UPDATED: Exterior Camera Placement

[HMC8403]

Hey all. As I mentioned in my intro post; ordered Lorex, customer support pissed me off, found this site, and placed an order with Andy. As I am shipping out in a few weeks, I'm trying to do as much as possible before Andy's order arrives.

My old CCTV system that hasn't worked for a while consisted of 5 cameras. Marked in red, there were two under the second floor eaves, front door approach, rear walkway and garage eave towards alley. I was planing on doing the same until I read here that identification is key. In the military we care more on where they are than who they are.

My new plan is marked in green.

1, 2 & 3. Mounted on first floor eaves. Attached are 2 pics from the Lorex 2.8mm - 8K camera. Will use IPC-T5442TM-AS or IPC-T5442T-ZE.

4. Mounted under 2nd floor eave covering the rear walkway. My old camera was at other end of walkway near rear door, problem was IR reflection off of bricks and the motion light at rear door would blind it (see pic). To use IPC-T5442T-ZE, don't know how the picture will be since horizontal FOV will have a lot of the rear wall in frame. I will be using NVR5216-16P-4ks2E so hopefully I can rotate the camera view 90 deg.

5. Under 2nd floor eave for overwatch of rear patio, mostly to watch dogs. Need wide FOV so ordered IPC-T2431T-AS 2.8MM. Attached pic is from Wyze Cam pointed out window. A second IPC-T2431T-AS 2.8MM was ordered that I was planing on using inside the garage.

6. I also ordered a IPC-EW5531-AS that will be inside the house covering the open-floor living room, dining room, front door and garage entry door.

I believe to have covered the majority of the exterior; the garbage cans and the gate behind won't be in view but don't think that is a huge risk. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated .

 

[looney2ns]

2nd floor is too high. Keep them 8ft or lower.
2.8mm is only good for front doors, where the person is 10 ft or closer to the cam.
If you haven't, study the attachment.
Always test a location for at least 24hrs before permanent mounting. Use a 5gal bucket, 8x2x4, and rocks as ballast for a moveable test rig.

 

[sebastiantombs]

Well, to start, thanks for your service and I mean that very sincerely.

Like looney2nes said get them lower, the lower the better. You are at a little disadvantage with a brick exterior so I can understand eave mounting. You may also consider using conduit, painted appropriately, to get them even further down toward the seven foot mark. In the civilian world, we need to know who did it so they can be arrested rather than a before action precount and after action body count as the military uses, although.... . Also consider a second camera on the far side of the garage. Those two would be pointed, more or less, toward each other to provide a good, overlapping, view of the driveway and any vehicle that may be parked there. You may also find adding two more cameras to your porch roof will provide a much better chance of identification. The cameras at the far end are a very long shot a providing identification if "visitors" are polite and use the sidewalk.

 

[samplenhold]

Before you actually run cable and mount, make sure you test with a test rig as described in the Cliff Notes.

There is nothing wrong with having high mounted, wide angle, overview cams provided that you understand they will never get a shot of a face good enough for an ID. I have three such cams that have been very valuable to understand how things happened and who else was involved. So if you already have ethernet cable in those 2nd story eves, you could place cams there. Just make sure you also place cams low and with the appropriate FOV to get good face shots.

Generally most folks here like two cams at a driveway. One on each side of the garage door pointing in a crossing pattern. If a car is parked there, door checkers love to go up to it. Two cams crossing increase the chances of getting a good face shot.

So for positions 1 and 2, what is the purpose of those cams? They are too far away to get good face shots of the driveway or the walkway to your front door and the angle will give just a profile at best. If you use a varifocal, you might get enough zoom to get a good face shot provided the cam has enough lens. Test with a test rig for sure.

If you are running new cable to positions 1 and 3, why not run two to each and mount cams back towards positions 3 and 4. I prefer to have multiple views of an area if possible.

You really need to make a plan that defines what you need/desire to see at each position, not just what cam you would mount there. The job for that position defines the cam chosen.

Realize that trying to do the whole thing at once is very hard to get it right. If you start small and gain experience, you will find that the original plan evolves and better matches your needs.

