LPR Camera for Home: Viewtron LPR-IP4 Surpasses Expectations
After years of telling customers not use LPR cameras for home installations, I put the Viewtron LPR-IP4 to the test at my own house and the results changed my mind.
Introduction: Challenging Conventional LPR Camera Wisdom
Over the years, countless homeowners have asked me if they can use our license plate recognition (LPR) cameras to record license plates on cars passing by the front of their house. These customers wanted to mount the LPR camera on the front of their house, as you would a traditional security camera that is monitoring your property. My answer, over and over again, has always been no—and for good reason. LPR cameras have much more strict installation requirements than traditional cameras, and most houses just can’t meet them.
Last year, I decided to put our new Viewtron LPR-IP4 to the home-use test myself. Can license plate capture and / or automatic license plate recognition actually work if the camera is installed on the front of a house? The results genuinely surprised me, and I think they’ll surprise you too.
Viewtron LPR Camera System with NVR
This is the license plate capture system that I used in my testing at home. Please note that I have an 8ch Viewtron NVR installed at my house because I have additional Viewtron AI security cameras installed to monitor my entire yard. I have a total of six security cameras installed on my house.
Challenges With LPR Camera Installation
First, a little background. LPR cameras have strict installation requirements when compared to typical “overview security cameras”. In order to work well, the following guidelines should be followed:
- Mount as low as possible – ideally level with the height of typical license plate on a car which is typically 24 to 36 inches from ground level.
- Minimal both horizontal and vertical angles – in addition to mounting low to the ground, the offsite to the side of the road should also be minimized. The smaller the horizontal and vertical angle to the plate detection area, the more accurate license plate capture and automatic license plate recognition is.
- Proximity to the detection area – check the maximum effective distance of your LPR camera. Our Viewtron LPR-IP4 is effective up to 100 feet. Though we have tested further than that and it still works in some cases.
When homeowners ask to mount an LPR camera on their house, it’s usually much higher and set far from the road—conditions I always considered a non-starter for LPR technology. Until now, we’ve told folks they’d be disappointed with the results and recommended against it.
These have always been tough requirements for a home installation unless you do not live in an association and can install a pole close to the road that you love on. Then, even if you can install a pole, running cable to the pole is a whole other challenge.
Putting the Viewtron LPR-IP4 to the Test
Determined to prove (or disprove) my own advice, I temporarily installed the Viewtron LPR-IP4 on the front of my house. This testing allowed for evaluation of the camera’s performance in a typical home environment. Here’s how:
- I mounted the LPR camera on the front of my house above the garage door, 9 feet, 4 inches above the ground—much higher than ideal for an LPR application.
- My home sits 35 feet back from the road. This creates a horizontal angle much greater than what is recommended for LPR.
- The road itself isn’t perfectly straight; it curves gently in front of the house, but not dramatically. However, the plate detection area is setup before the road curves.
- I angled the camera as far down the road as possible to minimize the angle between the camera and the license plate detection area, and then zoomed the lens in as far as possible. The Viewtron LPR-IP4 has an 8-32mm motorized zoom lens.
- The actual detection zone was 110 feet away from the camera—beyond our typical recommendations for the Viewtron automatic license plate recognition software.
Honestly, my whole plan was to show everyone exactly why you shouldn’t do this. I thought it would be a perfect demonstration of poor LPR performance. But to my surprise, the camera performed exceptionally well!
LPR Camera Home Installation
This is the location where I installed the Viewtron LPR camera above my garage door.
My house sits 35 feet back from the edge of the road.
LPR Detection Area
To minimize the horizontal angle to the license plate detection area as much as possible, I angled the camera down the street, to the right. Florida license plates are only required on the rear of vehicles, so my best chance at capturing plates was on the lane on the right (closest to the house).
Please also note that the road in front of my house does start to turn shortly after my detection zone. I believe this helped with the angle of view a bit. Though, we do have customers now that have Viewtron LPR cameras installed on their house and the road is 100% parallel to the front of their house (no curve).
The Surprising—and Successful—Test Results
When I started reviewing the surveillance footage on the Viewtron network video recorder (NVR), the results really surprised me. Both daytime and nighttime license plate capture was crystal clear. The numbers and characters on the plates were easy to read. AND, the ALPR software was detecting plates a lot of the time. ALPR stands for automatic license plate recognition.
Daytime License Plate Recognition
Here is a screenshot of one of the license plate recognition events from daytime recording. You can click on the above image to open a higher resolution screenshot so that you can see the license plate better.
Here is a close-up view of the day time license plate capture.
Night Time License Plate Recognition
Here is a screenshot of the night time license plate recording. Please also notice the timeline on the right hand side of the video playback screen. All of the license plate recognition events are notated with a light blue color so that you can easily jump to other LPR events on the video playback screen.
Here is a zoomed in view of the night time plate capture.
Automatic License Plate Recognition Software Integration with NVR
Viewtron NVRs are 100% integrated with the ALPR software on these Viewtron LPR cameras. Setting up to plate detection zone and adjusting the motorozed zoom lens of the camera can all be done from the NVR.
One of the strengths of our Viewtron system I want to highlight is how easy it is to review LPR footage. With the analytics, I can pull up every plate detected, jump straight to recorded video, and scrub through events by color-coded markers. It’s simple and intuitive, a feature every homeowner will appreciate if they need to look back at an incident quickly. The user interface allows you to:
- Filter for just license plate recognition events.
- See thumbnail previews of plates that were captured.
- Click on an event, jump straight to playback, and zoom in on the plate in question.
- License plate recognition events are color coded on the video player timeline.
A Few Caveats and Words of Caution Regarding Home LPR
Now, does this mean everyone can mount an LPR camera on their house and expect flawless results? Not quite:
- The slight curve in my road may have helped minimize the detection angle. If your street is perfectly straight and perpendicular to your home, your results may vary.
- Every property is different. Factors like distance, height, mounting options, and road layout all impact the final outcome.
- It pays to test your specific scenario. If you’re thinking about this for your own home, try before you buy if possible—or at least consult with us.
Updating My Recommendations: Home LPR Is Now Worth Considering
After this real-world test, the team at CCTV Camera Pros modified the advice that we give to homeowners regarding LPR cameras. Clearly, the new capabilities of the Viewtron LPR-IP4 make it practical for a lot more residential installs than I thought possible.
We used to push back on these requests because the tech just wasn’t there. But with this test, we have revisited our guidelines. Is it going to work in every home scenario? No. But if you’ve got a setup similar to mine, there’s a good chance you’ll be pleased.
Additional LPR Video Demos
You can check out all of our license plate capture and LPR camera videos here.
Have Questions / Want to have a Free Phone Consultation?
If you have any questions or want to schedule a phone consultation, please email me at mike@viewtron.com.
