CCTV Server
Connecting up a camera to a home server is a great idea as it will always be
ready to record. Cameras can be used as a CCTV system to protect your home
inside and out, can be used for monitoring of a variety of different things from
another room, or even create time lapse videos.
Hardware
Hardware requirements can be a bit of a minefield as there are lots of options
available using different technologies, with each camera type requiring a
different computer setup.
To help break it down here are the most common camera setups available to
computers:
USB: The simplest and easiest way to get online, basically a
webcam can be repurposed to provide a source to capture images. Webcams are
cheap however they require moderate amount of computing power on the PC, adding
a few more cams will put strain on an average computer, and positioning of the
cam is limited it needs to be plugged directly into the server.
IP: Images are transmitted to the home server via the local
network, allowing them to be positioned wherever there is Ethernet access or
wireless coverage. Computing power on the server can be scaled back as the
camera processes the images before sending across the network. Downside is the
cost of the cameras are still expensive compared to an equivalent USB based
camera.
BNC/RCA: The name relates to the type of connection used, these
are analogue signals that are commonly used on a television. This option is
normally found in professional environments due to its reliability, but there is
a lot of cost involved. Camera prices are cheap but the server end will need a
capture card to convert analogue to digital, and its these that are very
expensive. This setup can be run on a very low end server with many cameras but
each one has to have a coax cable running to the server.
I highly recommend a IP camera solution if starting out for the first time with
cameras, the initial outlay for camera hardware may be higher but the rewards
will be reaped by them having less impact on the server's operation than using
USB. Analogue cameras are considered to be a legacy technology and are only used
in very large scale deployments, so here they are a non starter. As the
processing is handled on the camera the server does not need to be as powerful
as with a USB solution as the process is essentially a file server as far as the
server is concerned.
What is needed on the server is a lot of storage capacity to hold all the
images, this will determine how many hours of footage can be held by a number of
cameras. The speed of the drives will not be an issue for a single camera, but
as more are added there may be a need to have a faster drive, if this is the
case then hard drive manufacturers are producing drives that are design for this
kind of use, prices are about 20% more than a basic drive with similar capacity
but with many drive it will be an essential item to have.