Setting up Tiandy cameras: a first-installation checklist

Before the first installation, calculate the PoE budget, note where each camera goes and check the cable lengths. After power-on, set up access, the clock and recording; before handover, check the night image.

Before you go up the ladder

Work out the PoE budget. The recorder's PoE ports are not unlimited: for every NVR the manufacturer gives the total power available across all ports, and the camera data sheet says how much each camera draws. Leave headroom between the two, because IR and heating draw the most at peak. If the budget is tight, a PoE switch goes next to the recorder, not one camera fewer.

Check the cable. Install solid copper cable of full cross-section, not copper-clad aluminium (CCA). CCA has a larger voltage drop, so the camera further away may restart, and this fault is hard to find because it does not always show. Keep to the 100-metre segment limit; above that you need a switch.

Write down the allocation before you connect. Which camera on which port, at which IP address, under what name. You will work from this at handover and at the next maintenance visit.

First power-on

Tiandy's device discovery tool is SearchConfig Tool. It is available for Windows and Mac, free, and can be downloaded without registration from the manufacturer's help site. It scans the network, lists the devices, sets IP addresses and initialises passwords.

Take the factory IP address from the model's manual. The exact address is given in the camera's and the recorder's manual or data sheet. If your computer is in a different address range, the tool can still list the device with a broadcast message, and you can change its address from there. If the device does not appear, check that the computer and the device are on the same network segment.

The password at first login. At first login the device may ask you to create a password; check the exact steps in the guide for that model and firmware. Agree the security question and recovery e-mail address with the client in advance, because the system is theirs. SearchConfig Tool sets the password on several devices at once, so you do not have to click through eight cameras one by one.

Network allocation

If the cameras sit on the recorder's own PoE ports, check in the recorder's network settings whether the PoE ports get a separate internal range. If they do, the cameras are not visible on the site network, and the recorder manages their addresses.

If they run through a switch, give them fixed addresses from the site range and keep them outside the DHCP range. After a power cut the router's automatic addressing can reshuffle the addresses, and then the recorder gets no picture on the affected channels.

A separate subnet for the cameras is worth the effort. A VLAN or a separate switch separates surveillance from office traffic, and nobody can accidentally reconfigure a camera from the end user's computer.

What to watch at first power-on

The time. Set an NTP server on the recorder and check the time zone. If the clock is wrong, the recording does not show the real time, and playback search jumps to the wrong time too.

The hard drive. Fit a hard drive designed for surveillance, not a desktop one. Desktop drives are not designed for continuous multi-channel writing.

The picture at night. A full-colour camera gives a colour picture at night as long as there is some ambient light. Look at the picture in the dark before handover. If there is little light, use the camera data sheet to choose which night mode suits the location.

Reflections. A camera facing glass, a white wall or shiny metal can burn out at night. In that case first change the camera's position or angle, then check the picture in the dark again.

Before handover

Record the password and the allocation in writing, show the end user how to search recordings, and set up mobile access on your own phone too. If a fault report comes in later, you can then check remotely what is happening.

If you get stuck, send us the exact camera and recorder models, the firmware version, the problem and what you have already tried. A photo of the screen also helps. Do not send passwords.