New retail shop. Retail/POS at front of shop. Maybe a camera outside too. I already have a Unifi Dream Router Router at home, was thinking of using that in the new retail shop instead of home. Have only used it as wifi at home.
I’ve worked in tech all my life but compared to the OzBargain crowd I would dial my skill level down to intermediate nerd.
I feel like I’ve been researching security cams and wifi for years and still have NFI what to do, which ecosystem to invest in.
Do I take the Unifi from home and go all in with POE Unifi bullet cams and domes or just start again with the new shop. Reolink, Eufy, Google or Arlo. I’m lost.
I want to monitor remotely, record to the cloud, I have a spare NAS if needed.
Help!
Security Camera Setup for a Small Retail Premises
Lyomamayomama on 13/08/2023 - 19:40
Comments
Let me re-rate myself further down to novice nerd!. Good advice, will look a bit further at Reolink before going down the expensive Unifi path or rabbit hole of DIY. I won’t be in the shop to fix so need it pretty simple.
ipcamtalk forums. Chek it out.
Dahua or hikvision with DIY Iris NVR with some sort of off site or hidden backup if possible. Motion alerts for the indoor camera at night. (there should not be any false positives).
what's your budget?
I’ve seen Dahua mentioned before. Budget about $800 all up. I’ll checkout the forums but trying to keep it simple solutions and less DIY.
No Probs. I assume you have back to base alarm with battery backup as well. If I were to break into your small business, I will take your little Arlo cameras (just literally yank them out) and your NVR too. :) Just see whether you can hide the harddrive if possible or at least have a backup in the premises that's hidden. The cameras really should be vandal proof and metallic. Set and forget rather than silly little plastic numbers from other manufacturers.
I do love the intrusive AI recognition side of google though. That could be well useful.
Christ! Haven’t even thought of an actual back to base alarm. New to retail business. Are there any integrated systems or providers you would recommend?
It’s looking like it might be cheaper to get robbed ;)@yomamayomama: At that point just get quotes from a few local security system installers/monitors if you are going with an actively monitored B2B system. The diy IP cam option is if you plan on being your own B2B service, with phone alerts if your system detects or goes offline.
if you go diy putting the cameras up as high as possible (need a long ladder to reach) & putting the NVR with a UPS in a safe is an option I have seen. Rarely will people bother climbing to the eve of a 2 story building to pull off a camera.
Streaming the camera feeds to an off-site backup is another.
Reolink is best budget option. Unifi is better but expensive & you need to go all in on their ecosystem to get the value out. Other option is hikvision cameras (or one of the similar alternatives) & a DIY Blue Iris/frigate/ispy NVR. This gives the most flexibility & bang for buck but its not the cheapest (thats basic reolink usually) & it takes time to set up & tweek. Those open source NVR options with a google coral TPU can do some wild stuff with image recognition though.