Best NVR system for small retail store?

[Oceanslider]

I have a friend that asked me for suggestions for a security camera system for their small retail store. Mostly women clothing, trinkets and an 8' jewelry cabinet, cash register, storage area, parking lot.

In the past they have had employees steeling from them and even taking their hard-earned vendors list and contact lists off the computer, etc. I think they have maybe rectified that and not made it easy access.

But they really need a plug and play system. I don't think they have time to put into a Blue Iris system. Right now, they only have one Ring camera watching the cash register, that also is where the jewelry cabinet is.

Knowing them I think a plug and play NVR system might be best. Suggestions?

 

[Flintstone61]

I won't say its the best.....But i have three of these camera. and they have audio built in. So if a plug n play NVR is what you want, with the ability to add other "non Amcrest" camera
s in the future, this would work.
Plenty of other opinions in the forum.
But this ticks the " easy button"

Amazon.com

 

[Flintstone61]

since your indoors you could get vandal domes.

Amazon.com

 

[mat200]

I have a friend that asked me for suggestions for a security camera system for their small retail store. Mostly women clothing, trinkets and an 8' jewelry cabinet, cash register, storage area, parking lot.

In the past they have had employees steeling from them and even taking their hard-earned vendors list and contact lists off the computer, etc. I think they have maybe rectified that and not made it easy access.

But they really need a plug and play system. I don't think they have time to put into a Blue Iris system. Right now, they only have one Ring camera watching the cash register, that also is where the jewelry cabinet is.

Knowing them I think a plug and play NVR system might be best. Suggestions?

Hi @Oceanslider

I would consider the Dahua NVR5216-16P-xx line ..

In general we know Dahua cameras fairly well and know you can add Amcrest and other Dahua OEM cameras to that.

The Amcrest NVRs are Dahua OEM, however I do not know which NVR is equal to the 5xxx series ( which i prefer over the 4xxx models )

 

[Flintstone61]

heres a 5 series Amcrest on amazon

Amazon.com

 

[CCTVCam]

For anti theft from tills the big stores have cameras mounted in the ceiling directly above the till scale that look straight down into the cash drawer when opened and so capture if an employee removes anything. These are in addition to an overview camera(s) of the till(s).

 

[Oceanslider]

Thank you all for the suggestions.

I assume that the 5 series that Flintstone61 suggests is equal to the Dahua 5xxx that Mat200 suggests?

 

[Flintstone61]

They trim off the extra high-end features, but for an indoor situation, which needs 24/7 recording and decent motion detection it should cover your needs. I have a 4 series, and it works with Andy's Cameras from Empiretech, and Loryta Store fronts on Amazon ( Dahua Oem's)

 

[Mark_M]

I would consider the Dahua NVR5216-16P-xx line

I just got a 5216-16p-I - 'i' in the model is the important bit that makes this expensive....


Bloody marvellous NVR but it has a hefty price tag.
I paid no where near the $2,000 this retail for in NZ/AU, the price I got it for is very reasonable just to steal the Seagate Skyhawks out of it.
USD it's about $1,300 at the time of this post.

It's great at facial recognition (Say thief's have been added to a blacklist, it will give an alert when they are seen again) and supports cameras without built in AI to have such analytics with the recorder doing the processing.

POS integration might be useful, POS (Point of sale) software on the till can send text to the NVR of what is happening.
In the NVR this text is then overlaid on a cameras image (till camera looking down at what is happening). The idea is that the camera video shows what is happening during the transaction visually as well as what the POS software is experiencing (e.g, employee scanned only 5 of the 6 items and it was hard to tell that visually camera).

