I had a look through and there have been a couple of home CCTV threads in the past, but most of them are a couple of years old and wanted to ask if any of you are using home CCTV then what are you using.

Due to SWMBO's Job she has recently recieved some threats from one of her clients, who is more than capable of carrying them out, and highlighted that the house may be a target.

Out of peace of mind for SWMBO I said I would stick a CCTV on the side of the house. Fairly simple, the garden has only one point of access so only need to cover one area, needs to be IR and preferrably one that looks after itself. I.E. records 24/48hours then records over that period again, only if something has happened I can review the previous footage/pass on to the police. (Signage will be in place obviously )

Anyone got any suggestions?

Ta

I can endorse CCTV but one must chose equipment and its placement carefully. Buy the best that you afford . Multiple cameras are ideal and decent recording equipment. I have CCTV bought to protect wild life. It used radio transmission to overcome distance problems. I had a recorder. Ours took some setting up because of the difficult topography. It was possible to very the settings and it had night vision capability afforded by infra red technology. Do take care placing it. Mine were unfortunately circumvented even though placed in trees and with cameras placed in such a way so that one camera looked at another. The most awful of crimes went on unobserved. If you have a fear, do not just rely on the camera. Take other sensible precautions and take proper advice.

Thanks for the advice Anthony, We have good security other than CCTV. PIR Lighting, Intruder alarm, Good window/door Security etc, and of course my 31oz Louisville Slugger :p

The police have been informed and put a note on the address so should a call come in then they can take a good guess at what it will be in relation to and prioritise accordingly, TBH my guess is that any action will come in the form of vandalism, the cowards crime which if it happens at 3am is hard to detect, and then prove.

BigW -sorry to hear - I've had an old CCTV cam for years -works off /into skart lead of video etc, but recently got a device off of Amazon called Easycap -usb2 device with drivers that will showvideo on PC ,and record to HDD. Recently saw a cheapish camera in Aldi -mini thing -but looks like it is suited to direct TV recording . My security these days is provided by Tobias von rottenbum - 10kg Cairn Terrier ( or terror) -best alarm going -and the noise would frighten off most intruders .But in the dark of the house he's invisible and silent -till he strikes -where most male intruders won't like . :doh:

If you do invest in CCTV try and go for the best picture quality possible, especially in night mode. Most CCTV is questionable in daylight and mostly useless at night. Obviously you need to get as much detail of the would be vandal otherwise the whole exercise is pointless other than to offer a mild deterrent.

The recording method also needs careful research, a lot of devices use quite aggressive compression technology to store the recorded data from the camera(s) onto a hard drive so even the best camera in the world will be no good if the video is compressed to You-Tube pixellated standards.

CCTV is obviously a deterrent but the priority is to ensure the premises are as secure as possible, A security consultant might be a worthwhile investment, despite our best efforts its very easy to miss something obvious when it comes to home security.

A decent, well maintained intruder alarm with panic buttons and a BT RedCare link is another option to consider. I accidentally cut a RedCare line on a job once and the police were on site in no time.

Professional advice is the best way forward IMO

I had a look through and there have been a couple of home CCTV threads in the past, but most of them are a couple of years old and wanted to ask if any of you are using home CCTV then what are you using.

Due to SWMBO's Job she has recently recieved some threats from one of her clients, who is more than capable of carrying them out, and highlighted that the house may be a target.

Out of peace of mind for SWMBO I said I would stick a CCTV on the side of the house. Fairly simple, the garden has only one point of access so only need to cover one area, needs to be IR and preferrably one that looks after itself. I.E. records 24/48hours then records over that period again, only if something has happened I can review the previous footage/pass on to the police. (Signage will be in place obviously )

Anyone got any suggestions?

Ta

Yep - as posted - a Cairn terrier - or a Westie OR TWO - not the biggest of dogs, but noisy / nasty if they think their owner is in danger . And they're loverly as pets . More viscious than a Rotty -but less of a problem .

I accidentally cut a RedCare line on a job once and the police were on site in no time.

LOL, not just me then!

Did the same in a store in warrington with several attempted robberies that week. Armed response, with 4 cars and 3 dog vans in less than 3 min. What a 30+minute laugh we had in the back of a van

Teach me to listen to the area manager for said store chain that "that panic button is dead, only those are active"

A decent, well maintained intruder alarm with panic buttons and a BT RedCare link is another option to consider. I accidentally cut a RedCare line on a job once and the police were on site in no time.

I ALWAYS got the registered user to call in and declare "engineer on site" ,before working on any line where Redcare was fitted .Then get them to call back and check all was well ,then get a reference to put on my paperwork - that way if a breakin after I left and Redcare not working -I( and my firm) were in clear .

any suggestions for a fairly good setup that does not cost alot. I'm going to have to install one at the parents house following a threat from what was clearly at headcase that he was going to come back and do the cars over and "sort us out".

