Webcam Surveillance

Hi

I need some info or input about a webcam surveillance system for my
friends store. My friend wants to have 3 webcams connected to a pc
(wired, nor wireless), and those webcams must be able to record video
during the working hours (also with voice if webcams support such
thing). The videos will be stored either in an internal hdd of the pc
or an external hdd (if space is an issue) connected to the laptop. It
is expected to record about 7-8 hrs of video for each webcam, thus
making a total of 24 hrs of video approx. A decent quality of picture
is expected as well as sound. Anyone can suggest the neccessary
hardware and software to accomplish this? I am looking for a system
that can be easily set-up and doesn't cost too much.

I know about commercial software (or even freeware ones) that can allow
you to record video from a webcam to the pc. But i'm not sure how to
deal with 3 webcams, are there any software that allows you to record
video from more than one webcam, what will be the size of the video
file after 8 hrs of recording, approx. (for one webcam)?

Any ideas, suggestions, questions are welcome.


Best

O.

Re: Webcam Surveillance

"O." writes:

> Any ideas, suggestions, questions are welcome.

Got a Fry's electronics in your neck of the woods? It's a huge
electronics store that has everything from components to scanners,
to...and entire aisle of various webcam and digital video surveillance
bits that'll do what you desire.

They come in the form of PCI cards, standalone DVR boxes, standalone
switchers, most come with software, some cameras allow you to remote
control tilt/pan and zoom, etc.

I was amazed at how much off the shelf crap there was to do these
things these days.

--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

Re: Webcam Surveillance

"O." writes:

>Hi

>I need some info or input about a webcam surveillance system for my
>friends store. My friend wants to have 3 webcams connected to a pc
>(wired, nor wireless), and those webcams must be able to record video
>during the working hours (also with voice if webcams support such
>thing). The videos will be stored either in an internal hdd of the pc
>or an external hdd (if space is an issue) connected to the laptop. It
>is expected to record about 7-8 hrs of video for each webcam, thus
>making a total of 24 hrs of video approx. A decent quality of picture
>is expected as well as sound. Anyone can suggest the neccessary
>hardware and software to accomplish this? I am looking for a system
>that can be easily set-up and doesn't cost too much.

Depends on what he wants to record. at 10fps and 400x300 resolution, you
have about 1MB/sec. 8Hr= 30GB, which is a lot of hard drive space. Now you
could compress it, and maybe get a factor of 10, with some loss in
resolution. So you could certainly record to a 200 GB drive even raw.

On the other hand, why? Wiping the drive every 24 hours does not give him
much time to discover something is happening. Ie, he would have to review
the tapes nightly, and that is a huge job. On the other hand at 1fps he
could record for over a week.




>I know about commercial software (or even freeware ones) that can allow
>you to record video from a webcam to the pc. But i'm not sure how to
>deal with 3 webcams, are there any software that allows you to record
>video from more than one webcam, what will be the size of the video
>file after 8 hrs of recording, approx. (for one webcam)?

Depends on the fps and the resolution.

3 webcams are just 3x1 webcam. Ie, if you can record one, just attack a
different copy of that recording program to each cam, and you have 3
recording. Does he want B/W or colour?



>Any ideas, suggestions, questions are welcome.


>Best

>O.

Re: Webcam Surveillance

O. wrote:
> Hi
>
> I need some info or input about a webcam surveillance system for my
> friends store. My friend wants to have 3 webcams connected to a pc
> (wired, nor wireless), and those webcams must be able to record video
> during the working hours (also with voice if webcams support such
> thing). The videos will be stored either in an internal hdd of the pc
> or an external hdd (if space is an issue) connected to the laptop. It
> is expected to record about 7-8 hrs of video for each webcam, thus
> making a total of 24 hrs of video approx. A decent quality of picture
> is expected as well as sound. Anyone can suggest the neccessary
> hardware and software to accomplish this? I am looking for a system
> that can be easily set-up and doesn't cost too much.
>
> I know about commercial software (or even freeware ones) that can allow
> you to record video from a webcam to the pc. But i'm not sure how to
> deal with 3 webcams, are there any software that allows you to record
> video from more than one webcam, what will be the size of the video
> file after 8 hrs of recording, approx. (for one webcam)?
>
> Any ideas, suggestions, questions are welcome.
>
>
> Best
>
> O.
>

I think D-link and Netcomm have cameras/software that do all this out of
the box.
Cheers,
E.

Re: Webcam Surveillance

O. wrote:
> Hi
>
> I need some info or input about a webcam surveillance system for my
> friends store. My friend wants to have 3 webcams connected to a pc
> (wired, nor wireless), and those webcams must be able to record video
> during the working hours (also with voice if webcams support such
> thing). The videos will be stored either in an internal hdd of the pc
> or an external hdd (if space is an issue) connected to the laptop. It
> is expected to record about 7-8 hrs of video for each webcam, thus
> making a total of 24 hrs of video approx. A decent quality of picture
> is expected as well as sound. Anyone can suggest the neccessary
> hardware and software to accomplish this? I am looking for a system
> that can be easily set-up and doesn't cost too much.
>
> I know about commercial software (or even freeware ones) that can allow
> you to record video from a webcam to the pc. But i'm not sure how to
> deal with 3 webcams, are there any software that allows you to record
> video from more than one webcam, what will be the size of the video
> file after 8 hrs of recording, approx. (for one webcam)?
>
> Any ideas, suggestions, questions are welcome.
>
>
> Best
>
> O.
>
I can recommend Axis cameras (207). They will do what you want whether
you are running Windows or Unix. The cameras have an ethernet interface.
They are not cheap (>$200) but they work well.

--
Using ( X | KDE ) with OpenBSD?
See Dave's OpenBSD | X | KDE corner at
http://dfeustel.home.mindspring.com !!!

Re: Webcam Surveillance

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