Swann 4K 6 camera NVR system vs. a custom build?

[tld2004]

Hi All

I have been a visitor of this forum for a while and am after some advice please.

I am having a large extension built at my house and would like to install CCTV at soffit level: 2 cameras covering driveway/front garden (12 metres wide, 8 metres deep), 1 camera down the side covering side gate and side door access, 1 camera covering the other side of the house where a shed is, and 2 cameras at the rear covering bi-fold patio doors and patio area.

The house will have external LED lighting and PIR floodlights to the front and rear so the cameras will need to cope with ambient lighting during early evening and then pitch black late night/early hours. I’m keen on POE with smart phone connectivity for smart phone notification.

I’ve seen a Swann 6 camera 4K NVR system for circa £700 (link) and would like to know if anyone has any experience with these Swann systems. They seem affordable, advertise 4K resolution, line crossing detection etc, but are they any good, and how do they stack up vs. a custom build for a similar budget?

Thank you in advance.

 

[Kyle]

Hi @tld2004

We don't have any hands-on experience with the Swann kit, but that system does seem to be of good value for the specs it offers.

A few key differences I noticed after a quick look between this and an (e.g. Hikvision) custom build:

• All of the Swann cameras have the same focal length and 93° field of view. So, they will all have the same optimum range and you may find there is wasted space in the image or overexposure if used in too narrow a space. They will work well for monitoring the space immediately around the house but are not ideal for monitoring spaces that are narrow or >10m from the camera. This could potentially be an issue for the camera covering the side gate and side door access, depending on how narrow this space is. You can pick the optimum focal length for each scene with a custom build, which is probably the most important difference.
  
  
• The Swann kit does not use the H.265+ compression codec (only Hikvision systems offer this), which will save you the most on bandwidth and storage space.
  
  
• The specs show that the Swann NVR will not take anything larger than a 6TB hard drive, which would store about a weeks' worth of recordings from all the cameras if you run them at their highest settings (8MP / 15FPS). As you can easily view your footage remotely now via the app, this probably isn't too much of an issue.

The cameras in both systems will use IR cut filters, so the early evening ambient lighting will not be a problem. The Darkfighter feature available on many of the Hikvision cameras can give you a colour image with a bit of ambient light, the Swann cameras seem to offer a similar feature, but I can't comment on how it compares.