Upgrading the Home CCTV security

Well it's been a fair while since I posted on this blog as so much has been happening, but I thought it was time I did a short update.

At the start of the year we installed a 6kW solar system and that has been the topic of a fair few of my recent blog postings

• SAMIL® Solar Production GraphJan~Jul 2013Latitude:...
• New Version of SAMIL SolarPower Browser™ (v3.1.0.0...
• April/May 2013 SAMIL 5200 generation stats
• Successful SAMIL v1.20 firmware upgrade
• Upgraded Samil 5200 Firmware to v1.20
• April 16 2013 update to: Ongoing experience of TRY...
• SAMIL Generation Statistics for the first three mo...
• March 10 2013 update to: My experience of Networki...
• SAMIL™and CSUN™Other posts relating to the IESPost...
• Continuation of SAMIL update
• An Update to: My expierence with our SAMIL 5200TL-...
• My experience of Networking our SAMIL River 5200TL...

As per my earlier posts on home security...;

• Premises Security (part 12) Summary
• Premises Security (part 11) Power Protection and S...
• Premises Security (part 10) Power Protection and S...
• Premises Security (part 9) Non-video surveillance
• Premises Security (part 8) Non-video surveillance
• Premises Security (part 7) Non-video surveillance
• Premises security (part 6) Non-video Surveillance
• Premises security (part 5) Remote Monitoring
• Premises security (part 4) Using Your Computer for...
• Premises security (part 3) Wired or Wireless ?
• Premises security (part 2) Local vs Monitored also...
• Premises security (part 1) System Types

... my el-cheapo system has been serving us well , apart from having to replace a  2TB hard drive which apparently 'wore out' from constant access.

As a quick recap, we have a central PC system which acts as the security server.

This has 2x 4port TE104 capture cards using the CONEXANT 878a chips

To these cards we have connected 5 hard-wired CCD cameras

and 2 2.4GHz wireless cameras

 

These are all managed by the original version of the Pico2000 software

We also purchased our first PTZ IP camera

but sadly the Pico2000 software doesn't understand the concept of an IP camera so I've been using the supplied WANSCAN software separate from the Pico system but this is quite tedious and their recording compression isn't great so I've been on the lookout for a "budget" replacement for the Pico software and think I may have found it.

It looks like the

Argus DVR software

will provide management of hard-wired composite, IP and USB as well as control of PTZ cameras all for a fairly "reasonable" price of US$118 for 8 cameras, so as soon as I've saved my pennies, I plan on giving this a whirl.

Of course I'll also need at-least one PTZ controller interface as well 

but I'll post about that once I have it all bought and working

Premises Security (part 12) Summary

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Premises Security (part 12) Summary

So the sensors are chosen, the cameras are installed. The recording system has been chosen. Power has been assured for an acceptable length of time.
Let's do a final summary:

Part 1 discussed the different types of security systems.

Part 2 explained the differences between Local and Monitored alarms and Perimeter vs. State-change detection along with a look at some different video security surveillance cameras.

Part 3 looked at wireless vs. wired security systems.

Part 4 looked at setting up a video security installation.
Part 5 covered remote monitoring of the video installation and security risks associated with that. It also considered using Motion Detection.
Part 6 Began an overview of NON-video surveillance devices.
It covered;
The “closed loop”, Micro/Magnetic Reed/Thermatic & Pressure Mat switches
Part 7 Continued the overview of NON-video surveillance devices.
It covered detection of environment change rather than physical switch operation
It considered;
Pulsed Infra-red beams, Passive Infra-red (PIR) movement detectors, Proximity detection
Part 8 Completed the overview of NON-video surveillance devices.
We considered that security is more than just Intruder Detection so then looked at Temperature and Light/Darkness security sensors such as;
Thermal Fuses, Thermistor or semiconductor temperature monitors, LDR or Semiconductor light sensors.
Part 9 Considered the two points raised in Part #1 of this series.

The first point was the trade-off of cost & size vs functionality, risk and aesthetics. That led into the discussion in Parts #2 thru #8, of the various types of security system and the devices used.

The second point was the possibility of having the "best of both" in a small easily installed surveillance system AND
extended power coverage by use of a "UPS" as a power backup.
Parts #10 & #11 talked about battery life, working out run-time calculations and the different types of UPS. It also touched on power quality and preferred brands of UPS.

So that wraps up a very high-level view of premises security using digital video surveillance.
I will gladly discuss any specific questions which this series of articles may have either left untouched or perhaps stimulated.

In my next post, I'll start to look at some of the forgotten aspects of security of computer data, caused by corruption, theft or malicious intrusion by virus or hacking.