Need help setting up server + surveillance camera for school project

[z1mb0bw4y]

Alright, I'm aware that this may be the wrong place to ask this, so if it is a topic move would be great.

A school project has assigned my team with a hypothetical scenario in which we have $15000 to design a school project that can benefit campus. Our current idea is to set up a graffiti wall with an HD surveillance camera set on time lapse to take a picture every 5-10 minutes, and then at the end of every semester set up a youtube video of the progress on the wall to that date. Obviously I don't want you guys to do my project for me, but I have a few simple questions.

1. What's a reliable company to get a large storage capacity server from? This server should be prebuilt, no assembly required kinda thing.
2. How can I network a camera to said server directly? Would it be easier to buy a prefabricated HD surveillance system?
3. Once all of this is set up, what maintainance will need to be done on the server in the long run? I'm a total noob to servers so I don't understand how they work.

Thanks in advance for the info, and any help at all is informative (even if it's just a link to a website).

[Adorada]

An easier way to do this would be to grab a computer, install linux, connect webcam, install Cheese, open terminal, type "cheese& while true; do xvkbd -text " "; sleep 300; done", and leave the computer always running.

Simply put, this would press the space button (shortcut key for Cheese) every 5 minutes (300 seconds). The images are stored in one of the image folders in linux. All you would have to do is make sure xvkbd is intalled too (basically its an onscreen keyboard for linux).

If you want to network it, you can try to grab a wireless webcam and see if that works. The above is just a very basic/simple solution that would give you kinda what you are looking for. Definitely not the best way to go about it, but it does work.

[denominator]

An easier way to do this would be to grab a computer, install linux, connect webcam, install Cheese, open terminal, type "cheese& while true; do xvkbd -text " "; sleep 300; done", and leave the computer always running.

Simply put, this would press the space button (shortcut key for Cheese) every 5 minutes (300 seconds). The images are stored in one of the image folders in linux. All you would have to do is make sure xvkbd is intalled too (basically its an onscreen keyboard for linux).

If you want to network it, you can try to grab a wireless webcam and see if that works. The above is just a very basic/simple solution that would give you kinda what you are looking for. Definitely not the best way to go about it, but it does work.

Something like this would almost certainly be significantly cheaper: plus you can then use the extra money towards high resolution/quality photographs.

[z1mb0bw4y]

I would prefer to not do that. This is supposed to be a professional setup for a major university, and we have up to $35,000 to spend on this project. A professional, legitimate server would be much preferable.

[denominator]

I would prefer to not do that. This is supposed to be a professional setup for a major university, and we have up to $35,000 to spend on this project. A professional, legitimate server would be much preferable.

Hm.. the problem with prefab personal servers is that they really never come to a standard you would want.
There is plenty of "popular" companies that create servers that would likely work it's just a matter of picking one. Dell & HP make some decent (and customizable) servers. If Apple is more your thing their servers are also okay.

Once you have the server you can buy a surveillance camera that attaches to your network (I would probably setup one for just the camera/server as opposed to using the schools network so as to keep it self contained and less likely to be tampered with).

[Cactrot]

I would prefer to not do that. This is supposed to be a professional setup for a major university, and we have up to $35,000 to spend on this project. A professional, legitimate server would be much preferable.

There's nothing unprofessional about doing something cheap and efficiently. The proposed project does not require $35000. A budget is not a goal to spend. It's a goal to spend less than. Setting up the graffiti wall would almost certainly cost more than it would take to make a server to take the pictures. The only concern to have would be to make sure your storage space is adequate, and your system is proected. The server and cameras itself would be relatively little compared to the rest of the project.

[z1mb0bw4y]

There's nothing unprofessional about doing something cheap and efficiently. The proposed project does not require $35000. A budget is not a goal to spend. It's a goal to spend less than. Setting up the graffiti wall would almost certainly cost more than it would take to make a server to take the pictures. The only concern to have would be to make sure your storage space is adequate, and your system is proected. The server and cameras itself would be relatively little compared to the rest of the project.

Except that this is grant money, so what we don't spend we don't get to keep. The idea is to spend most of the money so that we get great, long-lasting solutions that meet our requirements. I don't want a $200 nikon camera hooked up to a $500 linux machine, because that's simply unprofessional. That said, I don't want to blow $7k on a server and $15k on a camera, so I need to know where to start looking.

[Deleted]

Except that this is grant money, so what we don't spend we don't get to keep. The idea is to spend most of the money so that we get great, long-lasting solutions that meet our requirements. I don't want a $200 nikon camera hooked up to a $500 linux machine, because that's simply unprofessional. That said, I don't want to blow $7k on a server and $15k on a camera, so I need to know where to start looking.

Actually, like Cactrot said, spending that much money on a project sounds exactly like any professional would do.

I understand that grant money has to be spent though. You could easily have more than one camera shooting from multiple places, as well as a years supply's of spray paints etc. Maybe as part of the project you could offer a cash prize to the best graffiti at the end of the year (to encourage participation), voted for by your peers.

Another option is to host a site where all the photos taken so far are viewable to anyone on campus.

[dicertification]

With that kind of budget, would you not be able to just google for a video surveillance company in your region and contract them? They would be professionals.

edit: or 411

[denominator]

With that kind of budget, would you not be able to just google for a video surveillance company in your region and contract them? They would be professionals.

edit: or 411

Sort of removes the learning aspect..

[semaphore]

Except that this is grant money, so what we don't spend we don't get to keep. The idea is to spend most of the money so that we get great, long-lasting solutions that meet our requirements. I don't want a $200 nikon camera hooked up to a $500 linux machine, because that's simply unprofessional. That said, I don't want to blow $7k on a server and $15k on a camera, so I need to know where to start looking.

