max_preuss

No personal devices are used in the network. Printers are used with maybe half of the computers. Some also over network. As about the phone system I am not sure. Since it is an IP phone system my guess is that it is also using the network.

It is an office with around 6-7 computers and then around 5-6 computers in the operational area.

Hello everyone. General question about what is the better solution: We are about to get a new surveillance camera system for our ~14 acre facility. It will be around 25-30 cameras all over the place some inside, some outside. Basically the operations are divided into 4-5 departments. So far the idea was to set up a 32 Channel DVR/NVR and from there on setting up the whole system. Now we were discussing the option of getting 2 or 3 smaller and therefore also cheaper DVR's. Maybe even ready-to-go sets like the ones you find at Costco's and online a lot. Basically each department would have their own DVR and the Management could still log in to all of them through the network. I could not see the downside of this solution so far, especially if it would turn out cheaper than the "big solution", while supporting the same features. But then again I am not sure if I am missing something. What are the major cons about multiple small DVR's? What is the advantage of one big DVR/NVR over many small ones? Or is it even the other way around? I am thankful for every thought, experience or opinion!

Thanks a lot for all the input. Once we set up the system I will let you know if the current connection is sufficient!

That sounds great! Thank you.

@Boogieman: My concern is not for the local viewing, but the situations where remote control from the outside via internet is required. @TheUberOverLord: Thanks for the link. The results were around the same (download: 4-6Mbps; upload: 5-6 Mbps), but especially the upload had higher peaks (up to 7Mbps). Would this be sufficient for the purpose of the system in your opinion/experience?

Hello, I need some network advice for a new IP- Camera System with 24 cameras which we will set up in our company. Out of these cameras most will not need a resolution higher than 720p but at least one needs to be a 2 MP and one a 4 MP camera. The 2 MP camera will also be a PTZ camera. So far the existing network is shall be used for the camera set up. while most of the time recording and monitoring will be done from computers connected to this network every now and then the managers will need to log in to some of the cameras from i.e. home over the internet. This will besides some rare exceptions only be two people and also most of the time on weekends or at very early/late hours when only the operational departments are working. Now I am wondering what bandwidth would be required to provide a constant access for this situations, without slowing the internet connection for the rest of the network down to much. I am not sure what bandwidth the current plan provides, but the speed-test says around 5 Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload. Also i am open for any general input on solutions for this situation. Maybe a separated network or internet access only for the NVR could be a solution as well? Thank you for your help in advance!

3 of them will need a 1080p resolution and up to 20 fps, while the rest should be fine with 720p and 15 fps. Maybe even lower depending on the operation.

For a new IP-camera system with about 20 recording IP cameras we need an external hard drive to save footage for 90 days. The NVR can hold up to 16TB on 4 4TB HHD hard drives but it looks like this might not be enough. Since the exact amount of data captured is hard to estimate i am trying to get an overview of what options for what prices we have. The NVR has an eSATA input. I think the external storage should be somewhere between 10TB and 40TB. The solutions I saw so far were very expensive in my eyes and I found it rather hard to see whether such an expensive system is necessary or what the reason for the high prices were. Does anyone have some experience with a similar situation? What are the alternatives we have? What do we have to keep an eye on when choosing a device? And also what are the price dimension we have to expect? I am open for every input.