New IP Camera system buildout for commercial

[badfrog 0]

Hello,

 

I've been reading on this forum for a few weeks. I am planning a new IP Camera CCTV system for my company. As the information I was looking for was rather difficult to locate, I'd thought I would make a post to get some feedback.

 

I will be installing 32 IP Cameras with a max of 2MP/camera(64MP system). We want to record only motion at 720p @ 10-15fps. But also see Real Time. I was looking at Samsung SND-5061. If you can recommend a better camera, it would help!

 

 

My build will consist of the following. I just want to know if this system is sufficient or what parts do I need to upgrade?

 

Intel Core I7-4770

Asus H87M-E motherboard

8gb Corsair (2x4GB) 1333 mhz DDR3

650W Corsair PSU 80 plus gold

4*2TB WD HDD (Data)

64 GB Sandisk SSD(OS)

 

Thanks for your help.

[thewireguys 3]

What VMS platform are you planning on using?

[buellwinkle 0]

Samsung has been getting better, but that dome does not have IR LEDs, don't know if that's intentional or if you want it for indoors or outdoors as that's not IP66 rated so I'll assume indoors. Before anyone here can recommend a camera, we need to know if it's indoors, outdoors, do you need a varifocal lens or fixed lens, IR LEDs or not, Day/Night or day only is OK, resolution and price range.

 

As for PC, the i7 is a nice consumer grade processor, but make sure you have a case that is server grade with server grade fans and quality CPU fan. For that many cameras, I would get a commercially made server like an HP Proliant that is rack mount and get a short rack. You'll have to have a big PoE switch, like a 48 port managed switch and that will be as large as the rack mount server. Then you can get a rack mount UPS to protect the switch and server. Rack mount keyboard/mouse to check on the system. This way you can lock the rack and keep it secure.

 

As for 1080P cameras, 720P record, don't get it but you know what you are doing. I would go the other way and record at 1080P but display live at 720P. Disk is cheap. Upgrading the 2TB to 4TB drive won't add much to the total bill and you can never have enough resolution when you are trying to identify someone.

 

As for NVR software, depends on your cameras choice as some brands come with free or low cost NVR software that is quite good like ACTi and some don't.

[mgb 0]

There are many choices out there for cameras. It really comes down to a balance between budget and performance.

There is cheap no name type of equipment that offers super low cost but you cant rely on it.

There are brands like Dahua and Hikvision which many here have chosen for their relative low cost and good performance.

And there are brands like Axis that are very feature rich and dependable but much higher priced.

As said, the vms software will likely depend on your camera choices.

Many manufacturers offer free software for use with their cameras and many of them will support other manufacturers cameras but there may be a connection license fee per camera.

There is also software such as Blue Iris, Milestone and others.

For commercial / Institutional IP cameras, we use Video Insight VMS. You can purchase the software itself but we always get the whole setup from them.

Everything preinstalled on server grade rack mount dells.

The setups are customizable, I have installs that are Dell towers with a 2TB HDD to ones that are multiple Rack mount servers, each with 24TB of storage.

It's a nice solution. There are no connection license fees if you use Advidia cameras (I believe they're oem'd by Hikvision).

Small warning: if purchasing their rack mount servers, you will need to purchase mounting rails because they don't come with them.

A job I'm on right now has Brickcom cameras and so far I'm liking their performance.

[badfrog 0]

Thank you everyone for your responses.

 

In regards for cameras since this is the starting point, we want to install MP cameras and each camera is around 200. I looked into Hikvision and Dahua as you said many use these cameras here. What's the best bang for the buck for a MP camera that's around 200.

[buellwinkle 0]

The Samsung you mentioned has a varifocal lens. Is that a requirement or are fixed lenses OK. Varifocal tends to add $50-100 to the cost of a camera.

[badfrog 0]

Fixed lenses should be okay. We have a hallway that extends 250 ft that we'd like to watch. I thought the vari lens would be better for this? I'm not sure.

Thanks.

Andrew

[thewireguys 3]

Vari focal / telephoto lenses are best for long hallways

[badfrog 0]

Vari focal / telephoto lenses are best for long hallways

 

Thanks. That's what I was thinking. I'm going down Friday or Saturday to complete a site survey and to nail down the specific lengths and requirements for each area.