I think getting unnecessarily expensive options because you don't get to keep the money otherwise is the epitome of being wastefully unprofessional. There is nothing unprofessional about a linux machine, it works just as well as any expensive server. All you really need is to go get good parts and build a reliable, stable PC. Doesn't mean it'll cost thousands.

[llDemonll]

You don't need a server for something like this, a desktop with a large storage array would be more than fine for the uses. Even a script that runs each time a screencapture is taken that deletes any files older than 1 day is easily possible

[zeq]

I think you have come in expecting to much. No single camera and computer will cost you $35,000 to take pictures of a single wall. With that amount of money, you could put a camera in every corner of the building and still build up a enterprise server and have money left over.

[Djinni]

I think you need to research first what a server actually is... Plenty of WebHosting companies simply use old desktop computers from the office and add them to the "farm".

As for this:

An easier way to do this would be to grab a computer, install linux, connect webcam, install Cheese, open terminal, type "cheese& while true; do xvkbd -text " "; sleep 300; done", and leave the computer always running.

Simply put, this would press the space button (shortcut key for Cheese) every 5 minutes (300 seconds). The images are stored in one of the image folders in linux. All you would have to do is make sure xvkbd is intalled too (basically its an onscreen keyboard for linux).

If you want to network it, you can try to grab a wireless webcam and see if that works. The above is just a very basic/simple solution that would give you kinda what you are looking for. Definitely not the best way to go about it, but it does work.

This is actually very close to the best way to do it... (Although you would probably run a script to take a picture, rather than press the space key. But the end result is the same.)

As for the "Professional" when you buy a "Professional Service" you don't really care how they implement it... as long as they do.. The above would be VERY typical of a School, College or University setup.

All you really need to do is buy something like: http://www.maplin.co.uk/1tb-8-channe...-access-593863 A little bit of math wouldn't go a miss here to make sure your drive is big enough:
1 picture every 5 mins ( 60 / 5) = 12 pictures per hour at say 5MB each
5 x 12 = 60Mb of storage required every hour
60 x 24 =1440MB of storage required per day
1440 x 366 (most number of days in a year) = 527,040 MB of storage required in a year per camera.

If you want to be really flash, you can connect the device to the network and publish the pictures online through a web app.


P.S. If my math is a little off it's because its 3am here... and I forgot to use a calculator...

[Cilraaz]

I think getting unnecessarily expensive options because you don't get to keep the money otherwise is the epitome of being wastefully unprofessional. There is nothing unprofessional about a linux machine, it works just as well as any expensive server. All you really need is to go get good parts and build a reliable, stable PC. Doesn't mean it'll cost thousands.

I pretty much agree with this, but if you feel the need to spend $35k, you can give it to me to set you up with a $2,000 server.

[dicertification]

Sort of removes the learning aspect..

Then do what was suggested and setup your own box....

I can't seem to understand the problem. Any techie with a bit of carpentry knowledge (read handyman) can setup what you are looking for at a fraction of your budget. Just shop for the hardware and get it done.

What are you trying to learn? How to manage the project with a budget? Then use my first suggestion. If you are wanting to learn how to set it up from start to finish, then use the suggestions others have given you about building your own box. Just do it professionally.....

[Tomec]

As others have said, you should really do some homework on things. 15 or 35 or whatever the budget is just way way way overkill for the kind of project you're thinking of setting up.

If you absolutely have to spend it then what you really need to do is just go way overboard on parts. Like you really don't need a powerful computer at all for storing the pictures, and you can easily get the amount of storage you need without buying a server, but to spend money go all out. Get the newest and best parts. I think the current top of the line intel CPUs are somewhere around 1k. A top of the line video card would probably be another 1k... OH! Water cool it in a huge custom case with custom graphics and stuff, that can easily add on a couple k to the total. Also, make sure to buy SSDs and set them in Raid 1, that way you have to buy DOUBLE the number of disks... and larger capacity SSDs will run you a couple k too. You'll just be seriously going through the budget then!

HOWEVER, you have to realize that that is like so overboard it isn't even funny. Realistically you could do the whole project you suggested much cheaper and it would still be professional. Professional doesn't mean expensive, it means it looks good and is done RIGHT. There are multiple right ways to do this, and if you wanted to you can easily go overboard. However, that doesn't mean you should and sometimes simpler is better.

One of the marks of a true professional is coming in under budget on things. Companies do not like it when things run over their budgets, and the more you save from your budget the more someone else can do with their project. If you have to spend the whole budget then just do something creative like give out prizes to people who contribute or set up multiple boxes to take pictures from different angles. If each rig cost you 5k (which is way more than it would be) then make like 7 of them to capture it from 7 different angles. Your budget is used up and I'll bet it'll look a lot better when you compile them all together instead of just one angle.

[denominator]

Then do what was suggested and setup your own box....

I can't seem to understand the problem. Any techie with a bit of carpentry knowledge (read handyman) can setup what you are looking for at a fraction of your budget. Just shop for the hardware and get it done.

What are you trying to learn? How to manage the project with a budget? Then use my first suggestion. If you are wanting to learn how to set it up from start to finish, then use the suggestions others have given you about building your own box. Just do it professionally.....

I'm not the OP.. if you read the thread you would realize that I suggested just that..

[dicertification]

I'm not the OP.. if you read the thread you would realize that I suggested just that..

oh shit, my bad. Totally thought that was the OP replying. My apologies.
Guess I was a little heated. Bothers me someone would consider wasting that amount of grant money on something so simple. Even paying someone to setup everything wouldn't cost a pile of money.