CCTV Systems and Cameras from cctv42.co.uk
Discussion
Are you thinking of installing CCTV at home or at work?
At CCTV42.co.uk we want our customers to be well-informed and know exactly what they are buying. On our website we use a lot of photographs and even videos to advise about various aspects of CCTV, the products themselves and how best to install them.
Many of our products are unique to CCTV42. Even when you see a similar or identical looking camera, for instance, it is most likely that the electronics inside ours will be different. We have worked with top manufacturers in Asia to create bespoke 'Pro' and 'Diamond' Sony electronics packages. The finished products are the results of many hours of testing, both in daytime and at night.
Obviously we're here to sell stuff - but hopefully we can provide a lot of useful information as well. To that end, PistonHeads and CCTV42 have teamed up to provide this thread as a platform on which advice for both home and business CCTV systems can be sought.
Ultimately we are going to have a bias towards our own products but, as our noble leader Henry says, "If it's good gear and we don’t sell it now we will do soon". Regular trips to Asia mean we're able to keep abreast of what’s out there and keep tabs on new trends. We even have our own in-house IT boffin who is able to access your CCTV remotely over the internet. The technology exists for even modest CCTV systems to be monitored on a remote PC or laptop, and even on your iPhone or PDA.
There are a number of reasons for fitting CCTV. It acts as a deterrent, it provides evidence should something happen and it can also help you in circumstances where people are making false claims against you. "Your fork lift just put that scrape down the side of my car," even though you know the machine was nowhere near their car and the damage looks weeks old. We have worked with the home office department of science to better understand their requirements for good CCTV, (which isn't as simple as 500 TV lines and real time recording). We are passionate in our belief that CCTV can be a useful investment but you do need to think a little about what you want to achieve. We are here to help.

Email: info@cctv42.co.uk
Call: 01895 233311
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said:
PistonHeads and www.cctv42.co.uk have teamed up to...
The PR ancestor of 'working in partnership' 
I've been on your website and have to say well done.
Loads of info and easy to understand, I've been on a couple of other sites looking for cctv and found them far more confusing than they obviously need to be !
I want to film our cars on the front drive and the front of the house in general, I might film a passage way to the side of the house, possibly even the back of the house because there is a pathway running alongside our back garden fence where people could climb over but wasn't going to fit them at the moment. Is it difficult to set the DVR recorder to take an additional camera or cameras at a later stage?
Also I like the idea of being able to see the cameras when I'm away. You say it's possible but how hard is it - I work in IT, so am reasonably handy with a PC.
Any suggestions in terms of camera selection and so on?
I want to film our cars on the front drive and the front of the house in general, I might film a passage way to the side of the house, possibly even the back of the house because there is a pathway running alongside our back garden fence where people could climb over but wasn't going to fit them at the moment. Is it difficult to set the DVR recorder to take an additional camera or cameras at a later stage?
Also I like the idea of being able to see the cameras when I'm away. You say it's possible but how hard is it - I work in IT, so am reasonably handy with a PC.
Any suggestions in terms of camera selection and so on?
Hi there Olly.
Firstly thanks for the compliments, we spent a long time planning, researching and building the site so it's always good to hear we're getting somewhere near the mark. The problem is that most people just think cctv is all the same and so you just need to go out and buy a box of cctv. That obviously is not the case. There are many variables, a mistake with any one of which could potentially render your cctv system next to useless.
Hopefully the site explains some of the differences and holds your hand through the selection process. Failing that of course we're here to help !
I haven't see the site where you plan to install the cctv but from what you describe I would suggest you consider fitting the following:
DVR recorder choice :
Our 4 channel DVR is a good bit of kit. h.264 compression, hexaplex operation (lets you do loads of different things at once), D1 recording resolution (industry best), remote accessible over the internet, built in client updater (means you don't need a static IP address) and it even comes with a mouse and a remote control. Oh, and it has a VGA output as well as an analogue output.
Fit the the DVR in one of your upstairs rooms, preferably at the front of the house. That way you can run the cable out and across the outside of the house to the cameras. I would suggest two cameras at the front of the house, one at the side to film the alley way and 1 at the back of the house.
