New installation advice for house and dock

Titan912S

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Hi Everyone. I've been reading and trying to absorb a lot during the last month, and I'm ready to get my system going. I've e-mailed Andy a couple of times, but I'm still not clear on what would be best for my situation. I have decided on all Dahua, though. I live on a lake, and besides monitoring the house, I need to keep an eye on the dock and boat. I looked at the Camera Calculator but Google's map is during the Summer, and it's pretty hard to even see the house with all the trees. Here's a Winter aerial view of everything.
Here's the street view:
For the front door, I'm thinking either where the yellow or orange arrows are. The orange seems like the better location, since it would cover all the driveway. From that location I need to cover the windows to the right (seen in the first picture) and the garage door. The 2 lights in front of the garage door turn on at dusk, but more of a night light mode until motion sensing turns them up full blast. Maybe 2 cameras for there?
Here's the back side of the garage with the walk-out door. Again, yellow or orange location? The red arrow is where the next set of cameras will go (next picture after this).

I'm pretty sure this is going to need 2 cameras. To the right points up to where the previous picture was taken. To the left, I just need to sight down the length of the house. At the very left you can see a deck post. There is a full-length walkway around the house that wide. There are 2 more sets of windows past the triples you see in the picture. The first set beyond it is the office, where the network is, and the NVR will be.


Right below where the last picture was taken is the lower walkout. One camera there should be sufficient, if it can capture everything in the picture (placed in front of the deck pole, though). :>)

Monitoring the dock (and ramp) and boat is equally as important as the house. I had someone break into the boat this Winter. Not sure if one camera will be able to do both. If so, maybe where the orange arrow is. If not, probably orange monitoring boat and yellow for ramp and some of the stairs. The biggest problem is the distance. There are 101 steps to the house. I'm guessing it will be over 200’ by the time I go uphill, and another 40'+ to get to the office. The dock’s power is run through the PVC conduit you see at the base of the stairs. A wireless cam(s) might be the solution, and I can wire outlets up by the roof. However, there is a separate breaker box readily accessible at the beginning of the ramp, so thieves/vandals could easily just turn off the power. POE looks like the solution, still.

This also brings up an important part of the NVR’s software, i.e. the motion-detection needs zones defined. Waves will trigger motion, so I need to exclude areas of water. Fishermen’s boats can sometimes get pretty close, too.


So recomendations for cameras would be appreciated. Doesn't look like I need more than 8 cameras, so an NVR4108-8P-4KS2 should do the job. If for some reason I need to expand past that, I have 2 more projects that need security in the near future, and it can go there.

Thanks!
J.D.
 
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Titan912S

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This picture might help a bit, too. Shows the wrap-around deck and how far it is to the dock.
 

mat200

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Hi Everyone. ..
Thanks!
J.D.
Welcome J.D.,

It's easy to get swamped with information here, so I wanted to share some notes with you

Please check out @giomania 's notes:
Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z)

I have also made which are a summary of a lot of the reading I've been doing here,:
Looking for some advice and direction!

When looking at your options you should first imho decide what is important and make a list.

Example:
Day vs Nighttime - which is more important?

Have fun joining us here.
 

Titan912S

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Welcome J.D.,

It's easy to get swamped with information here, so I wanted to share some notes with you

Please check out @giomania 's notes:
Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z)
I've read about 90 pages of this thread over the course of many days.

Welcome J.D.,

It's easy to get swamped with information here, so I wanted to share some notes with you

Please check out @giomania 's notes:
Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z)
That looks like the main camera I'd use. Especially the back side of the garage spot and the 2-camera location by the deck.

I have also made which are a summary of a lot of the reading I've been doing here,:
Looking for some advice and direction!

When looking at your options you should first imho decide what is important and make a list.

Example:
Day vs Nighttime - which is more important?

