Analog cameras have come a long way over the years. They have brought all of us an immense amount of footage to watch from movies, to sporting events, the news, and history. This was all done with some rather low quality equipment by today’s standards. IP MegaPixel cameras have a clarity that surpasses even the human eye. IP cameras can see into spectrums of light that people cannot, and can pick up details that even a person with 20/20 vision would not notice. If anyone recalls, actors were trying to get their contracts adjusted because they did not like the idea of every little pore on their skin being easily seen. Since these cameras are so amazing it was only a matter of time until we integrated them into security camera systems. Facial recognition is of the utmost importance when identifying unauthorized access. After all, the recording is only as good as the camera. In this article I will explain how to set up an IP camera with an NVR.
Once the big brown box is dropped off at your location from SecurityCameraKing.com, the first task you need to do is grab your invoice and make sure you have everything you need to complete the job. If you have questions pick up the phone and call 866.573.8878. Pick support in the options and we can help you understand what you have, how it is used, and set up a fair amount of the system for you remotely. IP camera setup is significantly different than the analog counterparts. This walkthrough will be geared towards camera setup and recording activation at the NVR.
BEFORE YOU PULL ANY WIRE OR HANG ANY CAMERA STOP!!! These IP cameras have configurations that needs to be done first.
The first two items you will need out of the box is all of the IP cameras and one power over Ethernet (POE) switch. You will also need a Cat5 patch cable a few feet long and a laptop computer is recommended, but any PC will do. Connect the computer to the network, open the command prompt and use the following command: ipconfig all one word lower case. You are looking for two pieces of information IPV4 address and DEFAULT GATEWAY. The IP address is the computer’s address and the gateway is the router’s IP address. Make a note as this is important. The IP cameras come with an address of 192.168.1.108. If the gateway is 192.168.1.1 then we can login to the camera and make changes. If the gateway is different this can create a challenge as you cannot just plug the camera in and it works.
Should the router have a different IP scheme, your computer will need to connect to the switch which the camera is connected to..
Next you will need to open the Network and sharing center on your computer. You can do so by clicking on the network icon in the lower right corner of a Windows PC.
The next window that will open up should look like this.
You will want to click on change adapter settings in the upper left of the window.
Once this window opens click on the local area connection. This is the wired part for internet connection.
Next you want to click on properties
Now double-click on internet protocol version 4 (TCP/IPV4), or highlight then click properties. Either/or, it does not matter you will go to the same place.
Now you need to change your IP address to 192.168.1.2 and the Default gateway to 192.168.1.1. Click OK. Now you will be able to gain access to your cameras.
Go ahead and log into the camera’s web interface. Next you are going to click on setup tab at top left then network and TCP/IP.
Now that we are finally inside the GUI of the camera we can make changes. In the network options you need to to set the IP to STATIC. The reason being is that if the camera loses power it will not grab a different IP address. Should the camera get a new IP address the NVR will not know, so the NVR will lose video on that channel. Next, I recommend you use the channel in the IP address you want to choose. For example 10.0.0.101 for channel 1 then 10.0.0.102 for channel 2 and so on.
Click the save button. The camera will log you out and then you have to login under new IP address. At this point go ahead and do this for all your IP cameras. Make sure to save every time you change an option before changing pages. If you change pages then hit save it will not save, as once you change pages the camera goes back to previous settings.
After all IP addresses have been set, we need to get your computer back inside the network to finish. Click the lower right corner connectivity icon to reopen “Network and Sharing Center”
Then click the change adapter settings.
Then right click on local area connection then properties.
Then Internet Protocol 4 (TCP/IPV4) double-click.
Next change to Obtain an IP address automatically.
Then click OK and give the computer a minute and it should be back in the network. If the network card does not refresh just reboot the computer. Sometimes that needs to happen but not often.
After you regain internet connectivity we need to go back into the cameras to configure resolution and frame rate. Open Internet Explorer and surf to the IP address of the camera.
Click on the setup tab upper right corner, then camera and video on left site of the browser. There are a lot of options here that can be adjusted, you will only need to adjust a few to start.
I am only concenred about the resolution, frame rate, and bit rate. Depending on the NVR you have is how high you can have the settings. I am going to give you a good starting point that can be used as a base line. With 1 mega pixal cameras, set the resolution to 720P. The Frame rate to 15 and bit rate to 2048 (roughly). Those options are for the main stream with the General stream type. In other words the live view. For the Extra stream set the reolution to CIF at 7 frames per second. Just like in this example.
Repeat these steps for all your cameras.
Now that all the cameras are setup we can tell the NVR what IP addresses the cameras are per channel. I am describing this setup through the web-service of the NVR using Internet Explorer. Log into the DVR and once inside click on remote device.
You can see there a bunch of cameras listed. Right now in the picture you see the IP addresses and manufacture. When using IP cameras from SecurityCameraKing.com you will need to scroll down in the window and find the manufacture that is “private”.
Check the boxes and click add camera. If no camera shows up initially click the refresh button. Sometimes they can take a minute or two to come up. Now click save. I have found at this point it is best to reboot the NVR. The NVR will pull in the settings of the cameras so you should not have setup your encode options, but it never hurts to double check. After the NVR comes back up you know have video.
Now you have configured the basics. You know for sure everything works and be confident about the equipment. As for the pulling cable and hanging cameras that part I will leave up to you. Every location being different, what has worked for me may not work for you. Should you need suggestions email us
