NGOB

Hello Gentlemen, I am switching from the Analog world of surveillance to the exciting field of IP. I am very impressed with the knowledge that the members possess here, so I joined the forum to help me get started. What are some of the top brands/manufacturers around? I heard about Dahua, Axis, Mobotix etc.. What do you recommend and what do you use? I am a little bit confused about the pricing on some NVR systems, some NVR charges license per channel, while others charges per unit? Why is that? What brands/models tend to charge per channel? What are the advantages of doing so? I have questions regarding cameras too, but I would like to do it one step at a time. Thank you very much in advance, J.

Thanks for the very informative response! I also heard there is something called ONVIF that makes ONVIF compliant NVRs work with other ONVIF compliant IP cameras. Is that true? Or is this a marketing gimmick? Will ONVIF NVRs work across the board with ONVIF cameras? How common is it for companies to license per channel on the NVRs? Is this done mostly through PC based NVRs or proprietary NVRs? Thanks again, J.