CCTV configuration in my BH

Quite tight in this couple of weeks after the long break of CNY as those projects of new BH set up that I need to catch up schedule. In order to ensure materials delivered correctly and construction made accordingly to my design, many thing need to be attended personally, those coordination and travelling really kill most of my time.

As requested, I would like to share the CCTV configuration that I setup in BHs under my care. As in my previous article that I wrote about Automation with IT would actually help in the maintenance of BH especially for those who got BH that far apart from where they live.


CCTV system setup is quite standard, install cameras over where you want to view, connect them with the cable of RG59 or RG6 to the control centre i.e. DVR (or Computer type CPU with video capture card), the most important and recommended is to have a ‘Network DVR’ which can be connected to router in a local network for viewing or downloading recorded video from other client terminal, DVR with the latest H264 format will be in higher video compression rate for faster downloading. I will advise to use wireless (WIFI) router, so that I can actually park my car outside of BH where I can see birds playing at top of entrance without entering into BH, while watching the CCTV capturing in live on screen how birds are playing at entrance hole and all camera points.

Another benefit is that we can also download the video in the pass stored in the hard disk of DVR, then view later whether there is an increase in number of tenants, this is part of the management for me, what I often do is park my car nearby, sitting back in the car and open up my laptop, then enjoying watching birds playing or download video file for last few days without entering into BH, which takes about 10mins for me to do. After finish downloading, I proceed to another BH and do the same thing. I can view those video when I get home and free. That really saves a lot of work and speed up the job.

If your BH is located at where internet available zone, you can also configure to be viewable online through internet remotely from anywhere, but your internet at server terminal (your BH) should be fast and stable in uploading speed in order to have smooth viewing. One thing from my previous update is that those 3G internet from provider like Maxis, Digi are not usable for this purpose because there is no individual IP assigned for client terminal but shared IP, Streamyx and P1 are applicable. Further than the above if your internet IP is dynamic, you should use dyndns domain for free to direct by setting in your router, then you also need to do port forward in your modem and router directing external access to your DVR, which means if your DVR viewing by browser normally use port 80, then you need to port forward all the way port 80 from modem down to your DVR bypassing firewall. If this is too technical and complicated you can get IT expert to help or PM me for more detail.