Camera choice :
This is probably the most important bit to get right. From what you have described I'd think our B4 series day / night cameras would do the job nicely. There are Here. The reason I'm suggesting them is because they have powerful built in infra red lighting which switches on automatically in low light conditions and they also feature zoom lenses. A zoom lens allows you to tighten in or widen out so that your chosen subject fills the screen. The most common fault we see with cctv installations is where people just fit a wide angle lens camera thinking it will cover a wide area. They end up wasting pixels on unimportant subject matter and as a result the bits they do want to film aren't detailed enough.
The side alley camera could be another B4 day / night camera or even one of the smaller K-series day / night cameras. The same for the rear of the house. As an alternative to using standard day / night cameras you might consider what's known as an open faced vandal dome camera shown Here, fit the larger ones to ensure satisfactory infra red performance.
As an alternative to fitting a third camera filming the alley to the side of your house think about running a cable down to one of These cameras fitted on the outside wall right by your front door. They don't have built in infra red lighting but because all our Sony Pro pack cameras film down to 0.01 lux they don't need much help by way of lighting so when you open the door the light from inside your home be suffice. A small light fitted above the door would also work well. The feature of this camera is that because it doesn't have infra red illumination you don't get any glare from close up objects at night so someone approaching your door gets filmed accurately from a close distance day or night. As a deterrent to cold calling scammers (hello we're from the water board etc), or people hoping to fish your car keys through the letter box it works a treat.
In terms of adding additional cameras at a later stage absolutely no problem at all. It's won't disturb the settings you already have in place for existing cameras. The only thing to consider is whether to fit a larger hard drive in advance when buying the DVR. Don't forget if you order the DVR and hard drive together we'll fit and format it for you F.O.C.
Finally networking:
Viewing the DVR over your computer system is quite simple. Just plug the DVR into the back of your internet router using one of our DVR to hub leads. Then follow the instructions on our connecting your cctv to a network video Here.
To access the cctv remotely using the internet is slightly more tricky although by the sound of things in your case it will be simple enough. You need to set up port forwarding on your internet router and arrange a client updating service using someone like DynDns to take care of any dynamic IP address issues. The DVR can automatically update DynDns using it's built in client updater.
For the less technically minded folks we offer a remote set up service for viewing our systems over the internet outlined in our remote set up service video Here
Sorry for the long winded reply but there was quite a lot of info to cover. I hope you found it useful and feel free to give us a call at any time during office hours.
Henry
cctv42.co.uk
Firstly thanks for the compliments, we spent a long time planning, researching and building the site so it's always good to hear we're getting somewhere near the mark. The problem is that most people just think cctv is all the same and so you just need to go out and buy a box of cctv. That obviously is not the case. There are many variables, a mistake with any one of which could potentially render your cctv system next to useless.
Hopefully the site explains some of the differences and holds your hand through the selection process. Failing that of course we're here to help !
I haven't see the site where you plan to install the cctv but from what you describe I would suggest you consider fitting the following:
DVR recorder choice :
Our 4 channel DVR is a good bit of kit. h.264 compression, hexaplex operation (lets you do loads of different things at once), D1 recording resolution (industry best), remote accessible over the internet, built in client updater (means you don't need a static IP address) and it even comes with a mouse and a remote control. Oh, and it has a VGA output as well as an analogue output.
Fit the the DVR in one of your upstairs rooms, preferably at the front of the house. That way you can run the cable out and across the outside of the house to the cameras. I would suggest two cameras at the front of the house, one at the side to film the alley way and 1 at the back of the house.
Camera choice :
This is probably the most important bit to get right. From what you have described I'd think our B4 series day / night cameras would do the job nicely. There are Here. The reason I'm suggesting them is because they have powerful built in infra red lighting which switches on automatically in low light conditions and they also feature zoom lenses. A zoom lens allows you to tighten in or widen out so that your chosen subject fills the screen. The most common fault we see with cctv installations is where people just fit a wide angle lens camera thinking it will cover a wide area. They end up wasting pixels on unimportant subject matter and as a result the bits they do want to film aren't detailed enough.
The side alley camera could be another B4 day / night camera or even one of the smaller K-series day / night cameras. The same for the rear of the house. As an alternative to using standard day / night cameras you might consider what's known as an open faced vandal dome camera shown Here, fit the larger ones to ensure satisfactory infra red performance.
