Quarry Project - Camera Suggestion - (Outdoor Cam)

[Gribeiro]

Hi all,

I need a little help so i can decide which cam i will buy. Its for a quarry, so it needs to cover a big area.
For now what i was looking at: IP POE Speed PTZ Auto Tracking 2MP - What u all think about this?

What do i need:
- Cam specially for the night with long range IR (at least 100meters)
- Function Defog
- Function IVS (if possible)
- DDNS
- SD Slot
- Price: not more than 1500
- Dvr/Nvr connections - Not wanted
- Webserver(via browser) that can work correctly and with "easy and quick" interface and manage everything via browser, that works well sending images by email and video by Ftp when motion detected. Or without SD card it will not send video by ftp?

I saw some Hikvision / Dahua / Vivotek ... but im really confused. Opinions for this project are welcome

Some cams have awful software, i already worked with some and hated it, like annke.


Regards

 

[Kawboy12R]

Does this quarry have one entrance? If so, then have one fixed cam cover the entrance and have another fixed cam or two or three covering the rest of the quarry. For big areas with known choke points, it's generally best to have a few overview cams showing what people are doing and having zoomed in cams dedicated to identification covering the entrance/exit points, the office, etc. Don't do it with just a single PTZ. Use some long range PIRs for motion detection. Check out the offerings by Optex. Much more reliable than video-based motion detection, particularly if you're thinking of using a PTZ or other cameras with built-in IRs. The built-in IR will make motion detection alerts useless at night in fog, mist, rain, snow, dust, bugs, etc. Get cams with alarm inputs so you can hook the PIRs up to the cameras for alerts if you don't want an NVR with its own alarm inputs on site. Add a cheap PTZ on top of your other cameras for looking around or covering equipment that gets parked in difference spots if you want, but I wouldn't rely on a single PTZ (even an expensive one) to detect motion and zoom in like a RoboCop and get reliable face pics of intruders while sending perfect motion alerts. Anything more specific would require a scale map. Large outdoor areas are tough to cover well, particularly if there are lots of entrances.

If you want, use www.ipvm.com/calculator to find your site and get a rough idea for distances and lens lengths needed to cover distant targets. It's a bit of a crap shoot because many cameras don't quite match their published sensor sizes or fields of view but it'll give you some ideas about what's needed.

 

[nayr]

Defog wont help you, Auto Tracking wont Help You.. they do not perform as well as you hope, they typically make a good camera worse when they are enabled.

agree with kwboy12R, fixed camera at natural choke points up close and personal.. for ingress and exit.. then wide angle over view with PTZ up high.. perhaps a few scattered physical sensors that ppl drive over.

Dahua is the king of the PTZ crown, they set the bar all others are judged by at this point.. software is great, works on all systems.. even mac's and will give you long service life.

Dahuas will record to FTP and then backup to SD card if the FTP fails for any reason (network outage?), without trouble.. many have alarm inputs so you can wire up a physical sensor to trigger them to record and/or change ptz actions.. IVS Features such as line cross, intrusion detection, abandoned object can trigger alarm outputs and also trigger ptz commands, you can trigger some strobe lights to scare intruders away at night.. but you only get one IVS feature at a time.

BLC/WDR would probably be pretty critical in a Quarry, I presume some areas going to be really dark and others really bright depending on the time of the day.. your gonna want something with 120db or more.

 

[Gribeiro]

Hi, and thanks for the reply's

I already have one fixed cam and im going to add more 2
One Foscam FI9900 - Everything works fine
2 Hikvision DS-2CD2020F-IW - Cant get image or video uploaded to FTP

We only have one entrance on the quarry, so that spot its ok for fixed camera.
At night with rain/fog motion detection is always sending pictures, even in low sensor.

The idea was a ptz (because of the area, and cables), but if it doesnt work as i thought i would rather add like 6 cams in total for the area we want. Possibly i will add some light sensors to help at night.
Even fixed cams of Dahua are better than Hikvision? At least for now im having problems with Hik.
Another problem is working with different brands, to watch them all online at same place i only found this app for android: TinyCam . And for computer i dont know if exists.

The solution i see is working cams+alarm sensors, so it can be reliable, at least at night.


"Defog wont help you, Auto Tracking wont Help You.. they do not perform as well as you hope, they typically make a good camera worse when they are enabled." After this i cant waste money on an expensive PTZ xD


I will check that website Kawboy12R

Thanks

 

[Kawboy12R]

For watching remotely with a computer you could use a VPN (much more secure) or port forward each cam through the router and connect and sign in remotely with a web browser or just about any computer IP camera program (Blue Iris, Milestone's free XProtect Go, or whatever). Or even run Android on the remote computer. Some ideas here- http://www.extremetech.com/computing/83812-run-android-apps-on-your-windows-pc-2

I haven't tried it yet but TinyCam running on a computer for what you're doing would be quite nice, particularly because of the easy ability to easily switch the whole app from viewing substream while checking things out to the hidef main stream if you find something interesting going on. This assumes that you have limited bandwidth. If you've got super high speed Internet with unlimited data then no worries with using the low resolution substream most of the time.

I don't use FTP with my cams so I can't help there. @nayr is the networking guru and he's a Dahua fan. They have an edge over Hikvisions in some areas now. I've got Hiks and no Dahuas but that was because the cheaper Dahuas had some specific weaknesses I didn't like a few years ago when I started buying them. I'd recommend getting SD cards and recording locally if you really don't want an NVR there plus FTPing offsite. Having an NVR along with your internet modem and router in the office there doesn't seem a big deal to me though as long as the budget supports it. Stick it in an armoured box that'll last til the cops or security gets there. A cell-enabled alarm system is probably the most reliable way to notify you of intruders anyway. Outdoors is trickier, but good PIRs, light sensors, etc help. A blend of monitored alarm system plus cams is really the best solution. There are ways of doing everything with a camera system too, but if they cut your internet first then the system's useless without constant monitoring from outside for connectivity or video loss. Treat a loss of video for whatever reason like an intruder alert.

For your one entrance camera, turn off its internal IR. That'll almost eliminate your false alarms at night from fog and rain. If your gate cam can't turn off its IR and stay in night mode, replace it with one that can. If there isn't enough white light for it to work decently after that either add more or a big external IR illuminator a few feet or a bit more away. Something like this- http://www.amazon.com/Univivi-U06R-WideAngle-Lights-Illuminator/dp/B00M3O5ERK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1460982006&sr=8-1 or pick a 940nm one if you don't want the red glow attracting attention.

 

[Gribeiro]

Yep via browser i can reach each camera, and thats what i want, but after adding plenty of cameras i will use one program to check all cameras, or it will be impossible.
You said installing android on PC and that was a good issue resolved, i dont know but didnt thought about that previously and already tried it:

Android on Windows
Different Brands

First cam (Foscam): watching it remotely
Second cam (Hikvision): on my network


I will add SD cards to the Hikvision cams i already have.

After the help of this 2 wonderful humans, my final conclusion is:
- Add Light sensors
- Add a Cell-enabled alarm with 3 or 4 PIRs
- 4 or 5 fixed cameras

At least i will have double security at some points of the quarry.

I forgot to mention: Internet: 2 wireless routers 4G with 100GB download each per month.

 

[Kawboy12R]

Good luck. I hate worrying about equipment parked outside with morons around who thinks it's fun to wreck stuff.