I'm fairly sure its a random nutter that probably nothing will come of it but as its where I keep the Octavia I really dont fancy having it wreaked.

My link

this company tends to be recommended on the lancer forum.

any suggestions for a fairly good setup that does not cost alot. I'm going to have to install one at the parents house following a threat from what was clearly at headcase that he was going to come back and do the cars over and "sort us out".

I'm fairly sure its a random nutter that probably nothing will come of it but as its where I keep the Octavia I really dont fancy having it wreaked.

Daughter gave me an idea - she & partner are into bikes - and local biker fraternity ,my Grendson is an honary member ( at six minths) .She had a fewproblems with yobs around her car ,till she stuck a biker sticker in rear window . Why not see if they have any stickers - might cost a fiver or so - but seeing one of them on a car makes yobs quake -last thing they want is the local biker lot round -not that they would ,in my experience - but it don't half work wonders .

A solicitor friend has an XVision XPB621 camera. It has great quality video even in pitch black due to the IR illumination. It would be easy to identify an intruder from the video.

Because the threats were work related her company paid half. Maybe it's worth asking.

Edited 11 March, 201016 yr by rwbaldwin

and coupled with a good camera, you need a system which I guess can detection motion and record the previous say 10 seconds before hand, not get confused by change in brightness (cloudy and then sunny), and ideally has a motion mask (to stop things like bushes setting it off)

and coupled with a good camera, you need a system which I guess can detection motion and record the previous say 10 seconds before hand, not get confused by change in brightness (cloudy and then sunny), and ideally has a motion mask (to stop things like bushes setting it off)

Why bother, just record 48 hours / a week then loop over it again.

What you get depends on what you want to do.

If its deterence, then you go for clearly visible camera + visible lighting system and say a siren.

This seemed to work with the church next to me. They had been subject to repeat vandalism events , including an attempt to burn down the church by proping a wheelie bin full of rubbish + accelerant next to the main door (Fire Brigade said if they had arrived 10 mins later than they did whole lot would have gone). I think they then installed CCTV + perimeter lighting which they kept on using a timer until 01:00 in the morning - this seemed to do the trick.

Wheras a simple infra red actuated spot was enough to deter one night worker who was using the off-road residents car park that I use as her rendez-vous of choice.

The perpetrator could of course just pull-up their hoodies or put on a balaclava, or third parties might be engaged to do the dirty deed or weather conditions might not be good enough for a good eyeball. Then a sound recording would be useful too. Many of the outside cameras have this facility.

As other posters have said multiple cameras are a good idea. Also have back-up in case one system goes down - multiple minature cameras on dashboards and parcel shelf of parked cars.

Bear in mind that all detection and recording devices can be triggered by a variety of inputs heat, light, sound, vibration or radio frequency.

Of course the council might be diposed to go halves on the installation of a camera on a piece of street furniture e.g. a lamp standard ?

Spray Flourescine dye on the perpetrators via remote actuated devices ? Must be available ? Or alternatively, M13 Thermobaric grenade look s promising :-

http://www.tlsfx.co.uk/c-17-bb-airsoft.aspx?pagenum=2

Actuated Mosi sound emitter - the perps are proably going to be in the age range - at least stress them out when they are doing anything.

Careful arrangement of dustbins, garden ornaments and furniture, loose paving slabs so entry and speedy exit is difficult.

Expanding metal gates, of the type used at stations, stadia etc might be applicable for windows and doors.

Steel front door - at least it takes 'em a bit longer to get through when they have ago with sledge hammers.

Get a doggy and/or A Taser ?

Are rubber bullet guns available / legal ?

Work out an exit routine/Safe place in case they decide to molatov you.

If you want to go further then engage a security company who can do drive bys and remote surveillance.

Trouble is you are static and therefore a soft target.

Truth is, if people are that determined to vandalise or injure they will and there's litte really you can do to stop them.

They'll do a recon/case, work out your living patterns and tailor the attack accordingly. They might even have a local "Colleague" who is an intelligence source for them.

There have been several examples of this over the last 10 years in this locality,

Some of our Caribean cousin unlicensed phamaceutical distributors decided to wreak vengeance on one of their ex-partners by doing a drive-by on his house. Only trouble was it was the wrong house, and some poor sod was woken up at 03:00 to a hail of small arms fire coming through his 1930s semi-detached lounge window !

Or the ex-girl gang member who declined the persuasive and repeated entreaty of her ertswhile ex-colleagues to re-join them and was met, Jason Bourne style, by a massive gas explosion when she re-entered the property. That one made the national news and the house was only 200 yards from the district cop shop.

All you can do is a prepare, military style, a threat assessment and tailor measures to the scale of the threat.

Nick

Edited 13 March, 201016 yr by Clunkclick