CCTV kits

Landyman

New Member
I keep bird scaring rockets by the bed. My window faces the workshop.
If I happen to hear intruders I will let one go in their direction, they're good for pest control
images (7).jpg
 

PostHarvest

Member
Location
Warwick
I you fit cameras, they need to be sited where they cannot be smashed by someone who gets hold of a fence rail. The last two times I've had my stuff nicked, they smashed the cameras. The glow from the IR lamps must have shown them where they were. Also make sure they can't get hold of the camera control/recording unit.
 

Henryf

New Member
Sorry for the thread revival but I was looking around at Farm CCTV Systems and this popped up. The fact it's been contributed to over a period of time means there's obviously an interest in the subject. I wonder if I might offer some advice for anyone contemplating using CCTV on their Farms.

We sell CCTV and I have a particular interest in Farms. Bear with me, I know it's a first post and I know the rules on promoting your business. I'm trying to promote best practice and avoid people wasting money rather than sell our wares. Growing up in Lincolnshire I worked on a farm over 3 years during the summer operating a crop drying business so I have a vague understanding. We are currently based on a farm in Buckinghamshire which provides us a great platform on which to test new products and ideas.

All the CCTV you see for sale in Maplins, through wholesalers and on line is generally based around the same concept, a central DVR recorder with a number of fixed lens wide angle cameras. They make great claims, crystal clear images up to 20 or 30 metres, suitable for a wide range of uses etc. Sadly in the real world the systems never live up to their enthusiastic claims. The reason for this is the wide angle lens spreads pixels too thinly as you move away from the camera and each pixel is a piece of information.

It's a bit like sowing seed. In the Maplins (and they aren't the only ones, everyone does it), analogy they would sell a 10kg bag of seed as being suitable for up to a hectare and they aren't lying. You could spread 10kg of seed over a hectare. To do the job properly though you probably need a touch under 200kg of seed /ha.

A 75° angle of view camera typical of the type found in these kits can only identify someone about 3 metres away in standard definition. The same people who told you their camera had a range of 20-30 metres will suggest throwing pixels at the problem. HD 1080P has 5 times more pixels than standard definition CCTV so it's 5 times better - only it isn't. As you increase the length along the horizontal you also increase it along the vertical so you benefit by the square root of any increase. HD 1080P is twice as good as standard definition not 5 times better. Sticking with wide angle cameras is like heating your house with all the doors and windows open. No matter how much heat you chuck in you will always be cold. We put a bit of information relating to Farm CCTV Systems on our website.

So what is the solution for a farm then? Use genuine long range cameras to cover larger areas. What you are looking for is the focal length of the lens, it will be in mm. The smaller the number the wider the angle of view. We sell cameras from 2.8mm (very wide angle) to 50mm (long range telephoto). Rather than use a fixed lens fit cameras with a vari-focal lens. This allows you to zoom in and out during installation and balance area covered with detail captured. The more you zoom in the more detail you capture. As a guide you can film about 3 - 3.5 metres wide and identify someone with standard definition, 8 metres wide with HD 1080P.

We tend to find the most suitable lens ranges for farms are 6-22mm and 5-50mm as they work over longer distances. The 2.8-12mm cameras would generally be used for shorter distances or situations where you just want an overall view but no detail. We have a camera that monitors a yard where we just need to see if anyone is there. They've already been identified when they drove in, we need to see if they have parked up and where people are walking.

The key is to try and find pinch points where you know people are going to be. Drives or access roads, gates, entrances into buildings and so on. Then you need to think about where the cameras can be located. Don't make life hard, using cameras with longer lenses often means you can locate them in areas which are easier to run cables to. Try to have people in shot for as long as possible. The entrance road into a farm is a great example. Try to have a long range camera zoomed in looking down the road so people and vehicles are filmed for a long time.

Finally number plates. Providing a camera is zoomed in sufficiently you will be able to read number plates during the day. At night the reflective properties of UK plates makes them appear very bright to the camera. This means they can show as a white rectangle because the camera is trying to give the best possible overall image. There are lots of cameras which claim to record number plates but just as with everything else in the world of CCTV very few actually do.

