The plan is to have 5 external cameras. I've got the cables in place and terminated. Now pondering installation. Looking online, it seems like the Hikvision cameras, NVR, hard drive etc are around £750. I've been quoted £1500 installed. So the question is - how difficult is installation? Can I do it myself?
Has anyone here tried it and has any experience to share?
If you have run and terminated the cables then that is a lot of the work (60% plus) already done as it only leaves the cameras and recorder to be fitted.
So I would just finish it off myself as screwing cameras to a wall is easy ... unless you have an awkward building with special access requirements.
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Last edited by Arcam; 5th May 2019 at 18:07.
Cable is the hardest work, buy the kit and install yourself.
Save a load of cash and learn a bit along the way.
Agree with the above, if the cables are there then installing the actual cams is the next hardest step. Have a look at the site ipcamtalk which has lots of useful advice.
I’ve been looking at getting a cctv installed at my house, so far I’ve got the cams, went for Duhua Starlight cams and I’ve decided to use Blue Iris software on a dedicated PC instead of an NVR which should allow a lot more flexibility.
I’ve got a company lined up to do the actual cable runs and cam install, who have quoted around 550 to install 6 cams. The actual setup of the cams once cams have been installed I’ll do myself.
Personally, I like using Hikvision turbo HD.
Fit 5mp cameras and only £40 each. Use CAT 5 and a doddle to fit.
I was fitting cameras 20 year ago with time lapse video and multiplexer, so wish I'd got into it full time as kit now is so easy to install
Serious question. Why on earth do you need five external cameras?
Last edited by Skyman; 5th May 2019 at 21:03.
Supprising how many you do need to cover all angles, I have 9
Fine, but not sure why the “need”. Do we live in the Bronx?Originally Posted by Gee252
Supprising how many you do need to cover all angles, I have 9
Could you please provide a link to these cameras?
No, but but you would be supprised on how much a deterrent they are. Not the best times we live in.
Personally I have always had them as I spent over 30 years working away from home leaving my family on a weekly basis.
Certainly gave me piece of mind.
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Fair enough.
A lot are trade sites, but you can quite easily get them.of eBay.
Most of mine are white but have just done a garden room with grey soffit so last one I got was great and just over £40
Try these.
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Probably worse than the bronx unfortunately.
Many thanks!A lot are trade sites, but you can quite easily get them.of eBay.
Most of mine are white but have just done a garden room with grey soffit so last one I got was great and just over £40
Try these.
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I had my shotgun cable run during refurb for 4 cameras........ It took 2 hrs to run the cables. On the day of the fitting (after refurb complete) it took approx 3 hrs to fit the cameras and pin the cables. The setting up of the dvr and getting the cameras facing the correct angle was the hard part as the engineer was having to constantly bounce around on the ladder and than refer back to the dvr. Value for money and warranty i think you can't go wrong with hikvision. I shopped around and got the best deal from a company in West London.
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Being as you can get a perfect view on an iPad sitting on the top of your step ladder I'd say you installer was nuts.
True but unfortunately he only had a laptop.
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Am I correct in understanding that the Hikvision IP system does not extend to incorporate regular alarm type capabilities (i.e. sensors and alarm boxes etc.)? Would any alarm system sit in parallel to the video surveillance system?
Thanks for the advice everyone! Off to do a bit more research on camera types and the details...
Sat here just now showing my father-in-law how to terminate CAT5 cable for his CCTV install. He’s using HIKvision cameras too, with a central “DVR” unit which has IP access to allow you to view feeds from any phone/tablet/laptop.
The DVR has quite a noticeable whine from the fans so would be worth locating this out of the way in a cupboard but otherwise the whole install is proving to be very simple with power-over-Ethernet cables and the only other real requirement is a tall enough ladder to reach your desired mounting points. Best of luck.
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Try ssr trading in Park Royal London. I found them to be the most competitive and excellent service.
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Even better. The NVR should be on the network which is accessible via it's browser interface over wifi from outside? What was he looking at inside, the monitor attached to the NVR?
Yep.....
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Do they deal with retail customers i.e. non-trade?
Yes definitely........
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Just bumping this.
Can someone advise what I need for three/four camera system, dvr how big HD etc.
What cameras are everyone using?
Is POE the way to go?
I went with 6mp turret cameras (no spider problems) and an NVR with 4TB hard drive. If you google Hikvision CCTV kits, you should come with plenty of options
Cheers :)
I finally got my 6 Dahua 2Mp starlights cams installed last week. Went with another installer in the end who offered much better advice and was prepared to also run cables to the garage.
I’m using a PC running Blue Iris, bit of a learning curve but I’m slowly getting there. Have set it up so we can access the cams and footage remotely.
I’ve set mine up to record on motion so am hoping that I’ll be able to have around 1 months footage on the 2 2Tb drives that I have installed in the PC
Looking at this too now as rewiring the house, I have a NAS drive, would u use that or do I have to use the supplied drive? Is there an alarm system which integrates with the Hikvision cameras? Thanks!
It depends on the NAS, some makes like Synology and QNAP have a camera solution built in. Otherwise, you're better off with an internal drive for most NVRs just for the read/write speed alone.
That really depends more on the cameras/NVR than the alarm. The typical arrangement is that the alarm has an output that is wired to the cameras/NVR, and upon trigger the camera/NVR sends a snapshot to a pre-arranged address. Some cameras and NVRs have this ability built in, some can have it added, some cannot.Is there an alarm system which integrates with the Hikvision cameras? Thanks!
Here is the device I use when needed for my installs. https://www.axis.com/products/axis-t6101
Last edited by jcm3; 18th July 2019 at 17:02.
Thanks very much.
Be warned, Synology charge quite a lot to license each camera you want it to monitor/record.
Also with Synology, what app do you use to remotely access the cams?
