New house set-up advice please

It has been said before...buy ONE 5442 Varifocal and use a test rig. Test, test, test. Day and night. It really is not possible to reliably tell you the cam positions are good. It is a drawing not a video. You need a plan, not a drawing.

It is important to understand what views you will get from a specific location. You really should make a plan that states what you wish to accomplish by putting a cam in a specific location. I know it is easy to just say "put a cam at each corner in the soffit and one by the garage", but without stating exactly what you expect from a cam in that location, you will get something that will probably not give you usable info.
 
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Impossible to say without distances, coverage area photos, nighttime ambient light photos,....

Oooppss I see @samplenhold beat me to it
 
Focal lengths and mounting heights do need to be determined, using a varifocal as has been mentioned. I'd suggest adding a camera, shown in blue, but that's my own, personal, preference and paranoia. I like to have cameras watching each other as a general rule. I'd also consider, seriously, a second one on the left side of the garage door. Depending on the size of the back yard, maybe one centered looking straight back, but that is dependent on overall size of the property and if you have anything that might need to be watched more carefully.

1602734139021.png
 
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Well the cables are already run and they are where they are out there right? So not much choice as far as placement. Since you have two per corner, if you have two watching one area you could consider having one aimed to view closely along the house wall and the opposite picking up where the other leaves off, aiming more into the yard. In other words, creating slight overlaps to increase coverage. I prefer views that aren't doubled but instead create slight overlaps to pick up just where the other camera view leaves off. This reduces redundancy which some prefer but I don't. Since you seem to have two views per side it might be worth trying that. You can always readjust. Use caution when aiming along walls. They can cause nasty IR hot spots and subpar the image. You can cover a wall without having it actually in frame, just out of frame in the shot. Be mindful of the soffet in the upper part of a shot too. Keep soffet edging out of frame. This goes for support columns too. You say one camera on the front door (porch?) but it shows two. Since you have two in the soffet and a doorbell camera, you might consider another placement or angle of the camera next to the door.

Aside from getting clean and well exposed shots, it's coverage. Do your best to cover what you need to see out there.
 
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^^^ That'll never happen if your a tech type person of like tech stuff.

First Law of Surveillance Cameras
Cameras multiply like rabbits

Second Law of Surveillance Cameras
Cameras are more addictive than drugs
 
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Shockwave199 said:
Well the cables are already run and they are where they are out there right? So not much choice as far as placement. Since you have two per corner, if you have two watching one area you could consider having one aimed to view closely along the house wall and the opposite picking up where the other leaves off, aiming more into the yard. In other words, creating slight overlaps to increase coverage. I prefer views that aren't doubled but instead create slight overlaps to pick up just where the other camera view leaves off. This reduces redundancy which some prefer but I don't. Since you seem to have two views per side it might be worth trying that. You can always readjust. Use caution when aiming along walls. They can cause nasty IR hot spots and subpar the image. You can cover a wall without having it actually in frame, just out of frame in the shot. Be mindful of the soffet in the upper part of a shot too. Keep soffet edging out of frame. This goes for support columns too. You say one camera on the front door (porch?) but it shows two. Since you have two in the soffet and a doorbell camera, you might consider another placement or angle of the camera next to the door.

Aside from getting clean and well exposed shots, it's coverage. Do your best to cover what you need to see out there.
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Some good news. For $200 bucks I am having the electrician come back in and flip the coms box to the other side of my office which would be the laundry room. What are you guys doing as far as placement of your NVR? Do you put it in a cabinet? Or do you just set in on a shelf? Any tips and pictures of your setup would be appreciated. Thank you.
 
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This is my IT rack with three switches and two patch panels.
DSC_4930.JPG

My BI PC is not in this closet. It is just sitting on a desk.
 
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samplenhold said:
This is my IT rack with three switches and two patch panels.
View attachment 72830

My BI PC is not in this closet. It is just sitting on a desk.
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Thank you @samplenhold . I appreciate the pic. To be honest I can't make sense of it since I am clueless on setup until I move in next year. I will probably ping you and other folks on setup. I am planning to use just the NVR to start with. I may do BI but I don't want to since I think I will have to have a PC on all the time. Thanks again.
 
