Blue iris setup

[wildfowl8877]

Hi everyone, I'm from the UK and looking at installing a few cameras around my house with blue iris. Looks really cool!

At the moment I'm on a bit of a budget and only looking at installing a few cameras for now, so im after some recommendations for some 1080p (outdoor rated) cameras. I was also planning on running blue iris of a mini pc e.g dell optiplex 5070. Does this setup sound appropriate for my use case ? and in your opinion would the pc work well if I was to upgrade my cameras in the future to 4k with the option of integrating ai software like deep stack?

Many thanks!

 

[TonyR]

Insure the Optiplex 5070 is the tower or small form factor (SFF) and not the Mini which has no bay for a 3.5" HDD for video storage.
Insure the CPU is Intel gen 8 or newer so that it will run Windows 11.
Perform a clean install of Windows using the MS Media Creation Tool on a USB flash drive.
Put Windows, BI and BI's "db" folder on a SSD and video clips on a surveillance-rated spinning HDD like a WD Purple.
Optimize CPU use as here and employ sub streams as here.
Set up drive allocation and storage as here.

Consider this turret camera ==>> EmpireTech IPC-T22IR-ZAS-S3 1/2.8" CMOS 2MP IR 2.7mm–13.5mm Vari-Focal Eyeball Turret Network Camera

EDIT @ 0824 CDT 5/23: How much ambient lighting is available at night where the cams are to be installed?

P.S. - Welcome to IPCT!

 

[wildfowl8877]

@ 0824 CDT 5/23: How much ambient lighting is available at night where the cams are to be installed?

P.S. - Welcome to IPCT!
[/QUOTE]

Thanks for your help ! Theres not much ambient lighting to be honest. I do have security lights on motion sensors, so that will help a bit i suppose

 

[TonyR]

I ask about the lighting because it's VERY import to not get too wrapped up in megapixels but to insure that the sensor size to MP ratio is good to help insure good images under poor lighting, especially when it comes to motion blur.

The 2MP I linked above has a proper sensor-to-MP ratio. Should you decide one day to get a 4K/8MP camera it should have a 1/1.2" sensor and can be very expensive. A great compromise that won't break your budget and provide excellent performance at night and very nice daytime images is a 4MP camera with a 1/1.8" sensor such as this varifocal version => EmpireTech IPC-T54IR-ZE-S3 1/1.8" CMOS 4MP IR Starlight 2.7mm–12mm Vari-Focal Turret Security Camera

or the fixed lens version => EmpireTech IPC-T54IR-AS-S3 1/1.8" CMOS 4MP IR Fixed-Focal Eyeball Network Camera

Here's a good chart to help explain the minimum sized sensor with specific MP's (in the green is highly desirable):

 

[TonyR]

Theres not much ambient lighting to be honest. I do have security lights on motion sensors, so that will help a bit i suppose

Just be aware that motioned-activated lights can "blind" a camera for a few seconds until the camera can adjust to the increased lighting, causing it to possibly miss an important event....the same event that triggered the motion lights.

Consider instead dusk-to-dawn (photoelectrically controlled) LED lighting in the same area if possible.

 

[wildfowl8877]

I will have a look into those for sure ! Thanks again, you've been a great help !

 

[looney2ns]

I agree with @TonyR, his advice is solid.