Advice on selection and position of new cameras

[JSa1987]

About year and half ago I installed cameras in the front of the house. After spending many days reading on this forum I end up picking two EmpireTech PC-T54IR-AS-S3, and I'm very happy with these cameras. I'm running these cameras with Frigate.

I'm now planning to extend the camera coverage to the backyard and the pathway on the side of the house and I would like to seek some advice on the position and type of cameras to add. Below is schematics of what is already installed and what I was thinking of installing.
Cameras currently installed:

• Camera A - PC-T54IR-AS-S3 2.8mm
• Camera B - PC-T54IR-AS-S3 3.6mm
• Camera C - Reolink PoE doorbell (white)

Cameras I was thinking of adding:

• Camera D - This camera would cover the gate in the back and overall all the back yard. I was thinking of using a PC-T54IR-AS-S3 3.6mm as I have this in the front (B) and I'm happy with it.
• Camera E - This camera would cover the gate on the side of the house. I was thinking of using a PC-T54IR-ZE-S3 set with the focal length at 12mm, my understanding is that this camera is similar to the PC-T54IR-AS-S3 I already have and as the pathway is quite narrow I could zoom in all the way.
• Camera F - The idea would be to cover the rest of the pathway with this camera and potentially provide some additional coverage of the backyard. To cover both the pathway and the backyard I was thinking a PTZ camera could potentially an option here. Maybe a PTZ2M-4X or a PTZ4M-4X? Or would this be a good application of a dual-directional camera like a PC-E541F-E2-AS?

What do you think of the positions of cameras D, E and F? Would you position the cameras differently?
Any advice on the type of cameras to install? Especially for camera F?

 

[Sammyf]

What kind of purpose will those cameras have on the DORI-scale?

With camera F bear in mind that a PTZ might be looking to wrong direction when something happens. Though it being only for additional coverage, the risk might be acceptable and somewhat mitigated by using cams E and D as spotters for the PTZ.
How about installing the cam F to the South-East corner of the property to look towards the house?

 

[JSa1987]

What kind of purpose will those cameras have on the DORI-scale?

The purpose of Camera D would be to monitor the gate on the East side and have an overview of the back yard. Ideally Identify (but at least Recognize) somebody entering the gate (15.5ft away) and ideally Recognizing (but at least Observe) somebody in the back yard. The PC-T54IR-AS-S3 with a 3.6mm focal length DORI specs are 22ft for Identify and 44ft for Recognize. As I have this same camera already installed in B I think it will be ok for this application.

The purpose of Camera E would be to identify somebody entering from the gate on the West. I would pick were to position this camera on the South side of the house to ensure it can identify somebody entering from the gate.

The purpose of Camera F would be to Recognize (or at least Observe) somebody in the blind spot behind camera E (that would be somebody that has entered from the gate on the South side and therefore already Identified by Camera E). And to provide additional coverage on the South-East side of the back yard, the part that is more far away from Camera D.

Would the cameras I have in mind cover these purposes?

For reference these are some relevant distances:

• From the house to the East property line it is 15.5ft (i.e. from camera D to the gate on the East)
• The East property line is 47ft long
• The width of the pathway on the south side of the house is 5.5 ft (i.e. width of the gate on the West side)
• The distance between the proposed location of camera F to the gate on the West side would be
  • 78 ft if camera F is installed on the corner of the house
  • 93.5ft if camera F is installed South-East corner of the property as suggested by @Sammyf

With camera F bear in mind that a PTZ might be looking to wrong direction when something happens. Though it being only for additional coverage, the risk might be acceptable and somewhat mitigated by using cams E and D as spotters for the PTZ.

Yes, if using a PTZ camera for F the idea would be to use E and D as spotters and have the PTZ camera automatically turn if anything is detected bu either E or D.

How about installing the cam F to the South-East corner of the property to look towards the house?

