New guy from north Georgia mountains

[SlingShot53]

I am living the dream. I own an 18-acre hill away from everything. The nearest town has 424 people. I am a SW consultant. I am a prepper.

I have a lot of wild game on my land. The only access to my hill is protected by an electric gate and monitored by a solar powered cellular cam. I also have game cams throughout. My driveway is 1700' and very step. Other than the driveway, I am surrounded by deep ravines.

My need is to have video coverage of about the top 3 acres. I am in the process of returning a Lorex 2K Wire-Free System with 4 cameras. It was not able to meet my needs. I could not get the coverage I desired. I could not get the range.

I just installed a Netgear mesh that reaches all three acres atop the hill. What I would like is more of a CCTV system. I want to be able to monitor my property and detect and record any unexpected activity.


I can get power to the cameras. I have extensive solar/battery power with inverters.
What I need is range and since the NVR must communicate directly with the camera, I see this as a non-starter unless I can find an NVR that can accept video across TCP/IP.

Specifications:
1. No data leaves my property. I do not want it served by some server in China, Canada, NSA, etc.
2. Am able to see a live stream on my PC.
3. All the niceties like zoom/pan/night/2 way audio/ motion detection etc.

Okay - I'm babbling but I would like to start a conversation about my options.

 

[garycrist]

Forget 2 way audio from a security camera.
POE switches will extend ones signal/s from cam/s.
WIFI cams typically will not be a good match as bandwidth is limited.

I hope this helps.

 

[bp2008]

Hello and welcome.

There is a lot for you to learn.

NVR stands for "network video recorder", and by "network" they mean "computer network". Therefore all NVRs accept video across TCP/IP. It sounds like your problem is you have been looking at consumer grade wifi camera systems, and those are typically proprietary and force you into using wifi for video transmission, which is something you should avoid whenever possible.

Since you are a "SW" (software?) consultant, I think you would be best served by a software NVR running on a PC. Blue Iris is popular here for its low price and extensive feature set. Blue Iris runs all local on a Windows PC. Here you can read about hardware requirements.

For cameras, there is a tremendous number of options. The key is to buy cameras that support PoE, then you just run one cat5e or better specced network cable for both data and power. If you need part of the path back to the NVR to be wireless, then buy a proper wifi bridge kit from Ubiquiti or TP-Link and install it with clear unobstructed line of sight.

There are a lot of different camera brands available, but the two most popular on this forum are Hikvision and Dahua. I will try to provide some specific suggestions.

This is a good value Dahua PTZ (rebranded) with auto-tracking capability:

https://amazon.com/dp/B082XX9LJ6

This one (also Dahua) is more expensive but has better light sensitivity for better night performance:

https://amazon.com/dp/B08GKQSK2W

This is a great fixed position camera (also Dahua) with a powered zoomable lens which means you can zoom and focus it remotely via the camera's web interface. Great feature for people starting out with IP cameras because you don't need to settle on a single focal length before you purchase. It uses a 1/1.8" 4MP sensor and supports "IR" for night vision without visible light. Has a built-in microphone.

Here is a fantastic overview camera (Hikvision, rebranded) which blends two sensor inputs to give you a 180 degree wide angle view. It is very good at low light, but it does not have an "IR" (infrared) mode so if you have a problem with using visible light outdoors at night, you may want to avoid any cameras like this designed for color night vision.

 

[bp2008]

I can't really comment on two-way audio from IP cameras. I've never used that feature before. Most cameras don't have a speaker or any way to add one. Many cameras don't even have a built-in microphone (or a way to add one).

 

[SlingShot53]

Thanks for that thoughtful and very informative reply. And now that I think about it, the audio is not very purposeful.

I am a developer. My client is an underground utility company. I've written a camera video app in FireMonkey with it's emphasis on image integrity to meet SOX compliance but had little use here.
But you are right. I have a lot to learn.

I will do more research and wait a while before exposing my ignorance.

 

[CanCuba]

Welcome! You have a lot of ground to cover. Not only physical land but also about cameras in general. I came here as a complete rookie with regards to optics, sensor sizes, etc and I've learned tonnes. I would now feel confident setting up a system for a medium-sized residential property.

The search function of this forum is terrible. It doesn't seem to accept boolean arguments making it almost useless. Most people use the Google site: argument to drill down and find what they're looking for. If I want to search for information about bitrate for a 4K camera, I'd use google to search:

site:ipcamtalk.com "4K" and "bitrate"

Much less frustrating than trying to sort through the search results here.

There's many well-informed and experienced people here. I'm sure you'll find all the information you're looking for.

Cheers

 

[wittaj]

Welcome!

As you read and learn, you will learn that you need more cameras than you think LOL.

Big box store kits never work for a half-acre lot, so it would be useless in your situation. Glad you figured that out now while you could return.

You will end up with some overview cams and some cams optically zoomed in to pinch points.

See this thread that lists out the recommended cameras based on distance to IDENTIFY along with some great thread links demonstrating this in real situations.

The Importance of Focal Length over MP in camera selection

At the urging of several folks here, I created a thread to show the importance of focal length and how focal length can be more important than megapixels (MP). I mentioned some of this in the post regarding The Hookup’s latest video demonstrating different cameras, including one sold from a...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[Gimmons]

You might look into LoRa radio circuits. Full disclosure: I have no experience with these, but if I had a big property and I wanted an early warning for perimeter intrusion, this might be a practical way. I don't think you could get video, but you could hope for an alarm signal, so you know where to look.

 

[TonyR]

Welcome to IPCT !