Looking for IP cameras to place in lobby's so receptionist can see who wants in

Cerulean

Cerulean

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Greetings,

I am looking for an IP camera that we can use at three of our facilities to be deployed in the lobby (or somewhere pointing into the lobby) that a receptionist from Corporate can view when someone, such as a visitor or vendor, wants to enter the building. We do not need recording capability -- we just want to be able to remotely see a room at any given point in time ... like a dedicated webcam. ^_^

Suggestions for good reliable product (but fair on pricing)? We're not looking for cheap-cheap but also not looking for expensive. Just need something that can fulfill the purpose that is reliable and will last.

Thanks!
 
J

jeffmoss26

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We use a small Axis camera in our lobby. The receptionist just views it from a web browser.
 
L

Lames.

Gawd
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If it is inside and is decently lit - go with Ubiquiti setup. Fairly cheap and would be over ethernet and would view from a small piece of software.
 
Cerulean

Cerulean

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Greetings,

I have an expansion to this thread. Ubiquiti airVision cameras do not have support for night vision from lack of IR illuminators (perhaps the saddest part of the package as the cameras and NVR are very appealing, polished, quality-looking products).

What would be a good IP camera with night vision support and DVR combination? Indoor and outdoor support is good (can be different models).

Ultra bonus if it has a built-in motor for remote movement/angle control. (I don't anticipate this though -- probably ridiculously expensive for such a feature.)
 
W

wizdum

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Cerulean said:
Greetings,

I have an expansion to this thread. Ubiquiti airVision cameras do not have support for night vision from lack of IR illuminators (perhaps the saddest part of the package as the cameras and NVR are very appealing, polished, quality-looking products).

What would be a good IP camera with night vision support and DVR combination? Indoor and outdoor support is good (can be different models).

Ultra bonus if it has a built-in motor for remote movement/angle control. (I don't anticipate this though -- probably ridiculously expensive for such a feature.)
Click to expand...

You have people approaching unlit entrances and waiting to be buzzed in?

Just a note on nightvision - the cheap cameras achieve it by just removing the IR filter from the camera, which severely reduces the quality of the daytime image.
 
E

Eiolon

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We are really happy with the quality of our Foscam cameras. We have 24 of them setup right now. Each box is running 6 cameras with Blue Iris. They are re-purposed C2D systems with 2GB RAM and 4TB hard drives. Below is a sample I just took today:


qAnoWFv.png



Here is a sample with the lights turned off:



lQfpEv3.png
 
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Cerulean

Cerulean

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Eiolon said:
We are really happy with the quality of our Foscam cameras. We have 24 of them setup right now. Each box is running 6 cameras with Blue Iris. They are re-purposed C2D systems with 2GB RAM and 4TB hard drives. Below is a sample I just took today:

http://i.imgur.com/qAnoWFv.png

Here is a sample with the lights turned off:

http://i.imgur.com/lQfpEv3.png
Click to expand...
Where did you get the software? Did it come with your Foscam IP cameras? What models of Foscom IP cameras do you have deployed?
 
E

Eiolon

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I bought Blue Iris through Foscam. It is not required though, if you only want to view the cameras and not record. The cameras have a HTTP interface you can tap into.

We are using 3 different models. The ones in the sample you see are FI8910W. We also use a high def camera FI9821W for certain indoors areas and the FI8905W for outdoors. We are happy with them all, but we have found the wireless to be flakey so we run ethernet. It could be our environment causing that though. We have 100 devices on the wireless network during the day.

EDIT: By the way, out of the 24 cameras, I had to do 2 RMA's on them over the last couple of years. Foscam cameras are cheap and they have their critics, but our experience has been 99% positive. If you are only getting a single camera you really don't have much to loose. They will do RMA exchanges without much question.
 
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Cerulean

Cerulean

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Eiolon said:
I bought Blue Iris through Foscam. It is not required though, if you only want to view the cameras and not record. The cameras have a HTTP interface you can tap into.
Click to expand...
May I ask what Blue Iris cost you guys / pricing structure? :?
 
E

Eiolon

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Blue Iris cost $40 when you buy it with a camera, or $45 without a camera. All the prices on www.foscam.us are what we paid. So like $80-100 per camera depending on the model. We bought 4 licenses of Blue Iris since we have 4 boxes.

We didn't jump out of the gate and buy 24 cameras at once. We were skeptical and bought 2 at first. When we liked what we saw we just kept adding them over time.

We found that with our specs, we can comfortably put 6 cameras on a box and not degrade the performance of it and also have about 19 days of footage on 4TB. Once we fill up the 4TB we just delete a couple of the oldest days to make room for the next.
 
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