How To Set Up Cameras Around A Large 100 Acre Park To Help With Vandalism

The other issue of course is the budget. While they really are concerned about the vandalism, of course they have a tight budget,

How tight of budget? Sometimes the feasibility of a project can be determined right up front with this data.  Frequently customer requests and budgets do not align.

Connectivity and power will be the greatest problem in terms of cost you will face.

mix of low lux high MP camera

If you want high megapixel then IR may be your best option.  Most of the ultra low light (lightfinder, lightcatcher, darkfighter, etc) cameras top out around 2-3 MP.

I would also think about tying it into some sort of analytics system

I would lean this way as well.  This will likely dictate which cameras and VMS you will use.  Figure out if analytics is your most critical item, which actually work and work backwards from there.  It sounds as though this might be heavily forested so fields of view will be a challenge.

Up front the tight budget would be my biggest concern.  If they said they have a cap of $20k to cover the perimeter of 100 acres of forested land with no pre-existing connectivity or power I would pass.

I'm suspecting that 'A tight budget' is going to be something like $5k. If that.   After you take into consideration cameras, power, wireless, recorders and assorted infrastructure as well as installation,  etc... there's no way you'll get under that.

(I've had these types of project requests in the past)

So, what I'd do?   Trail cameras.   Put them in metal vandal enclosures (most companies make them for their cameras). Reconyx is the big name here.    An ultra high end one is $1k, but most are far, far less than that.  You could have a dozen or more of them spread all over the place.   Since the customer is concerned about vandalism, not assault or any 'time sensitive' crime, pulling the SD cards to review the stills after the fact isn't a big deal.  You can get 8MP trail cameras now. They last for months on AA batteries, though most have a solar panel upgrade you can put on them.

Add up your total cost per camera site  (meaning camera, infrastructure, installation and power)  vs  slapping a trail camera up there, and I'm sure you'll end up with a huge price difference... and all trail cameras have IR, so you'll take care of your lighting issue.

Don't know the cost, but traffic violation cameras would seem an option at the entry points to give you "identification level" views of the car and its driver. Set up the trail cams at likely points of vandalism to get the folks in the act. Unlikely you can get much for $5K (maybe other than trail cams); and if the bad guy finds them, bye-bye trail cam, I don't care how tough the container (maybe you can set up a dummy cam and have the real cam taking pics of the dummy).  To bring in FLIR would be way out of range. Also, you need the bad guys doing the act, then a way to identify the folks involved.  Finally, check with local PD as to what they can do if do get photos. As a detective, when I set up a surveillance, I tried to make sure the items taken cost more than $100 (this number dates me) so a felony would be involved. 

All good comments above, however I would approach this project in Phases with the clients approval.

Phase I one would be to determine the price for the system design and get the Order.

Phase II would be from Phase I implement the site prep, power, cabling, communication.

Phase III the perimeter and choke points with the head end.

Phase IV interior camera sites. 

This allows for budget planning over time instead of taking the full bite at one time.

Just a thought.

Lou Marrero

Chicago Communication Systems, Inc.