system design

[bcarpenter]

Hello all,

Need a system installed on the farm -- thinking about something like this:


Outbuilding A

1) has mains power available
2) need 3 or 4 starlight cams. Looks like ColorVu cams from EmpireTech Andy may be the biggest bang for the buck
3) cams connected to a router in Outbuilding A
4) router connected to Ubuquiti Litebeam aimed at main house 300 feet away


Mainhouse

1) Second Ubuquiti Litebeam to receive wifi from Outbuilding A
2) goes to dvr or control computer
3) data stream is all incoming except for any data to control any pan/tilt/zoom cams

Duplicate the above process with other outbuildings.


Would a second router at the main house be necessary? Does this seem like it would work? Any gotchas, recommendations or suggestions? Sure would appreciate your input.

 

[TonyR]

No routers needed for cams when static IPs are assigned.

If I understand correctly, I would not depend on Litebeam's signal making it all the way from Outbuilding A into the house; install 2nd Litebeam at house, set up a Layer 2 Transparent Bridge ==>> airMAX - How to Configure a Point-to-Point Link (Layer 2, Transparent Bridge)



For multiple outbuildings, depending on locations in relation to house, Line Of Sight, etc., consider PtMP ==>> airMAX - Configure a Point-to-Multipoint (PtMP) ISP-Style Access Point

 

[bcarpenter]

No routers needed for cams when static IPs are assigned.

I'm confused. If I have three or four cams feeding into a single Ubuquiti Litebeam for transmission to the Mainhouse, wouldn't that demand a router or switch or ....?

 

[Flintstone61]

for 3 or 4 cams feeding, you could use a POE switch yes. I have 2 Ubiquiti loco nano 2.4 GHZ. ( Point to Point link) feeding 2 cams from an outbuilding to the main building. I have a little 4 port POE switch out there. It was an NVR but it didn't need to be as I later learned.

 

[TonyR]

I'm confused. If I have three or four cams feeding into a single Ubuquiti Litebeam for transmission to the Mainhouse, wouldn't that demand a router or switch or ....?

A switch, yes but no router if the cams are assigned static IP's.
If the cams are POE then use a POE switch.

 

[wittaj]

Cameras with static IPs do not need a router. Most here do not have their cameras touching a router.

 

[dudemaar]

A switch, yes but no router if the cams are assigned static IP's.
If the cams are POE then use a POE switch.

So this would mean no internet to each building, right ? Would internet have to be a whole separate system from this then?

 

[wittaj]

That is correct - best practice is to isolate cameras from the internet via segregated networking, VLANs, Dual NIC, etc.

 

[samplenhold]

See the below figure. But instead of the 'powerline adapters' replace with your Ubuquiti Litebeam units.

 

[bcarpenter]

See the below figure. But instead of the 'powerline adapters' replace with your Ubuquiti Litebeam units.

View attachment 122892

I can fully understand the POE switch with the network port feeding the Litebeam on the sending side in the outbuilding. All cams assigned static IP's.

On the receiving end at the main house, the first component would be the receiving Litebeam. Then the RJ45 on the receiving Litebeam would connect to the network port of a switch? My next and final component would be a 8 channel NVR like this:

Surveillance Smart AI NVR 8-Channel, 1U, 8-PoE, 4K, H.265, Pro Network Video Recorder NVR5208-8P-4KS2E - IP Cam Talk Store

Would I connect individual ports on the switch (one per camera) to the individual ports on the NVR?

 

[TonyR]

My take on this:
No POE switch needed at house end since no POE cams there and specs say that the Gen2 Litebeam AC uses a passive 24VDC injector, not 802.3af POE.
Run Ethernet cable from NVR LAN port to LAN port on the POE injector for the house's Litebeam.
Make ALL IP's (cams, Litebeams, NVR LAN) static, unique and on same subnet, such as 192.168.1.XXX.

 

[The Automation Guy]

Just note that ColorVu cameras still need light to work. If your area is going to be very dark with little artificial light, then you are probably better off getting mostly IR cameras. You might get a single ColorVu to use an a "close in" camera where the light may be better up against the building and then you have a color reference for the IR footage.

 

[bcarpenter]

Just note that ColorVu cameras still need light to work. If your area is going to be very dark with little artificial light, then you are probably better off getting mostly IR cameras. You might get a single ColorVu to use an a "close in" camera where the light may be better up against the building and then you have a color reference for the IR footage.

The ColorVu LED's don't provide enough white light in total dark for useable operation? What IR cams do you recommend? Thx.

