ZoneMinder Forums

Hello,

I am planning the cover around my house and I 'd like to ask for your help.

My house is in the middle of a rectangular field/garden (4000 square meters, 1 acre). I want to secure the whole field, in the sense that I want to detect if someone is around the fence or breaks in through fence. Ideally, record the license plates of a car driving outside the field. (Recently thiefs cut the fence, stole some equipment and drove away in their truck parked just outside, in the middle of the day!)

The entrance of the field is important to cover, since it is next to the power supply and someone could cut the power cable which provides power in the house (and in the surveillance system that I will build). The entrance is around 30 meters away from the house. The most distant point of the fence is around 60 meters away from the house.

Should I try to cover the perimeter on the fence with many cheaper/2MP cams or attach better (maybe 4-5MP) cams on the balconies of the house so as to cover more (but not all) of the area of the field? The field is full of trees (only few tall ones, more olive trees, fruit trees, bushes, etc.). Also, there is a couple of small barns/warehouses.

My budget is not great, since I am a beginner, but I would like to start with a plan and add to the system as I learn. I haven't bought anything yet.

Any recommendation is welcome.
Many thanks.

konctl wrote: ↑Sun Dec 02, 2018 6:12 am someone could cut the power cable which provides power in the house (and in the surveillance system that I will build).

Addressing this point specifically, as you are designing the system, budget for a UPS. It doesn't have to be huge. It does have to have a way of keeping your cameras, any IP-networking (hubs, routers, power-over-ethernet) and your system running ZoneMinder, working!

Any decent home alarm system has a built in battery to provide a "UPS" function, so burglars can't just cut the power and walk in. Same should apply to your cameras

konctl wrote: ↑Sun Dec 02, 2018 6:12 am Should I try to cover the perimeter on the fence with many cheaper/2MP cams or attach better (maybe 4-5MP) cams on the balconies of the house so as to cover more (but not all) of the area of the field? The field is full of trees (only few tall ones, more olive trees, fruit trees, bushes, etc.). Also, there is a couple of small barns/warehouses.

I would go with the lower resolution cameras, as you can get better FPS out of lower resolution cameras, and also have more of them. It helps to be closer to what you are recording as well. I've noticed lately that some CCTV installations will mount cameras on poles. This is an alternative to mounting on the side of buildings.

If I were you I would also consider external hardware motion sensors. But, they are not as simple as a camera setup, so you probably don't want to start with them. If you were worried about someone breaking into a barn for example - you could rig up a tripwire IR sensor on a door. This is getting into alarm territory....

Do you have a model of camera in mind? See the wiki's Hardware Compatibility List. What about server hardware? If you are using RTSP you will want to do h264 passthrough in 1.32, most likely. I have not tested high resolution cameras in 1.32 but if it works with passthrough, then you might be able to use 2k HD or better. Someone should run some tests.

First of all thank you all for your suggestions. Very much appreciated.

snake wrote: ↑Mon Jan 07, 2019 6:53 pm Do you have a model of camera in mind? See the wiki's Hardware Compatibility List. What about server hardware? If you are using RTSP you will want to do h264 passthrough in 1.32, most likely. I have not tested high resolution cameras in 1.32 but if it works with passthrough, then you might be able to use 2k HD or better. Someone should run some tests.

Yes, I have this the hikvision DS-2CD1021-I (https://www.hikvision.com/upload/20170605030116551.pdf) in mind. It is not on the Hardware Compatibility List, but there are not many cheap hikvision bullet cameras on the list. It is ONVIF compliant, so I am hoping to add it to the list. I am considering this because of its price: I can buy it for about 60 euros. (Should I not?)

On the server side, I am considering either an old intel xeon (cheap used from ebay) or a new AMD Ryzen system. The old xeon needs a more expensive compatible motherboard, so overall I have not made my mind up yet. (What would you do?)

My plan right now is to start with a cheap 2MP camera, test RTSP and h264 and all the rest on my laptop, run tests and then expand on the server and the amount of cameras. I am guessing... 4-5 cameras probably. Also following mikb's suggestion above I will budget for a UPS (and also a PoE switch, I need that for many cameras, right?).

Damn! lots to do.

konctl wrote: ↑Mon Jan 14, 2019 6:26 pm My plan right now is to start with a cheap 2MP camera, test RTSP and h264 and all the rest on my laptop, run tests and then expand on the server and the amount of cameras. I am guessing... 4-5 cameras probably. Also following mikb's suggestion above I will budget for a UPS (and also a PoE switch, I need that for many cameras, right?).

PoE is the way to go. PoE can be via injectors or a switch. If all the cameras are powered from one place, a switch will be less mess. For the servers, it's up to you, but 4-5 cameras - any server level CPU should be more than enough. 4-5 cameras is not a lot. You might want to consider the latest 1.32, and try H264 passthrough. It looks like you can disable sound on the cameras if wanted (Link: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=27967). As for buying cameras, test out one first - as you said. Onvif is not a guarantee of compatibility. Read the camera's user manual for paths.

Thanks! I am just torn over the camera. How come whether a camera is compatible or not cannot be known for sure? I mean, depending on the technologies it supports, we should be able to figure out before we buy them. Maybe there are specs that are not mentioned in the user manuals?

Anyway, I 'll check again the list.

konctl wrote: ↑Sat Jan 19, 2019 6:58 am How come whether a camera is compatible or not cannot be known for sure? I mean, depending on the technologies it supports, we should be able to figure out before we buy them. Maybe there are specs that are not mentioned in the user manuals?

Onvif, is a good indicator of compatibility, but occasionally people will post on the forum about this camera, or that camera working in VLC and or Onvif, but not working in ZM. ZM can use FFMPEG or libVLC (remote is being deprecated) methods to view the cameras. If FFMPEG doesn't work, libVLC may. The libraries for FFMPEG (avlibcodec) and VLC change as systems update, so this is another variable in the mix (usually a jump from one distro release to another or 1.30.4 to 1.32.2 would see significant changes. Not so much in regular stable updates). As far as cameras being supported it will usually be brand dependent, and whether the camera does any funky things on the stream. Hikvision tends to be one of the better supported brands - so you may not have any trouble. I just recommend purchasing one and testing first. I use Foscam and Axis, and they are both pretty well supported, though the Foscams drop out occasionally (modect mode works better, this is in 1.30.4). The Axis are solid, but outdoor models are expensive - even used.

Let us know your findings in the HCL.