With Blue Iris I have to use a proprietary app, not the best but it suffices.
Last edited by IAmATeaf; 19th July 2019 at 09:08.
Synology's Surveillance Station licensing is a little more complicated than it needs to be, but in its basic form the first 2 cameras are typically free and additional ones are about $50/ea.
Surveillance Station also has an app, and its quite a good one. As a package its not quite as low cost as Blue Iris, but I think its a bit more end user friendly, and significantly less intimidating (for many) than dedicating a desktop computer to BI.with Synology, what app do you use to remotely access the cams?
With Blue Iris I have to use a proprietary app, not the best but it suffices.
The Synology system does sound interesting. In terms of dedicating, I picked up a 2nd user HP i5-6500 desktop for £110, extra RAM for £15, extra network card for £15. BI cost me around $65, PC site in the loft, headless and BI allows from basic continuous all the way to multiple zone crossing triggering and alerts so as you learn more you can get rid of most false alarms.
You can also clone cameras so that you can then have different triggers on the same cameras which is what I do.
All is not sweet though, I’m getting motion detection events not being recorded on the clones cams so I’m looking into that but the events are being captured by the other clone camera.
I'm so confused with the amount of different Hikvision kits and devices. I want to provide good quality surveillance day and night on my new house using probably 5-6 cameras and want to use PoE to simplify installation. Which kit should I buy?
I got mine from these guys, very helpful in spec support too
https://www.cctvkits.co.uk
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Simple rule to follow is to compare the size of the CCD sensors and the low light levels required for recording, the 2 should go hand in hand. The larger the sensor the better it should be in the night too. Try to ignore the resolution for the time being, then when you’ve made a list of the best then look at the resolution and decide on a cam that suits your needs.
As I said above, I went with Dahua 2mp starlight cameras as they were the best all round at the time. 4mp versions have been released a few months ago but there seem to be some testing problems with then so for the time being I’m holding back on replacing the 2 cams at the front with 4mp versions.
I have spec'ed up the system in the screenshot below to be used poe. Any comments or observations about the quality of this config?
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I’d look at turret style cameras, they seem to attract less insects and in bad weather there is less glare and internal reflections off the dome cover?
Also when choosing a camera check the specs to see and compare their low light capability. Using IR light will always help but if the cameras have a larger low light sensor then you’ll see improvements in picture quality at night.
This screenshot shows my cams at 10:05 in the evening as they switch to night mode, some of them making use of the ambient light to stay in colour and not switch the IR on.
Last edited by IAmATeaf; 28th July 2019 at 12:17.
I’d look at turret style cameras, they seem to attract less insects and in bad weather there is less glare and internal reflections off the dome cover?
Also when choosing a camera check the specs to see and compare their low light capability. Using IR light will always help but if the cameras have a larger low light sensor then you’ll see improvements in picture quality at night.
This screenshot shows my cams at 10:05 in the evening as they switch to night mode, some of them making use of the ambient light to stay in colour and not switch the IR on.
What cameras have you got?
I’ve got 2Mp Duhua 5231-ze starlight cameras. They’ve recently released 4Mp versions but so far the reviews of them haven’t been that great so am holding back on swapping out the 2 front driveway cameras. General consensus is the hardware is good but just needs a decent firmware update before it becomes a great low light camera.
Thanks for this. Are dome cameras (as I have spec'ed below) not the same as turret?I’d look at turret style cameras, they seem to attract less insects and in bad weather there is less glare and internal reflections off the dome cover?
Also when choosing a camera check the specs to see and compare their low light capability. Using IR light will always help but if the cameras have a larger low light sensor then you’ll see improvements in picture quality at night.
This screenshot shows my cams at 10:05 in the evening as they switch to night mode, some of them making use of the ambient light to stay in colour and not switch the IR on.
Here's a pic showing all three style. Domes are more susceptible to IR reflection issues, while bullets can get covered in spider webs etc.
Sorry to jump in on this thread but I've also spent ages researching these CCTV systems, and from what I gather, Dahua starlight cams are the ones to go for, and pair these with a PC that's running dedicated serveillance software (Blue Iris), but it sounds like an awful lot of faffing around, and then you're sucked into that world of tweaking cameras, updating firmware, testing notifications etc.
So question is... Is it really worth the effort and outlay when one can just pick up a wire free solution with easier user software experience such as Arlo Ultra, Nest IQ Outdoor? I'm quite torn atm as the whole point of cameras is a deterrent and also to get alerts when out of the house. I'd love to get a system that can manually trigger an outdoor siren and also incorporate a camera doorbell too.
I don't think it can be 'easily' done via the wired+NVR without significant hacking, but these are available out of the box (or very soon with Arlo) with the wire-free systems.
Had a couple of quotes for installed system using Hikvision, 4ch 8mp 2TB NVR, with dark fighter 4mp 2.8 109 field view, 30m ir cams (pig nose)
Cameras second one in photo above.
First guy wanted to install NVR where TV is & use trucking on outside of house where cables needed to run.
Second would prefer loft or garage for NVR & instead running cables outside prefers using Poe switch & powerline Ethernet adapters to elimate cables that could be cut on view outside.
Anyone used second method,
I used the second method for my in-laws.
DVR in loft and ran every thing to that . I used home plugs to connect to the router .
I had a system installed “POE” recently and it was suggested that I had a slave DVR installed should thieves steal the master DVR.
Considered and dismissed it at the time, however am considering having it retro fitted.
The official App works fine with no issues.
B
Our HIK 7600 series 4ch NVR is installed in the loft and we access via phones and laptop. However, getting a new NVR this weekend as the other one gone duff.
Basic question - does standard cat 5 support Poe?
Where would one typically mount cameras on a two story house? Just below the facia on the brickwork?
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