Synology Surveillance Station Lessons Learned

[rdagger 0]

I’ve been tinkering with surveillance video for 20 years. In that time, I’ve never had a system that has left me completely satisfied and the Synology Surveillance Station 7.1 is no exception. Currently I’m running 4 Axis M5014 720P PTZ mini dome cameras on a Synology RS814+ (Intel Atom Dual Core 2.13GHz 2GB RAM).

First the good:

1. I have no problems motion recording 720P on all cameras with 30 fps variable bitrate at the highest image quality setting using H.264.

2. The Axis cameras were auto recognized, all the features are supported and almost completely configurable from the Surveillance Station web interface.

3. Internet browser support seems good (IE, FF, Chrome).

4. The Synology supports P2P so you don’t have to open any ports on your firewall. This is a big plus for me. I find that many companies that sell security products tend to have no clue about network security.

5. The mobile apps (iphone & android) work well if you have good Wi-Fi (not so good on celluar). I have 100mbps symmetrical fiber for my Internet service.

6. The optional VS240HD allows me to add a monitor and configure the system anywhere I have a network jack. There are 2 HDMI outputs. One shows the cameras and control inputs. The other just shows the cameras.

7. I have the 2nd output of the VS240HD connected to a ZeeVee modulator so I can view the cameras on channel 98 on every TV.

8. The user interface is easy and intuitive.

9. The Synology box automatically updates and sends me email warnings if there are any issues. It also sends monthly email reports on the health of each hard drive and the general security of the system.

10. Synology continues to update and improve their product.

 

The Bad:

1. Playback is painfully slow. This is my biggest gripe and the reason I want to ditch the Surveillance Station. To search for an event, even if you have a pretty good idea about the time, can easily take an hour because the playback is so lethargic even at the 8x speed (the highest).

2. The browser GUI requires a large plugin that can take a long time to download.

3. The PTZ position resets to the default home position when the power is interrupted to a camera. This might be more of an Axis problem.

4. The mobile apps often have trouble using HTTPS. They always work on HTTP.

5. Synology end-of-lifed my first Visual Station VS80 shortly after I bought it so I had to pay a $500 upgrade because it would no longer work with the latest version of Surveillance Station. I complained to Synology and they couldn’t care less.

6. Synology support is worthless and their forum is not monitored (again pretty useless).

7. You need a high end Synology. The cheaper boxes work but not that well with HD recording. Probably a minimum dual core with 2GB RAM. I upgraded to the RS814+ from an RS212 (1.6Ghz, 256MB RAM) because the CPU was maxing out.

8. You have to buy licenses ($56 per camera, one time cost) if you have more than 1 camera.

9. The Synology can do motion detection itself or leverage the camera’s built-in motion detection. To use the Axis detection was very difficult to figure out and required logging into each camera for manual configuration.

[ak357 0]

I’ve been tinkering with surveillance video for 20 years.

After 20 years you playing with Synology

I feel sorry for you

[rdagger 0]

After 20 years you playing with Synology

I feel sorry for you

I guess there's not much love for Synology on this forum. It's a great NAS. Just not so much for surveillance (mainly because of the playback).

I have several DVR's and NVR's collecting dust because they are either poor performance or poor security. Now that Synology supports Docker, I'm hoping one of the better software solutions will provide an image. I like that the Synology is "set it and forget it" as opposed to a dedicated PC or server.

 

I'd really like to add and upgrade my cameras to HD or even 4K. I'm open to suggestions regarding a reasonably priced software/hardware solution (especially if I can leverage my NAS.)

[ak357 0]

After 20 years you playing with Synology

I feel sorry for you

I guess there's not much love for Synology on this forum. It's a great NAS. Just not so much for surveillance (mainly because of the playback).

I have several DVR's and NVR's collecting dust because they are either poor performance or poor security. Now that Synology supports Docker, I'm hoping one of the better software solutions will provide an image. I like that the Synology is "set it and forget it" as opposed to a dedicated PC or server.

 

I'd really like to add and upgrade my cameras to HD or even 4K. I'm open to suggestions regarding a reasonably priced software/hardware solution (especially if I can leverage my NAS.)

 

In my opinion

very hard to beat Avigilon soft with HIK cameras