Re: HA cameras

[David Gumbrell <david.gumbrell@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 2/5/06, Chris Hunter <cjhunter@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> 'must say 'am a bit hazy on the mode of connection of camera to
Idratek
> ... the spare pair of the Cat-5 cable might be an attractive route,
> perhaps, to avoid the Idranet pair becomming overloaded with data ...
> how are multiple cameras handled, I wonder - presumably (with the
Cortex
> multi-cam' option) each camera will be polled in-turn ... and would IP
> cameras be the thing, or ... ???
>
> Chris
Hi Chris,

You would not be connecting the cameras to the Idranet cabling. You'd
install a multi-camera card into your Cortex PC, in the same way as
for Geovision. Each cable run from your individual cameras then
connects to the camera card in the PC. The camera runs have to be
dedicated end-to-end runs, they cannot use the "branching"
topology
that the Idranet can.

Cortex will "manage" the camera card and provide the motion
detection/capture features in the same way that the Geovision software
would for a Geovision installation. The advantage is that the camera
activities can then be more tightly coupled to the other features of
the Cortex system -- for example, integrating into alarm
arm/disarming, sending messages or announcements on detections,
turning lights on or plyaing sounds on detections etc etc.

Remember - the Idranet is using a proprietary protocol that happens to
run over CAT-5, it could also run on a 2-pair cable (if you dropped
the audio). It is *not* Ethernet. It is *not* TCP/IP.

I'm not sure of whether Cortex can support IP cameras or not -- I've
not looked at it that much since I have a Zoneminder based setup
already running and am still busy with other stuff  -- that's really a
question for the Idratek guys.


-- Gumby