Hello folks,

As some of you may have gathered I do computer support for a living.

I've been asked (by phone initially, face-to-face meeting to follow) to look at the possibility of installing a webcam in a small local shop for out-of-hours monitoring.

It's a pet shop so I think the owner is more concerned about checking on the animals than anything else.

Technically I could do it quite easily, but monitoring these forums I get the impression that:

a. It would be a waste of money as the quality would be useless in practice

b. A simple pro CCTV system (not from me) would be able to monitor, record and be viewable remotely for not too much - but how much (ball park)?

Any thoughts anyone?

Have a look around for a DVR with network connections, the prices vary to much as it all depends on the quality your after(HDD size).

You need to find out exactly what he wants to achieve with the cameras first of all.

How many cameras does he want/need

Does he want to record the cameras

Forget using a webcam, but you could look at an IP camera connected to a router if he just wants to look in, but your best bet is a budget networked DVR and some budget cameras if hes only thinking about web cam prices.

Does he have a broadband at the shop?

For a budget 4 camera system hes going to be looking at around 1500 installed.

I would guess your looking at up over of

We just had a catalogue from an outfit in Telford, only scanned it quickly yesterday(much too busy to read from cover to cover )They have a dvr that plugs into your laptop and sends you emails and images( to 3g phones only), selling it for

Thanks everyone for your comments so far, keep them coming if there's more to say.

I'll say more when I've had a look at the place with the owner..............

There are little 4 camera web servers with audio available for under