As an alternative to fitting a third camera filming the alley to the side of your house think about running a cable down to one of These cameras fitted on the outside wall right by your front door. They don't have built in infra red lighting but because all our Sony Pro pack cameras film down to 0.01 lux they don't need much help by way of lighting so when you open the door the light from inside your home be suffice. A small light fitted above the door would also work well. The feature of this camera is that because it doesn't have infra red illumination you don't get any glare from close up objects at night so someone approaching your door gets filmed accurately from a close distance day or night. As a deterrent to cold calling scammers (hello we're from the water board etc), or people hoping to fish your car keys through the letter box it works a treat.
In terms of adding additional cameras at a later stage absolutely no problem at all. It's won't disturb the settings you already have in place for existing cameras. The only thing to consider is whether to fit a larger hard drive in advance when buying the DVR. Don't forget if you order the DVR and hard drive together we'll fit and format it for you F.O.C.
Finally networking:
Viewing the DVR over your computer system is quite simple. Just plug the DVR into the back of your internet router using one of our DVR to hub leads. Then follow the instructions on our connecting your cctv to a network video Here.
To access the cctv remotely using the internet is slightly more tricky although by the sound of things in your case it will be simple enough. You need to set up port forwarding on your internet router and arrange a client updating service using someone like DynDns to take care of any dynamic IP address issues. The DVR can automatically update DynDns using it's built in client updater.
For the less technically minded folks we offer a remote set up service for viewing our systems over the internet outlined in our remote set up service video Here
Sorry for the long winded reply but there was quite a lot of info to cover. I hope you found it useful and feel free to give us a call at any time during office hours.
Henry

cctv42.co.uk
Edited by Henry-F on Saturday 20th February 10:59
We're based in Uxbridge but ship Nationwide using a fully tracked courier service which is free of charge on orders over £250.
If you really want something special for your shop we do a great internal ptz (pan tilt zoom) system Here which allows you to either have the cameras stationary or select pre-set points (including the zoom setting) and then tour between each point in turn. Using a number of cameras and having them all moving acts as a huge deterrent to theft because you're never sure where the cameras are pointing.
We made a little demo video to show the basic operational functions Here
Failing that we carry a good selection of static cameras in a range of different lens combinations. Everything on the site is in stock.
Make sure you fit a customer facing "call" monitor so they can see the cctv is in operation. All our DVR recorders feature a call monitor output which shows camera footage but not set up information as and when you make any changes. Being hexaplex the call monitor also remains working when you are changing settings, reviewing footage or making back-ups etc.
If you do want to fit the internal PTZ cameras give me a call and I'll try and sort you out with a bit of a deal.
As for the name - cctv42 it remains
All the best
Henry
If you really want something special for your shop we do a great internal ptz (pan tilt zoom) system Here which allows you to either have the cameras stationary or select pre-set points (including the zoom setting) and then tour between each point in turn. Using a number of cameras and having them all moving acts as a huge deterrent to theft because you're never sure where the cameras are pointing.
We made a little demo video to show the basic operational functions Here
Failing that we carry a good selection of static cameras in a range of different lens combinations. Everything on the site is in stock.
Make sure you fit a customer facing "call" monitor so they can see the cctv is in operation. All our DVR recorders feature a call monitor output which shows camera footage but not set up information as and when you make any changes. Being hexaplex the call monitor also remains working when you are changing settings, reviewing footage or making back-ups etc.
If you do want to fit the internal PTZ cameras give me a call and I'll try and sort you out with a bit of a deal.
As for the name - cctv42 it remains

All the best
Henry

Henry,
would welcome your suggestions regarding the following which I posted quite a while ago:
"The local sports club I belong to has been damaged a few times by kids - this is predominantly locks on the kitchen door being broken, a serving hatch smashed or them just using the place to smoke etc. Very fortunately, there hasn't been serious damage but we would like to be able to keep a closer eye on the place and record any issues.
So, the reason it's slightly problematic is that, it would be very difficult to conceal recording equipment without the vandals also being able to find it in the building or be able to damage cameras. So, we really need something where the cameras are very small or completely hidden (inside and out) and potentially a wireless set up to a neighbour's house (they would be a club member). There is power at the club house but distance for reliable wireless to the houses might be an issue (say 100m). If the distance is an issue, we could try to do something better about powering and concealing the recording equipment. Ideally, the recording stuff must work in the dark.