 

[mat200]

Hey all. As I mentioned in my intro post; ordered Lorex, customer support pissed me off, found this site, and placed an order with Andy. As I am shipping out in a few weeks, I'm trying to do as much as possible before Andy's order arrives.

My old CCTV system that hasn't worked for a while consisted of 5 cameras. Marked in red, there were two under the second floor eaves, front door approach, rear walkway and garage eave towards alley. I was planing on doing the same until I read here that identification is key. In the military we care more on where they are than who they are.

My new plan is marked in green.

1, 2 & 3. Mounted on first floor eaves. Attached are 2 pics from the Lorex 2.8mm - 8K camera. Will use IPC-T5442TM-AS or IPC-T5442T-ZE.

4. Mounted under 2nd floor eave covering the rear walkway. My old camera was at other end of walkway near rear door, problem was IR reflection off of bricks and the motion light at rear door would blind it (see pic). To use IPC-T5442T-ZE, don't know how the picture will be since horizontal FOV will have a lot of the rear wall in frame. I will be using NVR5216-16P-4ks2E so hopefully I can rotate the camera view 90 deg.

5. Under 2nd floor eave for overwatch of rear patio, mostly to watch dogs. Need wide FOV so ordered IPC-T2431T-AS 2.8MM. Attached pic is from Wyze Cam pointed out window. A second IPC-T2431T-AS 2.8MM was ordered that I was planing on using inside the garage.

6. I also ordered a IPC-EW5531-AS that will be inside the house covering the open-floor living room, dining room, front door and garage entry door.

I believe to have covered the majority of the exterior; the garbage cans and the gate behind won't be in view but don't think that is a huge risk. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated .

Hi @HMC8403

Do read what others have already posted here, They've given some good recommendations.

During these times when people are wearing masks, I highly recommend more cameras setup in ways to get better straight on facial images as well as getting chances to ID any cars which may be used for package theft and robberies.

Do check out the cliff notes for mounting location ideas, and be OK with having significantly more cameras, even if you only start with a some now.

Over cable, run N+1 lines to each location.

Here's an example of the positions I would test for the front... plan to get a 16 port PoE switch...
( 8 camera positions covering the front of the home - suggested locations in blue.. plan to test those and move a bit... to get best results )

 

[HMC8403]

2nd floor is too high. Keep them 8ft or lower.
2.8mm is only good for front doors, where the person is 10 ft or closer to the cam.
If you haven't, study the attachment.

Trust me, I have read the Tips, Wiki's and Reviews the last couple of days. That is why I am retuning the Lorex and ordered 4mm and varifocal from Andy; and why I moved the cameras to the first floor eaves. The 2 x 2.8mm is for inside the garage (check if door was closed) and a scene view of the patio (see what the the dogs or up to).

Well, to start, thanks for your service and I mean that very sincerely.

Thanks You

So for positions 1 and 2, what is the purpose of those cams? They are too far away to get good face shots of the driveway or the walkway to your front door and the angle will give just a profile at best. If you use a varifocal, you might get enough zoom to get a good face shot provided the cam has enough lens. Test with a test rig for sure.

If you are running new cable to positions 1 and 3, why not run two to each and mount cams back towards positions 3 and 4. I prefer to have multiple views of an area if possible.

You really need to make a plan that defines what you need/desire to see at each position, not just what cam you would mount there. The job for that position defines the cam chosen.

Realize that trying to do the whole thing at once is very hard to get it right. If you start small and gain experience, you will find that the original plan evolves and better matches your needs.

I am home for until the first week of August so not a lot of time. Trying to cover the main areas. My neighborhood is safe plus I have a decent monitored alarm system with plenty of sensors, including the garage. Wife parks inside the garage at night and also have a Ring doorbell. I have attached a couple pics to show the property better.

Purpose for 1 & 2 is a cross view of the front. I ordered a IPC-T5442TM-AS from Amazon to test before ordering from Andy (it does work on a Lorex NVR); attached is still shot from position 2. Attached is an iPhone pic from Position 1 to show my intensions. I'm mounting them 7ft from ground for better face shots.

P2 is the only wire pulled near garage so if I point it towards the front door, nothing left to cover the driveway. Unless I'm home, no-one parks outside at night.

Cable for P1 not run; was going to order a 1 to 4 POE extender and attach to P3. There will be 2 ports available so was considering a camera to cross-view P3 (image attached).

