Need webcam education and ideas

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((((Preface, I don't know where this question belongs; moderator(s) please direct me))))

Anyway...

Maintenance, Security, and Admin would love to have our entire place covered with video.

"Professional Surveillance" vendors would love to transform us into a non-profit organization.

We have two large and two small buildings on about five acres of land.

I'm guessing that the area is about fifty percent parking spaces; some small, but significant, fraction of landscaping (unscientific guess is fifteen percent); and the rest for the actual buildings.

The buildings are four story units; and I'm tossing out a wild guess that they are about a quarter million square feet.

During certain times of the day, there will be very low traffic. This is when the security guys want video. During another part of the day, there will be frequent traffic; and admin (particularly housekeeping) wants video for those times. There will also be times when maintenance wants to stalk a given area.

I just checked Walmart, and they have $10 webcams on their website.

Is a whole bunch of such webcams (like more than a hundred of them) a realistic idea ?

What I have tried:

At this moment, all I've done is just trade a few sentences with the maintenance chief. He was more ready for this than I was.

I'm just asking for thoughts from those who know about these things.

Currently we have four ridiculous cameras which are quasi-useful if things work out right.

Posted 25-Feb-20 5:46am

C-P-User-3

Updated 25-Feb-20 5:52am

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[no name] 25-Feb-20 11:51am

You need motion detection. My "home" system has it. It can send notifications.

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Dave Kreskowiak · Answer 1 · 2020-02-25T05:54:00

The major cost isn't going to be the webcams. It's going to be the infrastructure to connect them all and manage/store all the video for as long as Security wants it.

As for which one is going to be the best for you, you're going to have to buy one and put it in various places to see what kind of clarity you get under all kinds of conditions. Of course, what is going to be acceptable to you is going to be different from what Security wants.

Hundreds of webcams are going to have to be connected to dozens of PCs to connect them to. USB doesn't go very far when you're flooding the bandwidth with the video from a bunch of cameras.

There is no "cheap" way around this problem. If you're going to do this, you're going to spend some serious money on it. The "cheap" way will be found to be inadequate and you're going to spend a lot more money replacing the "cheap" with the "good".

Kris Lantz · Answer 2 · 2020-02-25T06:28:00

I spent some time in my previous job installing and playing with professional HikVision systems, so here are some thoughts.

-Do you need night vision? If so, what kind of range?
-Is each camera location shielded from weather?
-What are power options for each location?
-How do you want to manage them all?

If power is limited, consider POE cameras. You can have quite a few cameras connected from a single poe-capable switch. A single managed system is preferable; you can often name and update from a single location. It is also handy for troubleshooting when cameras do inevitably encounter problems. To aid in storage requirements too, consider motion activated cameras. Many of the 100+ cameras I managed had this feature enabled. When strange things happen, requiring investigation, this cuts down on the amount of video to trudge through. Compare cost of a single management system vs man-time/resource cost to deal with 'cheaper' alternatives.

I would also give Hikvision a recommendation, at least with the cameras I used, at $400 ea. Those things survived a harsh production environment indoors, and plenty of unshielded days outdoors. I don't know much of the more affordable options, but they might be worth a look.

Member 14025982 · Answer 3 · 2020-07-21T06:03:00

Solution 3

it's very interesting

Posted 21-Jul-20 6:03am

Member 14025982

Updated 21-Jul-20 6:40am

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CHill60 21-Jul-20 12:41pm

This is not a solution. If you want to comment on a post then use the "Have a Question or Comment?" link next to it

[no name] 21-Jul-20 12:44pm

Very fair comment +5 if it would be possible.

Need webcam education and ideas

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