hackerbeavis

I recently purchased a second home, and want to install a surveillance system to keep an eye on things while I'm away. I will also be putting together a home automation system, and would like the automation system to be able to trigger alarms or set different modes in the surveillance system. The design I would like to build, shown below, includes a separate surveillance system at each house that records 24x7 to some form of site-local storage. When an alarm is triggered, I would like to store that footage both on site-local storage, and also mirror it to storage on the remote site. What I would like assistance with is a general validation on the feasibility of my design, advice as to whether I should build my own NVR with a PC and software, or buy a standalone NVR, and recommendations as to what software or NVR is reliable and provides the features I want. I will say that I would prefer a standalone NVR, but it must be very reliable, and not too basic or kludgy to where I will hate it in a short amount of time. Operation Record high-resolution streams from cameras to local storage at Site A. This can be either hard drives internal to the PC or NVR, or a NAS device on the local network. When an alert is triggered, the high-resolution stream should record both locally to Site A storage, and be mirrored remotely on Site B storage. Budget Approximately $1500 per site, including 4 cameras and local-site storage. Network components will be purchased separately. System Requirements Support for up to 8 cameras; only 4 cameras initially. Good video analytics to prevent false alarms due to light changing. Can be triggered to record by home automation system or low voltage sensors. Cameras/software/NVR do not force firmware/software updates. Supports a mobile app or mobile formatted Web server for monitoring and playback. Supports email, text, or push notifications. Must be able to record and playback footage at the same time. Nice to Have Supports automatically powering off some cameras in home mode. Supports both wired and WiFi cameras. Supports home and away modes, with external triggering. Would like geofencing from phone to be able to trigger this. Thanks for reading! I would appreciate any feedback or advice. Let me know if there is anything I need to clarify.

Can anybody help out with some recommendations and advice? The whole network piece can probably be safely ignored, if you prefer. I think I can safely assume that the design will work, as long as the throughput supported by the network gear is sufficient. If I can just get some recommendations/advice on NVR vs. PC/software, and what systems provide the features I'm looking for. Thanks!