---

What it can do:

• AI for facial recognition on all cameras if the cameras are Dahua ones that support it. The NVR can do it's own processing for 4 cameras that do not support this feature (including non-Dahua/ONVIF).
• AI for line crossing/intrusion detection on the NVR, I think this does all 16ch (I don't have enough cameras to test). If you have Dahua cameras with AI they can intergrade to perform more tasks like loitering detection.
• POS (Point of sale), take text from POS software and overlay the text onto a cameras feed. In Dahua Smart PSS this can shown/hidden during playback.
• Thermal sheet that covid bought, it can support a thermal camera and do temperature screening (not effective against covid).
• ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition), it can whitelist, blacklist and known list number plates.
• Audio, it can support 20 mp3 files of 2kb to 10MB. 10MB is a lot of audio or a very high sample rate. I use text to speech generator of 'GLaDOS' on uberduck.ai for my creepy robotic voice MP3 files. [GLaDOS is from the video game Portal 2].
• Output 4k 60fps over HDMI. I really couldn't care less as this is the display/monitor out capabilities. Recoding matters more.
• RS232 port on the back supports a keyboard/PTZ joystick/multiplexer.... sadly the one I had on hand is still not compatible.

Those are a few things.
----
My biggest announces about this NVR:

• The fan on the side is speed controlled based on temperature but the power supply fan is at full blast constantly. That fan is loud, wayy more than my previous NVR4216-16p.
• In display settings, 'Main screen" is limited to "VGA+HDMI", apparently a $2,000 (retail in NZ) NVR does not support two screens??? Maybe it's because I only have one plugged into the HDMI???
• 
• In the corner of the interface (NVR local and web) there is a QR icon. This opens the QR codes for P2P. If you click on it, it turns on P2P again.... I keep accidently clicking that rather than the logout button.
• 
• Downloading footage from the web interface or the NVR is a pain.... It seems that not all software versions allow for download in the playback tab. Instead you have to go into the "Backup" tab, fill in the time/dates and then download the file. It's at least kind enough to allow downloading in MP4 rather than just .DAV.
• The big issue I ran into while setting up is it's built in switch.. I have an Axis camera as an ONVIF device. To access the 10.1.1.x network on the NVR for non-Dahua cameras you need to physically plug a computer into it. This NVR now fire walls off each device on the switch from talking to each other. My old one didn't. Now I need a separate POE injector to power up the camera and plug it directly into my computer for setup. They make it hard for non-Dahua cameras yet a selling point is it supporting them.
• Apparently this high end NVR doesn't have rack mount capability...?

---

My verdict:
Is an NVR which retails for well over $1,000USD worth it?
I can't really answer that for you. You'll find it's limits and that's when you know it would have been better to go with a VMS like Blue Iris or NX Witness).
Over all, it's a great device but it has a large price tag for it's features. A very powerful desktop computer (even a server) could be bought for that price and support far more functions with a VMS.

A little example of using a VMS vs an NVR is UPS connectivity.... simple thing of the UPS (uninterruptable power supply) being able to shutdown the device when it's low on battery. This NVR might have the function given it has a page with status saying 'on mains power'.


Hopefully that's some insight into my experiences with a 'high end' NVR. I'll start a thread if you lot want questions/testing about it.

 

[Alaska Country]

The NVR5216-16P-I/L is a nice Dahua NVR. Have been using one since November 2021 to replace an older Dahua 4216 model.

It does cost more than the standard NVR, but is a nice addition to the system. Cost from Andy in the $600 to $700 USD range.

It is not perfect, but does perform well IMO. Love the plug and play aspect of the system.

 

[Mark_M]

The fan on the side is speed controlled based on temperature but the power supply fan is at full blast constantly. That fan is loud, wayy more than my previous NVR4216-16p.

Update on this.
I have opened up the NVRs power supply to change out it's fan.
The model number of the power supply is the exact same as the NVR4216-16p I previously had...… even though this new ones has 8 POE+ ports.

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

Update on this.
I have opened up the NVRs power supply to change out it's fan.
The model number of the power supply is the exact same as the NVR4216-16p I previously had...… even though this new ones has 8 POE+ ports.

Replacement fan choice & source?

 

[Mark_M]

Replacement fan choice & source?

I used a fan I had on hand and just under powered it.
10v VS 12v cuts back on most of the noise while still keeping adequate airflow. A small buck converted soldered on the cable and wrapped in heat shrink.

What ever fan you get, get one with decent bearings inside.
You could try Noctua fans, I hear good things about them.

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

For system within 8 cams, use NVR5208-8P-4KS2E.
Within 16 cams use the NVR5216-16P-4KS2E is good to go.