Surveillance For Whole House Remodel

Cool post.. I'm also a home DIY person so here is my setup for comparison.

I am also using Apple HomeKit with Apple TV 4th GEN as the hub; Bluetooth range can be a pain but so far everything works across a 2000 sqft home.

Using two Elgato Eve Energy (for lamps; used one on the Christmas tree a few weeks ago; worked great), two Elgato Eve Switchs for front porch and back deck lights, one Elgato Eve Motion to trigger lights on movement on main floor and Elgato Eve Weather mounted on the back deck; works well but alerts would be a nice feature to add.

Elgato just announced a Bluetooth extender to be available soon; so I'm not the only one to experience the challenges of Bluetooth range.. ~laughing~

No locks or garage door opener connected yet.. baby steps.

For cameras, believe it or not, I'm still three running the old/unsupported Logitech Alert 750e outdoor cameras... they still work and send alerts but I'm waiting for a HomeKit outdoor camera solution. I have a Synology NAS but waiting to see what is coming from D-Link and others.

Family friends use NEST cameras (indoor and outdoor); they work well but the fees are high (in my opinion) for home users when you start to add multiple cameras and they don't integrate with HomeKit.

Also using NEST Thermostat 2nd GEN; that doesn't support HomeKit but we don't adjust the settings very much. It works well but would consider changing to Ecobee3 with room sensors and HomeKit support... TBD.

I wouldn't say that I am pro-Apple but I do like the security that was designed into the HomeKit products.

The other factor for me was.. I may know but tech but my family members will be using these products as well... I have to consider, how easy will it be for my wife to check a video event or trigger the lights? She won't be logging into the Synology to figure that out..

Hope this is helpful.. and I agree, this site is great.

Most likely I'll end up with home automation, security, and surveillance that are three separate ecosystems.

This is a major pain, but a typical reality.  Have you investigated Samsung's SmartThings?

This is for your house, correct?

Luma appears to be vastly overpriced Hik clones.  I actually really like Snap, but their camera line is a joke.  If it were my house I'd do a Hik/Spectrum combo, and I wouldn't use panos at all.  

Similarly, I'd avoid Araknis.  Packedge is great, and if you can afford it you'll do really well with it.  Ubiquiti is a great value option if you have some know how.

Alarm.com is an interface, not a monitoring company.   This is relevant because if you use C4 you'll likely handle alarm from the C4 app, which means most of the Alarm.com features won't be used.  You may be able to get basic cellular for less.

As far as the automation goes, I've been a professional and hobbyist automator for 15 years.  I've worked with or owned: Alarm.com, Total Connect, Crestron, Total Control, Elan G, Harmony, Wink, Smart Things, and Control4 and more.  Smart things is fine IF you are a tinkerer.  If you want something that works, do C4 or Crestron.  I am personally transitioning my home to C4 because I've found it to be the most reliable mid range system.  AMX and Crestron may be a bit better, but not for the premium imo.  And frankly, after home experiments with Wink and Smart Things I'm really getting tired of my system failing every time I go to show it off.  One other note: I don't have much experience with Savant, but I have heard some really positive things and it's a pretty slick system.  One commonality I've notice across different systems is that zigbee seems to be a much more reliable mesh standard than ZWave.

No matter what, all of these systems will only work as good as your network, so competent network setup should be your number one priority.  Hardwire everything, and if your integrator seems confused bring in a consultant.

Sorry for the ramble! 

- Sean

We are commercial and residential shop.  After reading this thread i would say you are truly a DIYer.  Control4 is very stable and works really well when it is professionally installed and it provides 1 app to see all the sub-systems.  If you plan on changing things or trying things you will need to pay your Control4 dealer everytime to do those things.

As a SnapAV dealer, SnapAV is great for an AV company that don't know everything or wants real tech support when stuff goes haywire.  You are paying a premium for this.

My advice is find a more open-sourced based control system or get used to using multiple apps so you have more control of things.

Hmm, I checked pretty recently and couldn't find a way to integrate 2GIG.  Time for some research!  Alarm.com does support other panels, so that may be where the mixup comes in.  The scene he described is pretty dead on.  I have a keypad dimmer in my master that has buttons labeled Bedtime, Morning, Bathroom, Fan Light (That's the load the dimmer controls), and Panic.  Bedtime arms the alarm, turns out the lights, closes the garage, turns off music, and will eventually close shades.  Morning does the opposite, Panic turns every light in the house on (probably need a better descriptor), and Bathroom turns the master bath and hall lights to a very dim setting for 5 minutes.  The Alexa integration is pretty killer too.  Also works well with Sonos, which had been a problem with some previous systems.

I would strongly reconsider most of the SnapAV stuff. I also am not very impressed with Synology Surveillance Station. I would highly recommend you look into a VMS based recording solution. You can still use a NAS for storage if that is your choice. A simple Windows or Linux PC can record eight cameras very easily. We use DW Spectrum (also known as Nx Witness) for our VMS. I would recommend you look into Ubiquiti for your network needs, both wired and wireless, but I am unsure why you need mesh networking if you can simply pull cable now?

As far as the outdoor cameras are concerned, it depends on the mounting height of the cameras. If you are higher than 10ft above grade, then you should consider bullet cameras. If less than 10ft above grade, bullet cameras become an easy target to be moved or broken. At these lower heights, consider turrets, because they are more vandal resistant, offer better IR than traditional domes, can be wall mounted or soffit mounted without the need for a wall bracket, and are still decent looking.

I don't have as much knowledge when it comes to the automation and access stuff, so I will leave it for others to help there. What I can tell you is that we have sold OnControls in the past, but that Control4 is a respected brand as well.

I wouldn't buy any network gear from Snap if it were up to me. They are great for their AV stuff, especially their Binary brand of extenders, but I wouldn't buy their surveillance or networking gear at all.

Are you sure you need the PTZs? If so, are you planning on installing enough IR to accommodate the entire view of the PTZs? Why not simply choose a PTZ with integrated IR, or better yet, one with super low light abilities that won't need IR at all?

How do you plan on utilizing the PTZs? Set them on tours, use smart tracking, or what? You could afford quite a few more fixed cameras in place of a single PTZ and not have a need for tours, tracking etc...

I was thinking PTZs for flexibility. I would mostly leave them in one position, but I like the ability to "look around". An example is the garage: I was thinking I'd put a PTZ over the gate from the driveway to the backyard. I'd likely leave it pointed at the gate/driveway, but like that I could check things in the backyard if I want. 

My concern with IR is insects. I've had fixed dome cameras with integrated IR before the remodel and bugs and spider webs are a problem. I started looking at stand alone IR emitters based on this section in the IR tutorial::

Bug / insect issues: Integrated IR cameras may attract insects or spiders, which nest/build close to or over the lens of the camera, obscuring the field of view. If this is a problem, a standalone illuminator must be used.

I'd prefer to just use integrated IR, but if it fixes the bug problem, separate illuminators might be worth the trouble.