I have a client near Ft. Collins, CO that I inherited 2 years ago from a friend. Part of that inheritance was the expectation of low prices for cameras set when my friend ordered all Foscam devices for the project in 2013.
Nayr - this is just North of your stomping ground, your input is greatly appreciated. I'm up in Westminster.
This is a cattle ranch. Most of the cameras are in a barn or under the covered runs in back of the barn. The cameras are used to observe the animals, from the comfort of the house, during calving cycles.
There are 5 PTZ domes for inside, 4 bullets and two FI8919W PTZ domes outside. So far I have replaced all 3 FI8919Ws(had reboot issue and convinced Foscam to replace the 2 active plus the unopened spare under warranty) and 3 of the 4 bullets when they just stopped working. I pitched a complete rebuild last year, but the client just wanted to fix things when they break. I've managed to improve the setup with upgrades to switches, WAPs, and power protection (Thank you summer storms) and hard wiring most cameras. They now have a dedicated NVR (the Dell Inspiron 1.6 GHz tablet with 4GB RAM and BI3 was not even usable). So this setup may one day be good, but not great. It's progressing in tiny steps.
In order to provide coverage of a paddock which my client recently started using, I installed the spare FI8919W on a pole 12' off the ground in the middle of a pasture. and it is serviced by an outdoor WAP. It works well for what it is, but it has iced over 3 times when there was icy fog and blowing snow. That has created issues for me and my client (11:00pm calls to me about not being able to observe calving heifers because the camera was just showing white). My client then asked me to "get the same thing" on another pole in another pasture. I made the pitch for spending more money on a camera with a heater, but I am not sure what to use.
I got sticker shock from Dahua at first (I'm learning) so I tried a unit from Arecont Vision with a dome & heater - the AV5255PMIR-SH. Their sales and service were great, the image quality was great, but the cam had a fixed sensor with digital PTZ and I needed real PTZ with ~300 deg of horizontal pan. So I am returning the unit. The sales rep and I weren't quite on the same page. I have one of their AV12275DN-28 - SurroundVideo Omni G2 units coming as a demo, but it is out of the budget for this project.
So I'm back to Dahua, maybe Hikvision.
I _need_ a cam that is better than the FI8919W, has 40m IR range, ability to defrost/defog, >=300 deg horz pan, 90 deg vertical pan. I have Ubiquity WAPs and power is not a problem.
When looking at Dahua and Hikvision, how can I tell which units have heaters?
If I am concerned about ice, do I need to use an enclosed dome, or will one of the Lite Black Face PTZ cams(SD49225T-HN) do OK when blowing snow/ice would render the Foscam unit useless?
Thanks everyone.
Nayr - this is just North of your stomping ground, your input is greatly appreciated. I'm up in Westminster.
This is a cattle ranch. Most of the cameras are in a barn or under the covered runs in back of the barn. The cameras are used to observe the animals, from the comfort of the house, during calving cycles.
There are 5 PTZ domes for inside, 4 bullets and two FI8919W PTZ domes outside. So far I have replaced all 3 FI8919Ws(had reboot issue and convinced Foscam to replace the 2 active plus the unopened spare under warranty) and 3 of the 4 bullets when they just stopped working. I pitched a complete rebuild last year, but the client just wanted to fix things when they break. I've managed to improve the setup with upgrades to switches, WAPs, and power protection (Thank you summer storms) and hard wiring most cameras. They now have a dedicated NVR (the Dell Inspiron 1.6 GHz tablet with 4GB RAM and BI3 was not even usable). So this setup may one day be good, but not great. It's progressing in tiny steps.
In order to provide coverage of a paddock which my client recently started using, I installed the spare FI8919W on a pole 12' off the ground in the middle of a pasture. and it is serviced by an outdoor WAP. It works well for what it is, but it has iced over 3 times when there was icy fog and blowing snow. That has created issues for me and my client (11:00pm calls to me about not being able to observe calving heifers because the camera was just showing white). My client then asked me to "get the same thing" on another pole in another pasture. I made the pitch for spending more money on a camera with a heater, but I am not sure what to use.
I got sticker shock from Dahua at first (I'm learning) so I tried a unit from Arecont Vision with a dome & heater - the AV5255PMIR-SH. Their sales and service were great, the image quality was great, but the cam had a fixed sensor with digital PTZ and I needed real PTZ with ~300 deg of horizontal pan. So I am returning the unit. The sales rep and I weren't quite on the same page. I have one of their AV12275DN-28 - SurroundVideo Omni G2 units coming as a demo, but it is out of the budget for this project.
So I'm back to Dahua, maybe Hikvision.
I _need_ a cam that is better than the FI8919W, has 40m IR range, ability to defrost/defog, >=300 deg horz pan, 90 deg vertical pan. I have Ubiquity WAPs and power is not a problem.
When looking at Dahua and Hikvision, how can I tell which units have heaters?
If I am concerned about ice, do I need to use an enclosed dome, or will one of the Lite Black Face PTZ cams(SD49225T-HN) do OK when blowing snow/ice would render the Foscam unit useless?
Thanks everyone.
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