Until then, it's just researching cameras.

 

Thanks again for your help. Love this forum!

[badfrog 0]

I just did a search on google and some other people who were building out a MP system mentioned that their storage is in RAID configuration. Is this something that I should consider? Is it a necessity or will JOB be good enough for this project? If it is, I'd buy the RAID card and setup RAID 5. Or is a different RAID config preferred?

 

Normally, we'd always purchase the black series based on past experiences. I saw that WD has a purple AV surveillance drive. Should I consider switching models from black to purple? How does the WD Red perform for CCTV?

 

Thanks guys

[mgb 0]

Most of the cmercial nvrs I do are Raid.

How important is your recorded data to you.

You don't have to have raid though

[ssmith10pn 0]

I like to set the entire array up in RAID 5. Then break out a small partition for OS and the rest for data.

[buellwinkle 0]

Their purple line they claim is purposely built for NVR use but could not tell you why, heck, they can't explain why, so could just be marketing hype but the prices are the same or close enough to other colors.

 

RAID depends on your software. For example, I use JBOD because Milestone Express we use has the ability to keep a second archive copy on another disk, so in effect it's doing it's own mirroring. Figure you'll lose capacity when going to RAID, so get larger drives, maybe 3TB instead of 2TB to make up the loss. I would not do software RAID as it's going to be slower and use up CPU cycles. If you go RAID, get a hardware RAID controller.

[MaxIcon 0]

WD claims the Purple is optimized for multiple stream concurrent read-write, which helps surveillance performance.

 

Here's an article comparing the Purple with Seagate's Surveillance line.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/surveillance-hard-drive-performance,3831.html

 

Those without patience for techno-gabble can go straight to the conclusions page:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/surveillance-hard-drive-performance,3831-10.html

 

A few quotes from the article:

 

With WD, you have the Purple line of surveillance-oriented hard drives that are optimized for simultaneous read/write performance. Looking at our performance results, workloads that stress the Purple up to a certain point are handled with great responsiveness. This is largely thanks to the company's AllFrame technology, which streamlines performance based off of a known workload. Once you exceed the drive's performance boundaries, less ideal results start cropping up. One big advantage favoring the Purple, however, is power consumption. It draws one-third less power than the Surveillance HDD.

Overall, deciding between the Purple and the Surveillance HDD comes down to your application. With fewer than eight drives, under a known read/write workload, the WD Purple stands out. Going beyond eight drives with a write-only workload definitely favors the Seagate Surveillance HDD. In both cases, the two drives offer great surveillance performance, exceeding what you'd see from mainstream desktop drives, while selling for far less than their enterprise-class siblings.

 

ETA: A user on cam-it.org replaced his WD Blue with a WD Purple, and reports that his viewing and playback are much smoother than before. Not hard data, but something.

Edited July 26, 2014 by Guest

[ssmith10pn 0]

RAID depends on your software.

 

We use Hardware RAID at the BIOS level.

[badfrog 0]

Hello all,

 

Question for you. I was thinking of ways to save cost for this build out. At the location, there is already a wired 12VDC, red and white wires. When searching, I found a website that sells a DC Power Male Jack to 2 conductor screw down connector. But the website mentions " FOR LED LIGHT CONTROLLER"

 

In your opinion, do you think this would work? If not, can someone link me to the right one

 

http://www.meritline.com/dc-power-male-jack-to-2-conductor-screw-down-connector---p-82513.aspx

 

 

Thanks for your help!

[mgb 0]

Yeah, as long as they're the same jack size as what's on the camera.

A lot of cameras come with those same ones and I've also bought similar ones before when cameras were missing them.

[MaxIcon 0]

2.1 x 5.5mm is the de facto power plug standard for CCTV equipment, though some vendors (notably Foscam) use different size plugs.

 

You won't know for sure until you try, but this is the size that all my cams and IR illuminators use.

[badfrog 0]

Thanks guys for confirming this. I actually went ahead and ordered 50 of these suckers for 20 bucks including shipping.