Surveillance cameras

[Gaz]

So my boss has asked me to look into getting a camera for our reception and I instantly thought of UniFi is that wrong? They don't want to spend a whole lot of money.

 

If I got this Ubiquiti UVC-DOME UniFi Indoor HD PoE Dome IP Camera w/ Night Vision (720p) do I also need to get this? Ubiquiti airVision 1-Bay 500GB NVR Network Video Recorder (20-Channels)

We are more than likely going to get a QNAP NAS for backup in general but looking on the QNAP site it doesn't say if the Unifi is supported.

[Meldrew]

Can't comment on the Ubiquiti CCTV, but their wireless kit is really good. For CCTV we've found you can't go wrong with Axis. For reception, you could get an M1054 for about £250 from memory. For a single user you can run Axis Camera station for free. Installs on windows and provides recording, motion detect, etc. We've got about 40 axis cameras (some internal M1054 and some externals) and have licenced camera station and we're very happy with it.

 

Meldrew

[jamesreedersmith]

You can download the software (free) onto a windows or linux machine if you dont want to buy a dedicated NVR.

 

Ubiquiti Networks - Downloads

[Gaz]

Thanks James, thats good to know.

 

Meldrew while Axis has a good reputation so does their price! I guess if the Unifi doesn't work out for us then we can look at Axis. Good to know its got free software too.

[dhicks]

You can download the software (free) onto a windows or linux machine if you dont want to buy a dedicated NVR.

 

We were thinking of getting one of Ubiquiti's all-in-one box deals, complete with 9 cameras and an NVR, but I was a bit wary of having everything on one 500GB hardrive. If we can set the software up ourselves we can create a virtual machine with a dedicated physical RAID array assigned and just add cameras as needed - great! How is the software? Our current system uses a Windows-only client that's a palavar to install, if I understand correctly Ubiquiti's is simply web-based, you point a web browser at it and you can view video - is that right?

[jamesfed]

We've recently installed 3x of the new 720p cameras + their software on a Windows Server VM.

 

Really easy to setup both the cameras and the software and the only feature we haven't found yet is a way to turn off the microphones in the cameras.

 

AD integration would be a bonus but for what is free I can't complain.

[Gaz]

OK so that ubiquiti camera is off the table as its one of the ones that forces you to use a PoE injector. We go to the expense of buying a PoE switch we don't want to have to use a PoE injector!

[dhicks]

OK so that ubiquiti camera is off the table as its one of the ones that forces you to use a PoE injector.

 

Hang on - you mean the cameras don't work with PoE-enabled switches?

[MrEprise]

You aren't necessarily forced to use the injector as Ubiquiti do an inline adaptor Ubiquiti Instant 802.3af Indoor Adapter which converts their passive PoE devices to Active ones which should then allow you to connect them to a PoE switch of your choosing.

 

You could argue that they should make their devices fully 802.3af compliant but by not doing, I think this is how they're able to sell their equipment so cheaply.

[Gaz]

Hang on - you mean the cameras don't work with PoE-enabled switches?

 

Yeah like their low end WiFi Access points you need to use their PoE injector. http://dl.ubnt.com/datasheets/unifi/UniFI_Video_DS.pdf

[Gaz]

You aren't necessarily forced to use the injector as Ubiquiti do an inline adaptor Ubiquiti Instant 802.3af Indoor Adapter which converts their passive PoE devices to Active ones which should then allow you to connect them to a PoE switch of your choosing.

 

You could argue that they should make their devices fully 802.3af compliant but by not doing, I think this is how they're able to sell their equipment so cheaply.

 

Still its a point of failure that I'd rather not have. You are probably right in that they can sell products cheaper by not supporting AF or AT.

[jamesreedersmith]

Look at the pro camera Ubiquiti Networks - UniFi® Video Camera PRO full proper POE support.

[synaesthesia]

Another +1 for the Ubiquiti stuff. We just bought a set of 3 domes and 3 bullets. Quality is great on both, domes have the better viewing angle. Only 720p but quality is still good enough for our purposes. (recognising faces in a room)

Software is very close to their wireless controller software and will run on windows or linux. We already have a license for BlueIris though so we use that instead (as we have some other cameras too)

[Gaz]

Yeah I saw that but it looks a little overkill for inside a reception. I was going to get a dome type and mount it in a ceiling tile. Will probably get the ubiquiti dome camera with an .af converter which isn't ideal but considering how cheap the converters are I'll buy a spare to have on hand.

[synaesthesia]

And meh @ the power bricks supplied. If you've got power anywhere nearby anyway, just hide them in the false ceiling or maybe trunking if you have some nearby. If not, they're easily hidden.

[m25man]

Only the Pro Camera is .af PoE - the basic units use passive 24v PoE (injectors supplied in box)

This method is no different than many conventional CCTV systems in that those also need to be powered separately from the coax and installers use CAT5 and Baluns all the time for this so it's not that different.

Be aware that the Mk 1 versions are still out there in abundance, they have no IR so if you want night vision make sure your getting the MK 2 kit.

 

Only the Pro is 802.af PoE it has high quality optics and optical zoom and is a quality bit of kit, however then there are the gotchas...

 

Using these cameras with anything other than the Unifi Video Software/NVR is a problem.

 

When in an early firmware/standalone config it is possible to connect to each camera using rtsp so the likes of 3rd party software such as Blue Iris will work.

Later firmware they seem to have removed the ability to use rtsp!

Once configured to use the Unifi Video system you cannot access the camera directly with anything other than Unifi Video, although a static jpg may be possible.

 

It is possible however to get an rtsp stream from the DVR/NVR software itself.

 

The NVR is a rebadged Atom based PC with the Unifi Video software preloaded.

Once setup all connections to cameras are made through this.

500 GB isn't very much for HD continuous recording so you either have to stack the NVRs or attach external HDDs

It is possible to get the Unifi Video software to use external NAS but only if attached to the software as a disk.

 

The software is simple to use and the analytics make it easy to go back to a point in time but that's about it.

 

I've had some bizarre problems with my NVR, resetting itself back to factory defaults, suddenly just stops recording and requires a reboot to start again, once the disk is near capacity searching for footage is slow (possibly as it's an Atom)

Some of the Ubnt geeks recommend i7 or Xeon cpu's for serious NVR use so an old server with an iSCSI attached disk for recording could be a solution for some.

 

I wouldn't say this is the best IP CCTV system available but it's cheap and works and looks like a top end system if you can live with its limitations (that's living within the UBNT rule set for CCTV)

 

With regards PoE switches for CCTV use, you MUST stay within your switches PoE budget many switches have PoE on all ports but have a budget of less than 180w so some cameras want 30w each! So six cameras and your switch is toast!

If your sharing your switches with wifi, CCTV, VoIP phones make sure you do the sums first and always VLAN as HD CCTV will steal your uplink bandwidth.

Edited September 14, 2014 by m25man

[alemanyorks]

another +1 for Unifi video.

We have just installed 1 dome camera in an IT suite using a wall mounted box(AbraCam) from RF Elements as we didn't have a false ceiling. We used the supplied injector into a std switch & are very happy with the results. We have a standalone server box running the NVR software & like the front end on it, nice & simple very similar feel to the WiFi which we also use & like.

For the money good piece of kit, probably will be expanding the amount of cameras we have.