Remotely Monitored CCTV

[john_p]

Thinking aloud:

Let's say you have a shop or office. You have Redcare fitted, but that will only alert you if someone actually sets the alarm off.

If you had a CCTV system, would you find it useful to have this monitored remotely?

My idea is to have some system where movement detected out of office hours triggers an alert to a "monitoring centre" who can view the camera remotely, then follow some procedure eg. ring you, call the police etc..

I was thinking of a home-based system as well ("keep an eye on my car between 11pm and 8am") but that brings up issues with personal privacy..

Hopefully I can keep the costs right down on this.

Thanks for any feedback
John

[TheLemming]

Im now working for a call centre outsourcing and consultancy outfit, so if you need to discuss anything on the cc end then do drop me a line old chap. If I cant help I can put you in touch with someone who can!

Steve

[stc_bennett]

I sent you a mail regarding what i could propose etc

[BIF]

Could be you want to reinvent the wheel, we offer that service daily. Cameras can be triggered by internal or external devices and call up 3rd party monitoring or your home computer, I have several clients who use the method to varify alarm activations prior to attendance to premises

[Kevp]

Many systems like this about.

There are PC programmes that you can set to E Mail or notify yourself when any activity is detected either at any time or outside work hours. With a remote PC you can dial in at your leisure to view live or playback recorded footage.

Most ARC (Alarm Receiving Centres) offer a periodic dial in facility or view on demand. With or without 2 way speech. Monitoring costs vary depending on site, ie. open car forecourt or secure area.

[ultimasimon]

Hi John, I run a Security Co and we install an awful lot of these. www.cctv-centre.co.uk/cctv/multicam.htm

They are PC based, and have a multitude of options for emailing, web-serving, and paging. They are cheap by todays technology standards, and after looking at my account, I have sold over 70 of them with no failures. You do not have to be a techy and all you need for a large 16 camera system is a broadband connection. I have installed four cameras on a PSTN (dial-up line) and have still got good results. Much cheaper than paying a central station IMHO. All you pay is the price of the phonecall, or if your phone accepts email it's free.

Incedently, I have configured this system to send me three frames from a particular camera if someone presses the doorbell while I am out. These are sent to my Sharp GX10 picture messaging phone and I can see who is at my door! All the camera's can be individually triggered by the in-built motion triggering which is completely adjustable.

If you need any further advice, please mail me. These products are not supplied by me, I am just offering free advice.

Simon.

[jvaughan]

I have just purchased such a system. I can remotly log into the system with my Ipaq, and view all 4 camera's.

www.incontrol-quadcam.co.uk

[john_p]

Thanks all for the responses.

The angle I was going to go for was the remotely monitored bit - so you can go to bed all safe and secure in the knowledge that you will be called if anything dodgy is going on at/outside your house or office.

As such it would be a "budget" solution, aimed at the small business / home user - rather than the likes of ADT etc who I assume would charge top rates as you are effectively replacing a security guard.

The hardware links are very interesting and I will look into those. I guess an element would be the installation of cameras and associated hardware but that's not something I really want to get into, not to start with at least.