Chappie

I would take it on the chin. But I imagine a lot of people try to get the job done cheaply before realising that it was a false economy. If you're going to turn them all away, that's likely a big chunk of the market.

Yes, I've found a lot of horror stories during my research so I am restricting myself to vendors which have had multiple recommendations in reputable forums - and I am buying the latest generation kit with the maker's branding, English language and upgradable firmware. There will still be risks - not least if/when something goes wrong with the kit even though it comes with a warranty - but there are also persuasive reasons for taking that chance. After all, the system is made in China so it should be no different in quality to the same kit which has travelled down the global distribution chain. I intend to start piecemeal so that any initial problems will warn me off continuing with the bulk of my order. Then I'll come back to you, cap in hand.

Thanks for that. My gate is double automated - control is either via the usual fob remotes or an ancient POE access control system which needs to be replaced. But I was intending to buy my video intercom kit from China so I probably need to find a freelance installer.

I suppose Reading is too far from sunny Sussex for you to come and install it for me? (Hikvision video intercom with 3 monitors, Alexa, Broadlink and that analytic camera)

I will be getting a Hikvision video intercom for my entrance gates. Are you saying that when Alexa eventually acquires that skill I won't need any other device…or would that only dispense with the Echo (or the Broadlink)? Sorry for being a dummy.

So I need one of these? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Broadlink-Automation-Intelligent-Controller-Compatible-RMPRO/dp/B077GRV5CJ Or presumably Alexa Echo would do the same job without Broadlink? In practice, how does it work? Can a PIR alert or video intercom visitor automatically trigger a camera window on your TV? Does it overlay whatever channel you are watching or do you have to switch AV channels?

Thanks - I'll have to find out more about this. Do I have to pick an NVR which is compatible with Alexa?

Heyyyyy, nice pool! That picture looks pretty darn good but it must be upscaled to fill that screen estate.

Understood James. I hope that Hikvision is a reputable, if foreign, make and that any of their cameras will be good quality.

Full screen? That doesn't compute unless your video is being upscaled - in which case it should lose some clarity. Do you have any functionality/interactivity on your TV feed? I would love to be able to bring my video intercom feed to the TV and then shout commands at it like "open the gate"...or even click a wireless USB mouse.

Thank you Peter. I do need good resolution as my monitor is a 5k screen and if I view a low res video it's the size of a postage stamp. But I will rely only on optical zoom cameras and up to 4MP. The zoom is for the cat - and for the one time in every decade or two when I might spot an intruder while watching live...

Thanks for these good pointers but I won't be having any bandwidth worries with 1000Mbps up and down to the inter web and across my LAN plus Gigabit cabling around the house and probably only 5 cameras - a couple of which will indeed be 2MP but if I can find the right NVR to deliver 4MP I'll get a couple of those too with zooms as I like to interact and I need to find my cat! My monitor is a big 27in 5k iMac and I'm running with a 4TB SSD drive plus 40GB of RAM so I could view almost anything on it.

I suspect he didn't know about 4k NVRs. Can you recommend one, eg Hikvision?I

I was asking a pro installer today about fitting a new POE CCTV system to coincide with my new 1000Mbps fibre broadband/LAN and when I told him that I would like to see 2560 x 1920 4MP video footage on my 5k PC monitor, he told me not to bother and choose instead 2MP cameras because my system would never be able to display video at higher than 1920 x 1080 without upscaling/interpolating it. If this is true, why are people buying 4/5/8MP cameras? Is the NVR the bottleneck? Are there no NVRs capable of receiving/processing native 4MP+ video and sending it to the LAN without dropping data? For sure, I have seen 2560 x 1920 CCTV video on my monitor from a 5MP camera but when I looked more closely, it was less sharp than when viewed at 1920 x 1080 which suggested that it was simply being upscaled. Or is proprietary client software a bottleneck? I can't believe that my system is the problem since it can play 4k Youtube H264 or H265 video very smoothly and it looks great. Grateful for your thoughts.

Talking to myself but I have been assured elsewhere that this system will pick up non-Hik camera feeds (via rtsp) but only the sub-streams.