Met with a prospective client today. He is a business owner in a small business park. Both his car and an office he owns were broken into, so he is inquiring about some security cameras.

#1) He needs 1 camera to record the single entrance to the hallway of his offices. Either a stand-alone unit or with a DVR. Anyone have experience with some kind of standalone camera that will work well for a business?

#2) There is a fairly large parking lot for this business park, but it only has one entrance/exit for vehicles. He asked about getting a camera somewhere to cover this entrance road. There is no way to get cabling to his or any other units from the location that would cover the road. The only power available in the parking lot is at light-posts. My idea was to install a camera at the top of a light post pointed to capture vehicles entering and exiting the lot. I have had experience in the past with wireless point to point video transmitters for cameras, but haven't done anything recently. Anyone have advise for this type of situation?

#3) He also wants several dummy cameras in addition to the possible working camera listed above. He likes the idea of a dummy camera that looks like a PTZ Dome. Anyone have any suppliers for something like this?

TIA

1. I think any camera is a stand-alone, so I don't get the question. Connected to a DVR, it's what you're asking about.

2. Has anyone checked to see if the parking lot company/general contractor spent his money wiring hot AC to any of the light poles? There's no real need for any power except switched, for the lights, so this is important to check out.

3. Google dummy cameras. I don't do a lot of camera purchasing, but it seems to me that everyone who manufactures cameras also makes dummies. If not, their distributors do! Check your local vendor. Or Fred's favorite supplier.

dummy cameras are for dummies.  Guy already has had his stuff stolen and he's still begging for more.

Before I installed dummy cameras, I'd provide him signs saying 
"Smile, you're on Camera"

No money in it whatsoever, but they work 2000% better than dummy cameras.


Zero point in having a camera without a DVR unless he plans on staring at the screen 24 hrs a day.  I'm no expert, but I hear burglars work at night.

Other than that, the wireless should be pretty straight forward.  I'd point something at a license plate entering and leaving.

Well I can use a 4 channel dvr and 1 camera, but was wondering if there was perhaps an IP based camera that was reliable enough to record to a computer without expensive DVR software. Also there are cameras that record to SD cards but I've only used one and it wouldn't overwrite once full so required a lot of upkeep. Perhaps someone knows of other alternatives.


Yes this needs to be verified


I have and I shall, just wondering if anyone had a favorite.

I agree above about the signs, and that's in the plan too.
It's a tough situation, where the cost of securing this area correctly is too expensive. So what is the acceptable compromise?