J4TH

Hello all, Glad to be part of the forum. I've got very little experience in surveillance and wanted to inquire. In the past 3 years I've meddled in cctv installations for personal use (home, office, etc.). Mostly simple analog designes, and recently an IP system using what looks to be a Dahua based NVR. Sadly I ran into some limitations. I tried one of the free VMS' available for PC, namely AxxonNext's free version. I'm looking to start a new system that's a little more complex, and have no idea what to look for. I've got two small offices I want to put some IP cameras in and be able to view them all on one VMS at my home. I saw iDVR's execution of their analogue solution with their multiple DVR viewer software, EMS, and was looking for the IP counterpart. I was under the impression that generally most VMS's would have this function and tried experimenting with AxxonNext's free version without any success. I did read that HikVision's software was capable of this, and a thread on this forum did suggest that it did, but was limited to viewing each separate CCTV site individually and not simultaneously. Another youtube channel MXInstaller suggested that Mobotix cameras could be fitted with SD cards and act as the NVRs themselves which a far off site VMS could tap into. Would anyone knowledgeable and experienced in centralizing multiple off-site surveillance care to point me in the right direction? Thanks in advance - J4

iVMS is FREE It seems to be. As I have recently figured out, software like Dahua's PSS and HikVision's iVMS are free and meant to be used with their respective brand cameras. Although I attached an ONVIF compliant HikVision cam on a Dahua NVR and was able to view it with PSS through the Dahua NVR. In any case, I tried viewing an iDVR brand DVR on PSS and the connection would time out despite being able to connect on wan through conventional means like app viewers and web browsers. I still have yet to mess with iVMS due to an operating license issue I have to sort out, but I assume the results will be the same. And so I'm back to square one. PSS and iVMS work great with their respective brands, but in my case, where I have an office with a different brand dvr; any recommendations on software with similar functionality of simultaneous viewing that PSS and iVMS provide but with compatibility over different brands and platforms (ip/analogue/nvr/dvr)? Software that requires purchase are fine, too. - J4TH

Currently playing around with the Dahua Smart PSS. Thanks again tomcctv. It certainly does work, though I am now wondering what brand systems are compatible with this. Thanks Synology and mattagie, I do have one HikVision IP camera hooked up to my dahua stand alone NVR. I like the feature set, too. The resolution is pretty bad though on the display, but this just might be because it was one of the last cameras to be installed and I had to place it at the very last connection on the NVR so the quality had to be dropped. A question about, Hik vision iVMS (and other VMS softwares like the PSS) is it free to use forever or is there a trial period? If I have a friend who would like to use it should I ask him/her to download it themselves? I am very interested in trying out Geovision, but as you said the prices are prohibitive for what I want to do. However, I'd still love to know what software you recommend with them in case I go that route as they would likely have readily available support. I hear you can install software into these cameras. I've never done so. Do they come without VMS software out of the box? Thanks so much.

Hi tomcctv. Thanks for the recommendation. I'll do my research on that. Any other alternatives? We have a geovision distributor nearby. I'm not sure if they had the features I am looking for. Are they any good?