Have fun joining us here.
That's a great thread also. I should mention that this is not a remote location, with bad weather and intermittent electricity. I live on Lake of the Ozarks, the #1 recreational lake in the country several years in a row. It's fully developed, and not hampered by the Corps of Engineers. It's also not full of drug-dealing and money-laundering hicks, like the Netflix series Ozark portrays. :facepalm: :lol: I also live here mostly full-time, and when not, am here at least once/week. Night time is way more important. I have a wall of condos across the cove that can see most everything happening during the day. :wave: Anyway, I think I have a lot of this figured out, now. Not sure which camera to use by the front door, yet (pictures #2 and 3). In picture #4, the IPC-HDW5231R-Z mounted at the orange arrow seems right. The same camera should work well for the 2 mounts on the corner of the house in picture #5. Not sure about below the deck showing the walkout in picture #6. As for the dock, since I have one more port on the NVR, I'll go with 2 cameras, both at the yellow arrow. One pointing to the boat (with focus on the stern, where entry would be), and the other pointing up the ramp and stairs (likely another IPC-HDW5231R-Z). IR lights need to not attract spiders and flying pests. I have a Swann system on my commercial dock that's rendered almost useless by them. If you guys could help me fill in the blanks for the rest or corrections in what I'm thinking, that'd be awesome.
 

randytsuch

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Get a turret for spiders, they have less problems with spider webs.

My standard advice for new installations is to get one starlight turret, mount it on a 2x4 with a long piece of ethernet cable, and try it out, in the places you are considering mounting cams. Try during the day and night, and it helps to have someone actually walk where people would walk, to see how they look, and if you could recognize faces. You can use a bucket full of sand to help hold the 2x4 in place.
You can study for months, but when you actually watch video from the cams things people talk about here will make a lot more sense.

Randy
 

looney2ns

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With the dock, are you concerned with thieves getting access via land or water?
It's only a few dollars more to purchase 16 port NVR. I only think I need xx cams is famous last words.

Remember, you want to know who did it, not just what happened.

Put a good pad lock on that breaker box.
 

Titan912S

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With the dock, are you concerned with thieves getting access via land or water?
It's only a few dollars more to purchase 16 port NVR. I only think I need xx cams is famous last words.

Remember, you want to know who did it, not just what happened.

Put a good pad lock on that breaker box.
Both, actually. There are always reports of props (and even whole drives!) being stolen in the winter when a lot of people aren't around. Usually those are done by boat. In my case, I had a low-life neighbor up the street decide to have a party on my boat during a warm Saturday night in February. He just walked down the stairs to my dock. I got lucky. He got so wasted that he left his phone in the boat, complete with inside and outside pictures. The water patrol was very happy to see them.

If I need a bigger NVR, I'll move the original one to a smaller project that's down the list. It only needs 5 cameras. I'll check with the fire dept, but I'm pretty sure I can't lock the breaker box. In case there's an electric short to the water, it needs to be turned off right away. We've had a few deaths on this lake from faulty wiring.
 

looney2ns

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I would say you need two cameras just to watch the stairs. One looking up, and one down.

Then two cams on the dock, one looking each direction along the boat. The 5231 is truly hard to beat, so you can get the exact field of view you need. Is there a decent amount of light coming from the apartments across the lake? Any at all, would great enhance the picture from a 5231.

And if you don't want to run cat 5 down to the dock, you can use two of these: https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-NanoStation-locoM2-2-4GHz-Outdoor/dp/B00DCNRTAG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1506708275&sr=8-3&keywords=nanostation+2 in place of cable.

You can mask off areas in the cam that you don't want to be included in the motion area. Then there is IVS that lets you set triplines or intrusion boxes that are less prone to false motion alert than just motion alone.

FYI: A 16 port over an 8 port will be in the $20-30 upgrade range.
 
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Titan912S

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Good news. I took the 100' tape out tonight and measured from the office to where the cameras will be at the dock. 196' total run. For some reason I'm really good at guessing volume, but suck at distances. Now I know Ethernet is the way to go to the dock..
 
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