New House Build - Camera Positioning

[Daco]

Hi all, we're building our new home mid next year (Australia) and i'm trying to figure out what our CCTV environment is going to look like.
Currently leaning towards a Hikvision NVR with Hikvision cameras, specifically the ColorVu in 4MP OR 8MP (happy for other suggestions).

Below is my current thoughts about camera positioning

• Camera 5 is inside garage
• Camera 4 undercover in the alfresco
• Orange dot near alfresco is a potential camera position, however I feel a bit weird putting one there because it's bound to capture part of my neighbours side as it's quite close
• As mentioned i'm leaning towards the ColorVu range, the footpath is around 5 metres away from camera 1 (~16.5 feet) so i'm thinking 4MP might be more than enough?
• Attached a similar façade to our home to give you an idea of what camera positioning looks like - I've also noted in yellow the pillar lights that throw soft light above and below (will this interfere with the camera #2?)

We're in the early stages and have plenty of time to define the electrical layout.

Thank you in advance for any feedback

 

[ludshed]

If you’re somewhat inclined to do it yourself or well enough off you can afford it I always recommend pulling Ethernet everywhere even if you have no immediate plans of using them. Same with speaker wire, it’s a lot cheaper before walls/ceilings go up.

 

[The Automation Guy]

You didn't state what your goals are with these cameras and therefore it is hard to know if the cameras will be effective at meeting those goals in their current locations. By goals I mean exactly what are you wanting to capture and how much detail do you expect to get (think DORI - Detect, Observe, Recognize, or Identify a subject).


Here is what I would suggest.....

Currently there isn't really any good coverage of your front door. That may be an area that you want to expand coverage for. I would suggest wiring for a normal doorbell at each entrance door (main and both garage man doors), but also running a cat5e wire to the same location in case you want to switch to a POE powered doorbell camera. This is represented on the picture with blue triangles. That being said, doorbell cameras alone are not good enough "coverage" of an entrance because their quality is so inferior to regular cameras. So you should plan to add another camera to cover your front door. This is represented by the narrow orange triangle (representing the need for a camera with a narrow field of view).

Camera 1 will cover the driveway out to about 15-20' (at least for Identification purposes). One camera on the driveway isn't really enough to cover 100% of the driveway. I would recommend installing a second camera on the other side of the garage (represented by the orange triangle). If you want to cover out past 15-20', you are going to need to add additional cameras with a narrower field of view. I did not draw any of those on this picture however.

The garage cameras also won't provide coverage of the side yard. If this is a concern (and I feel like it is because you are debating the additional alfresco camera), then you will need additional cameras on that side of the house. Plus you have the second man door into the garage that personally I would want covered with a camera.

The camera outside of the Rumpus room should be moved to the other corner so that it can be "covered" by the Alfresco camera (represented by the green triangle). Sticking it on the outside corner would allow someone to access the camera from the side of the house in the camera's blind spots.

If you want coverage on the bottom side of the house, then addition cameras would be needed there too. Probably a pair on the Lounge outside wall left side and a pair on the Living outside wall right side.

Keep in mind that wiring for all of these camera locations does not mean you have to install all of these cameras. However you should definitely plan to wire for MORE than you think you will need.

 

[Rob2020]

As mentioned, now is the time to get wire to more locations.

Plan on a few more cameras.

 

[ludshed]

I’d even drop HDMI’s from headend to the TVs, at least LR and MBR.

 

[SouthernYankee]

1) the front door needs three cameras, one doorbell camera, one pointing at the package drop area, one pointing back to the front door.
2) the garage entrance Needs two cameras pointing out mounted no higher than the top of the garage door. for door checkers
3) the inside of the garage need two cameras one point at the garage door and one point at the house entrance
4) each entrance to the house must be covered by a camera.
5) each camera must be covered by another camera, If i can destroy a camera it must be covered, recorded by another camera.
6) in my house all public areas inside are covered, kitchen, living room, dining room, halls, game room, den
7) all outside doors are covered by a camera inside, pointing out.

 

[mat200]

Hi all, we're building our new home mid next year (Australia) and i'm trying to figure out what our CCTV environment is going to look like.
Currently leaning towards a Hikvision NVR with Hikvision cameras, specifically the ColorVu in 4MP OR 8MP (happy for other suggestions).

Below is my current thoughts about camera positioning

• Camera 5 is inside garage
• Camera 4 undercover in the alfresco
• Orange dot near alfresco is a potential camera position, however I feel a bit weird putting one there because it's bound to capture part of my neighbours side as it's quite close
• As mentioned i'm leaning towards the ColorVu range, the footpath is around 5 metres away from camera 1 (~16.5 feet) so i'm thinking 4MP might be more than enough?
• Attached a similar façade to our home to give you an idea of what camera positioning looks like - I've also noted in yellow the pillar lights that throw soft light above and below (will this interfere with the camera #2?)

View attachment 148508

View attachment 148509

We're in the early stages and have plenty of time to define the electrical layout.

Thank you in advance for any feedback

Welcome @Daco

Definitely I would look at more positions and more cat5e/6 drops ..

@The Automation Guy did a good job of suggested locations ..

 

[looney2ns]

Be sure that you study this: Cliff Notes

 

[Daco]

You didn't state what your goals are with these cameras and therefore it is hard to know if the cameras will be effective at meeting those goals in their current locations. By goals I mean exactly what are you wanting to capture and how much detail do you expect to get (think DORI - Detect, Observe, Recognize, or Identify a subject).