This is an interesting idea. I could mount camera F on the fence post on the South-East side of the house. In this case I would have to bury underground the Ethernet cable from the house to the post. Does anybody have experience with this type of setup?
If mounting this camera on the South-East corner of the property what type of camera would you recommend? A PTZ to be able to zoom in towards Camera E or a fix camera?

 

[Sammyf]

Maybe a bit late reply and I’m not familiar with the latest cam models, but anyway.

The general consensus seems to be that for the manufacture’s specified identification distance you should take half of it for a realistic real-world scenario (accounting for darkness etc). So based on your comments the planned cam for location D would be suitable at least for recognition.

Cam E, something with a zoom, mounted low enough. You want to see the face, not the top of their cap/hood.

Cam F, I’d put a normal cam at the fence and maybe add a PTZ to the corner of the house later (see also the last paragraph).

You can always add more cams later to get better identification shots, if desired.

I have currently one cam installed in the garden pointing towards my house. I used direct burial cable. It’s covered with conduit between the wall and the ground. In the ground it’s buried maybe 4-6 inches deep. Been there some years without problems. I think @Holbs has some cables pulled across his yard (he has a nice topic about his setup, I just can’t search for it at the moment), as do many others too.

Personally I’d first cover everything in critical areas with normal cams and add a PTZ to expand the area under surveillance (e.g. follow someone leaving the property) or to get additional view on the critical areas. I added a PTZ to my setup just because I think those are cool

 

[Holbs]

Maybe a bit late reply and I’m not familiar with the latest cam models, but anyway.

The general consensus seems to be that for the manufacture’s specified identification distance you should take half of it for a realistic real-world scenario (accounting for darkness etc). So based on your comments the planned cam for location D would be suitable at least for recognition.

Cam E, something with a zoom, mounted low enough. You want to see the face, not the top of their cap/hood.

Cam F, I’d put a normal cam at the fence and maybe add a PTZ to the corner of the house later (see also the last paragraph).

You can always add more cams later to get better identification shots, if desired.

I have currently one cam installed in the garden pointing towards my house. I used direct burial cable. It’s covered with conduit between the wall and the ground. In the ground it’s buried maybe 4-6 inches deep. Been there some years without problems. I think @Holbs has some cables pulled across his yard (he has a nice topic about his setup, I just can’t search for it at the moment), as do many others too.

Personally I’d first cover everything in critical areas with normal cams and add a PTZ to expand the area under surveillance (e.g. follow someone leaving the property) or to get additional view on the critical areas. I added a PTZ to my setup just because I think those are cool

I was in a rush to install cameras.
1 camera I really wanted was to point down the entry way about 200' distant. I am lucky in that there is only 1 way onto my property (unless someone jumps fences with dogs & humans in the area).
I specifically installed a lamp post 50' distant down my driveway inside a bird house at the 5' height to capture straight on facial ID. And also to give me time to react from being that far distant.
Here in Northern Nevada, the yard is not really a yard like it was back in Pennsylvania or Virginia. It's like a 80's football stadium with AstroTurf on top of cement pad. Super hard clay. It took me a good 3 hours just to make a 4-6" deep trench for 10's to get my cables to my lamp post. And that is with one of them 6' digging bars.
I also ran a total of 5 burial rated Cat6 to my lamp post:
#1 served to run 24vdc to lamp post bulbs (super important in dark area as you need light photons to bounce off a human figure and/or face to hit the camera sensor)
#2 served to run T5442 camera in birdhouse
#3 will serve as license plate reader
#4 will serve as whatever fits my fancy (IR blaster, another camera, who knows)
#5 served to run my Bosch PIR which does face 50' away pointing towards my front door/driveway.

At the same time I ran these 5 Cat6 over to lamp post, I ran additional 2 Cat6 in a Y pathway to feed other side of driveway. This is where I plan on installing another camera that will point back towards the house. As it stands now, all my cameras point TOWARDS the front yard/driveway. I just figured, to get a full 360 picture to also have a camera capturing TOWARDS my house.