Turnkey system

Good quality,well packaged. Easy to set up

Update 25 Feb after installation

Ok - More in depth review

Been looking for a CCTV system for some time. Key was 24/7 surveillance and the ability to view without using an app or be dependent on cloud storage, so stand-alone NVR with/without a screen (to be provided separately). Cloud subscription can add over £100 annually to the price of a battery Wi-Fi system (a point the manufacturers don't advertise) and you are often totally dependent on it. Not good in a rural location.

We looked at a number of battery Wi-Fi systems but they don’t do surveillance, its all motion/PIR activated to preserve batteries and control via router/app or base station/router app, plus you have to recharge the batteries or replace them. Not sure how long battery life is – some of them can’t be replaced so you will end up with a non-functional unit eventually.

Running BNC/Ethernet was not an option as at least one of the cameras needed to be separate from the main house and the house itself is quite old in parts, granite walls up to 3 feet thick!

So powered Wi-Fi was the chosen option. After much looking we hit on this system; there are similar from other providers (I suspect they use the same Chinese manufacturers)

Positive
4 channel expandable to 8 - there are similar options but most are not expandable and we weren't sure if 4 cameras would be enough
potential connection to internet via Ethernet/Wi-Fi connection to the router
13 inch monitor, some of the other providers were smaller, this is a good compromise especially when monitoring 4 cameras.
Cameras pan – so siting not so critical as you can adjust

Negative
dependent on Wi-Fi ranges, an unknown until you try, but it does use 2.4ghz which goes furthest
all the setup guides were pretty generic, so is the manual.

So as I said system was delivered very quickly by Prime (23 hours), first impressions very favourable - well packaged, looks good quality

NVR box:
NVR – nice piece of kit has a quality feel. 1 TB HD installed
Mouse mat – nice touch with QR code to warranty printed on it
Plastic pouch with a manual, a USB stick (manual plus set-up videos and software), Anran security sticker, service card (QR code to register)

A box of accessories:
Basic mouse, again a nice touch as its a stand-alone system
5 12v power supply transformers - one clearly marked NVR (2A supply, others 1 A)
Base for the NVR
Screws/wall plugs for camera or stickers
Short Ethernet cable

4 cameras in individual boxes
Cameras are plastic but it seems to be a hard resilient plastic so hopefully they'll last. Lenses are well protected with some shade from sunlight

I think with this sort of system you really need to survey your siting options prior to purchase. Wi-Fi networking gives you some flexibility but you still need mains power for the cameras. I was able to use mains power supplies to a PIR floodlight, an unused supply previously to a PIR floodlight now replaced by a solar panel/battery PIR floodlight and a straightforward connection into my garage. By putting trailing sockets on the power supply and encasing in waterproof enclosures I was able to put the transformers and the connections to the CCTV cameras into the enclosures. Note that the CCTV lead is not long – around 40cm and I don’t believe the connectors to the transformers are waterproof so they need protection. Transformer cables are around 2 and a half metres long and the transformers are not IP rated so must be inside a weatherproof container or indoors.

Kitchen table assembly all worked fine, although I could not change the system time until I looked at one of the videos and realised I needed to disable the sync option which uses an internet time signal

So on to the install…..

Did the easy install to the garage, just one weatherproof enclosure for the CCTV/Transformer connectors and mount to the wall. I can actually see it from the NVR location, so it was cool panning it and watching it move as I did it!

Now had a camera for the NVR to talk to and set up the internet connection. That was a breeze, connect to the router by ethernet cable (I used a long one I already had as I know I will need to move the NVR around to optimise coverage), download the app and scan the QR code and its done! Pan works well, I just needed to adjust the ‘centre point’ of the camera travel to maximise coverage. I later discovered I can control pan from the NVR as well by clicking on the relevant camera. Night coverage is pretty good although I need to adjust a little due to some path lights that cause some flare

Camera 2 is at the back of the house using a spur with a trailing socket off a PIR supply and another weatherproof enclosure for the transformer and CCTV socket. CCTV mounted next to it. Powered on and the camera woke up but no signal at the NVR. I knew this would be the tricky one – its on the opposite side of the house with 4 walls (two of them thick granite) in between. I took the other two cameras and put them in a room in between, powered them up and used one of them as a relay – worked like a charm and the NVR system is very intuitive. Again once going I had to sort out camera angle and a centre point so that it covered the required area.

The last two are mounted quite high on a corner so they cover the other two sides of the house. Again I used an existing spur (originally for a PIR floodlight), put on a double trailing socket inside an enclosure and attached the two transformers and connected up to the CCTV cameras. All cosy in their box, I then installed the two cameras to complete my system..

Readjusted the repeater camera for camera 2, inevitably I put the wrong camera out of sight, so I ended up using the garage camera, the repeater menu gives you signal strength to assist.
Motion detection is easy to set up, time will tell how sensitive it is, recording is default 24/7 but you can schedule it easily

So in summary a good system – quality is high and it is easy to configure. The most difficult part is getting the mains supply sorted

***Update 1 Mar***
After the recent sunny weather I realised my allowance for low sun at sunrise and sunset wasnt good enough - specially with so little foliage on trees at the moment. I resolved with one camera by changing its lookdown angle, the other though is still needing a reset at some times of the day, luckily its easy to get to!