SysadminAH 0 Posted October 9, 2008 I have been visiting this forum on and off for a while. I would like to solicit a recommendation for a recording system that meets the following specs: Remotely viewable (Via static IP) 32 Cameras Event Logging Ability to keep 30 days worth recording on all 32 inputs Reliable Remote viewer Reliable and possibly Redundant Disk System Good UI for configuration as well as viewing At least 1 PTZ input Right now we have 16 cameras and we are looking to increase that number. Also our current DVR (Digital Sprite from DM) has dropped a drive for the fourth time in 5 years among other problems we have had with it. I really dislike the fact that I can get virtually no support for the DM DVR and everything has to be sent to them through the supplier. Also it has had drives replaced multiple times and when that happens I can't even view live data, I am assuming that something that is required in order for the remote viewing to work is on the disk? When we first got the DM Digital Sprite the remote viewing worked great, after we sent it in the first time it ceased to function correctly, it constantly has to be shut down and brought back up in order to view different times and events, it is like the navigation features on the remote viewing have issues. I have looked at the Bosch Dibos systems and those look nice however it would be nice to hear from someone who has installed them and how their reliability is. Also I have looked into the Pelco Systems and a bit at the Kodicom stuff. I was also recommended by one supplier to buy two 16 channel DVRs instead of 1 32 channel, only issue with that would be can you view both (or all cameras) remotely without connecting to two different sessions? Anyway any help or guidance would be very much appreciated! I don’t mind paying a bit more for something reliable and useable, the one issue that I have with DVR based systems is based on what I have seen with DM, if anything goes wrong with a drive I can’t simply replace it myself, it has to go back to them through a supplier and it takes forever. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RickA 0 Posted October 9, 2008 With the software for viewing on most systems capable of supporting more than one DVR at a time, and to me you would be better with two 16 channel DVR's rather than one. I will leave the choices of DVR's to some of the others here that deal with a larger variety than I do, though I do favor the Nuvico, hope this helps. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SysadminAH 0 Posted October 13, 2008 Thank you for your response, what software can be used to tie two DVR's together and how exactly does that work? I would definately not be opposed to two seperate DVR systems in fact that would give me some redundancy that having only one would not, if one did go down then I could at least cover the most important camera's while I had one out for fixing. Any other suggestions? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RickA 0 Posted October 13, 2008 The Nuvico uses a CMS client software and is capable of handling several DVR's via network, I believe there are several others that have a similar software system or you can check this post....http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=2997&highlight=multiple+displays+multiple+dvrs for more information. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Soundy 1 Posted October 13, 2008 I have been visiting this forum on and off for a while. I would like to solicit a recommendation for a recording system that meets the following specs: Remotely viewable (Via static IP) 32 Cameras Event Logging Ability to keep 30 days worth recording on all 32 inputs Reliable Remote viewer Reliable and possibly Redundant Disk System Good UI for configuration as well as viewing At least 1 PTZ input Vigil systems by CAMACC meet all your specs, and they have systems that will provide up to a full 30fps on each of 32 cameras. Keep in mind, though, that will chew up a LOT of space... I recently installed such a system in a restaurant: 32-channel system, 28 cameras total: 23 analog and five 1.3MP IP cameras. All but a couple analog cameras are capturing at 704x480 (4CIF), the IP cams are 1280x1024, and the cameras are averaging around 3fps recording (some 2, some 5, most 3). At that rate, 3TB was giving them a little over three weeks' recording... and they wanted 90 days, so we added a network-attached RAID with eight more 1TB drives - a RAID-5 setup provides an additional 6.5TB of storage. Right now we have 16 cameras and we are looking to increase that number. Also our current DVR (Digital Sprite from DM) has dropped a drive for the fourth time in 5 years among other problems we have had with it. I really dislike the fact that I can get virtually no support for the DM DVR and everything has to be sent to them through the supplier. Also it has had drives replaced multiple times and when that happens I can't even view live data, I am assuming that something that is required in order for the remote viewing to work is on the disk? That's why you want to consider a RAID-5 array - if a drive fails, it can be hot-swapped without having to shut down the system. I have looked at the Bosch Dibos systems and those look nice however it would be nice to hear from someone who has installed them and how their reliability is. Also I have looked into the Pelco Systems and a bit at the Kodicom stuff. I was also recommended by one supplier to buy two 16 channel DVRs instead of 1 32 channel, only issue with that would be can you view both (or all cameras) remotely without connecting to two different sessions? Anyway any help or guidance would be very much appreciated! Viewing multiple machines would depend mostly on the client itself. The Vigil client allows you to configure multiple servers in one window, and define camera "groups" with a mix of cameras from multiple servers. Video Insight also makes a 32-channel server (or provides a 32-channel card and server software that you can build into your own PC) and allows multiple servers to be viewed simultaneously via the client; the drawback with their system is that the client is designed for LAN use and really doesn't work well over a WAN internet connection. I don’t mind paying a