Help Me Install Video Surveillance In My House
April 8, 2010 12:54 PM Subscribe
Help me find the perfect home surveillance gear that I can install myself. I'm looking for hardware recommendations, installation and usage tips and tricks.
I'm handy. I have a home networking system (2 cat5, 2 rg6 in each room). I don't have power every place I want to put a camera.
Requirements:
* Some indoor, some outdoor cameras
* Ability to hook up to my existing home networking (for modulating into my televisions throughout the house)
* Recording capability on select cameras (I'd like to hook it up to my computer with, say, 24 hours of constant video).
Nice to haves:
* Ability to broadcast the signal securely over the web
Are there any awesome kits out there that can guide me in the right direction? Am I better off calling up Brinks and having them do it? (I recognize I would have to sign up for their service for a period of time).
Has anyone successfully completed this project? Do you have any tips for me?
I'm handy. I have a home networking system (2 cat5, 2 rg6 in each room). I don't have power every place I want to put a camera.
Requirements:
* Some indoor, some outdoor cameras
* Ability to hook up to my existing home networking (for modulating into my televisions throughout the house)
* Recording capability on select cameras (I'd like to hook it up to my computer with, say, 24 hours of constant video).
Nice to haves:
* Ability to broadcast the signal securely over the web
Are there any awesome kits out there that can guide me in the right direction? Am I better off calling up Brinks and having them do it? (I recognize I would have to sign up for their service for a period of time).
Has anyone successfully completed this project? Do you have any tips for me?
You might want to check out smarthomeusa , which offers monitoring systems from various vendors. The smarthomeusa hotline was very good, with a knowledgeable tech usually available without a long wait.
I used the motorola homesight system in conjunction with the xanboo web service (about $10/month minimum) for monitoring.
My requirements (monitoring an empty house a few hours away) were different from yours, so this may not be the system for you. For example, I specifically did not want a computer running all the time, and thus appreciated the solid-state base station.
My configuration included: base station hooked to router; wireless temp sensor; wireless water sensor; wireless motion detector; ethernet wired camera. Since I couldn't easily run ethernet cable to the camera I used a cisco/linksys wireless bridge. The sensors operate with off-the-shelf batteries (AA or AAA). Camera was an indoor model (requires AC power) with pan and tilt capability; i think they also offer outdoor models. Don't know about integration with TV's.
Although I was very pleased with homesight, I believe it uses proprietary protocols and not the z-wave standard which would allow you to incorporate parts from other vendors.
Good luck
posted by Kevin S at 6:06 AM on April 9, 2010
I used the motorola homesight system in conjunction with the xanboo web service (about $10/month minimum) for monitoring.
My requirements (monitoring an empty house a few hours away) were different from yours, so this may not be the system for you. For example, I specifically did not want a computer running all the time, and thus appreciated the solid-state base station.
My configuration included: base station hooked to router; wireless temp sensor; wireless water sensor; wireless motion detector; ethernet wired camera. Since I couldn't easily run ethernet cable to the camera I used a cisco/linksys wireless bridge. The sensors operate with off-the-shelf batteries (AA or AAA). Camera was an indoor model (requires AC power) with pan and tilt capability; i think they also offer outdoor models. Don't know about integration with TV's.
Although I was very pleased with homesight, I believe it uses proprietary protocols and not the z-wave standard which would allow you to incorporate parts from other vendors.
Good luck
posted by Kevin S at 6:06 AM on April 9, 2010
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I'm searching through my browser's history, but I'm guessing that since I haven't found it already, it won't be in there.
Maybe someone else remembers it or knows what equipment this is?
posted by niles at 9:34 PM on April 8, 2010