Site Conditions And Goals
The site is the surface and underground parking of an office building in East China: one vehicle gate, one pedestrian entrance, two basement ramp sections, and three payment windows. The guard booth sits 60 to 120 meters straight-line from the low-voltage room, with concrete walls and two fire doors between, and duty staff need to watch several pictures locally in the booth at once. Light contrast is extreme: entrances are backlit by day, headlights shine straight in at night, and the ramp sections have only guidance lamps. The owner wanted vehicles in and out and counter actions clearly visible, with no blind spots at the ramp turns.
Basement guidance lamps and daylight at the exit create alternating bright and dark, and a car entering the garage drops into one to two seconds of near dark; the ramp turn keeps about 6 meters of clear width, and an inside column blocks part of the sightline, so the point can only stand above the column rather than beside it. The payment windows were added after fit-out with the ceiling already closed, so wiring passes only through the existing channel under the counter, and window power taps one fused circuit from a junction box already inside the counter.
Camera Layout
Nine channels in total. Entrances and the ramp head take 4 units of 12MP AI vandal-resistant domes, CS-mount lenses chosen from measured on-site distances; the vehicle gate takes 2 units of 8MP 10x motorized-zoom waterproof bullets, 5 to 50 mm covering the barrier and a stretch of the outer plaza; above the payment windows, 2 starlight miniature coaxial HD cameras reuse the original coax; the elevator hall takes 1 unit of 3MP waterproof dome.
Wiring And Device Hookup
Network cable links stay under 90 meters; the over-distance run from the ramp to the low-voltage room goes on fiber with media converters. The window positions should not break the finished ceiling, so the miniature units and the original coax connectors hide entirely behind the counter with only the lens hole showing.
Channels are named on the recorder in three groups: barrier, ramp, window. The duty screen defaults to 4-split on the barrier and ramp, with the window picture enlarged on demand. Booth local display matches the equipment-room main screen resolution, and the extender ends are paired on the same firmware version so switching output shows no long black screen. Outdoor pole boxes hold the switch and surge parts; box temperature is logged once in summer, and if it runs above expectation the switch moves to a shaded-side pole box.
| Stage | Approach | Equipment Category |
|---|---|---|
| Entrances | 12MP vandal domes to the nearest PoE switch, lenses matched to the measured distance | Network camera |
| Gate and ramp | 8MP motorized zoom units, presets aimed at the barrier and the ramp turn | Network camera |
| Payment windows | Miniature coaxial HD cameras on the original coax, HDMI into the recorder through a 5MP converter in the equipment room | Video converter |
| Booth local display | Recorder HDMI reaches the duty screen through an extender; conduit-blocked sections switch to a 4K wireless HDMI extender | Video and audio accessories |
| Power and lightning | Outdoor poles grounded separately, one network and one power surge stage each | Network camera |
Commissioning And Acceptance
Entrances and ramps step wide dynamic range up to mid-high, watching vehicle outlines under nighttime headlights and detail at the barrier area; the motorized zoom units fix two presets by day and are not pulled through zoom at night, avoiding focus drift. Payment windows tune white balance and fill light for banknote denomination reading. Every channel goes through a 7-inch tester for address assignment, ONVIF connectivity and image quality. Storage tiers at 2 to 4 Mbps per 1080P channel and 8 to 12 Mbps per 8MP channel; nine channels over 30 days need about 2.4 to 5 TB.
Acceptance runs three cars through the barrier under different lighting with playback judged, three change transactions at the window judged, and the ramp passing only when a walked-through bicycle shows no blind spot; the barrier and payment systems are observed in parallel on picture only, never wired into their control circuits.
Next Steps
Two channels plus one power circuit are reserved for a future parking guidance screen; spares are 2 same-model power supplies and 1 converter, with a set each of window camera and coax connectors. For similar sites, provide sample units and a compatibility list first, and send the entrance count, booth-to-equipment-room distance and current recorder model to info@vctcctv.com for interface confirmation.
