Video Surveillance

Posted on
Tue Dec 26, 2017 11:19 am
Fxguy offline
Posts: 153
Joined: Mar 24, 2011

Video Surveillance

Can someone help me out in setting up a video surveillance system to monitor our home when we are away? Have pretty much 0 experience in this and not sure how much it would cost, what cameras we would need, recording for later playback, etc...

Basically I'd like to get a camera on the front and rear entry, along with one camera for each of our kids bedrooms, and then a camera or two for the living room / kitchen area. I'd like to set it up so that it could record and be stored in case we were to ever need it (basically to monitor the new nanny for any suspicious activity the first couple of months).

Is there a kit or system I could set up to work with Indigo to accomplish this?

Thanks!

Posted on
Tue Dec 26, 2017 11:52 am
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Joined: Jul 20, 2009
Location: Colorado

Re: Video Surveillance

I highly recommend getting SecuritySpy, it's a great and relatively inexpensive software to manage your cameras and offers remote access, plugin for Indigo (via Cynical), native iOS apps and it's rock solid. They support hundreds, if not thousands, of different cameras. I use it with 16 cameras around my property.

My Modest Contributions to Indigo:

HomeKit Bridge | Device Extensions | Security Manager | LCD Creator | Room-O-Matic | Smart Dimmer | Scene Toggle | Powermiser | Homebridge Buddy

Check Them Out Here

Posted on
Tue Dec 26, 2017 12:46 pm
durosity offline
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Location: Newcastle Upon Tyne, Ye Ol' England.

Re: Video Surveillance

+1 in SecuritySpy. Brilliant software and great support too!

Computer says no.

Posted on
Tue Dec 26, 2017 3:59 pm
FlyingDiver offline
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Location: Southwest Florida, USA

Re: Video Surveillance

I use SecuritySpy as well. 8 camera license.

Be aware that any NVR software (like SecuritySpy) has fairly high resource requirements. When I tried running 7 4MP cameras at 15 fps on my mac Mini (along with Indigo and Plex), it pretty much rolled over and died. As soon as anything else needed some CPU time it would start dropping frames.

I ended up buying a refurb Mac Pro (2x 4 Core Xeon) just for Security Spy. The 8 cores handles SS just fine, with enough CPU left over that I could offload some other video processing onto it. Honestly, I could probably move all of the stuff that's on the mini to it and it would be fine.

joe (aka FlyingDiver)
my plugins: http://forums.indigodomo.com/viewforum.php?f=177

Posted on
Tue Dec 26, 2017 4:07 pm
Different Computers offline
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Location: East Coast

Re: Video Surveillance

IF Security Spy is too steep a price for you, the Security Camera plugin does a LOT of cool stuff, including the things you mentioned. However:

• it at least used to require decent horsepower, so you couldn't run it on a legacy Mac.
• There's a fair amount of set up and configuring that took me a while to get my head around. Others may find it easier.

Just letting you know that as ever, there are options along the spectrum of Time <---> Money. If you can more easily afford to put in the time, Security Camera will do for you. If you absolutely need this as soon as possible, Security Spy is probably a better option.

In EITHER of these cases, you'll need cameras whose images can be accessed locally. SS and SC need the actual streams that come from cameras, not stuff stored in some proprietary cloud service. That kills NEST, Arlo, almost all (?) Samsung, Blink (?) and most cheapo chinese cameras. Warning: it's not unusual to have trouble with cheapo cameras to tell whether or not they can support local streaming. For example, this cheap camera works fine, but this one does not.

Foscam cameras are ok choices, but their Mac compatibility is AWFUL, and their plugins really only work well now in IE, as they're behind on technology and most modern browsers recognize Foscam plugins as the crap they are and don't want to run them. However, there's always a method of accessing a Foscam's video without using the plugins.

Oh and you really want to block all these cameras at your router, so they cannot connect to the internet. Many brands have been found to have firmware exploits in them! By the same token, never use the camera brand's offered DDNS service.

SmartThings refugee, so happy to be on Indigo. Monterey on a base M1 Mini w/Harmony Hub, Hue, DomoPad, Dynamic URL, Device Extensions, HomeKitLink, Grafana, Plex, uniFAP, Fantastic Weather, Nanoleaf, LED Simple Effects, Bond Home, Camect.

Posted on
Tue Dec 26, 2017 4:45 pm
roussell offline
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Joined: Aug 18, 2008
Location: Alabama

Re: Video Surveillance

Another option is Sighthound. https://www.sighthound.com

I use it with 12 cameras around the house. It works well but is a little different from other packages. I originally went with that over Security Spy because the pricing was a little better for my number of cameras and I liked some of the advanced detection that it does. There is no direct tie-in with Indigo, but you can configure Sighthound to trigger things in Indigo by using REST calls and such... IF I was starting today, I'd probably consider SecuritySpy a little more, and maybe go that way, or maybe just have a dedicated, pre-packaged security DVR setup.

As others have mentioned, all of these require a decent bit of processing power, depending on the type of motion detection you're doing. Just something to keep in mind if you're wanting to run the NVR software on the same machine as Indigo and/or other stuff. Make sure you utilize the trials of the products to verify they'll work for you in your environment.

Terry

Posted on
Tue Dec 26, 2017 5:28 pm
Fxguy offline
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Joined: Mar 24, 2011

Re: Video Surveillance

Any particular brand or model security camera that works better?

