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?
posted by shew to Home & Garden (2 answers total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
A month or so ago, someone made a comment (most likely here on MeFi, but maybe on reddit.com) about a security monitoring system that uses standardized equipment easily installed by the home owner. The equipment is moderately priced, and so it is purchased, rather than rented, and is also easily moved to another building. There is also at least one monitoring company that then operates on a month to month basis, so you can end up only paying for the features/time you need. It looked like a really great system, but I can't find the comment.

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


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


« Older Why are my nipples numb?   |   Advice for a first-time maid of honor Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.