ejholbs
New Member
I actually have tried to search through years of postings for nearly a month to find specific answers here without simply tossing out a question on my first day 
This forum was suggested from IPCAMTALK (same folks run both sites?) where I have learned a great deal of home IP cameras, lens aperture, focal length, sensor size for day/night, etc over the last 5 years. However, I am unable to find an answer or at least a pathway to my desires of a dash camera for my fleet. So I post now in the hopes of finding some insights, thoughts, suggestions. I also do understand DASHCAMTALK more so relates to personal dash cameras than the commerical arena.
Background:
1.) I have a fleet of 4 vehicles for contracting / service work: Ram Promaster 1500, Ram Promaster City, another Ram Promaster City, and a Ford F150. We are a business that does low voltage data cabling and telephone system service calls. 20-100 miles per day, 95% of the time during normal business hours of 8am-5pm. So night recording is not critical as it would be seldom (other than daylight savings time change when the mornings are dark for the drive home or the evenings... and the rare 9pm-6am shifts).
2.) License plate captures are not critical but always something to consider for future. Same for cabin video/audio.
3.) Tamper proof is also not critical but always something to consider for future. My technicians do drive the vehicles home, as they have for the last 15 years. So it is a learned-trust situation where tamper proofing is not deemed critical. I have to trust them with the entire heart and soul of the business so it comes easy to trust them with the vehicle use I am not too worried of a employee tampering with a dash camera for nefarious reasons.
4.) All employess have business supplied Google Pixel6a's with Spectrum Charter unlimited internet plans. So any smartphone mobile app internet connectivity is always present to use. Off the top of my head, I forget if just 64MB or 128MB storage.
5.) Through out the day, all vehicles sporadically come into WiFi range of the office (especially in the mornings) where we have a NAS for various purposes.
Commercial Needs:
1.) A dash camera that primarily records infront of the vehicle. At this time, I have no need for cabin or 2/3/4/5channel setup like a 18wheeler or ice cream truck would. Would that be cool and neat in the future? Sure. Would be nice to see if employee had 6 foot ladder or $10,000 testing equipment going to a job site, but missing on the way to another job site indicating the person accidentally left something behind.
2.) At this time (unless someone changes my mind), resolution of the camera is not critical. 720p, 1080p, 4k. I fully understand the more resolution = more recording space = more time to upload via internet or WiFi = more video image clarity. My main concentration is seeing driving habits such as did the employee blow through a red light, did employee cut someone off, driving aggressive, speeding, etc. However, I know folks would much prefer 4k for LPR purposes which could be a future consideration especially for insurance purposes.
3.) Here is where I think my needs divulge into the more proprietary spendy realm of commercial setups. I do have a disdain for relying on everything "cloud" when I can have "local" (all my IP cameras at my house are local, not cloud based for this reason). I do understand that use of the cloud is sometimes unavoidable for the additional bells & whistles:
a.) When a vehicle comes within range of the home office Wifi, I'd like for the day's multiple drive sessions to be automatically (without employee initiation) uploaded to our office NAS for future review along with GPS data and Google maps directly through office WiFi from camera itself or the Google Pixel6a being the middle man between the camera & home office network. I assume the GPS & Google maps portion is not possible due to going straight to a NAS. Unless a camera manufacturer or 3rd party makes a program for local storage that incorporates the GPS/Google Maps.
b.) If above is not possible with $100-$300 dash cameras, I could rely on uploading to the cloud after every completed drive in the hopes to use an API to automatically download to the office NAS. I much prefer a way to automatically store driving sessions on a office NAS because of the large storage capactiy.
c.) If both above are not possible, I would have to rely on daily driving sessions being accessible to review on the cloud.
4.) Live streaming via 4g/5g LTE is not critical. Neat and cool? Sure. Maybe to ask "hmm...tech was suppose to be at this specific job site at 10:00am so where is he" type of situation to see if tech is right around the corner or stuck in traffic. At the same time, I could easily text or phone call with the question.
5.) Recording sound is also not critical. No need to hear employees discuss their love life or slam their boss Maybe automatically turn on sound recording after an event such as sudden stop like a fender bender or crash could be of interest.
My history with dash cameras are not...in-depth. I've had the Skorche Nexar NX1 model and seemed to do a nice simple basic job for a $100 camera. I've even bought and unhappily tried out the $300 Nexar One 4k camera that has the capability to LTE live stream and cabin option (did not do the LTE & cabin option as just wanted to test the camera out, itself). That was a mistake as the mobile app is horrendous, does not automatically upload every drive session, etc. Though the video as pretty nice for day & night.
