Anyone using Montavue Surveillance?

[OurTown]

We have been going back and forth debating on purchasing a Lorex or a Backstreet system. They are not really apples to apples but there is also a large price difference. The Backstreet system we have spec'd out is about $13K and the Lorex at about $7K. We really like the Backstreet and does so much more but jeez that is a lot of extra cabbage. Recently we started to look at Montavue and they seem to have what we are looking for. The viewing app is higher rated than the other two and has many if not all the features of the Backstreet systems at about the cost of Lorex. It appears they have US based customer service. The only two things that we noticed that Backstreet has over Montavue is the NDAA compliance and it has a five year warranty. (Lorex has one year and Montavue has two year) Anyone have a Montavue system or looked into them?

 

[Greg Pack]

Can't help you on Montavue but I'm using lorex home and although far from perfect it's like $1500 for 16 bullet cameras and a DVR. I had a three year old lorex DVR crap out after warranty and I just bought a replacement for around $300. For SS/IBA I think it's adequate. I can get tags and can see the bill denomination a customer puts in the changer. I'm just not sure I would get 7K out of value out of a system, much less 13K unless I was running an express tunnel and damage claims were a regular occurrence.

 

[Keno]

What features do you really want/need? That should be your starting point. Blue iris is a good solution with lots of features at reasonable pricing.

 

[UtahYoutubeGuy]

I have Lorex at my SS car wash and its "OK" It kind of all depends on what cameras you get and I think you can always depend on Lorex being around and making updates.

I am working on a contract for a catholic school that has been using backstreet for years and essentially they are just taking white label chinese hardware and rebranding it. Were in the process of switching over their provider to a local security company.

I have a new site that I am probably going to find another camera solution for.

With that said inside my equipment room I use Simplisafe with motion, door, and flood sensors and hook up their cameras to view inside the bill changer for error codes and also monitor equipment. That works great as well.

 

[OurTown]

Can't help you on Montavue but I'm using lorex home and although far from perfect it's like $1500 for 16 bullet cameras and a DVR. I had a three year old lorex DVR crap out after warranty and I just bought a replacement for around $300. For SS/IBA I think it's adequate. I can get tags and can see the bill denomination a customer puts in the changer. I'm just not sure I would get 7K out of value out of a system, much less 13K unless I was running an express tunnel and damage claims were a regular occurrence.

We are soon going to be a 24/7 friction wash and SS and we now have two separate buildings which complicates surveillance. A $1,500 Lorex system won't cut it. On the new building we are planning on 4 inspection cameras on the new auto entrance, 2 in the 65' long bay (might need more) and 4 inspection cameras on the exit. One for the pay station, one for the changer/vending area, two in each self serve bay, two on the light pole of the remote-ish located double vac island, one in the pump room, one at the end of each wall of the existing building, and maybe a few on the outside wall of the new building. If my math is correct that is 31 cameras so we were planning on a 32 camera system. 90% percent of the time we were able to get plates with our old Lorex 2K system but several times we could not. One of the incidences that happened in broad daylight cost us $thousands$ and we could not get a plate number. We would like to have at least two weeks of footage at the highest quality level. With our Lorex system we tried to record only motion but many times it either recorded when it should not have or not recorded when it should have been. Whatever system we get we will try this again to save hard drive space. Looking at getting a 20 TB hard drive to start with and see where it goes. I agree with you about probably not getting the value out of a $13K system.

 

[OurTown]

What features do you really want/need? That should be your starting point. Blue iris is a good solution with lots of features at reasonable pricing.

Dedicated LPR camera and the more expensive NVRs have AI search that we are hopeful will save us time searching. (especially if the record only motion feature does not work) Blue Iris looks like only software to me. Am I missing something? Is this a spec it yourself concept? I'm not against that idea but would need more education on the subject and some guidance. Where would a surveillance noob start?

 

[OurTown]

I have Lorex at my SS car wash and its "OK" It kind of all depends on what cameras you get and I think you can always depend on Lorex being around and making updates.

I am working on a contract for a catholic school that has been using backstreet for years and essentially they are just taking white label chinese hardware and rebranding it. Were in the process of switching over their provider to a local security company.

I have a new site that I am probably going to find another camera solution for.

With that said inside my equipment room I use Simplisafe with motion, door, and flood sensors and hook up their cameras to view inside the bill changer for error codes and also monitor equipment. That works great as well.

From what I gather all cameras and NVRs are Chinese made by just a few manufacturers but there are many different quality levels. Also the pre packaged systems companies don't seem to want you to know what the make and model of them are.

 

[Keno]

Dedicated LPR camera and the more expensive NVRs have AI search that we are hopeful will save us time searching. (especially if the record only motion feature does not work) Blue Iris looks like only software to me. Am I missing something? Is this a spec it yourself concept? I'm not against that idea but would need more education on the subject and some guidance. Where would a surveillance noob start?

Yes, you are correct. Blue Iris is a full featured software you install on your own windows hardware. Works with basically all cameras, so you can get a high quality system for a significantly better price than similar quality pre-packaged systems. We used these on our liquor retail stores before we sold them and got in the car wash business. Lots of good documentation and youtube videos that will basically guide you through anything you would want to do with the software. Definitely will be more setup and configuration on your end though than a pre-packaged system.

 

[Overachiever]

I DIY'd it with blue iris.. built my own computer, bought a switch, bought IP cameras, a few 12 packs to convince some friends to help me run conduit and crimp cat 6. Spent some time reading on ipcamtalk.com to help get blue iris dialed in and to find cameras that were good at specific things like LPR.

Definitely saved a lot of money and built a much higher quality system than the lorex I used to have. I found it annoying and a lot of trial and error to get blue iris dialed in, and TBH I probably still have work to do there but I'll need a camera solvable crime to occur that my current configuration can't solve to motivate myself. In that regard having a prebuilt NVR is nice.