Security Camera Matrix Switch

philcav7

I am putting together a A/V system for a client that has 12 video cameras in his home. I need a recommendation of a matrix switch that will input video from the 12 cameras (via composite video baluns) and output the signal to 5 or more tv monitors throughout the home. It would be great if each monitor could have a different image displayed at the same time and offer independent control, but is not a critical concern.

I want to set the system up to scroll the cameras every 5 seconds or so, but can manually select any camera for fixed display. These cameras are in fixed location and do not need any pan or zoom control.

Control of this switch needs to be either RF or IR remote compatible.

I would appreciate any insight that you may offer, as my security equipment knowledge is limited.

Thanks!

Kgmz

It's going to cost a lot of money, figure around $10,000.

You are going to need a 16 or 32 camera switch to get that many outputs. I like the Pelco units, but they don't have wireless remote control. They do offer the capability of multiple direct wired keyboards or computer control.

GregS

Could do the whole thing with Crestron very easily..

Small Processor
IVDS matrix switch
Multiple RF Remotes
Baluns
Cabling
Programming

Ya, at least $10K.

slowforthecones

I do CCTV often and for a home application 10k... you might as well buy tablet PCs for $1000 or less each and a nice DVR...have remote view setup and have the tabletPC always on or screen on a schedule. Your tablet can double as a computer too...wireless internet station. I don't see the point of a video matrix for a residential application, espcially one with only 12 cameras, even if they upgraded to 16 or 32 later on. Your customer is better suited with a TabletPC mounted and a hardwired Cat5 line.

philcav7

$10K is probably out of the question. This is job consist of approx $160K of architectural work and A/V gear. Most of the money is going to a dedicated theater, the rest is going to to updating video displays in the home and the bar area.

The ultimate goal is to enable him to be in any room of the home(with a TV) and view his cameras and have manual control of which camera is to be displayed on the TV. A single video output will suffice, as I can run it to a video distribution block(they will all show the same signal.)

He wanted the flexiblity of wife watching the kids in one room and him viewing the front porch on another tv, but those situations would be limited and is really a secondary concern if the price is too high. His current setup has no remote operation and only offers scrolling images or he has to walk to the unit and manually switch the cameras via push button. The signal is currently being distributed over the cable tv wiring using RF modulator and putting the TV on channel 134. This doesn't offer the usability and looks terrible.

I thought about reaching out to my Crestron guy, but he has been out of the area. For now, I have speced C4 in the theater and bar area. I am trying to talk him into setting up the entire house with distributed audio and lighting control, be he expressed not interest....he's a movie guy, not an audio guy.

Thanks for the insight!

GregS

These things can all be integrated very nicely.

My house has a single Crestron processor handling the home theatre, distributed audio, and I can add in a matrix switch. So the more you have it do, the cheaper it gets. It's still recommended to use a different processor for lighting control.

For distributed audio.. ask his wife if she ever listens to the radio.. or an iPod, or the like. Get the wife on board.

wireaudio

I have had projects like these before... and honestly, it was not a problem.

The simple way to do it is like so:

Connect cameras to a 12 port DVR (if he wants one), making sure the dvr has a IN and an OUT for each camera. Clover has some nice DVRs that can do this (however, expensive... this can be replaced with a cctv matrix switch, as long as it has a remote and both in and out ports). Plug cameras into this DVR (or matrix switch), then from the other line, use a matrix switch. From the dvr out line and matrix switch out line, take these lines and hook them up to a AV distribution block (Elan has a nice one). Plug in any additional things into the AV distribution block (make sure it's a COAX block, since you said you don't want to complicate yourself in running audio to the TV too, and i assume the coax is already ran to the TV). Then, connect all TVs to the block.

Ok, this should complete the wiring, now we need figure out a way to control all this.

This can easily be done with a Logitech Harmony remote. Put the extender by the devices. This extender comes by default with i believe 8 IR ports (the price of this remote is like $350 or so). You hook up the extender with the IR to the devices and program them. You can use additional remotes for the project (1 per TV), or you can use a couple and program them by room (to tell the AV dist block to switch the input for whatever room you are in).

Since we used a DVR and a matrix switch (or 2 matrix switches), we can now have the wife use one of them to watch the cameras, and the husband the other one. And since i asked for the ones that have a remote control, you can program the harmony to change channels for the cameras

Here is what you would need:
12 Cameras.
1 DVR.
1 MATRIX SWITCH.
(or 2 matrix switches).
1 AV Distribution Block (remote controllable, coax type).
X Harmony Remotes (your choice here).
Some coax wire and cat5 (to run cameras, connect components).

By the way, I am an authorised ELAN/DENON dealer, if you need anything.

I believe that's it. Good luck, and if you have any questions let me know.

sirroundsound

Lots of options, but you don't mention what has been run to each TV location, or if new wires are possible.
As for the CCTV side of things, many good DVR's out there that will give the client the ability to view from a computer, PDA or even Ipod these days. Looping out from a DVR to a video matrix is fairly simple, and there are plenty of good brands such as Neothings, Autopatch and Vaux which all will have IR and RS232 control. These could be programmed into most good remote control systems. It will come down to what cables you want to use to deliver the picture to the TV's.

If you need to lower the budget on all this, the other option would be to find a good DVR with IR / RS232 control, run out to a modulator, feed into the house cable signal and using a good remote control system select which camera you wish to view from the DVR.

Inner10

I do this on a regular basis; Keydigital or Vaux will work great; but unless you have a solid control solution integrating it can get dicy....and pricy.

ctiautomation

Would a cheaper "Pelco CM6800 Matrix Switcher Controller" work for this application?