bit more for something reliable and useable, the one issue that I have with DVR based systems is based on what I have seen with DM, if anything goes wrong with a drive I can’t simply replace it myself, it has to go back to them through a supplier and it takes forever. Consider external RAID storage; for the above-mentioned install, we used one of these: http://enhance-tech.com/products/ultrastor/RS8_ip.html - along with eight standard off-the-shelf 1TB drives. Setup was easy and painless: mount the drives in the drive sleds, plug them into the rack, attach a computer to the configuration port and enter the web-based configuration, and follow the wizard to initiate it building the array. Once the array is built, plug one or both iSCSI ports into the network, add the iSCSI initiator to the DVR, fire up the Disk Management console, and *bam* 6.5TB of storage Note that this is all PC-based stuff, but for the specs you're after you're probably looking for something long those lines anyway... then again, you're not paying "a bit more" for this - you're probably looking at about $8k for that DVR, another $3k for the RAID rack, and then whatever price you get for whatever size drives you put in it (I think we got the 1TB drives for about $200 each, so there's another $1k6). On the bright side, the Enhance rack was less than half the price of anything else I found in its class... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thomas 0 Posted October 14, 2008 Video Insight also makes a 32-channel server (or provides a 32-channel card and server software that you can build into your own PC) and allows multiple servers to be viewed simultaneously via the client; the drawback with their system is that the client is designed for LAN use and really doesn't work well over a WAN internet connection. 3.5 should improve that. Unfortunately the release date I have is....soon. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Soundy 1 Posted October 14, 2008 Video Insight also makes a 32-channel server (or provides a 32-channel card and server software that you can build into your own PC) and allows multiple servers to be viewed simultaneously via the client; the drawback with their system is that the client is designed for LAN use and really doesn't work well over a WAN internet connection. 3.5 should improve that. Unfortunately the release date I have is....soon. Any idea what the upgrade path is going to be? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thomas 0 Posted October 14, 2008 Video Insight also makes a 32-channel server (or provides a 32-channel card and server software that you can build into your own PC) and allows multiple servers to be viewed simultaneously via the client; the drawback with their system is that the client is designed for LAN use and really doesn't work well over a WAN internet connection. 3.5 should improve that. Unfortunately the release date I have is....soon. Any idea what the upgrade path is going to be? For 3.5? Analog 3.1 -> 3.5. It should be a straight forward update. Most of the changes are client side rather then server side. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SysadminAH 0 Posted October 15, 2008 I did look into the Vigil and Video Insigt systems. With the Vigil system I couldn't really get the Demo System working very well. I talked to a vendor that sells the Video Insight equipment and I really didn't get a huge amount of useful info, just normal quick answers to basic questions, didn't sound like he was really excited by the equipment... Anyway at the end of the conversation I asked him what he would recommend giving him the same basic info as in the OP and he told me he would recommend the Pelco DX8132. I couldn't find a demo at all for this so I have nothing to go on. Has anyone (i know stupid question) worked with the Pelco DVR systems and if so can you share your experience and opinion of them? I did have the opportunity to also get on a live Dibos demo system, the web client seemed a bit clunky however seemed to work better then what I currently have. I did really like the option available in the Video Insight system, wish I could have played around with a Vigil Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Soundy 1 Posted October 16, 2008 I have used a Pelco DX8000... wasn't impressed. Interface seemed clunky and convoluted. The site it was going into was previously running a Vigil... after about a week we ended up pulling the Pelco out and putting in a new Vigil. My two bits... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
thewireguys 3 Posted October 16, 2008 Video Insight is a good product with great support. I have not used there analog setup only the IP4.0. I like using video servers instead of capture cards, more scalable and it can be cheaper. I am currently testing the limits of there latest software release and so far so good. I have 35 IP cameras recording on one server I will be adding as many as I can up to 100 cameras on one server. I have found a couple of bugs in the latest release but there support is working on them right now. If you use the monitor station (client) for remote viewing I have no problems but the web interface is crashing on me. This is something that they are looking at right now. I like Video-Insight for the support and there product is very easy to use. Here is a demo of the web client (IE only) www.demoip.com Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
VST_Man 1 Posted October 16, 2008 I have multiple Video Insight server (3.1.1.2) running 20 or more cameras each and they have been running strong for almost 3 years now. Clients are happy and so am I since the overall ease of use keeps things simple. VI tech support is the best I have used to date............. I amlooking forward to the 3.5 release....... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WSS 0 Posted November 8, 2008 nuvico apex series has a nice 32 channel dvr, upto 4tb. i like the nuvico dvrs alot. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
InNorthernWeTrust 0 Posted November 10, 2008 nuvico apex series has a nice 32 channel dvr, upto 4tb. i like the nuvico dvrs alot. Actually, using the external storage arrays you can get 30TB worth of storage. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