Any thoughts as to the best type of setup?"
Of course, more than happy to call and chat if it's easier.
would welcome your suggestions regarding the following which I posted quite a while ago:
"The local sports club I belong to has been damaged a few times by kids - this is predominantly locks on the kitchen door being broken, a serving hatch smashed or them just using the place to smoke etc. Very fortunately, there hasn't been serious damage but we would like to be able to keep a closer eye on the place and record any issues.
So, the reason it's slightly problematic is that, it would be very difficult to conceal recording equipment without the vandals also being able to find it in the building or be able to damage cameras. So, we really need something where the cameras are very small or completely hidden (inside and out) and potentially a wireless set up to a neighbour's house (they would be a club member). There is power at the club house but distance for reliable wireless to the houses might be an issue (say 100m). If the distance is an issue, we could try to do something better about powering and concealing the recording equipment. Ideally, the recording stuff must work in the dark.
Any thoughts as to the best type of setup?"
Of course, more than happy to call and chat if it's easier.
SimonV8ster said:
None of the videos seem to work on the website ?
Not sure why that would be. I checked yesterday and everything seemed to be fine. Possibly youtube was busy or the judges for next years BAFTA awards may have been busy studying them prior to sending out the award 
Anyway, everything seems fine.
Henry
cirks said:
Henry,
would welcome your suggestions regarding the following which I posted quite a while ago:
"The local sports club I belong to has been damaged a few times by kids......
Firstly I'm happy to reply on here, others may be in a similar situation and the info could help them as well.would welcome your suggestions regarding the following which I posted quite a while ago:
"The local sports club I belong to has been damaged a few times by kids......
One of the first things to decide when fitting cctv is do you want people to know it's there or not. I would say let them know it's there in the hope it acts as a deterrent. Fit warning signs up outside the building. We don't sell warning signs as a stand alone item unless ordered with cctv equipment (and we don't sell dummy cameras), so if you see a cctv42 warning sign you know there is working cctv surveillance in place!
I would be tempted to fit all my cameras inside the building. That way you avoid vandal damage to external cameras, the kids thinking they've disabled the camera and breaking in anyway.
Presumably you know where the people are entering the clubhouse. Have a camera filming that area nice and tight (ie don't have the doorway forming 1/5th of the screen, rather 4/5ths. Possibly have 1 wider angle camera giving a general overview of activity in the clubhouse and then use the remaining 2 channels of your 4 camera DVR to home in on likely target areas for the vandals (possibly fit 1 in the kitchen).
In terms of which cameras to use I would say a perfect job for our vandal dome cameras. (Click on the photo for our full range of traditional vandal dome cameras).
The vandal dome cameras are really tough with an all metal body and a plexiglass outer dome. They have built in Infra-red lighting so work in complete darkness and because the Sony electronics we specify films down to 0.01lux anyway they work really well under I/R.
A fixed lens camera is £79.95 but a better bet is to spend an extra tenner and buy the 4-9mm zoom lens version (£89.95). That way you have more flexibility in terms of set up once on site.
If you wanted you could fit one covert camera such as our PIR look camera. (click the picture for our full range of covert / micro cameras).
The covert cameras don't have built in infra red illumination and so would rely on either natural lighting or illumination from the other cameras I/R. To be honest were it me I'd just fit all vandal dome cameras but it's an option.
Recording-wise: 4 channel h.264 DVR, probably fitted with a 500GB hard drive (1TB if you want to cover all the bases). You can fit a 250GB drive but for the little extra I'd go 500 / 1TB. (click the image for more details)
Locate the DVR in hidden away place. You can access the DVR using the remote control supplied. To make a backup of recorded footage fit a USB extender from the DVR and just plug in a memory stick. You can also fit the monitor output in the same place and plug in a small TV when you want to review footage (I'm assuming you don't want to leave a TV on the wall all the time).
Wireless connections simply don't work in our experience unless you are spending serious money on them and also set them up with special transmission / receiver aerials. In the UK we are limited in terms of permissible transmission power as well. Finally you can get interference from internet networks and the like.
If the clubhouse has a phone line then fit a cheap internet package and access the cctv over the internet.
All our cables are simple plug and play, the DVR comes with your chosen hard drive fitted and formatted and you don't have to fit all 4 cameras to the DVR if you wanted to save money.