Here is what I would suggest.....

Currently there isn't really any good coverage of your front door. That may be an area that you want to expand coverage for. I would suggest wiring for a normal doorbell at each entrance door (main and both garage man doors), but also running a cat5e wire to the same location in case you want to switch to a POE powered doorbell camera. This is represented on the picture with blue triangles. That being said, doorbell cameras alone are not good enough "coverage" of an entrance because their quality is so inferior to regular cameras. So you should plan to add another camera to cover your front door. This is represented by the narrow orange triangle (representing the need for a camera with a narrow field of view).

Camera 1 will cover the driveway out to about 15-20' (at least for Identification purposes). One camera on the driveway isn't really enough to cover 100% of the driveway. I would recommend installing a second camera on the other side of the garage (represented by the orange triangle). If you want to cover out past 15-20', you are going to need to add additional cameras with a narrower field of view. I did not draw any of those on this picture however.

The garage cameras also won't provide coverage of the side yard. If this is a concern (and I feel like it is because you are debating the additional alfresco camera), then you will need additional cameras on that side of the house. Plus you have the second man door into the garage that personally I would want covered with a camera.

The camera outside of the Rumpus room should be moved to the other corner so that it can be "covered" by the Alfresco camera (represented by the green triangle). Sticking it on the outside corner would allow someone to access the camera from the side of the house in the camera's blind spots.

If you want coverage on the bottom side of the house, then addition cameras would be needed there too. Probably a pair on the Lounge outside wall left side and a pair on the Living outside wall right side.

Keep in mind that wiring for all of these camera locations does not mean you have to install all of these cameras. However you should definitely plan to wire for MORE than you think you will need.

View attachment 148627

@The Automation Guy thanks heaps for this, really appreciate the info and the effort you put in to replying.
With the cameras to the side of the house, it's a bit tricky because in Australia most of our houses are quite close to each other and I feel a bit weird with some cameras capturing so much of my neighbours property, I might do the ethernet drops there just in case i change my mind though.

I’d even drop HDMI’s from headend to the TVs, at least LR and MBR.

@ludshed , great idea, I'm fitting out HEAPS of cat6 to the house and doing the internal conduits for wall mounting TVs - didn't think about running it from headend.

1) the front door needs three cameras, one doorbell camera, one pointing at the package drop area, one pointing back to the front door.
2) the garage entrance Needs two cameras pointing out mounted no higher than the top of the garage door. for door checkers
3) the inside of the garage need two cameras one point at the garage door and one point at the house entrance
4) each entrance to the house must be covered by a camera.
5) each camera must be covered by another camera, If i can destroy a camera it must be covered, recorded by another camera.
6) in my house all public areas inside are covered, kitchen, living room, dining room, halls, game room, den
7) all outside doors are covered by a camera inside, pointing out.

@SouthernYankee thanks a lot for the suggestions, some really great points I wouldn't have thought of

Welcome @Daco

Definitely I would look at more positions and more cat5e/6 drops ..

@The Automation Guy did a good job of suggested locations ..

@mat200 Absolutely, i've got cat6 drops galore internally for APs and wall ports, looks like i'll be doing a lotmore externally just in-case!

Be sure that you study this: Cliff Notes

@looney2ns Had a quick read, lots of info - I think i'll revisit as there is so much to learn


Thanks again for all the input, what a great forum.

 

[The Automation Guy]

Actually you should probably skip the HDMI drops. HDMI is a terrible protocol to send video/audio over any distance longer than about 20'. I would suggest that you look at SDI for this application. It uses coaxial cable to send video/audio and it is much more suited to send high definition signals over long distances. You can get HDMI to SDI converters if needed, but an SDI matrix switch is probably cheaper than a HDMI matrix switch because SDI is used so much more in video/commercial applications - its been the standard in broadcasting forever. Drop the correct coax for your SDI application (likely just 75 ohm RG-6 or RG-59) to all those TV locations instead of HDMI. Be sure to drop ethernet along with the SDI just so you have choices in the future.

 

[saltwater]

@Daco Welcome to the forum, another Aussie here. In relation to your concerns along the side of your house and capturing your neighbour's yard/house, that would be the case using a 2.8 or 3.2 mm lens. I have a similar side issue (1.8 m wide) and I opted for a 6mm lens. Granted, a little bit of my neighbour's rear yard is visible, but their trees are now taller and not such a big issue. I do have a lot of my brick wall in view so as not to impact as much on my neighbour's yard. In any regard, the 6mm (Dahua 5542 from Andy at @EMPIRETECANDY) lens gets really close to the action, not that I've had any action.

As others have mentioned, wire to everywhere and even think about external IR illuminators, they need power, most are POE enabled, same as the cameras. In my case I ran three Cat cables, as spare, into the roof.

 

[SpacecoastBill]

If you’re somewhat inclined to do it yourself or well enough off you can afford it I always recommend pulling Ethernet everywhere even if you have no immediate plans of using them. Same with speaker wire, it’s a lot cheaper before walls/ceilings go up.

I'm building a new house and pulled 7000 feet of cat 6.....2000 feet coax..,.1500 feet security wire...2000 feet speaker wire.

Not to mention tons of electrical outlets.