2 IP Cam set up in & out door help

[barlew]

Hello

I’m in the process of installing data cables (CAT6) around my house and will be looking for 2 IP cameras to hook up to it.

1) The first will be an indoor baby monitor so we can watch our newborn at night from down stairs on the PC, also the grandparents can watch by login in from their house. This camera needs to see in the dark quite well, but won’t be used during the day. 1 way audio pickup would be a bonus

2) The other cam will monitor our front garden where the fence keeps getting kicking in. I will install the cam under the roof arch so it won’t need complete waterproofing. This one will also need to be able to pick out faces from about 22feet (5.5 metres) in darken light. The council have just put a big street light outside our house so it’s not in complete darkness. I will require PC software to control and record this over the Ethernet, I was looking at LuxRiot.

I’m not looking to buy a DVR or PVR as both will be accessed and operated via a PC. I’m also not looking to spend loads. Budget for baby monitor cam £40-80 and the outside up to £150

Any help or advice would be welcome as there are so many cams around I’m just getting lost!

[Jim]

One little bit of advice. If your cameras are viewable over the internet you have to be doubly sure the viewing is secure. In other words logging in must be password protected securely over the net. This will be necessary to keep from violating privacy restrictions. The camera in the house is your decision but one viewing outside becomes a public issue.

As for the cameras, you will still need night vision though the street light will help. You may also need to pick up additional lighting like an IR flood light. These can be gotten for maybe £40 on Ebay. I have two but I fitted a diffuser lens over them to scatter the light. They tend to send out a central spot at distances as close as 22 feet. I haven't tried Luxriot so can't comment on it yet.

Could the baby monitor be done using a night vision webcam? If the room is close enough to the PC a USB extension could be used. And webcams offer a pretty good image.

[barlew]

HI Jim, thanks for the reply

The out door cam will not be visable over the net, only the baby monitor and then only sometimes.

I assume the light given off by IR flood lights are not visable to the naked eye and give enough to pick up face recognition?

The Baby's room isnt close to the PC but i could get a USB to RJ45 adapter if my Web cam is good enough, thanks for the suggestion.

[Jim]

Originally Posted by barlew

I assume the light given off by IR flood lights are not visable to the naked eye and give enough to pick up face recognition?

No it's invisible. You can detect a faint red glow at the light itself (you won't see any glow from expensive ones) but the light flooding the area is not visible. The image is basically B&W as infra-red won't reveal colours. They do provide a decent image though in infra-red mode. It's basically what you see on Most-Haunted episodes.