Low power system

[Mfr]

I live on a 45 foot catamaran and would like to install a camera security system on board. I would like some advice on the system to install.

I expect there would have at most 6 cameras, a couple facing at the back entrance area, maybe a couple facing forward, maybe one inside, maybe one up the mast.

I would like to have network connectivity to see what is going on when I am away and an internet connection is available. I would like video recording capability for up to a couple of months for when we don't have connectivity. Often we are in places with no network connection. Motion sensing capability is acceptable to minimize recording time.

I would prefer no to have to buy from only one vendor to make this work, I'd prefer to seek out the best capability, quality and then value. But, if the consensus of this group is one vendor, I will do this. I am quite adept at mechanical, electrical and software installations. Networking configurations are familiar, but I am not an expert by far. I am learning about video quality.

I'd like to be able to monitor my boat while I am away if I am connected to the internet. If I am not connected, and something does happen, I'd like to be able to see what that might be via the NVR. I would mostly catch people trying to board me while I am gone and take some equipment, which recently happened. The maximum useful distance to monitor might be 35 feet from the camera. Day or night. I would like enough video capability to recognize people's faces. I would like to monitor the waters around me and if a vessel hit me and I see some damage, I can tell when and possibly who did it. I've looked at NVR systems and the breadth of options are huge. And, it is difficult to tell how systems differ. I've considered a micro PC with some appropriate software.

Any suggestions or pointers of where to begin my search? And, what I should tend away from right from the start.

Thanks!

 

[looney2ns]

Study this attachment, and it's imbedded links.

 

[samplenhold]

Since you are able to do all the work yourself, but do not want to stick to one vendor, then most here will recommend using a Win10 PC running Blue Iris. That would allow you to use most any vendor's cam you want. Otherwise, it is recommended that if you use an NVR then stick with the same brand cams as the NVR. This will allow the best compatibility. See the Cliff Notes.

Relying on motion to limit storage size is problematic. Most folks will recommend continuous recording so that you do not miss any action. As you state that you need the info for someone hitting your craft or boarding, having several minutes of video prior to the act would help to determine where they came from and if there was other actors in the vicinity. Also, perp doing something at night probably cased you during the day and you may get better info on them from those day shots.

There are hard drives for surveillance that have 12 TB of storage. If you get a decent sized NVR or PC that can hold a few of these, that should give you the recording time you are asking for. I currently have 22 cams recording 24/7, a mixture of 2MP and 4MP spread out over three 10TB drives (that's 30TB total), and this holds video for three weeks before files are overwritten.

Most folks here will say the Dahua 5442 series cams or Hik Darkfighter cams would work for you. But any cam to operate in color at night is going to need some light. Stay away from the dome form factor as they would not do well in a salt water environment.

 

[Hazza06]

whilst motion sensing appears sensitive on Dahua IPC, you'll find getting the right sensitivity balance of valid motion recordings difficult, e.g something moving from wind in the motion field of view, can very easily trip motion detection, resulting in many motion tagged files on the NVR. Also with Dahua camera's with motion detection enabled, the video files are not split on the next i_frame, resulting in momentary video's loss of the transition of no-motion > motion, and again from motion > no-motion, which is particularly annoying for fast moving scenes, like traffic etc. For this reason, my camera that monitors area with traffic, i have disabled motion detection, and have continuous recording, which means there no video frame loss.

Better to have the p and b frames, than lost frames due to above....

 

[looney2ns]

@Hazza06 Motion in cams is becoming a thing of the past. AI is getting good enough in cams that it is eliminating most of the issues you mention. I have no issues with any of my cams missing frames.

 

[Hazza06]

Unless you have fast motion, you will not visually notice the loss of frames, you'll only notice frame loss in fast motion scenes, and at higher frame rates etc.

 

[Mfr]

Thanks for all the inputs. I'm working through a camera selection. I'd like to use Blue Iris, but it would be on a dedicated PC. So I'll be looking for a small PC that I can connect to the on-board TV. I expect I would get a POE switch to drive the cameras. And then connect the system to my onboard wifi booster, or a 4G router, to access the system when I am away from the boat.

Anybody do something like this?

 

[Hazza06]

Having a separate pc for blue iris and PoE switch, will consume more power than a NVR with built in PoE switch. Dahua nvr you can remotely view live IPC streams using gdmss app on your phone/tablet etc, works great.