I apologize in advance if this has been posted anywhere else, I tried searching for it but found a lot of threads on cameras for performance purposes. Long story short, our building was robbed the other night. All that was taken was a Rosco 1600 fog machine and a couple gallons of juice, but that's still about $1,000 in replacement so it's a pain for us to deal with being a HS PAC.
Security is an issue as many people have keys to the building and I've come in a handful of mornings to find lights left on, doors propped, etc and I'm done with it. I'm about 90% certain that this was due to a teacher who has keys and is authorized to use the building for rehearsal purposes not securing things. Either a door was left open or one of his charges is involved. There is no sign of forced entry, it's well known that his group was in the building after hours when the fogger went AWOL. It's not rocket science.
As an interim measure I'm planning on taking an old webcam and laptop and setting up a camera to record the hall looking toward the stage, but I was wondering what the 'booth might recommend.
We are pretty well wired for POE ethernet access points, but only one is actually used so I was considering looking at POE cameras, but I don't have much knowledge for what to look for in that regard. I know we've got unused drops in all the right places though (over stage, over house, over the workshop, lobby, etc). It'd just be a matter of buying the right setup and patching it in.
I've thought about the Harbor Freight deal, but they aren't currently accepting PO's so I'd have no way to buy it. Plus that'd mean running a lot of cable when I don't really need to.
We do have an external camera network that dumps video to a hard drive, but it's password protected and the admin that installed it has left. We're trying to get in touch with him, but if anyone knows a trick for bypassing the password that'd be helpful. We are exploring pulling the drive and contacting the old admin.
Anything you all might suggest would be helpful!
Security is an issue as many people have keys to the building and I've come in a handful of mornings to find lights left on, doors propped, etc and I'm done with it. I'm about 90% certain that this was due to a teacher who has keys and is authorized to use the building for rehearsal purposes not securing things. Either a door was left open or one of his charges is involved. There is no sign of forced entry, it's well known that his group was in the building after hours when the fogger went AWOL. It's not rocket science.
As an interim measure I'm planning on taking an old webcam and laptop and setting up a camera to record the hall looking toward the stage, but I was wondering what the 'booth might recommend.
We are pretty well wired for POE ethernet access points, but only one is actually used so I was considering looking at POE cameras, but I don't have much knowledge for what to look for in that regard. I know we've got unused drops in all the right places though (over stage, over house, over the workshop, lobby, etc). It'd just be a matter of buying the right setup and patching it in.
I've thought about the Harbor Freight deal, but they aren't currently accepting PO's so I'd have no way to buy it. Plus that'd mean running a lot of cable when I don't really need to.
We do have an external camera network that dumps video to a hard drive, but it's password protected and the admin that installed it has left. We're trying to get in touch with him, but if anyone knows a trick for bypassing the password that'd be helpful. We are exploring pulling the drive and contacting the old admin.
Anything you all might suggest would be helpful!
