I've been lurking on this site some time to get an idea of what kind of system I want and am now to the point where I'm buying cameras. The system is going to be installed in the ground floor of an apartment building. The area is divided up into twenty 10 x 20 storage units and also has a large two bay garage where boats are stored over the winter. The apartments are on the floors above. There's a main hallway about 120' long with storage units on both sides, and a couple aisles that branch off from the main hallway that lead to other rooms (one with electric panels for each apt, another with water lines for each apt, another for the furnace, etc). None of these rooms are locked, they have to be open for tenant and emergency responder access.
There's one door into the ground floor of the building. Next to the garage is a large open room that was once a public laundromat. Eventually I plan on resurrecting the laundromat but for now it's just an empty room with an exterior entry door that's not used. The square footage of the entire ground floor is a little over 11,000 sq ft.
I plan on installing the cameras a few at a time. For now I'm just concentrating on the inside, outdoor cameras will be added later. For the most part I don't think IR will be a factor, the lights are on most of the time. That's one of the problems I'm having, people turning on the lights and not turning them off. There are some areas that will need IR though (30' range at the most). Six or seven indoor cameras should cover everything, but more may be needed if I find that there are areas that need different angles of coverage to see what someone is doing in that area or room (not in the storage units, in the other rooms that should be off limits but someone is in there because the doors are unlocked).
I want to get a few different cameras to start with so I can figure out what brand/type/specs work best in the areas they're placed. When the laundromat is up and running and outdoor cameras are added, I think it'll be a 14 to 18 camera system. I'll have a mix of fixed, varifocal and PTZ cameras all controlled by Blue Iris.
Here's what I have so far -
So far I've connected the switch, and after changing the IP I was able to connect to it. Then I loaded the software that came with the Dahua cameras and attempted to connect to them. Chrome is the default browser, I couldn't connect after installing the extension the software pointed me to. Some googling led me to the NPAPI issue with browsers. I didn't research much about it so I don't fully understand the reasons why Chrome doesn't work, at this point I just wanted to be able to see the cameras in action. I switched to Explorer and ran into the same problem. I then tried this - I clicked on whatever the app or addon that the Dahua software was directing me to and when it came up, instead of installing it I saved it to the desktop. Then I right clicked on it and clicked "Run as Administrator". Whatever it was loaded and I'm now able to view the cameras when I click on the "E" in the Dahua program. The picture looks like crap. This is my first time ever viewing a security camera and I have no clue what all the setting do. I started playing around with the settings and never got a good, clear picture in full color like I see when looking at other cameras online. I guess I have a lot to learn when it comes to what the setting do. So far I'm not the least bit impressed with these cameras. Firmware upgrade maybe? I have to do more reading on how to do that properly.
I'm assuming I'm wasting my time screwing around with the Dahua program I got with the cameras from China...is this correct? Once I get the hard drives switched and load Blue Iris, are the picture settings controlled by Blue Iris or do I still need to use the Chinese Dahua software to configure them?
Now the reason for this post - I'd like to get a couple LTS cameras to see how good they are. A lot of the posts I've read say the bullets are no good, buy turrets, but the pictures I've seen from some bullets look pretty darn good, far far better than the picture I have with the turrets I just bought. Right now I'm thinking about buying a couple of the LTS CMIP8242 bullets to see what they're like. Any other suggestions on cameras I should look at for my indoor application?
There's one door into the ground floor of the building. Next to the garage is a large open room that was once a public laundromat. Eventually I plan on resurrecting the laundromat but for now it's just an empty room with an exterior entry door that's not used. The square footage of the entire ground floor is a little over 11,000 sq ft.
I plan on installing the cameras a few at a time. For now I'm just concentrating on the inside, outdoor cameras will be added later. For the most part I don't think IR will be a factor, the lights are on most of the time. That's one of the problems I'm having, people turning on the lights and not turning them off. There are some areas that will need IR though (30' range at the most). Six or seven indoor cameras should cover everything, but more may be needed if I find that there are areas that need different angles of coverage to see what someone is doing in that area or room (not in the storage units, in the other rooms that should be off limits but someone is in there because the doors are unlocked).
I want to get a few different cameras to start with so I can figure out what brand/type/specs work best in the areas they're placed. When the laundromat is up and running and outdoor cameras are added, I think it'll be a 14 to 18 camera system. I'll have a mix of fixed, varifocal and PTZ cameras all controlled by Blue Iris.
