Setting up a Surveillance System for my Father's Pizza shop

[yandawg]

Hello everyone,

I just got into this rabbit hole of surveillance yesterday and I have a lot of questions.

As I was looking for a nas to store all the footage on I got turned away from QNAP and Synology because they require a license for each camera you install after the first two. I have been looking for diy nvrs ever since.

I'm trying to use a diy nvr setup using the PowerEdge T30 Mini Tower Server. I plan on installing Ubuntu on it and then using shinobi or zoneminder. Currently we have two Sony SNC-P1 cameras that we want to upgrade for better quality and framerate. Will the PowerEdge T30 Mini Tower Server be able to handle 3 1080p cameras at 30 fps?

I also have questions about the software. Would shinobi or zoneminder be able to store videos and stream remotely? Are the camera's constantly writing to the disks or are intervals saved to the disks?

Thanks.

 

[SyconsciousAu]

If you want something stand alone consider something like a Dahua NVR. If you wan't a PC based solution consider BI on a refurbished box.

You say you want three cameras. Door, overview and register?

 

[mat200]

Hello everyone,

I just got into this rabbit hole of surveillance yesterday and I have a lot of questions.

As I was looking for a nas to store all the footage on I got turned away from QNAP and Synology because they require a license for each camera you install after the first two. I have been looking for diy nvrs ever since.

I'm trying to use a diy nvr setup using the PowerEdge T30 Mini Tower Server. I plan on installing Ubuntu on it and then using shinobi or zoneminder. Currently we have two Sony SNC-P1 cameras that we want to upgrade for better quality and framerate. Will the PowerEdge T30 Mini Tower Server be able to handle 3 1080p cameras at 30 fps?

I also have questions about the software. Would shinobi or zoneminder be able to store videos and stream remotely? Are the camera's constantly writing to the disks or are intervals saved to the disks?

Thanks.

Welcome Yandawg,

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

Have fun joining us here.

 

[yandawg]

If you want something stand alone consider something like a Dahua NVR. If you wan't a PC based solution consider BI on a refurbished box.

You say you want three cameras. Door, overview and register?

Yes, something like that. I'm trying to find a budget way to do this. It looks like if I go with blue iris it'll be more expensive since I'd have to buy a pc for ~$300 and then a hard drive and then the software. But if I just go with the dahua nvr on Andy's shop for ~$123 (specifically this one) I'd have to only buy a hard drive and the software comes pre-installed?

Which route do you recommend? Is BI worth all that extra money? Is the dahua nvr as simple as I think it is?

Thanks

 

[yandawg]

Welcome Yandawg,

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

Have fun joining us here.

Holy crud that was a lot of information to digest. Thank you for all of that. I still don't know what I want to do though. What are you using for your nvr? Do I really have to spend $500 on a decent nvr or will the $123 one on Andy's store be sufficient? Would there be a noticeable difference if I only have 3 cameras at 1080p at 30fps on a $100 nvr vs a $500 nvr? I really don't know how much I should spend on an nvr or what software I should use.

Thanks,

 

[mat200]

Holy crud that was a lot of information to digest. Thank you for all of that. I still don't know what I want to do though. What are you using for your nvr? Do I really have to spend $500 on a decent nvr or will the $123 one on Andy's store be sufficient? Would there be a noticeable difference if I only have 3 cameras at 1080p at 30fps on a $100 nvr vs a $500 nvr? I really don't know how much I should spend on an nvr or what software I should use.

Thanks,

HI Yandawg,

A lot depends on what you want to the security cameras to do for you, so take some time to determine what your needs are and go through all those links.

Don't worry we all had to start some how to pick up this information, and thankfully with the notes it is a lot easier for those following our footsteps.

I picked up the Dahua NVR5216-16P-4Ks2 model.. there's a thread here on that. Andy has it listed in this store:

-Black Friday Festival - Shop Cheap -Black Friday Festival from China -Black Friday Festival Suppliers at BEC Technology Co.,Ltd on Aliexpress.com

Others here really like the Blue Iris software.

You'll have to read some more to get an idea of what may work better for you.

 

[ldasilva]

if your only putting in 3 cameras the PowerEdge should work just fine with blue iris (if you already have this on hand)

$50~ blue iris
$100~ 3tb hard drive

 

[SyconsciousAu]

Holy crud that was a lot of information to digest. Thank you for all of that. I still don't know what I want to do though. What are you using for your nvr? Do I really have to spend $500 on a decent nvr or will the $123 one on Andy's store be sufficient? Would there be a noticeable difference if I only have 3 cameras at 1080p at 30fps on a $100 nvr vs a $500 nvr? I really don't know how much I should spend on an nvr or what software I should use.

Thanks,

A Dahua 8 port POE NVR will do just fine for your application, which I assume is recording video and not much else. The big differences between the cheaper NVRs and the more expensive one will be things like the bit rate it can process, multiple drives for redundancy / greater storage, and smart features.

For your average take away pizza shop where your customers / bad guys come/go in/out through a single front door 3 camera's will do nicely if sited well. Have an ID cam mounted low which covers the front door. You want it zoomed in so you get at least 420ppm at this point for good face ID's. You want it low enough to look under any hat/hood the customer / crook is wearing. One up in the corner of the shop to see where they go / what they do / what they touch, and one over the till which can see the cash drawer to keep the staff/customers honest. Stops the but I gave you a $50 and only got change for a $10 scam on both sides of the register.

That is the minimum for a basic yet reasonably effective setup. If the shop has a safe as well as a till consider an extra camera(s) in that area. If you have a back door where the staff regularly go outside for rubbish runs or smoke breaks then consider getting a camera on the exterior and an ID camera on the rear door because offenders will come in through the back, especially after closing. Do you want to cover the footpath out the front? Meal / break rooms? Do you want Audio? Is Audio recording legal where you are? How many and where are you going to site you monitors?

The Dahua Starlight turrets are excellent cameras however if budget is tight, and the lighting in the shop is good, you may get better bang for your buck from the cheaper 4mp offerings. If you want better images after the shop is shut and dark for burglars go starlight. The 4mp will work still, just not as well. The front door can be problematic because of the back lighting issue when you have a heap of sun outside, which causes faces to appear in shadow. The more expensive cameras give you greater Wide Dynamic Range and backlight suppression capabilities. Again the cheaper one's do this, but not as well.

 

[Q™]

Get a Dahua zoom and put it on the cash register.

 

[mat200]

Get a Dahua zoom and put it on the cash register.

Also remember to cover the street if you need a good car image of any robbers.

 

[Q™]

Also remember to cover the street if you need a good car image of any robbers.

...and face capture on exit with height calibration on the door.

 

[Q™]

...in addition, I'm a proponent of deterrence through signage. Perhaps not signs such as below, but perhaps a few small signs such as "For your safety, security cameras in use."

‘Cycle Thieves, We Are Watching You’: Impact of a Simple Signage Intervention against Bicycle Theft

 

[yandawg]

Thank you guys for all these great tips. This is truly a great welcome. Without guys like you helping noobs like me, this community wouldn't be the same. Keep up the great work.

 

[SyconsciousAu]

...in addition, I'm a proponent of deterrence through signage. Perhaps not signs such as below, but perhaps a few small signs such as "For your safety, security cameras in use."

‘Cycle Thieves, We Are Watching You’: Impact of a Simple Signage Intervention against Bicycle Theft

Or if the budget allows, a monitor visible from the customer area, which eliminates any of the morons who think they are dummy cameras with signs.