NVR Backup for viewing offsite

[tangocharlie 0]

I have an application where I am setting up a camera to view a busy but remote piece of road.

It is impractical to then view the footage on site, and prohibitively expensive to remotely view via wireless.

 

The footage is required to be viewed in its entirety and a report written on traffic flow twice a week.

 

Is there a solution \ product which I can use where I can create a scheduled backup to a drive which I can then remove and view at my office, while another drive is installed and being backed up for my next visit ie (switch drives when I visit - but be able to view footage on removed drive in my office.)

 

The camera will be reasonably inaccessable (overhead gantry) so recording to a local SD card isn't that practical. I am envisaging that the recording device will be accessable in a locked cabinet.

 

Any direction on setup or product much appreciated!!

 

Regards

 

 

Tango

[buellwinkle 0]

Can you have two NVRs and swap back and forth, so say it's one a week, you go Monday morning, take the current NVR, put last week's NVR in and rotate them?

[matjaz 0]

good idea

[tangocharlie 0]

Indeed Buellwinkle that was one of the things I considered.

 

Bit of extra outlay at the outset, but ultimately I get a robust solution.

[PeteCress 0]

Is there a solution \ product which I can use where I can create a scheduled backup to a drive which I can then remove and view at my office, while another drive is installed and being backed up for my next visit ie (switch drives when I visit - but be able to view footage on removed drive in my office.)

Apologies in advance if I misunderstand the question bc I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to IP cams.

 

Having said that...

 

I'm using BlueIris for a couple of remote cameras (as in 90 miles away).

 

The BI server is near one of the cams and is pretty-much continually recording clips.

 

BI has an "FTP" option. I install an FTP server on my home PC, then I tell BI to que the clips for FTP-ing to my home PC/server and I wind up with a mirror of the clips at the remote site.

 

Alternatively, I can connect directly to the remote cams from my home PC and have BI record there - thus eliminating the need for FTP. The downside there is bandwidth: the motion in the clips is not limited by how many FPS can be sent from the remote cam to my home PC. OTOH, when using the remote BI server, the motion of clips from cams on the server's LAN is not limited.

 

The keys being is the bandwidth between the camera and the local server and whether the bandwidth between that local server (remote relative to the home PC) and the home PC will support the mirroring process well enough. Seems like if the action is 24-7 it would not... OTOH, if it's something significantly less than 24 hours/day, the non-recording hours could buffer the transmission of the clips... i.e. you wouldn't have realtime, but after enough hours you'd be caught up.

[MaxIcon 0]

Another option would be to copy the recordings to an external drive (I use Second Copy for a lot of automated file copy needs), then swap the drive out once a week.

 

An upside of this is that the originals are still on the NVR, in case anything goes wrong with the copies.

[tangocharlie 0]

Hi PeteCress,

 

good solution, but in this application I can't physically connect to the machine, so and LAN or WAN isn't a possibility, and unfortunately 3G \ 4G packages to cost prohibitive for amount of data.

So ultimately bandwidth is the issue - I will be remotely monitoring the health of the system via 3G, but wont be able to download large amount of footage via this avenue.

 

 

 

MaxIcon

with SecondCopy, can I then review on my machine back at the office.

I know that with some of the older DVR's if you performed an automated backup, you had to have a similar DVR in the office to then load and view the footage with.

I would like full NVR playback functionality on the footage which I take away - ie be able to review, with variable speed, and download stills \ images.

 

 

I appreciate your input guys

 

Regards

 

Tango

[buellwinkle 0]

Back to two NVR's to swap solution. In IT departments, they call this sneaker net and used when networking is not an option.

[MaxIcon 0]

Yeah, the plus of two NVRs is that it's one complete package, with everything you need to view it offsite. If it's a mission-critical setup, you could even rotate through three of them, so you'd still be good to go if one bit the dust.

 

If you backed up the clips, they'd either need to be natively readable via standard apps, which depends on the system. Some DVRs will record clips like this, such as Blue Iris or the now-defunct GVI AutoNVR system. Alternately, you could have a second copy of the software installed, though that could be pricy with the higher-end gear.

[GrouchoBoucho 0]

you have to physically access the machine to swap two of them anyway... i'd just use the backup-to-external-disk method in that case. much easier to carry a usb disk on and off site than an entire nvr.

[tangocharlie 0]

Hey GrouchoBoucho,

 

I really appreciate your, and everyone elses input.

 

The problem with backing up the footage to disk is two fold:

 

1) time on site to back up potentially 20 GB.

 

and as MaxIcon points out

 

2) it may not be natively readable back at home base.

 

I considered using a solution with hotswappable drives, and mirroring them. Remove the drive, insert in the second machine back in the office. Would this work?

 

eg: QNAPVS2004 Pro or QNAPVS4008 Pro. Set to raid 1. Remove drive, insert new one for removal next time. Take removed home back to office and insert in second\same NVR. What are the inherrent problems if I went down that path?

 

NB - not sold on QNAP. Just using as an example!

[GrouchoBoucho 0]

20gb should take well under 10 minutes via usb 2.0 (http://adamsworld.name/copy_calc.php puts it at 06:15).

 

Set to raid 1. Remove drive, insert new one for removal next time. Take removed home back to office and insert in second\same NVR. What are the inherrent problems if I went down that path?

when you insert the drive into the home machine, the system will make it a mirror for the existing drive and overwrite it.

 

not sold on QNAP. Just using as an example!

run away!

[MaxIcon 0]

Also, with a Second Copy/external drive solution, it runs at whatever interval you want (minutes, hours, days), so the copying would be done when you arrived. Make sure it's not copying when you arrive, unplug the old, plug in the new, and you'd be good to go.

 

This is also easily and cheaply replaceable in case of drive failure or loss, since your portable hardware is a commodity item. That leaves the issue of recording format, which varies depending on the nvr solution.

 

For a complete system swap, I'd look at either a pair of laptops, a headless mini-ITX box, or a dedicated NVR. Either would require a few cables swapped - probably power, network, and maybe USB, depending on the details of the setup. You'd want to monitor the new system to make sure it was running and recording after the swap, the laptop would be ideal; otherwise, you'd need a monitor to look at the status and a mouse/keyboard in case of issues.

 

It's all about the tradeoffs. List the pros and cons, assign each a weight of how much you want/need/care about it, and the choice should be clear.

[GrouchoBoucho 0]

i think what you really need is a small single-channel nvr that records to a flash card (sdhc or sdxc). then all you need to do is arrive on site, pop out the card, pop in a fresh card, and be on your way. it's the same idea as in-camera storage except the storage is moved to a more accessible location.

[thewireguys 3]

Our NVR solution can back up the full 2 weeks to a second drive or USB stick automatically and you can have full control of the exported video when you are back at your office. I would get 2 drives or sticks and swap them every 2 weeks.