Top notch surveillance has never been so easy
Home surveillance has become quite an interesting market over the last couple of years. Whereas the home user previously had little choice but to opt for complex and expensive equipment, they can now get commercial quality surveillance from a range of suppliers at affordable prices.
We've seen a few examples recently, from single camera USB, Ethernet and wireless options, to DIY-ish solution using a Raspberry Pi. Now, though, we're lucky enough to have something a little more powerful and comprehensive to try out.
The TRENDnet 4-Channel HD PoE NVR kit comes with plenty of goodies: a pair of TV-IP320PI 720p outdoor cameras, a TV-NVR104 network video recorder with a pre-installed 1TB hard drive, two 30m Ethernet cables, a further 1.8m Ethernet lead for hooking up to your local network, a 1.8m HDMI cable, an optical mouse, power adapter, a collection of installation guides and a CD with the user guide on it. It's quite the package, with each component neatly and individually boxed.
Starting with the cameras, the lens of each has a focal length of 4mm with a progressive scan CMOS sensor. There are good viewing angles, a fast shutter speed, 720p HD recording capabilities, and tough weather resistant housing. Each has a 100Mb/s PoE port, complete with the kits necessary for all manner of wall mounting.
The control box, as we already mentioned, has a pre-installed 1TB hard drive, on to which you'll be able to record many hours of HD footage taken from the cameras. It has four PoE Ethernet ports, two of which will be used by the included cameras and two left spare for further upgrade to a four-camera setup.
There's also a 100Mbps network port for hooking up to the LAN, a pair of USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, VGA, and a pair of analogue audio ports. Once everything is connected, you'll be able to view the feed from the cameras in a split-screen arrangement, or view any of the previous eight-day recordings.
Setting everything up can take some time, especially if the locations are a little out of the way. The length of Ethernet cables provided is good, though; 30m is towards the upper limit for Ethernet, but even at the maximum distance you should still get a good feed. You'll need to drill a hole through a wall, or wherever you're installing the cameras, to feed the Ethernet cable through, however -though, thankfully, since the cameras are Power-over-Ethernet there's no need to provide power.
The setup is pretty impressive. The quality of each component is very good, especially the cameras, and the end result is similarly good too. There are a few points that could with being improved upon, perhaps. Gigabit Ethernet across all the components, mainly the TV-NVR104 would greatly improve the access times. And maybe a wi-fi option for the cameras wouldn't go amiss either.
Despite those minor points though, the TRENDnet 4-Channel HD PoE NVR kit is more than capable of satisfying the home or small business user who needs top quality surveillance for their premises. It's easy to set up too, thanks to the network video recorder being able to auto-detect TRENDnet cameras. The options to access the feed are too many to list, as are the individual features, but suffice to say there's a lot on offer here for the asking price of around £350. David Hayward
An impressive setup for those who need quality surveillance.