How hard will it be to set it up?What features do you really need?How Much to SpendCost is usually the most important factor for home systems. There's generally not a history of repeated thefts or security problems with high value items (unlike businesses). Today, it's possible to deploy an acceptable security system for no more than $500 - $1,000 USD. [We'll make recommendations at the end.]How hard will it be to set up?Most homeowners will install the systems themselves or with the help of a friend. The two hardest aspects of home video surveillance that I see are: Setting up remove viewing of the system: If you are interested, take a look at Home Security.  Almost every homeowner ranks remote viewing of their house as a top priority (for peace of mind, make sure their house or pet is ok while they are away). Doing this can be very difficult (also problematic to maintain if you replace your home router). The same tactics that your Internet provider takes to make Internet access easy makes remote access of your video surveillance hard. You'll need to setup port forwarding, DDNS and change ports on cameras (if you have more than 1 camera). Each brand of home office router has different setup options and naming conventions making this even more difficult to accomplish.Connecting your cameras to a recorder/recording PC: Cameras often come with cables that are 6 feet / 1.5 meters (or less). If you need longer (and you often do), then you need to make or buy your own cables. Most people do not have the tools to make cables so buying is your best bet. The other option is wireless, though if you need to go through multiple walls, it frequently will not work.Audio monitoring: This is often important for people with elderly parents, children or pets. Audio provides a way for homeowners to see and hear what is going on. The only practical (cost-effective) way to do this in a home is to use IP cameras).The cheapest way to handle this is for the camera to have a ring of IR illuminators around the lens. This has big drawbacks for professional security applications (uneven illumination, limits in distance) but is cheap and ususally good enough if you are simply trying to illuminate a room.At the same time, there are 3 features that are commonly needed in professional applications that are not crucial for most homeowners:Long term storage: Business frequently store video for 1 month or longer. In your house, this is rarely the case. If there is an issue, you almost always know about it after the first few days or week.Continuous storage: Because of liability concerns, many business record video continuously. For most homeowners, as long as you get 1 or 2 representative images, that's enough.High resolution: Businesses often need coverage of large areas and for large numbers of strangers. In these conditions, higher resolution (like megapixel cameras) can be useful. While similar analog cameras are even less, the total cost and complexity for IP is cheaper. Use cameras that provide managed remote access: You really want to avoid setting up remote viewing yourself. It's not simply that it's time consuming, it's likely that you will not get it to work or that it will stop working after a few months.


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