Still not sure how P4 will function.

 

[HMC8403]

Regarding the IPC-EW5531-AS I ordered; this is my intensions.

 

[HMC8403]

Here's an example of the positions I would test for the front... plan to get a 16 port PoE switch...
( 8 camera positions covering the front of the home - suggested locations in blue.. plan to test those and move a bit... to get best results )

My wife would kill me if I installed so many cameras; she already thinks I'm too paranoid. Again I have very good internal security, just want to keep an eye on the exterior.

 

[sebastiantombs]

I see you have vinyl soffets. That makes installation a little easier and you can avoid drilling holes in it to mount a camera. Use a piece of aluminum flat stock, 2"x1/8" to span the soffet from inside the channel at the facia and at the house. Mount the camera to that. Remove one piece of soffet to allow a notch to be cut in the house side of the channel for the wire to be hidden completely. Hide the wire behind the flat stock, tucked into a channel of the soffet itself.

All it will take for your wife to change her mind is one, minor, incident.

 

[mat200]

My wife would kill me if I installed so many cameras; she already thinks I'm too paranoid. Again I have very good internal security, just want to keep an eye on the exterior.

WAF .. time to show her some videos...

Better, get her involved... setup a test camera in a location your wife approves.. have a friend act as a prowler with Hoodie and a Cap... ( no mask at this time ) and have them walk, jog, run to various points of interest. Parked car on driveway, street, porch to pick up package... as your wife to ID the friend ( make certain the friend is average and not wearing clothing she will ID, we want her to ID based on a facial ID image.. )

Trust us on more cameras outside... you may not want to now, but if you have an incident you will want more...

 

[HMC8403]

I see you have vinyl soffets. That makes installation a little easier and you can avoid drilling holes in it to mount a camera. Use a piece of aluminum flat stock, 2"x1/8" to span the soffet from inside the channel at the facia and at the house. Mount the camera to that. Remove one piece of soffet to allow a notch to be cut in the house side of the channel for the wire to be hidden completely. Hide the wire behind the flat stock, tucked into a channel of the soffet itself.

All it will take for your wife to change her mind is one, minor, incident.

Thank you. I studied up for this mission and found this neat trick.

Problem with the wife is that I trained her too well on firearms, I think she likes them more than me. Wish she knew, but hope she never does some of the shit I have seen.

I think the cameras are more for me than her. It’s hard being away from home all the time; just a way fire me to quickly see everything is ok.

 

[samplenhold]

IPC-EW5531-AS

I am not familiar with this cam. But there has been at least one recent post about dewarping fisheye cams, one of which is below.

dewarping fisheye image on camera IPC-EB5531

Hi All, I've been struggling with this for a while so perhaps someone can assist me on this subject. I purchased a Dahua IPC-EB5531 fisheye camera at AliExpress . This is an affordable 360 camera that produces a circular video image. The camera offers an excellent image but its standard form is...

ipcamtalk.com

I understand your predicament with having little time left to install. Only you can decide what is right for you. We can only give recommendations based on our experience and biases.

Do what you think is best at this time. You can always make changes later if you so desire. I have been working on my system for almost two years now. Not finished yet, but I do a little at a time. I have that luxury as I am retired now and this is my hobby, along with shooting sports.

Good luck and be safe in your deployment.

 

[HMC8403]

I understand your predicament with having little time left to install. Only you can decide what is right for you. We can only give recommendations based on our experience and biases.

Do what you think is best at this time. You can always make changes later if you so desire. I have been working on my system for almost two years now. Not finished yet, but I do a little at a time. I have that luxury as I am retired now and this is my hobby, along with shooting sports.

Good luck and be safe in your deployment.

Thank you, you seem to get me.

With my limited time I am not looking to finish the project but get a good start before I leave. My house interior is very secure and the only exterior issues my neighborhood has had is the occasional porch pirates, people not picking up after their dogs, and TruGreen charging a full service when all they did was stick a sign in the ground. My initial goal was an overhead view of the perimeter by use of an good but economical system.

Luckily I would this forum early enough to make some considerable improvements to my initial plan including:
1 Exchanging the Lorex system for better quality equipment from Andy.
2 Moving the front cameras from the 2nd floor eaves to about 7ft off the ground.

