Placement Help

[hitandrun8575]

Hello all, I learned about this place from Mat2000 off Slickdeals.

Im looking to purchase a POE system for Black Friday, but have some placement and camera type questions. When I built my home, I had the house pre-wired for POE cameras, looking back, the placement was pretty bad... I dont fancy the idea of running new lines. Anywho, I have four POE drops: 1 near garage, 1 at front door, 1 at back door, 1 overlooking backyard near roof line.

• From what I've read, dome cameras aren't the best for outdoor use; however, would I be ok to use them considering they are underneath or sheltered from the rain? Im concerned about the FOV for bullet cameras.
  
• Should I ignore placing a camera in the backyard POE drop because its so high up? I have two flood lights, should i just buy two floodlight cameras to cover my backyard. Kuna/Maximus or Ring?
  
• Im concerned about my front door drop also because the light may block the camera's view. Would I be better off getting a doorbell camera b/c of this?

In my pictures, the yellow represents where the POE drops are, the pink represents where a supplemental camera could go (doorbell and floodlight).

I was looking into getting a Lorex NVR system and use iDMSS to view live feeds from my phone. Is this even possible? Am i required to use their FLIR app? I've tried contacting Lorex asking them about this, but their customer support is terrible.... The two systems im looking at 4K Ultra HD IP NVR System with 2 8MP Motorized Varifocal and 2 8MP Audio Dome Cameras, 250FT Night Vision and https://tinyurl.com/4KHDIP822NV.

Garage POE drop



Backdoor POE drop from ceiling.


Backyard POE drop in yellow, covered by roof line. Pink designates current flood lights


Front door POE drop in yellow. Pink designates current location of doorbell.


Thank you in advance for you input!

 

[hitandrun8575]

I have Cat6 wiring and fiber

 

[whatevah]

My work firewall is blocking the redirect/affiliate links so I'm not sure which exact kit you're looking at. But, Lorex does offer the "turret" style cameras... similar footprint to the dome cameras but without the clear dome lens. They're certainly better when shielded from direct rain and sun, but they will need to be cleaned regularly to prevent them from being useless at night when the built-in IR LEDs are lit. Took a few seconds to browse the Lorex website, I don't actually see any traditional dome cameras. Their "dome" cameras are the turret style. Those are the ones preferred for exterior use, so that's fine. They do have mini domes, which are identified as the very small lenses compared to the body size and should be kept to indoor or shielded use. As for FOV concerns, turret and bullet cameras typically have the exact same options until you get into the longer zooms (past 5x), so you'd be fine there... but, bullet cameras tend to attract spiders more often than the turret models, so turrets are still preferred unless the long zoom is needed.

For placement thoughts, it looks like they put the front POE drops right by the lights. That could be a problem... might need to use conduit (paint to match) to move the cameras away so they're not blown out by the light. Flying insects will also be more of an annoyance, as well. Perhaps lower the front door camera below the light, that will minimize the effects and put it at a better angle to see under baseball caps. The door camera isn't bad, but mounted at eye-level is always preferred. The high rear camera will give a decent overview so it's not useless. The quality of the Lorex/Dahua cameras are better than the floodlight cams, so you'd likely have better results unless you want to see the side yard... plus the floodlight cams need wifi and can't record 24/7 (often preferred due to sensitivity issues with motion detection).

Check out the cliff notes for a primer security cams: IP Cam Talk Cliff Notes | IP Cam Talk

 

[looney2ns]

Yeah, your links just go to the front page of lorex's site.
The cam location on the second story, could work as an overview camera, but don't expect to ID faces from that height.
Understand that Lorex strips features from their cams that are useful.
In the cliff notes, pay particular attention to this: IPVM Camera Calculator V3
If you don't need audio then this cam is a better choice: Review-Dahua IPC-HDW2231RP-ZS Starlight Camera-Varifocal

If you want Audio: Review-Dahua Starlight IPC-HDW5231R-ZE 800 meter capable ePOE
At front door, IPC-HDBW4231F-AS | Dahua Technology
The dome would be ok since your door is setback.