Looking for help picking out a VMS software solution.

[AHouseman 0]

Hi there. I posted here once before asking about moving my system to the cloud, and it looks like that's a crazy idea based on bandwidth usage/pricing. I am now in a position where I am looking to replace our current software with something else. Our current server runs Exacq, and has been nothing but trouble for us. The trouble might be completely on our end, but dealing with their support has made us want to move onto another company.

 

Our current set up has 15 cameras all running at low FPS/Resolution (10 FPS, 640x400 resolution.) They are all set to motion record, and record about 2 gigs a total on regular business days (Monday - Friday.) The number one thing that I have liked about our current Exacq software is the ability to schedule exports of the footage (I currently export data once at noon and once at midnight every day) into easier to sort/view file types. We are required to back up our camera footage for a long time (years!) so the ability to minimize the size of our recordings is very important to us.

 

I was hoping that someone here might have an idea of which direction I should attempt to go with this project. I have spoken with the vendor that sold us our current software, but they appear to be a one trick pony and do not really offer anything else. Any guidance toward any software, or even a good vendor who could help me out would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thank you!

[ak357 0]

Hi there. I posted here once before asking about moving my system to the cloud, and it looks like that's a crazy idea based on bandwidth usage/pricing. I am now in a position where I am looking to replace our current software with something else. Our current server runs Exacq, and has been nothing but trouble for us. The trouble might be completely on our end, but dealing with their support has made us want to move onto another company.

 

Our current set up has 15 cameras all running at low FPS/Resolution (10 FPS, 640x400 resolution.) They are all set to motion record, and record about 2 gigs a total on regular business days (Monday - Friday.) The number one thing that I have liked about our current Exacq software is the ability to schedule exports of the footage (I currently export data once at noon and once at midnight every day) into easier to sort/view file types. We are required to back up our camera footage for a long time (years!) so the ability to minimize the size of our recordings is very important to us.

 

I was hoping that someone here might have an idea of which direction I should attempt to go with this project. I have spoken with the vendor that sold us our current software, but they appear to be a one trick pony and do not really offer anything else. Any guidance toward any software, or even a good vendor who could help me out would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thank you!

ftp://ftp.avigilon.com/AvigilonControlCenterServer-5.0.2.22.exe

Give a try

u may like it

[drocer 0]

Hi there. I posted here once before asking about moving my system to the cloud, and it looks like that's a crazy idea based on bandwidth usage/pricing. I am now in a position where I am looking to replace our current software with something else. Our current server runs Exacq, and has been nothing but trouble for us. The trouble might be completely on our end, but dealing with their support has made us want to move onto another company.

 

Our current set up has 15 cameras all running at low FPS/Resolution (10 FPS, 640x400 resolution.) They are all set to motion record, and record about 2 gigs a total on regular business days (Monday - Friday.) The number one thing that I have liked about our current Exacq software is the ability to schedule exports of the footage (I currently export data once at noon and once at midnight every day) into easier to sort/view file types. We are required to back up our camera footage for a long time (years!) so the ability to minimize the size of our recordings is very important to us.

 

I was hoping that someone here might have an idea of which direction I should attempt to go with this project. I have spoken with the vendor that sold us our current software, but they appear to be a one trick pony and do not really offer anything else. Any guidance toward any software, or even a good vendor who could help me out would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thank you!

 

Budget? Cameras used? Just headless recording or live monitoring required? What was wrong with exacq?

 

You could look into a NAS solution. That would eliminate the backup issues. $50/camera and depends on camera. http://www.synology.com/en-us/ etc, etc,. I would do this.

 

You could try another NVR software. Axxon makes something nice for archiving. You can pick different places where each camera sends their video. Send each camera to a different directory. Then you can send backups to a cheap NAS or just record to it in the first place.

 

http://www.axxonsoft.com/products/axxon_next/archive/

 

Video size depends on what your camera's send. Is it MJPEG or H264? The later is as small as it gets. If it's MJPEG or something else, you could write a script to transcode the video but at 640x400 it might get messy.

[AHouseman 0]

Budget? Cameras used? Just headless recording or live monitoring required? What was wrong with exacq?

 

You could look into a NAS solution. That would eliminate the backup issues. $50/camera and depends on camera. http://www.synology.com/en-us/ etc, etc,. I would do this.

 

You could try another NVR software. Axxon makes something nice for archiving. You can pick different places where each camera sends their video. Send each camera to a different directory. Then you can send backups to a cheap NAS or just record to it in the first place.

 

http://www.axxonsoft.com/products/axxon_next/archive/

 

Video size depends on what your camera's send. Is it MJPEG or H264? The later is as small as it gets. If it's MJPEG or something else, you could write a script to transcode the video but at 640x400 it might get messy.

 

Thank you for the reply. I do not have a firm budget on the project, but I know we spent quite a bit on our first license with Exacq. We use Vivotek cameras (which appear to be one of the better supported brands fortunately.) Live monitoring is required, one local site 24/7.

 

Our Exaq has failed on us twice, and began deleting footage well before it was supposed to based on time/storage restrictions. Every time I mention that, I feel the need to mention that the problem might be 100% on our end. Their software might be fine. However, their support has been horrendous.

 

Most of the cameras run .h264 (one randomly runs MJPEG for some reason, but that can easily be taken care of)

 

Right now, the idea is to run the software on a Dell R410 (4x1.8ghz, 16gb of RAM, 3 500gb HDs @raid 5) I'm thinking some sort of a NAS situation is going to be unavoidable, but my first step is the pick out the software which will initially record the video.

 

Thank you both for your replies, I will look into the suggestions!

[Razer_SE 0]

I have around 1000 cameras on 74 Exacq servers and really love the software and it works very well for me anyway. I too use Vivotek, along with several other brands and I've never had issues like what you are experiencing, but who knows where your troubles lie. Anything can be an issue, and they can be a bear to track down I know. I've had contact with support a couple of times and each time it was something unusual and a new bug. In one case they patched it in the release coming out in the next week, the other time it was a web server bug that they sent me an immediate engineering version to fix and the full official fix was out in about 10 days.

 

I know when I looked at many, many different software packages it really came down to just a few that I liked and really seemed to be on the ball with changes and features. The only other one that I would go with right now for my needs is Avigilon - There are a couple of others that might meet my needs but if you think Exacq is expensive believe me it gets much worse! Exacq ended up being the cheapest for our needs, but everyone's needs are different. I would check out the Avigion demo that was linked above and see what you think there.

 

 

Oh, one more thought also, have you used the new Archiving feature over the auto export? You can schedule that to back up wherever you want, you could rent space in the cloud like a simple FTP server and just archive off the data easily now. Might be a good option for long term storage without risk of it getting deleted?

[buellwinkle 0]

The closest competitor to Exacq would be Milestone XProtect, prices vary based on level and features but it's competitive with Exacq. Been reliable for us, support has been responsive. You can try most of these suggestions by downloading them as many will provide a 30 free trial.