Need advice on new HD IP CCTV install

[96fauj]

I'm putting together a CCTV system for my parents house from scratch. I've already installed a fair bit of CAT6 cable in the past and I'm able to wire that fairly well and terminate the ends as needed.

The house is a typical detached 4 bedroom building and so I think 4 cameras should be more than enough (at least for first pass).

I was initially thinking of turning my old gaming computer in to a BlueIris server, getting a PoE switch and going down that route but abandoned it because 1. simplicity and 2. the power consumption on the old computer would be overkill.

What I think I need
A decent NVR which can cater up to 4-8 cameras such as a Dahui or Hikvision unit.
One that is ONVIF Profile S comformant and IEEE 802.3xx PoE.
More CAT6 cabling

What's important for me
Good remote viewing, I've previously setup a 6 camera setup on a Samsung 840 dvr and although the unit itself was good and iPolis was useful I found the remote viewing was "lacking". Low framerate, resolution only. The parents house has a decent upload speed on their internet connection and I've got a nice router setup.

Highest resolution of cameras I can afford and to ensure that the cameras are compatible with the NVR. Last thing I want is for the NVR to be a bottle neck. I was thinking a strong bullet type of camera (Hikvision ones comes to mind, maybe the 4k one?) for the front of the house which is most important and 3 slightly cheaper cameras for the back.

Questions
Am I right in assuming that after buying a PoE NVR it elminates the need for a PoE switch completely?

Are these newer NVRs compatible with any popular well supported Front Door camera bells? Has anyone else attached that to their NVR system?

The house has an old alarm system (roughly 10 years I'd assume). What do I have to consider if I want the CCTV system (NVR) to function with the alarm system?

Do I need to consider power cuts? UPS systems?

Suppliers: I only have 2 that come to mind, Map Security whom I've tried to contact but haven't gotten back to me and cctvdirectonline.co.uk which seem to be mentioned on other CCTV forums.

Any advice is appreciated

 

[96fauj]

The NVR I'm leaning towards is the Hikvision DS-7608NI-I2-8P. Seems to be best bang for buck around the £300 mark and one of the stronger nvrs from the Hikvision range. I think it's a model from 2016 but it looks like (based off of specs) it's still a strong contender, can someone confirm if they have bought this recently? Or is there a new equivalent that is worth going for instead.

 

[Sally2000]

I bought a 7608 when they first came out. It worked well until I installed some 8k cameras and found that in total they exceeded the CPU speed. I gave that to a friend and it's still working for him with 4k cameras.
I replaced it with a 7616 which has a faster processor.

The only real difference I can see between between the original version and now is updated firmware. The professionals here might know better.

I suspect that the design does everything needed - except perhaps dealing with the latest super high definition cameras - and there isn't much need for a completely new design.

 

[Gibbies]

Night image is the most important factor to me. Hikvision ColorVu cameras are getting good reviews.
Trouble with cctv is that there are too many variables. You’ll drive yourself crazy trying to decide what is best.

 

[96fauj]

Night image is the most important factor to me. Hikvision ColorVu cameras are getting good reviews.
Trouble with cctv is that there are too many variables. You’ll drive yourself crazy trying to decide what is best.

Yeah, there's so much to choose from. Someone suggested I just take a look at various types of camera captures and see what I like the most and try to gain an understanding which type of camera is going to suit what I'm trying to capture etc.

Also for me to stick with 1 company. E.g. if I go Hikvision then Hikvision cameras too. I think I will probably stick with Hikvision because it seems to have the most support and ye there's a lot of hype with those Colorvu cameras. I spoke to a retailer and that was the first/only thing he reccomended. Although he put together a £800 pack. I'm not going to be spending that much in money.

 

[secureiam]

Like everything Dahua and Hik pretty much do equivalents.

Color Vu or Full colour give full colour images in no light at all pretty much, however, if its pitch black, don't know too much about the full colour but the color vu do have a white light that can be switched on to enhance the night time full colour if required.

Having seen images from both, I suspect there isn't much between them, but light conditions makes the difference between a good and poor night image, especially a colour night image.

You need to look if the camera is capable of doing what you need it to do, in general.

Lens 2.7mm 5MP (taken from a Dahua varifocal spec sheet)
H: 100°, V: 72° (2592 × 1944)
H: 104°, V: 55° (2688 × 1520)
Detect 64M Observe 26M Recognise 13M Identify 6m

Lens 13.5mm 5MP (taken from a Dahua varifocal spec sheet)
H: 28°, V: 21° (2592 × 1944)
H: 29°, V: 16° (2688 × 1520)
Detect 212M Observe 85 M Recognise 42M Identify 21m
​

so a 5MP on a wide angle lens 2.7mm is capable of ID resolution at 6M away, on a telescopic 13.5mm capable of id at 21M away.
but look how the field of view as narrowed down

so if your camera is no more 6M away from what you are looking at the wide angle lens would be fine for ID, suggest that's probably adequate for most domestics,

 

[secureiam]

Sally you can upgrade the firmware, but in most cases it wont make much difference, but need to read the release notes to work out if the update is any good for you and always don't fix what isn't broke.

 

[96fauj]

Wow.. The FoV makes a drastic difference. Thanks for your post, I'm actually going to be able to use it to make sure the cameras I intend on buying are going to be fit for id'ing up to the right distances. Is this typical? As in, is this typical across most cameras? The more telescopic the lens - the less FoV?

 

[secureiam]

not sure your following.

to id someone you need 250 pixels per meter density at the place you want to be able to identify the person at.(its a standard, and 500p/m if its a busy scene). so Dahua have allegedly worked it out for you for that camera with the wide angle lens 2.7mm lens and the narrow 13.5mm lens.

So it gives you an idea, so in theory if you wanted 30M ish to id you be looking at 8MP touch with a 13.5mm lens

however the reality its likely to be a distance lower than 30M as the field of view will be slightly wider and it will vary from camera to camera.

I haven't done the calculations but you get the idea.