Cameras and security systems

[Wet Spot]

I’m removing my meter boxes with only coin option and replacing with two meter boxes in each bay for coin, credit card, and a bills. I currently have an alarm with A loud siren if motion, door open, shock on changer in equipment room. I Do not have an alarm service as the city my wash in has a 2-4 hour response time fora call like this so I’m not counting on a service.

moving forward I would like to have a camera system that I can manually sound a siren and talk through camera. I would also like a system that a motion light comes on, but with hours I can control like 1200 am-600am. I found a lorex system through Costco that covers all these additional features. Does anyone have any pros/cons on this newer technology.

i would also like a security system that can notify me immediately if I have an activation. I would like to add my meter boxes with adjustable shock sensors. Anyone have shock sensors on bay meter boxes. I don’t want to go through a monitoring company with a monthly fee. are there any products out there recommended and does this equipment cut the monitoring companies out of it making me the responsible person that notifies the police.

has anyone used any devise on vacuumed, I’ve been hit 4 times in two weeks

 

[Jeff_L]

I’ve been through several systems and haven’t found one that I absolutely love. The Lorex stuff has been my longest lasting, you get a bunch of cameras for a low price, but the biggest issue I’ve had with any system is the video management system. They’re poorly built, not kept up to date, clunky to use, etc. When you need them in a pinch to provide video to the police, it’s always a process to get the video cut and exported to a format that can be used.

I’ve been considering investing in the different Ring security cams. They have a lot of the features you’re looking for, no DVR to manage as all video goes to their cloud. Cops say it’s easy to share video with them from this system as well. I haven’t deployed any, just still looking.

 

[JGinther]

I'm curious on the Ring and other similar camera types: If offline, where does the video go? Does the unit store video until it can later upload and sync? I would never go with any camera or system that doesn't store locally also. Several break-ins start with a cut phone/cable line. Also, you would need a heck of an upload speed and data availability to upload high resolution feeds to the cloud. So I assume only low res feeds are uploaded. But high res is often what is needed to decipher a license plate...

 

[DiamondWash]

I have 128GB SD cards in all of my cameras because if the NVR is stolen I can still pull the SD Cards from each camera to retrieve footage. I don't trust cloud footage/storage yet I've heard too many horror stories of "lost footage" or it didn't record it!!!.

 

[mjwalsh]

I have 128GB SD cards in all of my cameras because if the NVR is stolen I can still pull the SD Cards from each camera to retrieve footage. I don't trust cloud footage/storage yet I've heard too many horror stories of "lost footage" or it didn't record it!!!.

It appears that Wyze has the instant notification with their camera-sensors & I can vouch for the time that I got a loiterer to leave immediately out of my laundromat via Wyze's two way audio! Also we made good use out of the Wyze SD card when we needed to present 100% evidence of what went down during a somewhat violent happening of a man bothering two people that included his "soon to be ex-wife"! Both audio & visual recording of the death threat portion of the incident was as good as it gets! If used outside they have to be protected which can be tricky if you need to use the cameras built in infrared.

Wet Spot .... it also appears that the Wyze motion detection can be programmed for specific hours like you need. When it comes to the shock sensors you may need to improvise a bit ... others may have more experience with shock sensors ... my experience is limited to mercury-balancing tilt switch sensors from Radio Shack.

Yikes ... 2 to 4 hour response time Wet Spot points out ... & some of them want to keep owners from owning their own firepower???

 

[Wet Spot]

It appears that Wyze has the instant notification with their camera-sensors & I can vouch for the time that I got a loiterer to leave immediately out of my laundromat via Wyze's two way audio! Also we made good use out of the Wyze SD card when we needed to present 100% evidence of what went down during a somewhat violent happening of a man bothering two people that included his "soon to be ex-wife"! Both audio & visual recording of the death threat portion of the incident was as good as it gets! If used outside they have to be protected which can be tricky if you need to use the cameras built in infrared.

Wet Spot .... it also appears that the Wyze motion detection can be programmed for specific hours like you need. When it comes to the shock sensors you may need to improvise a bit ... others may have more experience with shock sensors ... my experience is limited to mercury-balancing tilt switch sensors from Radio Shack.

Yikes ... 2 to 4 hour response time Wet Spot points out ... & some of them want to keep owners from owning their own firepower???

 

[Wet Spot]

Yeah, time varies, but I’m not counting on them. I’m also in the business, sadly they are 80-100 cops shy of what they should have.

 

[Jeff_L]

There will be trade-offs with any system of course, Ring wouldn’t be perfect, but neither is any other vendor. Just have to prioritize your needs and pick a system that best matches

 

[Damoni88]

Backstreet surveillance provue system is absolutely one of the best on the market right now. Lorex i find to be trash compared to Backstreet cameras. 30fps with the new provue and has two way audio system. You can get them with sd card or you can buy a external hard drive that hooks up to nvr. I would highly recommend these to carwash owners as i have the systems installed at 2 of my washs.

 

[Earl Weiss]

................................t the biggest issue I’ve had with any system is the video management system. They’re poorly built, not kept up to date, clunky to use, etc. When you need them in a pinch to provide video to the police, it’s always a process to get the video cut and exported to a format that can be used.

I don't have rex but I found the simplest thing to do is use my smart phone to record the monitor image and text or e-mail from there. In fact I e-mail to myself and save to office desktop which is backed up with Carbonite. if I ever think I may need it later.

 

[JMMUSTANG]

Backstreet surveillance provue system is absolutely one of the best on the market right now. Lorex i find to be trash compared to Backstreet cameras. 30fps with the new provue and has two way audio system. You can get them with sd card or you can buy a external hard drive that hooks up to nvr. I would highly recommend these to carwash owners as i have the systems installed at 2 of my washs.

