Camera System Solution Ideas
Property Manager · Lakewood, OH · Member since 2015 · 250 posts · 258 votes
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.
@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.
@Anthony R. Is their a neighbor with wifi that might let you access their wifi for a small monthly fee?
Is their something going on that you need to keep an eye on? If you have a system that records at least you could go there after the fact and view any video locally. Maybe set up your phone as a hot spot so that you could get close to the house and pickup the signal to view any video without having to go in the property.
@Anthony R. That setup should work. My only question is the steal box inhibiting the signal. Especially if it's in the basement. For anything wireless, I would put the hotspot as close to the cameras as possible with minimal interference. Can you find a hiding space instead of the basement? Even the attic may work depending on your unit.
@John Underwood no and that's not really a scalable solution. I need something that I can roll out across all my buildings with the only hurdles being purchase and install.
@Keith Weigand yeah I was considering that interference problem. If I want cameras around the entire exterior, the only place I could put it that wouldn't require an excessive amount of cable would be the basement. That said, I can find ways to extend the wifi signal. I can mount it someplace else, run cat 5 from a router, etc etc etc
@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.
@Joe Splitrock yeah I wouldn't do wifi cameras ever. I'm planning on hardwiring them. I don't want to ask tenants for internet. That's why I was considering setting up mobile hotspots. They're super cheap.
For a company to do it, run conduit, all the equipment and stuff, yeah $1000+ isn't unreasonable. I just don't want to pay that much for this setup. So it's me being cheap not them asking to much I guess.
I'll probably roll a demo out in January to see if I can get a working setup going. I'll post my results here.
I appreciate your input and actual hands on experience. Thanks for the info.
@Joe Splitrock yeah I wouldn't do wifi cameras ever. I'm planning on hardwiring them. I don't want to ask tenants for internet. That's why I was considering setting up mobile hotspots. They're super cheap.
For a company to do it, run conduit, all the equipment and stuff, yeah $1000+ isn't unreasonable. I just don't want to pay that much for this setup. So it's me being cheap not them asking to much I guess.
I'll probably roll a demo out in January to see if I can get a working setup going. I'll post my results here.
I appreciate your input and actual hands on experience. Thanks for the info.
If you have the time, it is not hard to install yourself and I hear you on saving $1000. You will LOVE the cameras. It is very enlightening to see who is coming and going. Good tenants will like the security aspect and bad tenants will improve or move.
I've been wrestling with this issue and here are my thoughts NVR in the attic in a steel box. POE cameras with cables coming out of the box to say 4-6 cameras. All this could be done for ~$500
Problems.
Where to get power from? Our tenants are all separate metered which means technically they would be paying for the electric wherever we tapped in.
Tenant could cut the power to the system. Short term solution. A UPS could be included in the box.
Now onto the larger problem, storage and access. I say NVR because they are cheap and store local, I couldn't imagine storing 4 cameras worth of video over the internet.. even with just motion record my NAS starts overwriting at 30 days with 3tb harddrives. That's a LOT of data. + you need to store it on the cloud or on your own NAS.
So we have the data securely stored at the property, how do we access it for review short of going over and physically connecting to it?
Ideas:
Mobile GSM with monthly subscription $$$$
Pay for an internet service and include in the rent $$
Install your own network cables in a way that the tenant must connect the network cable to their router for the internet to work or offer to "set it up for them". (shady)$
knock off a few bucks from the rent so they allow you to connect to their internet. $$
Any other Ideas?