Advice on C-Bus CCTV?

Hi all,

I am looking to integrate a simple CCTV solution to my system (C-Bus & HomeSafe) to be able to achieve the following :-

1 x Front Door Colour Camera (discreet & with audio if possible)
1 x Internal Colour Camera
1 x External B/W Day/Night Camera.
- Viewable on a PC and TV
- be able to channel the video through to the TV automatically (if the cameras can be viewed on the PC I could achieve this with software / TV-Out)
- record onto the PC's harddisk
- Trigger the video by the PIRs already installed
- Trigger the video from HomeSafe (connected via Bus Coupler)

Is the above possible with the C-Bus products available? if so, which ones?

Regards
Greg...

 

Greg,

The idea works in principle..... however, practically, I can forsee difficulties.

Whilst the PC would record the incident (with correct programming), by the time the PIR had issued commands to the VCR to turn on and start recording (and the time it takes the VCR to actually start)..... whatever triggered in the first place will most likey be somewhere else. Hence the VCR wouldnt be all that effective......

Michael

 

It would be possible if the feed is coming in to the PC to have the PC buffer about 5 minutes of video in memory. Then when the "trigger" is detected the last 5 minutes of video, and the time while the trigger is active, could be streamed to the harddisk. This way you have no delays and actually have the time period leading up to the "trigger" as well.

How you go about achieving this would depend a lot of the hardware and software chosen. At least getting the "triggers" from C-Bus is relatively easy.

Solution would require some scripting or programming using 3rd party tools.

 

Most CCTV DVRs (digital video recorders) will trigger recording when motion is detected in the picture (VMD - Video Motion Detection). Also, "alarm inputs" are a pretty standard feature, allowing an external contact closure (eg C-Bus Relay or Homesafe output) to trigger recording. The buffered video is also taken care of - so the recording starts just before the event that triggers it.

You should be able to shop around and find a DVR card & software package for your PC that has all these functions.

 

Hi all,

Thanks for your advice and comments, just to confirm :-

I have a one gigibit LAN connected to my offsite site via a 2 megabit ADSL line that basically uploads video almost simultaneously. By the time they gain access to the steel server cabinet (also with a webcam inside) there "should" be some incriminating video to work from!

The PIR & camera on the door will take a snapshot (30 seconds) or so of everybody that comes to it (also uploaded offsite) as in a large proportion of petty burgalries the culprit has already been to door to case it out! As I have already experienced this 1st hand (twice) I think it is a worthwhile investment.

I do already have a DVR card with some wireless cameras although I am looking to have a total C-Bus Hardware solution; the software part isn't a problem for me.

I am mainly interested in wether I can achieve the C-Bus connectivity and what I need to order to get me going?

Thanks again
Greg...

 

Sorry ... it's not clear from your posts exactly how you want C-Bus to connect to the other parts of your system. What role exactly do you want C-Bus to play. There are various methods of interfacing C-Bus to other systems/devices, but it's hard to advise which is the "best" way without some more concrete requirements.

 

I'm no expert in any of this but....

DVR sounds like your best solution

Have a look at some of the IP cameras. Some have an analogue out put as well (for your TV viewing) and the camera has a web server built in so you may be able to control it via c-gate/home gate etc. Axis and netcomm both have a range of IP cameras. I have had no experience with either of them.

The software will do the motion detection as mentioned previously.

Motion detection at the front door is probable better than a 30 snapshot.

The IP cameras images are available across the internet so this suits your LAN/WAN requirements.

Using a DVR solution you can also stream captured images to your work and I think it will e-mail you as well when motion is detected

 

Words to the wise when choosing the type of CCTV camera you want to use. I have used IP as well as standard cameras with my work at Auckland International Airport.
Basically you will need to decide what it is you are trying to capture. You mentioned trying to actually identify offenders at your front door. For this I would recommend using a standard camera with the image recorded locally onto a Harddrive or DVD RAM Drive. This gives you the ability to record onto a DVD or capture good quality still frames. You can feed this signal into a capture card that could then stream this over your link at lower quality. (Note: What happens if the crook decides to cut all the phone type cables before they enter your premises).

IP cameras tend not to have a good a quality picture as standard CCTV cameras the reason is bandwidth issues. They also tend to have a poorer low level light response as well. The quality is lower to enable real time streaming. When you come to try and identify an offender the image quality may not be sufficient. The other issue is the bandwidth itself, they (Auckland Airport) have a 100Mb link on a 1Gb backbone from the Domestic to the International terminals and the IP camera there just about consumed the whole of the bandwidth. The image tended to break-up and freeze when we intentionally sent data packets going the other way. Now this is a duplex link so it should give you an idea how bandwidth consuming it can be.

Black and white cameras have a better low light level response than color cameras. They also have better IR response. Having a PIR trigger a set of 100watt IR spots will make your garden look similar to daytime to the B/W camera but it will still be darkness to the prowler.

The better quality cameras also come with motion sensing that can be restricted to zones. That is - imagine the picture you are seeing on the screen is divided up into squares, you can tell the camera to ignore motion in certain squares or to trigger the recorder to record the event if motion is detected. This prevents you recording a tree branch moving in the wind or your neighbour's children jumping on a trampoline.

Another little trick is to have a sacrificial VCR. This can be an old non-functional unit as long as the lights work on the front. The idea is to let the offender think they have removed the evidence of their presence when actually it was recorded elsewhere.


Colin Smith

 

Thanks once more for your advice and suggestions, very helpful.

I was looking at C-Bus for the solution just to keep everything in 1 company, in theory easier for support etc. The cameras must be CAT based, IP or otherwise, to make use of the 1.6km running through the house!

The CAT cameras I have seen all rely on a power source at the camera end and I was assuming(?) the C-Bus cameras have the power supplied as any other input i.e. through the CAT. Am I correct in this assumption?

Thanks
Greg...

 

There are no C-Bus cameras. You definately wouldn't becable to use a C-Bus network to transfer video data anyway. Existing installations use normal cameras and seperate wiring for the video feeds.

 

Inline Power

You can get IP camera that run on ethernet and get power from a inline powered switch.

802.1af

www.axis.com

Nothing to do with cbus.

Most ip cameras have dry inputs. you could use a CBUS output to trigger the camera to email you a photo. The cbus delay is not a problem as most buffer 3 seconds of picture so it will email the pictures for 3 seconds before the contact closure.

Charles

 

ALso

look here. SOmeone posted this url in a security forum yesterday. Look good. Allows you to use normal cameras on an IP network and is secure

http://www.verint.com/video_solutio..._level2_category_id=27&article_level2a_id=110

Mick