 

[wittaj]

In most cases, the full color type cameras with their piddly LED lights are not brighter than what you may see from a cell phone flashlight - you might get a little ring around 5-10 feet of the camera, but it is useless after that.

The Dahua 4K/X is the first full color type camera that I have used that the LEDs actually make a difference, and that is because there are 4 instead of two, coupled with a better sensor.

For IR, any of the Dahua 5442 series cameras fit the bill nicely.

 

[The Automation Guy]

The ColorVu LED's don't provide enough white light in total dark for useable operation? What IR cams do you recommend? Thx.

As with everything, it comes down to details.... There are ColorVu models that don't have LEDs or any supplied illumination. These will require some sort of outside illumination to work well. I haven't personally tried the ColorVu with LEDs, but I would suggest you read the applicable reviews on the site to decide if they work well with just the LED in no light situations. I honestly haven't paid enough attention myself.

 

[bcarpenter]

The Dahua 4K/X is the first full color type camera that I have used that the LEDs actually make a difference, and that is because there are 4 instead of two, coupled with a better sensor.

For IR, any of the Dahua 5442 series cameras fit the bill nicely.

The performance looks decent and price of the 4K/X is do-able. But that form factor ...... yikes. I could not find another form factor for that series. May try one anyway.

I'll definitely try a couple of the 5442 series. Thanks.

What's the best NVR under $400 in an 8 channel POE model? I'd like ONVIF and H265(+). Anything else I should be looking for?

 

[wittaj]

Yeah that is the only drawback to the 4K/X is it's size. Hopefully one day they come out with a varifocal. The 5449 turret works well and here was one of my reviews on it in a larger thread and it can get pretty darn close to the capabilities of the 4K/X. There was a firmware update since this review and it has made the image even better.

Best bet is to match camera and NVR brands. Even with ONVIF, it isn't a true "standard" and functionality will be lost between brands. In the Dahua series, most go with the 5XXX series.

 

[bcarpenter]

What do folks find is the best lens for a fixed focal length camera?

I have one camera that will pointed down a driveway to a farm entrance about 300 feet away. Another cam will be looking up to 100 feet away in pasture. One camera will be looking 25 feet away into a 100 feet wide yard. Another cam will be looking at a 100 foot section of another driveway from 90 degrees perpendicular -- from about 75 feet away.

 

[sebastiantombs]

At those distances no fixed focal length camera will work out. You'll need, for example, 5442Z, 5442Z4E, 5442Z12E and 5241Z24E (at least I think those are the models for progressively longer focal length varifocals).

 

[wittaj]

Here are my general distance recommendations, but switch out the Dahua 5442 series camera to the equivalent 2MP on the 1/2.8" sensor or equivalent Hikvision works as well.

• 5442 fixed lens 2.8mm or the 4K/X - anything within 10 feet of camera OR as an overview camera
• T5449H-ASE-D2 2.8mm fixed lens - anything within 10 feet of camera where the object would be in a backlit condition at night
• 5441F-AS-E2 (AKA Boobie cam) or E3241F-AS-M- great choice for a front door camera. The boobie cam can have one lens pointed down for packages
• T5241H-AS-PV - Great little active deterrence camera with two way talk. Good for anything within 10 feet of camera or as an overview camera
• 5442 ZE or 5831R-ZE- varifocal - distances up to 40-50 feet (personally I wouldn't go past the 30 foot range but I like things closer)
• 5442 Z4E - anything up to 80-100 feet (personally I wouldn't go past 60 feet but I like things closer)
• 5241-Z12E - anything from 80 feet to almost 200 feet (personally I wouldn't go past 150 feet because I like things closer)
• 5241-Z12E - for a license plate cam that you would angle up the street to get plates up to about 175 feet away, or up to 220 with additional IR.
• 49225 PTZ - great auto-track PTZ and in conjunction with an NVR or Blue Iris and the cameras above that you can use as spotter cams to point the PTZ to the correct location to compliment the fixed cams.

You need to get the correct camera for the area trying to be covered. A wide angle 2.8mm to IDENTIFY someone 40 feet away is the wrong camera regardless of how good the camera is. A 2.8mm camera to IDENTIFY someone within 10 feet is a good choice OR it is an overview camera to see something happened but not be able to identify who.

If you want to see things far away, you need optical zoom, digital zoom only works in the movies and TV...And the optical zoom is done real time - for a varifocal it is a set it and forget it. You cannot go to recorded video and optically zoom in later, at that point it is digital zoom, and the sensors on these cameras are so small which is why digital zoom doesn't work very well after the fact. Digital zoom at night would be basically useless for your situation.