I hope that helps. If you need any more info feel free to post of call.
All the best.
Henry

www.cctv42.co.uk
Just a very quick note to let you all know we have a stand at this year's Ideal Home Show, Earls Court.
There is a bit of a story to our being there: Went to the show looking for a bit of outdoor furniture and noticed there was a vacant stand where someone had moved. Made a phone call and Monday afternoon we were told we could exhibit there. No previous exhibition experience or knowledge, no exhibition stand or merchandising material. By 10.00am Wednesday we were on stand and open for business. All be it with a fair bit of sanding off the rough edges until the afternoon. Around 36 hours from idea to completion !!
If you fancy seeing any of the kit pop over and say hello. We are on stand 1M37. Stand in the floating cafe, walk past the floating office, turn right then left and we are down on the left hand side.
All the best.
Henry
There is a bit of a story to our being there: Went to the show looking for a bit of outdoor furniture and noticed there was a vacant stand where someone had moved. Made a phone call and Monday afternoon we were told we could exhibit there. No previous exhibition experience or knowledge, no exhibition stand or merchandising material. By 10.00am Wednesday we were on stand and open for business. All be it with a fair bit of sanding off the rough edges until the afternoon. Around 36 hours from idea to completion !!
If you fancy seeing any of the kit pop over and say hello. We are on stand 1M37. Stand in the floating cafe, walk past the floating office, turn right then left and we are down on the left hand side.
All the best.
Henry
Need to buy a couple of external cameras - one to cover a south facing driveway which is approx 30ft x 10ft and another to cover a side area 20ft x 20ft - what sort of focal lengths etc?
The driveway is illuminated by lights but the side area only has a PIR light so is it best to get an IR one for the side ?
Can dome cameras be mounted straight to a vertical wall ?
finally.. your DVR - how flexible is the motion sensitivity ? The property is on quite a busy main road, so I'd need to be able to mask out an area.
PS excellent site, good to see some real useful info on there
The driveway is illuminated by lights but the side area only has a PIR light so is it best to get an IR one for the side ?
Can dome cameras be mounted straight to a vertical wall ?
finally.. your DVR - how flexible is the motion sensitivity ? The property is on quite a busy main road, so I'd need to be able to mask out an area.
PS excellent site, good to see some real useful info on there
Edited by john_p on Monday 29th March 19:11
Hi there John
When thinking about what to film it isn't necessarily a case of machine gunning the whole area with a wide angle lens. It's a bit more scientific. The wider the angle of lens the less detail you will film as you move away from the camera, so consider placing the camera in such a position that you will capture good detail. This may be by making sure someone passes close to the camera or by using a more telephoto setting and being selective about what areas you film.
I would always recommend buying a camera with a zoom lens because it enable you to experiment a bit once you have the camera on site. You can zoom in and out as well as play around with the camera's positioning. Our 2.8-11mm lens will give you a good range of options.
I would imaging all the cameras you are looking at will have infra-red illumination built in. The fact our cameras film down to as low as 0.01 lux makes them work extremely well in low light conditions.
Not sure you'd fit a fully covered vandal dome camera (although you could fix one to a vertical surface because ours come with 3 axis brackets). I think you'll be better off with open faced vandal dome cameras as an alternative.
The motion sensed recording function can be set by switching a grid of hundreds of virtual "masking panels" on and off. You can also adjust the sensitivity of the detection. You won't eliminate false triggers totally but you can reduce them. For 100% accurate triggering you need to use a pir / microwave detector wired into the alarm input of the DVR.
Not sure if you're going to the ideal home show, if you are we have range of cameras and lens combinations on working display.
Hope that helps.
Henry
When thinking about what to film it isn't necessarily a case of machine gunning the whole area with a wide angle lens. It's a bit more scientific. The wider the angle of lens the less detail you will film as you move away from the camera, so consider placing the camera in such a position that you will capture good detail. This may be by making sure someone passes close to the camera or by using a more telephoto setting and being selective about what areas you film.
I would always recommend buying a camera with a zoom lens because it enable you to experiment a bit once you have the camera on site. You can zoom in and out as well as play around with the camera's positioning. Our 2.8-11mm lens will give you a good range of options.