Posted on
Tue Dec 26, 2017 6:39 pm
Seeker offline
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Joined: Aug 05, 2013

Re: Video Surveillance

i've been running blue iris (windows) for years. i love it. i run a small i7 PC with 9 cameras and it runs at about 25% CPU. $50 or so for unlimited cameras. iOS app is great, too. i have limited integration with indigo though.

Posted on
Tue Dec 26, 2017 7:08 pm
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Location: Colorado

Re: Video Surveillance

Fxguy wrote:
Any particular brand or model security camera that works better?


That depends a lot on your budget. You can use cheap $50 cameras or you can use $3,500 cameras. I use a mix of cameras, some $50 for areas that I just want eyes on but don't need high resolution or high magnification zoom but for my main property entry points I have 30x zoom, full outdoor cameras, 360 degree pan and tilt and can see a fly's butt from anywhere in the world and those are significantly more expensive.

It also depends on which software you are eying, because SecuritySpy supports hundreds of cameras natively and since many camera manufactures are just variations on a theme that means that SS's auto detect feature will likely identify and be able to use a massive number of cameras even if they are not "officially" on the support list (I just did this with a new $100 camera and was shocked that I got 100% functionality and bought a few more). Other software solutions have a tiny number of "supported" cameras.

My Modest Contributions to Indigo:

HomeKit Bridge | Device Extensions | Security Manager | LCD Creator | Room-O-Matic | Smart Dimmer | Scene Toggle | Powermiser | Homebridge Buddy

Check Them Out Here

Posted on
Tue Dec 26, 2017 8:16 pm
Fxguy offline
Posts: 153
Joined: Mar 24, 2011

Re: Video Surveillance

Good to know. I've had Security Spy for a while but never made full use of it. I have a couple of Insteon IP Cameras that I've toyed around with but never in a serious manner. Had trouble with them staying connected to the wireless network.

I'll likely be asking some setup and config questions as I start to implement things. As for HD space for storage, how much would you recommend?

Posted on
Tue Dec 26, 2017 8:26 pm
FlyingDiver offline
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Location: Southwest Florida, USA

Re: Video Surveillance

Fxguy wrote:
As for HD space for storage, how much would you recommend?


http://www.bensoftware.com/securityspy/ ... lator.html

joe (aka FlyingDiver)
my plugins: http://forums.indigodomo.com/viewforum.php?f=177

Posted on
Wed Dec 27, 2017 6:08 am
Professor Falken offline
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Re: Video Surveillance

FlyingDiver wrote:
I use SecuritySpy as well. 8 camera license.

Be aware that any NVR software (like SecuritySpy) has fairly high resource requirements. When I tried running 7 4MP cameras at 15 fps on my mac Mini (along with Indigo and Plex), it pretty much rolled over and died. As soon as anything else needed some CPU time it would start dropping frames.

I ended up buying a refurb Mac Pro (2x 4 Core Xeon) just for Security Spy. The 8 cores handles SS just fine, with enough CPU left over that I could offload some other video processing onto it. Honestly, I could probably move all of the stuff that's on the mini to it and it would be fine.



If you do something like this, can Indigo still interact with the cameras? That is, can another computer on the network, that isn't where Indigo lives, run the cameras yet still let Indigo work with the cameras?

Posted on
Wed Dec 27, 2017 6:58 am
durosity offline
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Joined: May 10, 2012
Location: Newcastle Upon Tyne, Ye Ol' England.

Re: Video Surveillance

Professor Falken wrote:
FlyingDiver wrote:
I use SecuritySpy as well. 8 camera license.

Be aware that any NVR software (like SecuritySpy) has fairly high resource requirements. When I tried running 7 4MP cameras at 15 fps on my mac Mini (along with Indigo and Plex), it pretty much rolled over and died. As soon as anything else needed some CPU time it would start dropping frames.

I ended up buying a refurb Mac Pro (2x 4 Core Xeon) just for Security Spy. The 8 cores handles SS just fine, with enough CPU left over that I could offload some other video processing onto it. Honestly, I could probably move all of the stuff that's on the mini to it and it would be fine.



If you do something like this, can Indigo still interact with the cameras? That is, can another computer on the network, that isn't where Indigo lives, run the cameras yet still let Indigo work with the cameras?


It depends on the cameras. If they support multiple connections yes, if they don’t then no. That said even my cheap cheap cheap cameras support 2 streams at a time so it’ll probably only be older ones that can’t.

Computer says no.

Posted on
Wed Dec 27, 2017 12:46 pm
bkmar1192 offline
Posts: 274
Joined: Sep 12, 2015

Re: Video Surveillance

I use all Amcrest cameras (which are repackaged Foscam) - both indoor and out. I am very happy with them.

I am the developer of the Security Camera plugin and have it running on the same computer as Indigo and have 6 cameras running with no issues.

The 2.0 version does a much better job of managing performance. It probably is a little more work to get setup than SecuritySpy but it’s free.

I am currently fixing a few things and will be releasing an update in the next day or two.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Posted on
Thu Dec 28, 2017 6:57 am
jalves offline
Posts: 744
Joined: Jun 16, 2013

Re: Video Surveillance

BKMar: I've got a bunch of Amcrest cameras (all IP2M-841) but haven't yet attempted to use your plugin. Would you mind sharing the access HTML code you use for them? I've found several sources that all seem to differ.

Running Indigo 2023.2 on a 24" iMac M1), OS X 14.4
Jeff

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