Hai1 said:
I may do BI but I don't want to since I think I will have to have a PC on all the time.
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Ok...but the NVR will be on 'all the time'.
 
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Hai1 said:
Some good news. For $200 bucks I am having the electrician come back in and flip the coms box to the other side of my office which would be the laundry room. What are you guys doing as far as placement of your NVR? Do you put it in a cabinet? Or do you just set in on a shelf? Any tips and pictures of your setup would be appreciated. Thank you.
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You're probably better off putting it on a shelf because enclosing it in a cabinet with poor airflow could cause overheating. Keep a plan to have a monitor hooked up too. And I really think you'll be glad you moved the nvr to another room once you hear it.
 
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Hai1 said:
Thank you @mat200 for the response. I think the CAT6 cables are run through the space above the soffits. Is it okay to mount the cameras on the soffits? I just spoke to the builder and he said it is too late to run or change cabling without calling in the electricians back in at an extra cost. I neglected to mention I have 2 sets of CAT6 to each corner and not just one.

I am not clear on your camera placement. Are the two cameras on the front corners facing toward the back of the house to cover the each side of the house? I don't see you showing any cameras at the back of the house to cover the back yard. Do you have any input on my floodlights question? Also, do you have any suggestions on camera brands and part numbers? Thanks again for the feedback and look forward to your response.
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HI @Hai1

Have not caught up with the tread, so not certain if someone mentioned this..

Issue: "I just spoke to the builder and he said it is too late to run or change cabling without calling in the electricians back in at an extra cost."

Still worth spending the extra money to ensure the cable runs are done to the proper locations.

If you have only done the corners at this point, I would still add the following:
1) Front door - 2 cat6 to door bell area, 2 cat6 face level by the front door.
2) Other doors - 2 cables face level by other doors
3) Garage Door - 2 cables on each side of garage door(s) - one set on each side - place about door height.

Also.. if you have not yet, double check cable drops inside... 1+1+ per each location that you plan to have a TV / IP device... 3+1 for the media center .. I like to have a IP camera or 2 in the garage also...

Remember you want to do this before they put up the walls...
 
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mat200 said:
HI @Hai1

Have not caught up with the tread, so not certain if someone mentioned this..

Issue: "I just spoke to the builder and he said it is too late to run or change cabling without calling in the electricians back in at an extra cost."

Still worth spending the extra money to ensure the cable runs are done to the proper locations.

If you have only done the corners at this point, I would still add the following:
1) Front door - 2 cat6 to door bell area, 2 cat6 face level by the front door.
2) Other doors - 2 cables face level by other doors
3) Garage Door - 2 cables on each side of garage door(s) - one set on each side - place about door height.

Also.. if you have not yet, double check cable drops inside... 1+1+ per each location that you plan to have a TV / IP device... 3+1 for the media center .. I like to have a IP camera or 2 in the garage also...

Remember you want to do this before they put up the walls...
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It's too late now. The sheetrock is up. Thanks all the same.
 
Shockwave199 said:
You're probably better off putting it on a shelf because enclosing it in a cabinet with poor airflow could cause overheating. Keep a plan to have a monitor hooked up too. And I really think you'll be glad you moved the nvr to another room once you hear it.
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Thanks. Will do. I was thinking sitting on the shelf would be the simplest and thermally coolest route to take. I will have a TV in the laundry room and add the NVR to one of the HDMI inputs. Or do you recommend a dedicated monitor that is on all the time?
 
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Nah, just initially to initialize the nvr. Then you really don't need the monitor much because you can hit nvr on the computer in the web gui as well as pss software for it. But I go to the nvr monitor sometimes too.
 
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Shockwave199 said:
Nah, just initially to initialize the nvr. Then you really don't need the monitor much because you can hit nvr on the computer in the web gui as well as pss software for it. But I go to the nvr monitor sometimes too.
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Thanks for the feedback!
 
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