IP camera software for network with 250 cameras

[syscon 0]

can anyone recommend a software that is capable of handling 250 ip cameras (Gadspot GS1600H) on a network to be monitored at one central monitoring station ?

[woodyads 0]

I am sure there are many systems that can handle 250 cameras software wise. But the trick here is how you utilise the existing resources or redesign and modify what you have.

 

Its quite simple, first the layout

How many sites?

How fat are the WAN links (if any)

How many Switches (closets)

How many buildings or floors.

How

How much cascading of network devices (or is it perfect star topology)

Where is the central monitoring station in relation to the core switch and how many screens / streams do you want to view.

Does the client have an underutilised SQL server somewhere.

How many users / seats do you want be able to view and review streams.

Is there anyone on the general network you want to give viewing or reviewing access.

[syscon 0]

The system is like this.

The client is a mobile phone service provider on the GSM format with 250

cell sites spread over a 3000 sq mile area. Each cell site has a network connection RJ45 available.

All the cell sites are monitored for proper functioning by a single monitoring station at their headquarters. They want the cell cites monitored with cameras for security reasons and need them linked to the headquarters. I wonder if anyone has ever done this before.

[woodyads 0]

You will need to survey their network, best to use a network capacity planner. Your cameras / encoders need to support port address control and broadcasting. They will need to bring the aggregate bandwidth on a link or several links to handle the broadcast. This includes planning the backplane speed of the core switch and firewall. Be warned its better to though money at hardware and reduce management of ports and hardware devices. Yes you will need manageable devices and if your client has a buy the cheapest policy then walk away from the deal and find a mature client.

 

I would then use an NVR with distributed file servers (or SANS see below) , group cameras together via port address into manageable groups based on broadcast bandwidth then filter the port addresses to each file server. Work out which groups of cameras will be displayed on which client then filter accordingly. Get rid of any 10mb-s gear from your network or port filter out those as well. You must also set up port filtering to stop aggregate broadcasting travelling back up your LAN. Filter each site from broadcasts from other sites.

 

One of the advantages of this setup is the removal of dependency on cabling and hardware. By changing your port filters you can reroute traffic to cater for bandwidth without getting out of your desk. Buy setting up two core switches and firewalls you can prioritise in case of fail over or set up for total redundancy. Logically and bandwidth wise this is infinitely scalable (well maybe to a couple of thousand camera groups). of coarse there are camera and client limitations on the server software. Live viewing is direct to client so there is no capacity issue with NVR servers.

 

I have treated this like you are trying to get 5fps + from 250 cameras with a high quality picture, kind of a worst case senario.

 

 

(SANS)

I am have not researched how NVR software works with SANS. But I would suspect that you can record and replay directly to the IP address of a SANS box without using the server. Find out if this is the case. If so this is definitely the way to go. If not you will need to use distributed file severs which are supported. If your system is dependent on the server for replay or recording you can work around this by using multiple NICs but there are some funny bugs in MS servers you need to read up on. Bottom line is spend the money on a system that will support direct SANS or distributed file systems. I won't bother researching this till I have to and that will be next year for a SQL and Application server consolidation project not for a CCTV project, but I will pickup the NVR system as a matter of coarse. Does anyone know the answer to this question?

[martynk27 0]

I would suggest you look at Milestone Systems

[zmxtech 0]

I work for a major telco and we have AXIS PTZ IP CAMs at the bigger sites. smaller moblile fone huts etc just a door alarm. some have a low bandwidth NET connection that goes thru the microwave links -Ok for 1FPS or motion detect mode.

 

No ones going to monitor 250 cams? do you need to record all the time ?

If the IP CAMs are on 'motion detect' its easy there will be low overhead

 

The motion detection also has its problems -clouds/trees/shadows etc.

must be tuned for each site to stop false alarms -some cams hook into

the alarm\PIR sensors -could be the go

 

-whats the bandwidth of the sites 64k ?

-and the RES of your CAMs

 

For Storage I would use a net apps filer> tho I never got the Tee-shirt !

It will handle 250 CAMS with ease [iSPs use them]

 

z

[spytown 0]

you may also want to consider ON-NET for their software solution

here is their site..

http://www.onssi.com/

[Mark Eggett 0]

The motion detection also has its problems -clouds/trees/shadows etc.

must be tuned for each site to stop false alarms -some cams hook into

the alarm\PIR sensors -could be the go

z

 

Try looking at Sony cameras with intelligent motion detection. They compare the past 15 frames allowing them to filter out environmental noise such as trees, water etc.

 

Milestone can easilly cope with 250 cameras, I've not come across the brand/model mentioned in the original post though. Like has already been said, more information will be required about available bandwidth - not only at the remote locations which is highly unlikely to be an issue more the incoming pipe at the central repositories.

 

Depending on how critical the system is I'd probably look to use cameras that have on-board storage to buffer data in case of bottlenecks or maybe breaking the system into manageable cells as for the number of cameras you will be looking at 4+ servers for a Milestone based solution.

 

Either way, sounds like a nice project!

[GV.Jackie 0]

BTW, did anyone noticed that ONSSI and Milestone are actually the same software?

 

Why is that?

[Mark Eggett 0]

BTW, did anyone noticed that ONSSI and Milestone are actually the same software?

 

Why is that?

 

Yep and not quite sure why/how they are claiming it's their own as I can't see anything in their specification that might suggest they have modified the software in anyway...

[woodyads 0]

BTW, did anyone noticed that ONSSI and Milestone are actually the same software?

 

Why is that?

 

If you have a look at High end NVR software it should have the following.

A licence server,

SQL security matrix,

Video Encoder software,

A Watchdog,

Front end application,

Backend application,

PTZ Protocols,

 

Most of these products are already written or you must buy the licence to use. There is no point in a Video Surveillance software company writing their own Licence server when you can buy it off Rainbow Technologies and let them deal with all the security patches etc. Same goes for the Watchdog. It is quite viable for a company to buy all this software and stitch it together to make a different product.

[dtonsberg 0]

I wouldn't make design decisions until you have made out your needs analysis. A needs analysis goes deeper into what the system NEEDS to do. For example, (1) record for 30 days, (2) process on events that are caused by opening a door, approaching vehicle, etc. (3) monitor remotely and notify operator on real time event (4) record all other info real time at site (5) manufacturer involved in hardware and software business for more than 3 years (6) manufacturer warranty and site support in North America.....you can go on and on.

 

Once you get that done a real design can get put in place. The bottom line will be affected positively by going through this exercise and getting more stakeholders along the way for support and implementation of such a large system.