Looking at installing CCTV

[PEO]

Morning fellow Geeks

 

This boss has asked me to look in to CCTV for the school mainly for corridors and external but we also want a covert camera to catch people damaging lockers etc.

 

What system do you use

 

What's the cost are we looking at

 

We think we'll need about 25 internal and 10 external cameras

 

also who manages and monitors the system? Site Manager or IT Support?

 

cheers

[fairm010]

Our CCTV is nowhere near that scale but I can say that it is managed by the IT Support dept but Site have access if needed, as well as a livestream of the cameras in their office.

[Boredguy]

We have a mixture of 19 proper external CCTV cameras that were installed by our local security company that records onto 2 Samsung DVR's and 9 internal PoE IP cameras recording onto an old Windows XP station (Internal ones are mainly in corridors to catch the little blighters coming out of toilets so we know who to see if they've been damaged or to spot a flood in progress)

 

IT maintains both systems, but with assistance from the security company for maintenance on the external cameras.

As for monitoring the system, well our Reception staff have one of the camera feeds up constantly as it monitors the main gate access, but the rest is accessed by a mixture of pastoral and site as and when the need occurs.

 

During holidays we normally have key cameras displaying in our office to keep an eye on anyone trying to get onto the site.

[HC_Netman]

We have an IP CCTV system here about twice the size of that. We use mostly ACTi cameras and have them recording back to QNAP servers.

 

In terms of cost it really depends on what you want to see and ultimately how many MP's you require the camera to be - the best thing to do is get someone to come and do a survey. We got ours through Topological but they use a third party called Complete IP I would recommend them both. It certainly isn't cheap if you want to do a good job.

 

One thing I would say is to make sure you notify the ICO about your new CCTV system and it's intended use. I would also think twice about a covert camera - is it really necessary to try and catch people with a hidden camera or is it better to just stop it from happening with a visible one?? Either way you are required to have signs saying that images are being recorded placed around your site.

 

IT are responsible for managing and monitoring although the system does allow us to delegate access to various cameras to different users.

[Pyroman]

Not sure what the quality is like but Ubiquiti do wireless CCTV cameras. I've just installed some Ubiquiti Unifi APs and they seem decent so would imaging the cameras aren't bad either Edited January 30, 2015 by Pyroman

[jbunoomally]

Hi,

 

Would echo sentiment ref covert cameras made by HC_Netman.

Would also recommend taking a look through these (we also took legal and ICO advice (in writing) before we installed CCTV):

 

https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1542/cctv-code-of-practice.pdf

 

https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1595/pia-code-of-practice.pdf

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/157901/code-of-practice.pdf

 

ICO tears school CCTV a new peephole • The Register

 

JB.

[JRowley]

Not sure what the quality is like but Ubiquiti do wireless CCTV cameras. I've just installed some Ubiquiti Unifi APs and they seem decent so would imaging the cameras aren't bad either

 

They do Wireless CCTV? As far as I'm aware the whole range of Unifi-Video is PoE and without Wireless capability.

[Chris_]

Not sure what the quality is like but Ubiquiti do wireless CCTV cameras. I've just installed some Ubiquiti Unifi APs and they seem decent so would imaging the cameras aren't bad either

 

Just beware that only the UniFi Video Camera Pro is suitable for outdoor use with a proper IP rating. The UniFi Video Camera says it's ok for outdoor use, then says under a overhang!

[mthomas08]

We managed to get a cheap sort of custom system. We can have hard drive boxes scattered around the School, linked to IP Cameras.

 

They are cheap £40 each, okay quality, record fine and although it's a bit fiddly to get recordings off - it does the job.

 

Also allows us to add more quite easy. We have an electrician who puts them in and we only pay for his hours and not full blown quotes etc.

[Pyroman]

They do Wireless CCTV? As far as I'm aware the whole range of Unifi-Video is PoE and without Wireless capability.

 

My bad, it's been a few months since i looked. I Just remembered the name Aircam and thought it was wireless. You are correct POE cameras only

[john]

Designed our own in-house and got the local sparkies to fit it, much much cheaper than any commercial offering.

 

Bought all the cameras and DVRs from here https://cctvdirect.co.uk/ had about 60 cameras around the site (2 sites) and it all gridded to one screen as the units were all in the same range.

[Net-Ctrl]

We have installed ip-cctv at a number of school, we use ip cameras from a company called Mobotix and we install/support them. We have found them to be great quality and provide high-res imagery.

 

You can view their full portfolio on our website. Most of the cameras come with different lens options so you can configure your deployment to your site and needs.

 

If you had any questions, or would like a chat about any of the solution, please let me know

[Sagima]

We now use Mobotix (from net-ctrl no less) - our old system uses the sightboss software but I'm not sure of the brand of camera. The old system is estates manger's job but for reasons I haven't managed to follow the mobotix one is now my responsibility.

[DanielRF]

We have been rolling out an Ubiquity Unifi Video system this month. On first impressions the price and hardware seems reasonable. The software is whats letting the system down but the support forums mention an Android/iOS app coming soon and a revamped version of the management software in a few months. If your building would suit a DIY install it might be worth investigating, but the system will probably be better in a few months time.

[Duke5A]

We're using Exacqvision on a couple HP storage servers with POE cameras; it works extremely well.