I would imaging all the cameras you are looking at will have infra-red illumination built in. The fact our cameras film down to as low as 0.01 lux makes them work extremely well in low light conditions.
Not sure you'd fit a fully covered vandal dome camera (although you could fix one to a vertical surface because ours come with 3 axis brackets). I think you'll be better off with open faced vandal dome cameras as an alternative.
The motion sensed recording function can be set by switching a grid of hundreds of virtual "masking panels" on and off. You can also adjust the sensitivity of the detection. You won't eliminate false triggers totally but you can reduce them. For 100% accurate triggering you need to use a pir / microwave detector wired into the alarm input of the DVR.
Not sure if you're going to the ideal home show, if you are we have range of cameras and lens combinations on working display.
Hope that helps.
Henry
I meant to add, with the driveway, try to film along it's length rather than across it. That way you get more detail as the person or vehicle enters the driveway and approaches the camera.
filming across the driveway gives you a constant (and probably quite poor) level of detail because you are trying to get the whole length of the driveway in 1 wide angle view.
Henry
filming across the driveway gives you a constant (and probably quite poor) level of detail because you are trying to get the whole length of the driveway in 1 wide angle view.
Henry
Thanks

I can see why my career as an architect never took off. Roughly to scale, red marks where I was thinking of putting cameras and direction
The larger building is listed and so I think there may be issues with putting cameras on it
It'd be nice to see the whole front area - although only to see if someone/something is there, I understand that full ID of people/vehicles will be difficult. Presumably n'er-do-wells will head down the side of the main building .. they should pass quite close to the main cameras. It's just for peace of mind than full evidence gathering!
I'm quite close to you guys so if you do demos etc I can always pop over

I can see why my career as an architect never took off. Roughly to scale, red marks where I was thinking of putting cameras and directionThe larger building is listed and so I think there may be issues with putting cameras on it
It'd be nice to see the whole front area - although only to see if someone/something is there, I understand that full ID of people/vehicles will be difficult. Presumably n'er-do-wells will head down the side of the main building .. they should pass quite close to the main cameras. It's just for peace of mind than full evidence gathering!
I'm quite close to you guys so if you do demos etc I can always pop over

Edited by john_p on Tuesday 30th March 13:37
Thank you. We spent almost a year testing and evaluating different CCD and DSP combinations before settling on our Sony "Pro" and "Diamond" electronics packs.
We have the advantage of a good relationship with a large camera manufacturer. We work with them which seems to be in contrast to most retailers who just want the cheapest way to achieve a given number of TVL and play one manufacturer off against another in an attempt to shave a few cents of the price. That saving has to come from somewhere and they lose any hope of advice, a working relationship and class leading results.
We then unified our camera specs across a number of different camera bodies allowing the same variety of lens combinations in each body type. Finally we gave the option of our Diamond Sony electronics pack in the most versatile lens within each range.
It was this unification which allowed us to order in sufficient quantity to spec our own cameras. We don't sell something unless we've fitted it and tested it ourselves first. We definitely don't buy or sell based on manufacturer's specs !!!
I do find it frustrating at times when all some installers want to know is what the cheapest 500TVL camera you sell is. If only they'd been with me at 1.00am running back to back tests on 10 different cameras then they might appreciate that not all camera electronics are the same, in spite of what it says on the box.
Keep smiling.
Henry
We have the advantage of a good relationship with a large camera manufacturer. We work with them which seems to be in contrast to most retailers who just want the cheapest way to achieve a given number of TVL and play one manufacturer off against another in an attempt to shave a few cents of the price. That saving has to come from somewhere and they lose any hope of advice, a working relationship and class leading results.
We then unified our camera specs across a number of different camera bodies allowing the same variety of lens combinations in each body type. Finally we gave the option of our Diamond Sony electronics pack in the most versatile lens within each range.
It was this unification which allowed us to order in sufficient quantity to spec our own cameras. We don't sell something unless we've fitted it and tested it ourselves first. We definitely don't buy or sell based on manufacturer's specs !!!
I do find it frustrating at times when all some installers want to know is what the cheapest 500TVL camera you sell is. If only they'd been with me at 1.00am running back to back tests on 10 different cameras then they might appreciate that not all camera electronics are the same, in spite of what it says on the box.
Keep smiling.
Henry
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