Cheap and Capable Video Monitoring Server?

An Anonymous Coward asks: "The company I work for is looking to invest in some security/surveillance technology. We are currently using an out-of-the-box, purpose built solution, but for the price it's pretty unreliable and leaves a lot to be desired. The specific need is for cameras to monitor areas of a site, with motion detection, the ability to integrate with other systems via simple boolean conditional switches, and a video web server. Naturally I would prefer to use a PC, as the reliability/price would be much better and the system would be more configurable. Zoneminder looks quite good, it's a Linux based OSS solution, but I'm not sure it's ready for a commercial implementation. Are there any good DIYish solutions around or are expensive consultants and esoteric hardware the only way to go?"

Comments

Dorgem?

[OneDeeTenTee]

http://dorgem.sourceforge.net/

Dorgem has motion capture, but it will probably fall short on many of your other requirements.

Motion

[JRIsidore]

You might want to have a look at Motion. It is an application written for GNU/Linux that can capture video from several sources, has builtin motion detection (hence its name), can execute commands when motion is detected and a has lot more features.

Re:Motion

[angst_ridden_hipster]

Motion is excellent.

I've posted here before on the subject, but I have a Motion-based production-quality system continuously monitoring my house. I have a handful of cameras, both wired and wireless, that cover various areas (yes, I'm being intentionally vague. Security by obscurity *is* sometimes helpful.)

I have a password-protected web server that allows me to check out what's going on, but for the most part, I just let it run. It's been going for years now.

It has produced footage and stills that have been used in a continuing police investigation.

Additionally, Motion has one of the top two most friendly mailing lists for projects I've worked with.