to a 1 car "utility garage" located under the back of the house. There are no entrances on the left or right sides of the house.
The back of the house has a 20X40 foot elevated deck. The backyard is also about 80 feet wide and 60 feet deep. Beyond that are acres of dense woods further back and to the sides.
Being in the woods, I have lots and lots of critters coming in the yards and moving all around all night long. Racoons, possums, deer, deer, and more deer, fox, coyote, and even the occasional bear. We have had fox and fawns curled up on our front door mat We also have chickens that free range in the back yard, and occasionally pig and goat-sit via a potable electric fence we set up in the backyard. Ironically, no dogs or cats.
Ability to monitor the backyard is not necessary, but was thinking of doing a portion of it. Needing to monitor the deck and the 25 feet leading to the rear utility garage is.
What I am looking for: a POE system for observation and detection, mainly for my wife when I am not home, and package detection at the front door and..... wait for it....... at the end of the 540 ft driveway <queue descending trombone notes here>
Must haves In order of importance.
Easy to use and administrate, even for my wife who is technically competent, but loses patience if something is too complex.
Excellent Human detection vs animal and tree movement.
Alerts set to smart devices when human and or vehicle detection is made. (is there something you can do to make "Alexa" announce a vehicle has arrived?)
Local storage (no cloud backup or recurring costs)
Entire front yard and driveway coverage I do not need to identify faces if someone is on the driveway. Simply knowing if it is a client or mailman, or UPS or FedEx person is good enough (combination of vehicle type parked in the parking area and the person is sufficient)
Ability to see who is in the clients parking area (same as above)
Good in the pitch black when the landscape lighting is off. (Quick to adjust if we do switch the landscape lighting on) We also have floodlights on motion detection, but rarely are they turned on.
Ability to view any camera from smart device.
Two way communication to the front door.
Entire front yard/driveway coverage
Other considerations:
Remember, we are looking for detection and rough identification. I do not need the ability to capture a face at 50ft.
We have a security system.
I believe all but the camera for the end of the driveway and however I cover the clients parking area will be under eves or something I will make so they are not in "plain view".
This is my home, and I do not want the system to look commercial, but realize I will need to compromise on this somewhat for quality and best functionality.
Cameras needed:
1 for the front door, with 2 way communication.
1 above the garage door (to get to the front door, you need to get to it from the driveway) This camera will cover the driveway Or the "left side" when facing front of the house)
1 camera for the front yard (grassy area/right side of the yard facing the house.)
1 90 degree camera for the back deck (for up to 40 feet; human detection preferred to ignore pesky racoons)
1 above the utility garage in the back of the house.
1 inside for where my wife meets with her clients (already consulted with a privacy lawyer since that was a super major concern. But we have this taken care of a the cost of the consultation with a lawyer, which I think will equal half the cost of this system.
1 package detection at the end of the 540 ft driveway <queue descending trombone notes here again> Yes, this will be the biggest challenge as there is no power at the end of the drive, the distance is too far for just ethernet cable and since it is sooooo wooded, there is no direct line of sight. ( yes It is that wooded. Even in the winter, I can not tell if a yellow school bus is going by.)
I saw a system set up by someone who used all Ubiquiti hardware, and it looked/performed really well when he demoed it when I first met him. That demo was unplanned and at the end of a "what do you do conversation. His day job is in network security, not video security. He had no way to know he was going to demo what he did to me. It seemed easy to use and just the right amount of configuration ability. I just do not like that you have to use their cameras and their cameras only. But I have not ruled this solution out.
Budget: $2500 +/-
Long time lurker, first time poster.
Like many new people here, I am looking for help in setting up a system for my home. I know coming here is like asking what the best fishing rod is to buy, what kind of laptop to buy for home, or best knife to buy to a chef. There is no one system that will work for all situations, but I am sure that there are probably several for what I am looking to do. I am not looking for a Ferrari, but I am not looking for a Chevy Spark either. I am looking more along the lines of an Accord or Camry. A solid reliable solution that will get me what I need without being over complex or breaking the bank.
Specifically I am looking for an easy to use POE system for observation and detection, mainly for my wife's use when I am not home, and package detection.
My situation and "need to knows":
My wife has a business out of the home with packages regularly being delivered and clients stopping by. On average, we have about 6 cars come and go per day and on busy days up to 20 vehicles (License plate detection is not needed)
I have a flagpole property in a very wooded area, with a gravel driveway length of 465 ft where it transitions to being paved for the last 85 feet. At that transition, there is a designated 2 car parking area for clients.
