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Surveillance Camera's / Security System

entatlrg

entatlrg

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Mar 2, 2009
3,385
6
Waterloo & Georgian Bay, Canada
Anyone have decent surveillance camera's or a security system running from their computers.

I'm looking around to see what software and camera's are good.

If anyone has something like this set up that's working well please post.

So far I'm looking at:

- Security Spy
- Mobiscope
- Mobideos

I can't really find anything else that looks professional.
 
entatlrg said:
Anyone have decent surveillance camera's or a security system running from their computers.

I'm looking around to see what software and camera's are good.

If anyone has something like this set up that's working well please post.

So far I'm looking at:

- Security Spy
- Mobiscope
- Mobideos

I can't really find anything else that looks professional.
Click to expand...

Got a budget? Are you doing this for fun, or for real?

There is some amazing equipment out there now that has a web-front end so you can control it from Windows, OS X, or Linux
 
Decrepit said:
Got a budget? Are you doing this for fun, or for real?

There is some amazing equipment out there now that has a web-front end so you can control it from Windows, OS X, or Linux
Click to expand...

Thanks, yes I'm looking for a professional set up, with good camera's if it's $2,000 or so with decent camera's and good software then I don't mind.

I do want something reliable and easy to set up.
 
entatlrg said:
Thanks, yes I'm looking for a professional set up, with good camera's if it's $2,000 or so with decent camera's and good software then I don't mind.

I do want something reliable and easy to set up.
Click to expand...

I saw a presentation the other day for a web-enabled self-contained security camera.

The thing has a hard drive in it to store the video so you can log in any time to look at it. But the thing that's so cool is that it has software in the camera that you use to identify the zones you want it watching, and what you consider to be threats. The demo they showed was a car lot. It's an upscale car dealership in an upscale neighborhood, so no fences. But that doesn't make their catalytic converters any less popular. This camera is able to identify in crappy weather conditions when a person walks into the zone and where they go. It puts a big red box around them. This particular dealership had the camera hooked up with a cellular modem which it used to page him. He logged in, checked the video, called the police and never got off the couch. Because it can be rigged with the modem like that, they're being put in city parks now. City parks during the day are great, but can be really sketchy at night. So they have it rigged to call a dispatcher after hours who has a patrol car head through the area.

It was probably $3,000 installed with the weatherization and such, but wow it's cool.

There are far less expensive ways to do it, but on a pro level, depending on what you need to secure, and how, you can spend a few bucks but it will help you sleep at night. ;)
 
What are you looking for in a surveillance system? On your laptop based? Have you considered just putting up an outside camera faced to where ever your laptop is most of the time? This would most likely be more reliable and cheaper in most cases. Id search ebay for cheap surveillance systems, you can pick a CCTV for under $100 now days.
 
entatlrg said:
miles... I did do a search of course and found most of the info was dated and only one person was reporting relative success with Security Spy ... therefore I decided to make a new post and see if there was anyone else having success or if there was any up to date info.
Click to expand...

It's no surprise you didn't find anything in your "search" since you use such specific terms like "what software and cameras are good" and "working well" and "looks professional." You don't mention a budget, desired features, or basically anything that helps anyone make an informed decision. Do you see why you actually lose in this situation? It's no better than the hordes of people that post saying "I'm looking for a computer, which Mac should I get?" How are we supposed to help you? Given your lack of useful information, search results would probably be the best starting point for you.

Or at least state that you searched, what you found, and why that doesn't work for you.
 
PhixionFilms said:
What are you looking for in a surveillance system? On your laptop based? Have you considered just putting up an outside camera faced to where ever your laptop is most of the time? This would most likely be more reliable and cheaper in most cases. Id search ebay for cheap surveillance systems, you can pick a CCTV for under $100 now days.
Click to expand...

Thanks, ideally I would set up the system on my Mac Pro on the OS X side not windows. Although I know most of the software and camera's are windows based, and many camera's require initial set up via windows.

I was just hoping to find someone using a particular brand and having success with it. If you search in google you'll find a lot of places selling them but if you read user reviews there is a lot of nightmares, with the software, setting up port forwarding .... and on the camera end, low quality, poor wireless range etc.

Ideally I'd like something 'plug and play' simple, set up on my Mac Pro and accessible from my iPhone or MacBook Air.

Thanks again.
 
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