Do you have license plate recognition cameras? If so how clear is the video?

 

[Damoni88]

Do you have license plate recognition cameras? If so how clear is the video?

Yes i do. Its crystal clear at 30fps 4k.

 

[Damoni88]

Yes i do. Its crystal clear at 30fps 4k.

 

[Roz]

We use both Wyze and Lorex. Wyze are cost effective, easy to use, easy to share access with employees, and what a camera should be. Unfortunately they are not waterproof and I have not found any third party box to put them inside. This was a pet project from a graduate student so no idea if they will come out with more innovative cameras. Would purchase their new products sight unseen.

Lorex cameras are OK and inexpensive for a 4K camera. We have 4K and 2 PTZs. Easy to install, customer and tech support are IMPOSSIBLE to reach. Emails go unanswered for weeks and then their answers are usually not helpful. App is fine however the cameras are very sensitive to IP address issues. Constantly fixing a camera on the 16 camera system due to an IP address issue that their tech support people are unwilling or unable to help us resolve.

If price is the driving factor go for them, if reliability is the driving factor I would see if you have a HIK Vision rep in the area. Owners I have spoken with and visited seem to be very happy with those systems. More expensive since they are not DYI and you need to go through their reps but you get what you pay for.....

 

[Sequoia]

I can recommend the Synology NAS systems. I have a great deal of experience with them. They are a NAS "network attached storage" plus a NVR.

I have used these for years, but my biggest complaint was there was no dedicated client program to use to configure, view, and playback. So you had to use a "browser" with plug-ins. Not my favorite method. Synology recently released their new "client workstation" program for surveillance and it works well. The other complaint was no HDMI output to a monitor. Again, that has been updated. Cost for the base NVR, with 4 camera licenses, is $200. I have this unit running at my home right now:

Product List | Synology Inc.

Whether for work or play, Synology offers a wide range of network-attached storage (NAS) choices for every occasion. Compare specifications below and find the right model for you.

www.synology.com

I just negotiated a quantity price on 1080p cameras including mini bullet and domes. Price each is about $100. I have these units running on the Synology NVR and they work well. I do have 4k cameras as well, and connected to the synology; however, there is no "free lunch." A 4k camera storing its video takes up an enormous amount of disk space compared to 1080p (HD.) With 1080p and a varifocal (zoom) lens I can do everything I need at my wash including reading license plates. Plus the max most phones can display is 1080p anyway. I am an absentee owner, so remotely downloading gluttonous 4k video files compared to 1080p was not appealing.

For $200, including 4 camera licenses, this system cannot be beat. In my opinion. You do need to add drives to it, but you can add a pair of 1TB drives cheap, or much larger ones. I run twin 6TB drives in mine. And I have a new configuration on order for my home which will have 3x16 TB drives.

The NVR1218 advertises it can handle 12 cameras. But beware, those are 720p cameras running at 30fps. You could probably run 8 or so 1080p cameras at 15fps and all would be well. I will know soon as I will be implementing this system in my wash soon. Right now I have 5 cameras connected and all works fine.

I am purchasing a much stronger NAS for my home, which is a DS918+. With this system I could run as many cameras as I want, whether they are 4k or not doesn't matter. But it is also a $540 item instead of $200. One of the nice things with Synology is you can start with their $200 NVR and if you outgrow it, just purchase and swap in a more powerful unit. All your investment is protected except the first $200 box you purchased.

 

[mjwalsh]

The quickness that an operator can share with law enforcement should have a bearing on the system we choose. BTW, I talked to one of the city's IT people that I have known for a long time & he thought sending via email a common file format might have legal technicalities for the sender & receiver. I have been going over his head for about 2 years now sending smaller footage files via email ... sometimes zipped sometimes not.

Some police officers were starting to not cooperate the best way with bringing their own thumb drive ... which was not right IMO ... that meant the onus of providing the thumb drive would be on us??? Not pleasant.

Do you guys link your video files to a cloud (dropbox, google drive etc) for law enforcement at whatever level??? One day (about a year ago) some very tight lipped secretive US Marshall people had some specific surveillance needs when they physically stopped by at our facility. The state prison is less than 2 miles from our location east of Bismarck ... escapees are pretty rare though.

Surveillance should be a mutual public concern when it comes to law enforcement ... something to possibly use as a lever when an inexperienced police officer "gets too big for his britches" taking us & our time a bit too much for granted! Some older ones can be rascals too ... to be fair.

 

[Sequoia]

There are specific rules about "chain of custody" for evidence. But most situations a car wash owner is going to encounter don't rise to a very high level, hence all sorts of responses from police. I have heard of a local judge who insisted the business owner BRING IN THE DVR as he would not accept anything except watching video from the machine who recorded it.

My recent dumping incident resulted in the deputy asking me to play the video on my computer, then record it on my phone and send it to him. But once again, that is a pretty low level offense.

 

[Wet Spot]

I’m callin bs on the officer or deputy if they pull chain of custody. I would ask to view video to see if the quality is good, a suspect is clear enough to be seen and used for follow up, or a plate is captured for follow up investigation. I would ask to have footage be downloaded to my flash drive, a cd burned, or footage emailed. That’s how I would deal with video

 

[PaulLovesJamie]

I can recommend the Synology NAS systems.

I have also used Synology NAS systems for a long time, I second the recommendation.
I have not used their nvr - yet. But I almost certainly will if/when my lorex systems fail or need a significant upgrade.

 

[Earl Weiss]

There are specific rules about "chain of custody" for evidence.

I was subpoenaed to testify as were other business owners, in a murder case to verify footage came from my cameras. Eventualy we did not testify. Not sure if they plead out or defense counsel stipulated footage was accurate.