Introduction

First, a little about me and why it came to be that I'm creating this blog.  I'm a 20+ year veteran in the Information Technology field who has always had a passion for techno-gadgetry.  In my early 20's (long before the Internet was popular) I was a nuclear power plant operator in the US Navy and indulged in 12v [car] audio, video and security as a hobby.  My exodus from the Navy was largely because they would not let me pursue a career in IT, so leaving before retirement was the chosen alternative.  In my-post military career I have had the opportunity to work in Windows Server administration, Network design and administration, IT Infrastructure design, Information Security, IT Project Management and currently I am an IT Solution Architect for law applications.

It should be no surprise with my passion around technology I have some pretty nifty Smart Home devices as well.  My home theater is managed by a Logitech Harmony which integrates well with Amazon Echo [Alexa].  Many of my wall switches have been swapped out for Wemo Smart Home switches, also controlled by Alexa.  We also have a home security system that is access via mobile device and Alexa as well.  Finally, about 2 years ago, I installed an Amcrest 8 camera video surveillance system which included a proprietary DVR and a mobile app.

... and that brings us to why I am creating this blog.

Sadly, we had an event in our very quiet neighborhood where our video surveillance system helped the Sheriff's department investigate a crime, but it fell short in some ways.  It fell short because:

1. The night vision on the cameras was not great.
2. The resolution on the cameras was good, but not 4k.
3. Camera positioning and quality of the cameras prevented us from getting a license plate.
4. One critical camera was not working correctly (flickering)
5. The software was so clunky, it took 30 min to just get access to the video, and we couldn't deliver 1 hour of video to the detectives until the next day.  Mobile app was great for real-time viewing, but not looking back.
6. The video files were proprietary and unable to be emailed in a standard format (MPG, AVI, WMV, etc).  The detective literally had to record the video from my computer with his iPhone.

The cost of the Amcrest 8 camera video surveillance system was approximately $1000 on Amazon, and had 4.5 stars; but on that night I would have paid 10x as much to be able to get the detectives the necessary information to make a swift arrest.  Luckily, the criminal turned themselves in a few days later - but if we had a license plate on video, it potentially could have happened that night.  Never again!  I want to know my video surveillance system inside and out and be able to produce a video to detectives within minutes, not hours.

The fact is, off-the-shelf isn't going to work for us.  My preliminary research shows that POE & WiFi cameras feeding into our existing home network and then being recorded and motion detected by a Network Video Recorder (NVR) is the solution.  And so the research and testing begins.

There are many other resources on the Internet that I have used to help me along my journey, and it is important that I share those with you now (I will be citing my sources in future blog articles as well):

• https://ipcamtalk.com/
• http://www.cctvforum.com/