Installing Hikvision camera

A Hikvision installation does not start with the camera but with the question of what should be on the image. A driveway with license plates requires a different image than a backyard where you mainly want to see someone walking. The wider the camera looks, the smaller a face or license plate becomes in the frame. Therefore, the technician first walks around the areas with you and chooses between overview and detail for each position, instead of hanging the same lens everywhere. The mounting height is a compromise, not a fixed number. If you hang it high, you get closer to the camera less often and have less damage, but you look more at the branches than at faces. If you hang it low, you recognize people better but the camera is closer to hands and tools. The direction of the light also matters: a camera that looks straight into the setting sun or into an outdoor lamp will produce a silhouette instead of a face during the day. Then comes the cable route. Hikvision cameras on PoE receive power and image via a network cable, so there is no need to have a power outlet at the camera. A network cable run remains within the usual hundred meters between camera and recorder; if the distance is greater, an additional network point is needed along the way. The route should be run as much as possible through crawl space, attic, cable conduit or existing passages. Where a hole is drilled through the facade, the hole should be angled outward or sealed off, so that no water enters through the cable. We will walk that route with you beforehand, so that it is clear where the cable will be located and where it will be drilled.

Focusing is done with live footage included, not by eye. The technician monitors a screen or phone and adjusts until the image border is correct: no half-wall in the frame, no roof that swallows a quarter of the frame, and the running route in the center. With a dome or turret camera, the hood is then secured, so the position does not shift when it is windy. In the recorder, the base is recorded: setting the time and date correctly, placing the cameras in the correct ports and in the correct order, and setting a recording schedule. Here lies an important trade-off, namely resolution and frame rate against recording time. A higher resolution produces sharper images but fills the hard drive faster, allowing you to look back for fewer days before old images are overwritten. Images compressed with H.265 take up less space than the same image in H.264. We tailor the settings to what you need in practice, for example, to view footage after a weekend away. We also adjust the alerts to what you really want to know. The detection settings available vary depending on the camera and recorder, so we check your system's menu to see what's available and set them up together with you. The goal remains the same: fewer alerts due to rain, moving bushes, and oncoming traffic, and keeping only alerts that matter to you. Finally, we link the app to your phone, replace the default password with a custom password, and together verify that live footage and alerts are arriving on your device.

An installation is only complete when the night view has been checked. Infrared reflects off everything that is close by: a roof gutter, a wall right next to the camera, or a rainpipe. A white spot in the image causes the rest of the picture to become dark. Glass is also a point of attention, because a camera looking out through a window mainly sees its own infrared light reflected back. Therefore, we look through the viewfinder in the dark and move or tilt it where necessary. Then we walk through the image with you. You will see how you watch live, how you search by time, how you export a clip when you submit a report, and what a notification on your phone means. We also discuss what the camera should not look at. Keep the image of the public road or the neighbors' garden as small as possible, and if that is not possible, part of the image can be covered with a privacy mask. Finally, you will receive the practical information: where the recorder is located, what happens during power outages, and how to save your password. If you still encounter it later, there will be support after the installation and you can call us on weekdays between 09:30 and 18:00 at 085 - 02 12 771.