I joined this forum to get involved with this topic for discussion.
I am an engineer with 15 years of experience in camera systems and 20 years of experience with networks. Camera systems over networks can be a lot of fun. The best camera manufacturer out there is Axis Camera. They control 50 to 55 percent of the digital camera market worldwide. They were the first to market with a fully digital camera with an IP interface. They were also the first to market with a fully IR heat monitoring digital camera that most people could afford. Because they are so big, just about all recording software will work with their cameras. Have never had a problem.
Be careful when looking for cameras. Make sure you get cameras that are fully digital, are IP and POE designed. There are still a number of analog cameras with IP interfaces out there. Stay away from them. The key is they do not comply with the POE power standards. They consume too much power compared to other like cameras. A quick way to check is to look at the camera package without the housing, and PTZ servos. If the electronics is bigger than a half a pack of cigarettes it is an analog camera. Power consumption is another give away. Also, the lens sizes will be smaller for like cameras.
Axis Cameras only made digital cameras. They have about everything you can think of. They have your Indoor and outdoor, both types of IR, concealed, PTZ with heater and other stuff. They have internal recording devices (NVR like) in some cameras, I/O contacts at the camera, multi-sessions, and on and on. They have their own monitoring software and the cameras work with almost everything software package on the market. There are other issues as well.
Axis also has or did have a camera certification class to introduce folks to their products and basic networking, standards, and wiring skills. Good class. They also have or did have other online video seminars on various networking/camera classes. Check it out or contact Axis Cameras. Great people.
Someone above mentioned a mounting height of 8 feet for monitoring faces. Good height for such. Also a good height for camera tampering. They also said something about geometry. Geometry is also important to understand as well. Optics is another topic to understand (both digital and analog zoom). Lighting is also very important. If you want low light cameras you will pay extra for it. Consider motion detectors as well. There are some commercial units out there that will cover you whole yard if designed correctly. You will want to plan what you want to do with your systems as well. Such thing as the following;
1. Monitor doors (people coming and going or both). Camera placement can be different based on need.
2. Monitor spaces or for equipment being removed.
(monitoring larged spaces) a good mounting height is 25 feet (20 to 30). You can see over most
items and control the area. Much higher and you lose perspective, unless it is a large parking lot. Waehouses have other issues
3. Power ac or dc and other equipment specs.
4. Are you going to have someone respond to the camera system alarms.
5. Ceiling mounting is better than wall mounting for PTZ cameras.
6. Look at hiding cameras.
Once your neighbors know you have cameras, so does very criminal and they will take steps to overcome the system (example - hide their face).
Example, on the importance of knowing your system and the people around you.
Had a camera monitoring an interior door. Needed to record every face coming and going through the door. Had a manager that did not want the camera in his work area. Felt someone would put a PTZ camera in his area and monitor him and his staff. Long story! Removed the wall camera and put a junction box in the ceiling and built a housing that look like a monitoring device or smoke sensor for the camera (removed camera from housing and mounts). The camera has been installed for over 7 years and the manager still does not know about its installation. Point, understand your challenges and what resources you can access. Plan what you want to do.
All good cameras and related equipment are sold through distributors. Prices are set buy the distributors. Prices can very as much as 50 percent. When searching the internet make sure you find several sources. If your pricing does not very buy 30 percent between the high and low quotes, you have not done your homework. Learn the terminology and it will make the searches easier.
There are standards for POE out there (Standard 802.** series for Ethernet). Some manufacturers follow these closely, others do not. To date, I am unaware of anyone building to the high power POE standard completely. HP has or did have a switch that has a power supply that can supply power to all switch ports (24 or 48 ports) for most POE cameras. There are a number of other manufacturers that make smaller Ethernet switches (2 to 8 ports) with POE power. Most are commercial grade switches. Once you know the products, and standards, Ethernet systems can be real easy and fun.
Someone said they were not putting in a NVR device. The only place I would do this is if you place a camera on your homes front door with a porch/door alarm (door bell was rang) to que the camera and alert your cell phone. Without a NVR, you have a real big toy (some cameras have a NVR like recording function). There is software out there that will turn your home server/ work station into an NVR. It will cost some funds, but you need a NVR. It is cheaper to run a pc as a NVR than purchase and repair and NVR, if you can afford the software needed. Also, most NVRs become obsolete in 3 to 5 years. With a good purchase you can keep a pc operating for more than 10 years.
SOFTWARE - SOFTWARE - SOFTWARE
There is a lot of software out there. The free stuff will support 1 to 4 cameras with PTZ controls on your pc. Axis has a free package (called a demo package). After that you start paying for it in cuts by a thousand knifes or in three of four phases, depending on the manufacturer and their cost models. The software can do most anything you can imagine. You can run 1 camera to over 10,000. You can run at storage rates of 1 frame per second to 30 frames per second. Start cameras on motion, etc, etc. Software can be the real cost of most systems.
Hope this helps. Maybe more latter.
Think its time for a sticky on Ethernet Camera Systems (POE, digital, etc).
