On Tue, May 11, 2010 at 8:30 AM, Chris Palmer <[email protected]> wrote:
> I'm in the hunt for a security DVR system for our small office (just 2-4 > cameras max, etc). I keep finding all these lovely systems that can be > accessed "Via the Web" only to find that their idea of the Web is IE on > Windows, and their idea of Mac/Linux compatibility is VMWare with Windows > in > it. > > Does anyone know of a security DVR setup where there's actual cross > platform > web compatiblity? We're 95% Mac/Linux here so IE only is just not worth > it. > My fiancee has a retail store, and I built a security system for it using: * 7 HD webcams (Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000) * 4 "active" USB extension cables (need these if going over 25') * One Centos5 file server, with RAID5 array composed of 3 2TB drives. * Zoneminder (http://www.zoneminder.com) * mjpeg-streamer (http://sourceforge.net/projects/mjpg-streamer/develop) to turn the USB cams into web cams (not really needed since ZM can access them directly, but also enables other scripts and such to hit the cams if needed). The end result is a "free" (minus the hardware) DVR system that has all the features Zoneminder has to offer, including: * Record Mode - Record only when there is motion (adjustable threasholds) * MoCord Mode - Record constanly,but also mark motion events so that you can jump to them * Monitor Mode - Don't save images to disk, but can be just viewed via web and accessed via API/scripts * Easily defined "Zones" (by just clicking coordinates on the image). Zones are used for things like, exclusion zones - draw a box around a tree that sways in the wind, so it doesnt cause false alarms. There are many zone types including ones that only trigger if another defined zone has also triggered. * Ability to tag and archive specific events * Automatic cleanup of old events as your disk gets full * All events timestamped and can also add any other overlay text you wish * PTZ auto-follow with the right camera and script to go with it * Easily change modes via web or cron jobs (record only at night, etc) * Web GUI that can be accessed with any browser, streaming live video seems to work best with Firefox * Ability to set triggers to email or perform an action upon motion of a particular camera/zone * Ive noticed several iPhone apps support Zoneminder source cameras, ones that I have personally used are "Cam Viewer", and "IRA Pro". * zoneminder / zm is already in many linux distro repositories. However I recommend installing the newest one from their site for the newest stable features. This probably sounded like an advertisement for Zoneminder :) It is very versatile and I have used it for many different situations from security DVR, catching people stealing things from my desk at work, triggering a script when the snail-mail arrives, etc. YMMV
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