Camera System Solution Ideas

[Anthony R.]

So I've been trying to find someone to install cameras into my buildings but I can't seem to find 1. people that do this and 2. solutions that work.

So far, companies want $1000+ to install 4 cameras and you have to have wifi at the house, there's no cell network solutions. Well, I don't live at the buildings and I don't want to setup an ISP at each of these places. It's expensive and way over kill for a camera system. 

So my idea is to do this:

Buy a camera system from harbor freight ($250 I think?). Get a lockable steal box for the housing that I can stick in the basement and get a mobile hotspot to access it with. I think the mobile hotspots are $100 to buy and then $0-$20 a month depending on data usage. I'd have to install it myself but the total setup should only run ~$350-$400 per building and only an extra ~$20 a month in expenses for each building. 

Is this a reasonable setup? Has anyone else done this? I feel like this should be a solved problem. I have no idea why this is such a pain to get rolling. 

[Joe Splitrock]

@Anthony R. I purchased a $300 system from Costco that is hard wired. It came with four cameras and can expand to eight. It is hard drive based DVR, so it holds the video locally, but you can get alerts remotely or view remotely with internet connection through an app. 

I would suggest not using wifi cams. They either store footage on the device itself or on the cloud. If they store on device, then destroying the device will destroy footage. If they store in the cloud, then you are paying subscription. Add to that the reliability concerns with wifi over wired. I use both wireless and wired, so this is based on real world. The hard wired is more reliable and better quality footage.

For hard wired, you don't need any internet connection, but without it you cannot remote view footage. You would need to be physically at the device. My guess is you could buy a low cost internet connection for $30 per month or you could make a deal with a tenant to ride on their connection. You could give them $10 off per month on rent for a physical connection into their router. It wouldn't be demanding on their system, because you would only use it occasionally to review footage.

Again the advantage of a hard wired system is reliability and security of the footage - assuming you lock the device in a secure room. Even if the cameras are destroyed, the footage stays on the DVR. Also with the hard wired system you can support 8 or more cameras from one interface. You can continous loop record so you never miss anything. Some wifi cameras trigger on action, so you miss the beginning of the event. Like my Ring door bell, it records people only walking away sometimes.

As far as installing the system, it is not super hard to do if you have access to run the wires. I ran mine in the attic. Systems like that are installed by people who do AV/home theater or companies that install security systems. I am not sure what the going rate should be. It really depends on how complicated the install is, which comes down to access to run wires and location of the cameras. I am not sure $1000 is unreasonable considering the work that could be involved.