System recomendation for my parents

[Schrodinger's Cat]

Hi all, I have a BI system that I set up to run with AITool and deepstack with telegram alerts to my phone. It runs great and I like to tinker with it.

My parents, who live 900 miles away, want to pay me to install a similar but larger system. Their desires are:

• All local storage
• No cloud or subscriptions
• 15-ish cameras
• Person and wildlife detection
• budget is $6k-ish. But its a very large sprawling house (I'm talking 5,000 sq ft single story) so I expect a good chunk of this will just go towards the nickel and dime process of running wire and ethernet extenders/switches.

My inclination is a top of the line BI system, but I worry about little issues that I won't be able to fix from afar. As we know they can get finicky when you start cobbling together 3rd party/open source stuff and whatever is in vogue now might not be in 2 years. I'm happy to do a little remote management, but not everything can be fixed this way and they won't have confidence in the system if they have to call me every month about it.

I'm wondering if there's something a little more turn-key and rock solid that can meet these needs. I might be able to stretch the budget if there's something really nice in that range that fits the bill.

Also, if you think I'm being dramatic and can actually set up a BI system that will make them happy and keep me sane after all, let me know.

Thank you

sc

 

[wittaj]

You are being overly dramatic lol. If you know BI then why try something different LOL.

You can remote into their system like you are there and do any adjustments you need.

Heck most of us here use RDP to remote into our headless BI computer while we are home, so whether you are there or 900 miles away doesn't matter.

 

[TonyR]

Also, if you think I'm being dramatic and can actually set up a BI system that will make them happy and keep me sane after all, let me know.

Dramatic? I don't think so. I'd say you're smart looking at any down sides that you don't face with your own system but are now looking at it as if you're far away.

But you can manage it and ultimately a BI system would work out great since you're already familiar with it.

 

[The Automation Guy]

I have a BI system that I set up to run with AITool and deepstack with telegram alerts to my phone. It runs great and I like to tinker with it.

You say "top of the line BI system", but the truth is that you are already doing everything they might want on your own system. The fact that they might have more cameras than you is really not important and really won't increase the "maintenance" of the system. The fact that you are 900 miles away also shouldn't really make a difference. Using a VPN into their network will allow you to access the entire camera system - BI, individual cameras, etc - as if you were on the local network. You could even go as far as creating a full time VPN to connect their network (at least the CCTV subnet) to your network which makes monitoring their system no different from monitoring your system.

 

[looney2ns]

I have managed a BI system for my daughter that is 650 miles from me for the past 3 yrs.
The only real issue's I've had is with her forking internet service provided by cox.
I'll have times that I can't connect to it because of the darn cox service. But once connection comes backup, all the recordings are there.
Her system is running on a I5-8500 Elitedesk SFF.
I just looked and it's been up now for 101days. Typically the only reason that it goes offline is during power outages that outlast the UPS it's plugged into.
You can use BI's built in remote access to manage the remote camera system, just like you are there.
Or use RDP if you need to see more than the camera system.

Tips:
As you may know,
*Turn off auto updates in BI
*Shut down windows updates.
*What ever PC you purchase, put a clean install of windows on it by using the MS Media Creation tool first thing.
*Don't try to run any thing else than BI on that PC.
*Do all the BI optimization's as outlined in the Wiki.

Configure and bench test that PC and cameras at your house for a few weeks to work out any possible gotchas prior to installing at your parents house.

 

[tangent]

its a very large sprawling house (I'm talking 5,000 sq ft single story)

Sounds like it could be a pain to pull wire to parts of the house. I don't think I've ever seen a 'sprawling' house that had a nice continuous attic.