Hi folks, My son has been asked to see if he can set up a small cctv system in a club he works. He is a second year student, studying sound technology in Cardiff. Most of what he has written is gobbledygook to me, so I’ll quote it verbatim in the hope that someone here might be able to help him out. I’m pretty sure there will be a beer or two in it for you if he’s sucessful- so next time you are in cardiff let me/ him know 😉

“Hi guys.

The place I work for have unofficially contracted me to re-build their CCTV system. Their current system is Swann branded with a 500GB DVR that’s recently bitten the dust and 6 analogue cameras with one of them being PTZ (Pan Tilt Zoom) capable. They have two spare cameras that they want to add to cover a couple of other areas.

I’m on the look out for a good value 8 channel DVR. It needs to be capable of controlling the PTZ camera mentioned above and it needs to be able to connect to a VGA computer monitor. Remote viewing isn’t required but would be nice.

Can anyone recommend one that they have personally used for a long period of time, as in 3+ years? I ask this because the current Swann one has died a month out of its 1 year warranty.

One thing I have considered is building a DVR with a computer and a PCI capture card. Can anyone tell me if the £30 cards I keep finding on eBay are any good? Will they work with Zoneminder? (free software DVR for Linux) I have an old Dell Dimension 2400 (Celeron 2.5GHz, 1GB RAM, currently no HDD but I’ll add that) desktop that I’m willing to donate to them to run it with. It’s just taking up space in my cupboard and I have no use for it. Using a computer might work well I think because it’s easier to fix if it does break and it seems like it might be the cheaper option. The downside is it uses a bit more power and I’m not sure how well that computer will stand up to being left on 24/7.

We’re in the UK if that’s of any importance. Price is a factor here. It needs to be as cheap as possible while still being fairly reliable.

Thanks!”

Oh well, if no-one else has got anything. We’ve been using a Bosch DVR for a couple of years now with no problems. Can’t find the model online though so it may have been replaced with a newer one. Seems to work well without having to mess around.

Don’t go down the DIY route. He will spend the rest of his days being the person to fix it and document it and if anything goes wrong and if one day you actually need it and it doesn’t work it will be horrible.

I setup a Zoneminder based system at work but using some Axis network cameras we had left over from another project (upwards of £200 each) so I didn’t have to fiddle with analogue boards. That was pretty fiddly to setup but there are quite a few good walk through guides on the web.
The quality of that system is pretty good but I wouldn’t want to rely on it; we use it as an internal deterrent rather than for catching intruders.
You can get cheap 8 channel CCTV systems from places like Maplin – but the quality of the cameras and the recordings you get from those don’t really make it worth the bother.
As leffeboy says you’ll end up making a noose for yourself going the DIY route and unless you check it regularly you could find it’s not been working just when you need it.
I’d suggest talking to a local security company to quote for a ‘proper’ maintained system or just fixing up dummy cameras to act as a deterrent…

Thanks for the advice folks, much appreciated.

http://www.cpc.co.uk

Once again, cheers folks. Robert can view this thread but isn’t registered so can’t comment.

Note to Boy 1- please register, it is dead easy to do and it will save me doing your work! signed, Dad

Unofficially contracted. It’s Still a contract. I would be proceeding with extreme caution.

If he knows his stuff why is he asking us?
What happens if his installation goes on fire?
Is he drilling holes in walls?
Will he be making good to suit the fire officer?
Data Protection and security?
Working at Height?
Asbestos?
Other fibres?