Here's what I have so far -
- Dell Optiplex 7040 Minitower (not SFF). i7 6700K Skylake. Went with integrated graphics b/c I read here Intel Integrated is needed for optimal performance with Blue Iris. 16gb RAM. I'm a little displeased with this PC. I know the Opti line, at least the older line. I didn't read the specs close enough, I assumed it had provisions for multiple 3.5" hard drives. I was very surprised when I open the box and pulled this little guy out. Space for only one 3.5" drive (which it already had) and two 2.5" drives. I wanted to put a 2nd 3.5" WD Purple in it for recording. Had to buy a 500gb WD Black 2.5" to use as the primary drive for OS and other software, and will put the 3.5" 4TB Purple in the 3.5" spot. I have the Purple now, the 2.5" should be delivered tomorrow. I've done very little with the PC and won't do anything else until I get the 2.5" installed and mirrored it so it's the primary drive. Then I'll install the 4TB Purple drive, Blue Iris , etc.
- D-Link 10 port Gigabit PoE+ switch (DGS-1210-10P). Never thought I'd spend so much time researching switches. 10 port, 18 port...more? Total wattage needed? Gigabit? Unmanaged, Smart, Managed? Different wattage available to some ports over other ports? Some ports PoE, some not? All Ports PoE? Some PoE+, some not? Higher PoE+ wattages available to some ports, lower PoE+ wattage to others? Fan cooled or uncooled? $75 or $500? GRRRRR!!! I was worried I was going to buy a BetaMax/HD-DVD switch instead of VHS/Blu-Ray! I finally settled on the D-Link. Deciding factors were feedback on the brand, low price (relatively speaking), and less ports but high power available to the ports if needed. Instead of buying one high dollar 20+ port switch that I was leaning toward, I opted for less ports knowing that I'll end up buying a 2nd switch. One thing I read that made sense to me - if all is run by one switch and that switch quits working, you lose all cameras until the problem is fixed. If run by more than one switch and one shuts down, you only lose some cameras until problem is fixed. I'm going with two and wire the cameras to the switches in a way that each switch will control the entire area, not one switch to cameras in the front and the other to cameras in the back..
- Two Dahua turret cameras from AliExpress - model DH-IPC-HDW4431C-A. They're 4MP cameras, one with a 2.8mm lens and one with a 3.6mm lens. The price was good and I wanted to see what buying from Ali was like (ship time, condition of package, etc.). The experience was good, I'd do it again...just have to accept that it ain't Amazon Prime.
So far I've connected the switch, and after changing the IP I was able to connect to it. Then I loaded the software that came with the Dahua cameras and attempted to connect to them. Chrome is the default browser, I couldn't connect after installing the extension the software pointed me to. Some googling led me to the NPAPI issue with browsers. I didn't research much about it so I don't fully understand the reasons why Chrome doesn't work, at this point I just wanted to be able to see the cameras in action. I switched to Explorer and ran into the same problem. I then tried this - I clicked on whatever the app or addon that the Dahua software was directing me to and when it came up, instead of installing it I saved it to the desktop. Then I right clicked on it and clicked "Run as Administrator". Whatever it was loaded and I'm now able to view the cameras when I click on the "E" in the Dahua program. The picture looks like crap. This is my first time ever viewing a security camera and I have no clue what all the setting do. I started playing around with the settings and never got a good, clear picture in full color like I see when looking at other cameras online. I guess I have a lot to learn when it comes to what the setting do. So far I'm not the least bit impressed with these cameras. Firmware upgrade maybe? I have to do more reading on how to do that properly.
I'm assuming I'm wasting my time screwing around with the Dahua program I got with the cameras from China...is this correct? Once I get the hard drives switched and load Blue Iris, are the picture settings controlled by Blue Iris or do I still need to use the Chinese Dahua software to configure them?
Now the reason for this post - I'd like to get a couple LTS cameras to see how good they are. A lot of the posts I've read say the bullets are no good, buy turrets, but the pictures I've seen from some bullets look pretty darn good, far far better than the picture I have with the turrets I just bought. Right now I'm thinking about buying a couple of the LTS CMIP8242 bullets to see what they're like. Any other suggestions on cameras I should look at for my indoor application?
