security cameras- basic setup

[mickb]

looking for something relatively inexpensive for my mothers place. Anyone recommend any decent setups? Was thinking maybe 3-4 cameras to cover the outside of the house. Dont really need the hone alerts, this is more for mum to be able to check around the house when she hears bumps in the night. Currently a lot of annoying animal traffic-noisy possums/stray cats etc and rather than go outside to check if its human or otherwise would enable her to check the phone and get back to watching the TV Are the harvey norman/bunnings ones okay? Would need to be decently waterproof, she is in the wet tropics

[womble]

The Swann stuff at Bunnings is fine . Bit of work to hide all the wiring, make it neat. You’ll need motion activated flood lights as well. But they’re a good investment and deterrent too.
You can link to her phone or just set up a cheap small monitor/tv from Kogan or similar. Have the 4 cams in split screens.
Or actually you could do it on the tv she’s watching, just switch inputs by remote.
I’m not an expert but this stuffs easy for anyone to set up.
Doorbell cameras not a bad idea either.
Better still get her a big ass dog. I have mastiffs. Any noise they’ll go investigate. I don’t even get out of bed, unless they bring me back someone’s hand or leg. Which they can easily do.
I’m staying in bed. That’s their job. That’s what I pay them for in kibble

[stihl88]

Stay away from HikMicro, they still haven't advised government on who or where there servers are based but considering they are part/all state owned CCP company we can all guess where the servers are based and who uses the footage.

Swann are all clear in this regard and are generally a good camera. My vote goes to Swann also.

As a side note I believe there's enough bells and whistles in cameras these days to satisfy the Australian Standards requirement of "back to base" alarm system required in The Act if you own over 15 firearms in Victoria. Which may avoid the expensive annual fees of a back to base system.

[bladeracer]

Stay away from HikMicro, they still haven't advised government on who or where there servers are based but considering they are part/all state owned CCP company we can all guess where the servers are based and who uses the footage.

Swann are all clear in this regard and are generally a good camera. My vote goes to Swann also.

As a side note I believe there's enough bells and whistles in cameras these days to satisfy the Australian Standards requirement of "back to base" alarm system required in The Act if you own over 15 firearms in Victoria. Which may avoid the expensive annual fees of a back to base system.

You don't need "back to base" in Victoria for CatA/B firearms. It only requires a flashing light and a siren, no cameras and no monitoring. I added CCTV for my own benefit, not because it was required. I don't know what you mean about servers, if I want to view my cameras on my phone they're connected to my own wifi not somebody else's.

[stihl88]

You don't need "back to base" in Victoria for CatA/B firearms. It only requires a flashing light and a siren, no cameras and no monitoring. I added CCTV for my own benefit, not because it was required. I don't know what you mean about servers, if I want to view my cameras on my phone they're connected to my own wifi not somebody else's.

Yeah I just double checked and you're 100% correct BR, no B-to-B monitoring is required as far as I can tell for at least Cat A, B, C, D no matter the amount of firearms present in the home. Just read over AS2201.1 2007 to clarify and can confirm it's mostly devoid of the mention of "Monitoring Centre's" other than referring to them as per below.

Screenshot 2023-07-26 153424.png (35.36 KiB) Viewed 878 times

I think number of and type of firearms may have something to do with this B-to-B requirement, although I cant find anything in The Act. A mate of mine has some serious stuff in storage, cut a long story short he had to have B-to-B monitoring for whatever reason but was able to remove it as he was able to satisfy B-to-B monitoring conditions by installing a modern security camera system in that it alerts someone (him) of a breach, has a siren and external flashing light.

HikVision
On the topic of Security Cameras and HikVision servers, there's oodles of info on the web on HikVision and their nefarious activities over the years i would avoid them unless you're in the market for a thermal camera, they've had several years of practice and fine tuning the technology on their own people and their thermals are good and don't report back to their homeland CCP.

Here's a quick read that's more relevant to Australia and HikVision concerns https://www.gadgetguy.com.au/banned-hikvision-cameras-surface-in-australia-as-ezviz/

[bladeracer]

Yes, the statement about complying with the Standard confused me a lot. I was emailing for quotes for systems that complied and eventually somebody explained to me just how low the standard actually was. Basically any basic alarm system complies, even systems well below what most homeowners would be installing. On a farm a flashing light and a siren are basically meaningless as neighbours aren't close enough to hear or see anything. A system that notifies your phones when the alarm is triggered and CCTV that lets you view your cameras is more useful.

From memory there was a higher level requirement, maybe for collectors?

Yeah I just double checked and you're 100% correct BR, no B-to-B monitoring is required as far as I can tell for at least Cat A, B, C, D no matter the amount of firearms present in the home. Just read over AS2201.1 2007 to clarify and can confirm it's mostly devoid of the mention of "Monitoring Centre's" other than referring to them as per below.

Screenshot 2023-07-26 153424.png

I think number of and type of firearms may have something to do with this B-to-B requirement, although I cant find anything in The Act. A mate of mine has some serious stuff in storage, cut a long story short he had to have B-to-B monitoring for whatever reason but was able to remove it as he was able to satisfy B-to-B monitoring conditions by installing a modern security camera system in that it alerts someone (him) of a breach, has a siren and external flashing light.

HikVision
On the topic of Security Cameras and HikVision servers, there's oodles of info on the web on HikVision and their nefarious activities over the years i would avoid them unless you're in the market for a thermal camera, they've had several years of practice and fine tuning the technology on their own people and their thermals are good and don't report back to their homeland CCP.

Here's a quick read that's more relevant to Australia and HikVision concerns https://www.gadgetguy.com.au/banned-hikvision-cameras-surface-in-australia-as-ezviz/