I would like to switch out my current camera system (q see) to alarm.com camera system. I currently have an 8 camera outdoor system wired through cat5 to a dvr. I just don’t understand how alarm.com cameras work or which camera would be the best fit for what I’m trying to accomplish. I would like to remove the old cameras and use the exsisting cat5 wire, but if there is no dvr what would I be wiring the camera to? Currently my cameras are wired using a video balum at the camera. 4 pairs of cat5 for video one for power . Then up to my dvr where I have a power distribution box with power to each camera and the rest of the pairs wired into balums for each camera that then plug into the dvr. Can i use my existing wiring and if so what outdoor camera would be the best fit ? If there is no dvr would their cameras just be wired to a Poe switch ?
Happy to help! Alarm.com Video is a cloud service, where storage of video clips is performed on the Cloud, not locally on a device.
Alarm.com cameras communicate using your internet. Models are either wireless or wired to a router/switch. Some models are POE.
Alarm.com compatible models are found here.
This post lists the POE capable models which could be used with a POE switch.
I would like to remove the old cameras and use the exsisting cat5 wire, but if there is no dvr what would I be wiring the camera to? Can i use my existing wiring and if so what outdoor camera would be the best fit ? If there is no dvr would their cameras just be wired to a Poe switch ?
Yes, you could use the existing wiring with POE models to provide power and network connection via a POE switch.
Note that local 24/7 recording is available through the Streaming Video Recorder (SVR) which is a local recording server, but the cameras would still just connect to your switch (or wifi depending on the model) and communicate to the SVR through your LAN.
This post goes over a wide variety of video-related questions.