I'm still unsure the best way to cover the rear walkway and rear patio, both pictured in previous posts. The back of the house is enclosed by a 6ft fence, care more about a decent area coverage and not clear face shots.

I do appreciate everyones opinion, otherwise I wouldn't have posted to site. At this time I am not looking to install enough cameras to guarantee good face shots from every position around the property; just asking where is the best places to mount 6 cameras for decent coverage at this time.

Thank you.

 

[samplenhold]

I'm still unsure the best way to cover the rear walkway and rear patio, both pictured in previous posts.

The view form your Rear Sidewalk.jpg shot looks pretty good to me as far as getting a good view of the area. The rear patio will always be hard to completely cover with just one cam. But if you could put a cam with a wide angle view at the corner on the fence, that would give you a whole area overview. But that means getting cable to the fence corner.

In each of these situations, the varifocal will be your friend. It will allow you to adjust the FOV until you get the view/coverage that you want.

 

[HMC8403]

Just though I would update this post and share what I was able to accomplish before I transferred out. I was able to mount most of the cameras; one arrived defective and one is still in the box. Still need to touch up the shooting angles on a couple and the picture quality settings on most. I have set up a VPN so can remote in and play with some setting but since I used extenders on 5 of the cameras, I am not able to access them via the NVR. I can change some motion and record setting via DMSS but not IVS.

On the front of the house I did move the cameras from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor eaves; used two T5442T-ZE only slightly zoomed in.

I listened to the advice in this post and added two T5442TM-AS covering the driveway. The one facing the house is a 3.6mm but the one facing the alley is a 2.8mm due to an ordering misunderstanding.

On the side is two T5442TM-AS 3.6mm in a crisscross formation.

The back walkway is a T5442T-ZE slightly zoomed in but turned 90deg to avoid excessive lateral dead space.

The rear patio has a 1A404XB-GNR PTZ which needs to be positioned a little better. It was cool watching my bro-in-law today changing some lights.

It was fun going from nothing to this in 2.5 weeks. I’m still stateside and hopefully can go home for a weekend or two before I travel further. Still need to figure out how to set up push notifications to DMSS app and or email alerts. Thanks everyone for all your input.

 

[samplenhold]

Wow, good job. The corridor view looks great. I think that your driveway cams are OK. It is a short driveway and the lens choice should work. Would like to see the same views with a person in them for tests. This is a good thread for newbies to look at to see the evolution of your planning and install. Good luck on your deployment and stay safe.

 

[HMC8403]

Wow, good job. The corridor view looks great. I think that your driveway cams are OK. It is a short driveway and the lens choice should work. Would like to see the same views with a person in them for tests. This is a good thread for newbies to look at to see the evolution of your planning and install. Good luck on your deployment and stay safe.

Ask and you shall receive: within reason. And Thanks.

 

[sebastiantombs]

Great job. Stay safe on your deployment.

 

[looney2ns]

Just though I would update this post and share what I was able to accomplish before I transferred out. I was able to mount most of the cameras; one arrived defective and one is still in the box. Still need to touch up the shooting angles on a couple and the picture quality settings on most. I have set up a VPN so can remote in and play with some setting but since I used extenders on 5 of the cameras, I am not able to access them via the NVR. I can change some motion and record setting via DMSS but not IVS.

On the front of the house I did move the cameras from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor eaves; used two T5442T-ZE only slightly zoomed in.

I listened to the advice in this post and added two T5442TM-AS covering the driveway. The one facing the house is a 3.6mm but the one facing the alley is a 2.8mm due to an ordering misunderstanding.

On the side is two T5442TM-AS 3.6mm in a crisscross formation.

The back walkway is a T5442T-ZE slightly zoomed in but turned 90deg to avoid excessive lateral dead space.

The rear patio has a 1A404XB-GNR PTZ which needs to be positioned a little better. It was cool watching my bro-in-law today changing some lights.

It was fun going from nothing to this in 2.5 weeks. I’m still stateside and hopefully can go home for a weekend or two before I travel further. Still need to figure out how to set up push notifications to DMSS app and or email alerts. Thanks everyone for all your input.

Good job! Thanks for your service.