Can you validate/recommend an approach?

sharkpunch said:

Hi Guys,

Just joined and new to this space have done some research but am looking to validate my approach and get recommendations on the best hw/sw and strategy here.

• Ideally I'd like to do detection/observation and identification out the front of my house, does it make sense to use 2 seperate cameras for this?
  • e.g. 1x wide angle color night vision for detection and 1x vari focal for face recognition?
  • if so what would be the best cameras to go for in this space? from what I can see the dahua 5442 is recommended as a vari-focal and the hikvision colorvus are good for detection?
• for the rear and sides of property that cover a smaller area would varifocals be a better strategy?
• When it comes to software it appears blue-iris is still the best out there in terms of capability?
  • when it comes to running on hw is it ok to run virtualized or is the recommended approach getting dedicated hw e.g a NUC?
  • how much storage would be a good amount and does it make sense to get disks that are designed for this purpose?
• I do have a coral tpu chip already so ideally i could use that but from what I can see blue-iris doesn't have great compatibility in that space relative to frigate/scrypted?
  • are people running multiple solutions together?
  • is this hardware required or will a nuc with some onboard graphics capability suffice if I'm only running 4-5 cameras total?

Any help and advice would be appreciated
Thanks!

Click to expand...

Welcome .. I'll add more later in thus reply. Just a placeholder for now.

sharkpunch said:

Hi Guys,

Just joined and new to this space have done some research but am looking to validate my approach and get recommendations on the best hw/sw and strategy here.

• Ideally I'd like to do detection/observation and identification out the front of my house, does it make sense to use 2 seperate cameras for this?
  • e.g. 1x wide angle color night vision for detection and 1x vari focal for face recognition?
  • if so what would be the best cameras to go for in this space? from what I can see the dahua 5442 is recommended as a vari-focal and the hikvision colorvus are good for detection?
• for the rear and sides of property that cover a smaller area would varifocals be a better strategy?
• When it comes to software it appears blue-iris is still the best out there in terms of capability?
  • when it comes to running on hw is it ok to run virtualized or is the recommended approach getting dedicated hw e.g a NUC?
  • how much storage would be a good amount and does it make sense to get disks that are designed for this purpose?
• I do have a coral tpu chip already so ideally i could use that but from what I can see blue-iris doesn't have great compatibility in that space relative to frigate/scrypted?
  • are people running multiple solutions together?
  • is this hardware required or will a nuc with some onboard graphics capability suffice if I'm only running 4-5 cameras total?

Any help and advice would be appreciated
Thanks!

Click to expand...

Hi @sharkpunch

Blue Iris is still very popular with many members, so in my book still a great option when paired with a good used business class PC and 8th gen or better intel CPU ( HP or Dell business class used PC i5/i7 8th gen + )

Typically I recommend people pick up on 4MP 1/1.8" varifocal PoE camera and a small PoE switch to start learning.

You will end up with more cameras than you first planned, as reality means wide FOV cameras are not good at distances you want to ID out to, and tight FOV / stronger lens cameras miss too much that happens closer to your front of house.

NUC .. normally not a recommended option, as you really do want to get a 3.5" HDD in the case for video storage, and a SSD for the OS / Software

HDD size, get the largest WD Purple or Seagate Skyhawk you can afford and is supported by the PC seems to be the typical recommendation for PCs / NVRs that can only hold one HDD.

If you're really looking for the NUC solution, you will want to search and see what others have setup.