Adding More IP Cameras to Network

[mattaggie 0]

For a the retail store I work at I bought a Geovision DVR card 1480 16 channel. So far I have installed 8 Bosch analogue VDC-260V04-20 cameras. The Geovision card came with a GV-CB220 2MP IP camera. I plugged the camera into our switch and am recording it on the DVR PC. Needless to say I am blown away by the image quality difference between analogue and 1080HD. I went with an analogue system because of camera price and my lack of network knowledge to manage the system.

 

I would like to add about 10 IP cameras to the system, I just don't know how all that data moving around will affect our network. Storage isn't an issue. We use a 48 port TP-Link TL-SG1048 10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit switch. The PC that is the DVR has a 10/100/1000Mbps LAN. There is nothing else on the network that is using heavy data, just web browsing. I am currently recording the lone IP camera at 1080 and 30FPS. I could probably go down to 720, but would like to keep the 30FPS.

 

My plan was to get an 8 port PoE switch to plug the cameras into, then plug that into the 48 port switch. But is that too much data going to the DVR PC? Another idea was to use various PCs around the store as a DVR for like 2 IP cameras per PC. I could put the PC and the 2 cameras on their own switch to isolate the data movement?

 

I appreciate any guidance.

[SectorSecurity 0]

Put all your cameras on their own network, then you don't have to worry about the additional traffic. a 24 port poe switch is only a couple hundred dollars

[priorguy 0]

The bandwidth on the network should not be an issue. Your 11 cameras streaming h.264 at 3o ips will put you right around 100 mbps. As long as your NVR is connected to a gig switch that won't be an issue. My concern would be the NVR itself . I generally see people using those capture cards as a way to cut cost and give the old workstation in the corner a job. What are the specs of your NVR? The limiting factor with IP video is rarely the number of cameras and much more often the throughput (amount of imformation it can handle) of the NVR.

[mattaggie 0]

The NVR/DVR is a brand new PC I built. Intel i7, 16GB RAM, LAN is a gigabyte and our main 48 port switch is gigabyte. I used an bandwidth calculator and using H264 it doesn't seem like it would be an issue. H264 seems to make a lot of difference over Mpeg.

 

From reading around on this sight it appears in hindsight, I should have gotten a motherboard with 2 Lan ports. One port to connect to PoE switch with cameras, and one port to connect to store network. Is this correct? Can I add another LAN port using a PCI card? Is that even necessary?

[Kawboy12R 0]

For anything commercial definitely use a separate NIC for video traffic. Even if there are no bandwidth issues or other problems, it keeps the whiners off the back of the CCTV guy. Just tell them it's on a separate network or you'll have to troubleshoot all of their problems as well.

[PokerMunkee 0]

You'll be fine with one NIC. Check your network utilization in task manager. I bet you'll be around 5% or 50Mbps. 30fps seems overkill but if you have storage, go for it.

 

Get a 24 port PoE switch with a couple gig ports. One gig to your TP Link. If you had another NIC on DVR, you'd plug one of the gig ports to your DVR. But you'll be fine with only 10 cams.

[mattaggie 0]

What FPS would you recommend? This is a retail environment so I'd need to be able to see a customer slip something into their pocket, jacket, purse, etc.

[PokerMunkee 0]

I like 15fps. Do some testing to see if your fast enough to beat it.

[mattaggie 0]

I am trying to set up a second NIC card. I don't have enough IP cameras connected at this point to "need" the second NIC, but I'd like to get it set up properly now for future expansion. NIC-2 will only be connected to a switch with IP cameras attached.

 

Installed an Intel NIC PCI card. That was simple enough. My confusion is on the IP info to give this second LAN. NIC-1 is:

 

IP: 192.168.1.X

Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

Gateway: 192.168.1.254

 

I've researched enough to know to put NIC-2 on something like 10.1.0.1. But what should the subnet and gateway be? Can someone tell me exactly what numbers to put for NIC-2?

[SectorSecurity 0]

If the second NIC is only connected to a switch there is no gateway, you need a router for that, and you can use what ever IP address provided its an internal IP range and subnet you want, I would say stick with Class C 192.168.2.x will work, dont go to a 10.x network as that is class A not needed.