ZoneMinder Forums

Hi there, I am new here but have been chewing through the documentation and well impressed by what ZM can do.

I have recently purchased a service station (petrol/Gas station to some) with attached mechanics workshop etc. I am looking at setting up a monitoring system for the forecourt as well as other parts of the property. We will do zone motion detection at set hours but constant on setup.

I am seeking some guidance if anyone here has setup anything similar or has some good hardware/setup pointers.

I am in New Zealand so may find some of the hardware not always easy to source. My early though was stick up a number of IP Cameras but after reading the extra CPU utilisation requirements I need to take a step back and properly plan

A related question for the forecourt cameras, is it possible somehow to do OCR and record number plates?

tia

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I'm not sure what your question specifically is, but in general, you can get by with any mixture of cameras and systems you have available, so maybe start with what equipment you have and what your budget is. Since you are doing multi-room deployment, I would also consider how much time you want to spend on installation. If you don't want to wire up your place to a single server, you can use multiple cheaper computers and a handful of really cheap ($20) USB webcams for each room and avoid installation headaches.
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The "professional" ones in the uk seem to mostly use analogues and bespoke hardware - but also cost tens of thousands and are backed by insurance schemes. There's no reason why you can't mix and match to suit your budget and needs and wiring layouts. IP can save money by reducing cable laying, and with zm-friendly vga cameras down to about £35 now, the only reason to go with analogue imo is the wider range of cameras. (Plus the better quality ones)

Not so sure I agree with the usb webcam and multiple computers for the reasons of added power costs, space and an additional point of failure.

Automatica Numberplate Recognition (ANR) has been discussed in these forums a few times. Have a search but I don't think anyone has got a 100% working system with zm yet.

Thanks guys. It sounds like a mix could be good, workshop and office get a few decent IP cameras and then the forecourt look at a couple of good quality analogue ones?

Documenttaion suggests Axis being good cameras (but price is quite high), any other recomendations for cameras?

Capture card something along the lines of Blue Cherry PV-149 - 4 port video capture card?

Any thoughts on capturing number plates?

tia

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