I guess I am looking for that grey area between personal dash cams and commercial fleet dash camera system that could or could not be out there.
This forum was suggested from IPCAMTALK (same folks run both sites?) where I have learned a great deal of home IP cameras, lens aperture, focal length, sensor size for day/night, etc over the last 5 years. However, I am unable to find an answer or at least a pathway to my desires of a dash camera for my fleet. So I post now in the hopes of finding some insights, thoughts, suggestions. I also do understand DASHCAMTALK more so relates to personal dash cameras than the commerical arena.Background:
1.) I have a fleet of 4 vehicles for contracting / service work: Ram Promaster 1500, Ram Promaster City, another Ram Promaster City, and a Ford F150. We are a business that does low voltage data cabling and telephone system service calls. 20-100 miles per day, 95% of the time during normal business hours of 8am-5pm. So night recording is not critical as it would be seldom (other than daylight savings time change when the mornings are dark for the drive home or the evenings... and the rare 9pm-6am shifts).
2.) License plate captures are not critical but always something to consider for future. Same for cabin video/audio.
3.) Tamper proof is also not critical but always something to consider for future. My technicians do drive the vehicles home, as they have for the last 15 years. So it is a learned-trust situation where tamper proofing is not deemed critical. I have to trust them with the entire heart and soul of the business so it comes easy to trust them with the vehicle use
I am not too worried of a employee tampering with a dash camera for nefarious reasons.4.) All employess have business supplied Google Pixel6a's with Spectrum Charter unlimited internet plans. So any smartphone mobile app internet connectivity is always present to use. Off the top of my head, I forget if just 64MB or 128MB storage.
5.) Through out the day, all vehicles sporadically come into WiFi range of the office (especially in the mornings) where we have a NAS for various purposes.
Commercial Needs:
1.) A dash camera that primarily records infront of the vehicle. At this time, I have no need for cabin or 2/3/4/5channel setup like a 18wheeler or ice cream truck would. Would that be cool and neat in the future? Sure. Would be nice to see if employee had 6 foot ladder or $10,000 testing equipment going to a job site, but missing on the way to another job site indicating the person accidentally left something behind.
2.) At this time (unless someone changes my mind), resolution of the camera is not critical. 720p, 1080p, 4k. I fully understand the more resolution = more recording space = more time to upload via internet or WiFi = more video image clarity. My main concentration is seeing driving habits such as did the employee blow through a red light, did employee cut someone off, driving aggressive, speeding, etc. However, I know folks would much prefer 4k for LPR purposes which could be a future consideration especially for insurance purposes.
3.) Here is where I think my needs divulge into the more proprietary spendy realm of commercial setups. I do have a disdain for relying on everything "cloud" when I can have "local" (all my IP cameras at my house are local, not cloud based for this reason). I do understand that use of the cloud is sometimes unavoidable for the additional bells & whistles:
a.) When a vehicle comes within range of the home office Wifi, I'd like for the day's multiple drive sessions to be automatically (without employee initiation) uploaded to our office NAS for future review along with GPS data and Google maps directly through office WiFi from camera itself or the Google Pixel6a being the middle man between the camera & home office network. I assume the GPS & Google maps portion is not possible due to going straight to a NAS. Unless a camera manufacturer or 3rd party makes a program for local storage that incorporates the GPS/Google Maps.
b.) If above is not possible with $100-$300 dash cameras, I could rely on uploading to the cloud after every completed drive in the hopes to use an API to automatically download to the office NAS. I much prefer a way to automatically store driving sessions on a office NAS because of the large storage capactiy.
c.) If both above are not possible, I would have to rely on daily driving sessions being accessible to review on the cloud.
4.) Live streaming via 4g/5g LTE is not critical. Neat and cool? Sure. Maybe to ask "hmm...tech was suppose to be at this specific job site at 10:00am so where is he" type of situation to see if tech is right around the corner or stuck in traffic. At the same time, I could easily text or phone call with the question.
5.) Recording sound is also not critical. No need to hear employees discuss their love life or slam their boss
Maybe automatically turn on sound recording after an event such as sudden stop like a fender bender or crash could be of interest.My history with dash cameras are not...in-depth. I've had the Skorche Nexar NX1 model and seemed to do a nice simple basic job for a $100 camera. I've even bought and unhappily tried out the $300 Nexar One 4k camera that has the capability to LTE live stream and cabin option (did not do the LTE & cabin option as just wanted to test the camera out, itself). That was a mistake as the mobile app is horrendous, does not automatically upload every drive session, etc. Though the video as pretty nice for day & night.
I guess I am looking for that grey area between personal dash cams and commercial fleet dash camera system that could or could not be out there.
