I Want A Quality 60 - 70 Camera System For An Indoor Climate Controlled Self Storage Facility - Any Guidance On Right Approach, Considerations And Best Cameras?

I'm an end user that self-installs take it from me, hire a professional, you may end up wasting money on the wrong cameras and equipment.

Pay attention to VMS licensing too some will count multi-headed cameras as one some won't.

If you insist on doing it yourself, Axis Site Designer is a nifty tool

The Set up I'm building for our new retail store:

Fortigate 50E, I was going to go for the 30 (Because I'm cheap) but the 50E has lower latency and dual WAN so I can run a 4G backup.

2x Aruba 24 Port 2930F Switches (Stacked for redundancy, instead of one 48 port if one fails my whole system wont be down, also if you go this route always buy from an HPE authorized reseller they will not honor a gray market warranty. HPE has perpetual lifetime support)

Supermicro X11SCA Mobo w/ Xeon E3 in a 2U 8x Hot Swap Case running RAID 10 + Hot Spare (5 HSGT/WD Ultrastar Drives Total) on an LSI Mega Raid (I'm using Axis VMS because I bought it with the analog encoders a looooong time ago, I would most likely use a VMS that would run on Linux because for me Linux is easier to Admin)

Siemon Z-Max Patch Panel and Z-Plugs.

Eaton 9PX1500 for power quality and backup power

Windy City Shielded Cat5e Plenum (Because it is thinner), I based this on IPVM's test I was originally was going to got for Hitachi

5-6 Axis M2026-LE MkII (Because I'm a cheapskate, I remember paying 500-600 for M Series Cameras years ago for our other location)

Axis FA54 with 4x 1080p Dome Units for exit doors

Axis F34 with 4x 720p Bullet Sensors for Stock Area

Supermicro 1U Atom for PBX for phones and for the Intercom

Whatever Synology NAS I have lying around for backup, plus cloud backup to Backblaze.

For Going Outdoors:

Axis T8508 Switch mounted far away from the IT closet connected via fiber to isolate from stray power surges, Switch also has surge protection on each port

DIN Rail Mounted Siemon Patch Panel

L-Com Surge Protectors at each entrance, grounded.

Eaton 5S UPS

Outside Construction Keeps Changing So I just picked One Camera So far

Axis P-3228-LVE 4K for covering the front and street

2N IP Force Intercom

I recommend also lurking on Reddit Networking because the cameras are only 1 part of the puzzle.

Good morning Daniel,

Looking at your post I would start with the basics.

What is the function of the system and how will it be utilized?
Is it for live view for situational awareness, forensic review to understand an event, or for identification of individuals? The system could be a combination of the three.

Without knowledge of the environment I'll have to make the following assumptions.

Note: I do not support any one product manufacturer. The product references below are only examples to help you understand product type.

The site is restricted, meaning a fence surrounds the property or vehicle entrance is restricted to one or two location.
There are multiple customer entrances into the building.
There are multiple elevators for customers to use.
Site access is restricted to customers.

Suggestions:

Exterior:
Utilize a higher resolution imager (camera) at the vehicle/pedestrian entrances. If possible enough to capture a license plate to identify incoming/exiting traffic.
Use multisensor imagers (e.g. Axis Q3709-PVE or Hanwha PNM-9020V) for the exterior perimeter. I do not use single 180/360 imagers as to limited imaging quality and other issues.

Interior:
Entrances into the building. Here you should strive for identification or (60 to 100 Pixels per Foot). This will help with identification of individuals entering your building. I do say help as items such as sunglasses and baseball caps can decrease identifications. If these cameras are in a dark hallway with a FOV (field of view) pointing towards an exterior door with bright back light you will need a high quality WDR (Wide Dynamic Range) camera. Here is a Youtube video of a Sony SNC-XM632 with WDR.

A 1080p cameras with a 2.8mm lens at 11 feet from the target (entrance door) with provide about 70-75 PPF and 7-9 feet of view-able area in depth. A 1080p camera with a 10.5mm lens at 40 feet from the target (entrance door) will provide 65-70 PPF with 20 to 25 feet of view-able area in depth.

Depending on the interior hallways and the building design, striving for 30 to 40 PPF for most area is reasonable. I would suggest crossing FOVs (two cameras pointing at each other).

Visio example

I hope this helps you with a starting point.

Some useful tools are
Axis Designer tool. Only supports Axis products.
JVSG: CCTV Design Software - Free trial for 90 days.
IPVM Camera Design Tool with Google Maps Integration

Edouard Sonnenschein
https://www.linkedin.com/in/edouard-sonnenschein-192a798a/

Did you ask any of the people who proposed for a demo of the video management software?

I would try to narrow down some of the bids and ask for a vendor/material list of what is provided so you can dial things in.

That’s another reason to bring in a proper consultant. A friend who is a significant project consultant looks for the Holistic approach to security and the intangibles while leaving the spots and dots mostly to others.

Holistic you say? What are you trying to achieve? Can you use CPTED to improve security for property, employees and customers before electronics? Once you gain that perfect video shot, what liability is there in viewing / sharing / policies?

What are your policies overall, customer agreements?

Hi Daniel,

Garrett here, CEO of Rhombus Systems.

If you're still looking and evaluating different solutions, I'd love to help. Finding the right system and trying to make sense of it all is a big issue that many of our customers experienced when evaluating vendors. It's a difficult process, but I hope my team can make it much easier for you.

If you're interested in learning about our solution, please reach out! My team will provide a demo, answer any questions you may have, and set you up with one of our partners to handle the install.