The house is a traditional 4 bed/2.5 bath traditional colonial house with the 2 car garage on the left side (straight pull in, so you see the garage door when approaching). We do pull our cars in the garage, so we do not need to monitor cars in the driveway.
The front yard and paved driveway area is about 120ft wide total and 80 feet deep.
It is so wooded that in the summer, despite having the entire front yard covered with landscape lighting by 13 overhead landscaping lights 30 ft up in mature oak and poplar trees (to emulate moon lighting) you can not see any lights from the road. Looking out from the house where I am going to place the cameras, there are no hotspots from said lights.
The front yard is so well lit that if you park at the transition, you do not need any additional lighting to make it safely to the front door with ease. There are no other houses around me to cause ambient lighting issues, even in the winter.
Circling to the left of the house is a gravel driveway which leads to a 1 car "utility garage" located under the back of the house. There are no entrances on the left or right sides of the house.
The back of the house has a 20X40 foot elevated deck. The backyard is also about 80 feet wide and 60 feet deep. Beyond that are acres of dense woods further back and to the sides.
Being in the woods, I have lots and lots of critters coming in the yards and moving all around all night long. Racoons, possums, deer, deer, and more deer, fox, coyote, and even the occasional bear. We have had fox and fawns curled up on our front door mat We also have chickens that free range in the back yard, and occasionally pig and goat-sit via a potable electric fence we set up in the backyard. Ironically, no dogs or cats.
Ability to monitor the backyard is not necessary, but was thinking of doing a portion of it. Needing to monitor the deck and the 25 feet leading to the rear utility garage is.
What I am looking for: a POE system for observation and detection, mainly for my wife when I am not home, and package detection at the front door and..... wait for it....... at the end of the 540 ft driveway <queue descending trombone notes here>
Must haves In order of importance.
Easy to use and administrate, even for my wife who is technically competent, but loses patience if something is too complex.
Excellent Human detection vs animal and tree movement.
Alerts set to smart devices when human and or vehicle detection is made. (is there something you can do to make "Alexa" announce a vehicle has arrived?)
Local storage (no cloud backup or recurring costs)
Entire front yard and driveway coverage I do not need to identify faces if someone is on the driveway. Simply knowing if it is a client or mailman, or UPS or FedEx person is good enough (combination of vehicle type parked in the parking area and the person is sufficient)
Ability to see who is in the clients parking area (same as above)
Good in the pitch black when the landscape lighting is off. (Quick to adjust if we do switch the landscape lighting on) We also have floodlights on motion detection, but rarely are they turned on.
Ability to view any camera from smart device.
Two way communication to the front door.
Entire front yard/driveway coverage
Other considerations:
Remember, we are looking for detection and rough identification. I do not need the ability to capture a face at 50ft.
We have a security system.
I believe all but the camera for the end of the driveway and however I cover the clients parking area will be under eves or something I will make so they are not in "plain view".
This is my home, and I do not want the system to look commercial, but realize I will need to compromise on this somewhat for quality and best functionality.
Cameras needed:
1 for the front door, with 2 way communication.
1 above the garage door (to get to the front door, you need to get to it from the driveway) This camera will cover the driveway Or the "left side" when facing front of the house)
1 camera for the front yard (grassy area/right side of the yard facing the house.)
1 90 degree camera for the back deck (for up to 40 feet; human detection preferred to ignore pesky racoons)
1 above the utility garage in the back of the house.
1 inside for where my wife meets with her clients (already consulted with a privacy lawyer since that was a super major concern. But we have this taken care of a the cost of the consultation with a lawyer, which I think will equal half the cost of this system.
1 package detection at the end of the 540 ft driveway <queue descending trombone notes here again> Yes, this will be the biggest challenge as there is no power at the end of the drive, the distance is too far for just ethernet cable and since it is sooooo wooded, there is no direct line of sight. ( yes It is that wooded. Even in the winter, I can not tell if a yellow school bus is going by.)
I saw a system set up by someone who used all Ubiquiti hardware, and it looked/performed really well when he demoed it when I first met him. That demo was unplanned and at the end of a "what do you do conversation. His day job is in network security, not video security. He had no way to know he was going to demo what he did to me. It seemed easy to use and just the right amount of configuration ability. I just do not like that you have to use their cameras and their cameras only. But I have not ruled this solution out.
Budget: $2500 +/-