I hope that all makes sense, I appreciate it's a bit of a whirlwind tour of the subject. If anyone has any specific questions feel free to post them up and I will try to answer.

Henry :)
 

Henryf

New Member
We have developed a camera specifically designed to read number plates during the day and night which isn't affected by headlights.

When used in conjunction with a suitable HD TVI DVR recorder it can read plates up to 75 metres away. It's the 3rd generation of our number plate cameras and uses IR light rather than ambient white light. The camera effectively has a constant set of exposure settings and is geared towards the more reflective number plates / headlights. The reason it's able to read plate so far away is because of the powerful lens, up to 50mm.

The disadvantage of a camera like this is you won't get an overall view at night, it will be black except for bright things like headlights and number plates. So to cover an entrance properly you would also fit a standard camera which captures people, vehicle type etc.

Normal cameras use slow electronic shutter speeds as light levels fall to maximise image capture. The downside of this is motion tends to be blurred so we need to maintain a high shutter speed on the number plate cameras. In our case that's around 1/2000th of a second.

Lots of people advertise cameras which claim to be able to film number plates. Some neglect to mention it's only during the day, some just lie and some claim to use technology which doesn't work. My favourite is highlight suppression. Our standard cameras have this feature available and it blacks out very bright areas so the claim is it blacks out headlights at night. What they neglect to mention is the fact UK number plates are also very bright so it blacks them out :) You usually see it demonstrated on foreign non reflective plates.

Daytime reading of plates is really easy, you just need to use a camera which has a powerful enough lens to zoom in sufficiently to read the number plate. With HD 1080P that means filming about 8 metres or so wide at the point where you want to read the plate.

Assuming 1080P HD

A 3.6mm wide angle lens can do this up to about 5 or 6 metres

Fully zoomed in a 2.8-12mm lens can do this up to about 15 metres.

Fully zoomed in a 6-22mm lens can do this up to about 23 - 25 metres.

Fully zoomed in a 5-50mm lens can do this up to about 75 metres.

If you are on the cusp of 2 lens ranges go for the more powerful option.

Try to film as head on as possible and have the vehicle in shot for as long as possible - film along the length of travel. Try to avoid just having the vehicle in shot for only a couple of frames. Finally don't have to camera too high off the ground. The further away you are filming the higher you can mount the camera.

Hope that all makes sense and sorry for the long winded answer :)

Henry
 
Interesting info, whats the best way to go about number plate reading day and night (as vehicles come through a gate)

ANPR camera, but you'll fall foul of the old style cat 5 types to the next gen ip stuff. We are in a void at the moment because unfortunately the tec is just not quite there at the moment.
 

Henryf

New Member
I strongly disagree. It is quite possible to record vehicle number plates on your CCTV system at the moment without spending tens of thousands of pounds. Realistically adding number plate recording to a CCTV system is going to cost £3-500.

Don't confuse recording number plates with capturing them on a computer. The latter has it's uses but not in the world of farm security. You are far better off filming a vehicle so that you can see what make and model it is. See and visually inspect the number plate to decide if it has been tampered with - a bit of black electrical tape turns a 0 into an 8 on a database capturing system but visually looking at the footage allows you to inspect and use human intelligence to decide what the real reg number is.

You also need a database against which to compare your computer captured numbers which private individuals don't have.

Keep it simple, use features like motion detection and virtual trigger patches on you DVR to avoid having to trawl through hours of footage. Search by event and quickly see all the vehicle movements that took place over a given period. This technology comes free on good DVRs.

Henry :)
 

rubble1952

New Member
We provide CCTV and alarms that can be remotely monitored even if there is no phone line present. All systems use mobile phone network, message me if you would like more info.

Regards
 

rubble1952

New Member
Alarm systems use a world sim and so can switch between any network.

CCTV we would need to do a site coverage check and then purchase appropriate sim.
 

frostystart

New Member
Hi All There is a new stand alone CCTV camera system that just needs the camera fixing and then the 12v adapter plugging in. It works through the mobile phone network and just needs an app downloading for you to view on your phone. Can also be used on 12v battery for 5 days on one charge.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 65 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.1%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.2%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,287
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top