365 days of saved video/ audio help

[smiticans]

For anyone that's interested, I tested the failover feature in Digital Watchdog. The way digital watchdog is setup is you can merge multiple servers together. So for example. server 1 and server 2 can be merged together into one location. The cameras on server 1 and 2 can be viewed in the same layout together and it essentially acts like its all on single server. If failover is enabled, the servers monitor each other for failure. If server 1 fails, server 2 will takeover for server 1. This takes approximatively 1 to 2 minutes. When server 1 comes back online, the cameras will transfer back over to server 1 within a couple of minute . Failover will also happen if all of the storage devices on a server fail. DW also allows you to specify the maximum amount of cameras that can failover to a single server and assign priority based on each camera (this isn't needed unless you have a very large install).

Since DW is licensed per camera, if the transferred cameras on the backup server exceed the licenses, DW will provide a 30-day grace period so you have time to fix the faulted server.

The second or backup server does not need to have any cameras or licenses on it. It can act strictly as a backup server.

 

[CCTVCam]

This will be hard too:

(5) The media or device on which recordings are stored shall be secured in a manner to protect the recording from tampering, unauthorized access or use, or theft.

So you need to secure your system and RAID. Physically and electronically.

I think some enquiry needs to be made as to what standard of security is required. There's probably some guidance available as to what's expected.

Physical security isn't that hard depending on what's required eg there are secure locking server cabinets / NVR cabinets available that can be bolted to the well. PC's can be bolted to floors / desks via anti-theft brackets. Depending on the level of security required, if higher level denial is required, a spare room or suitably sized closet (bearing in mid heat / ventilation requirements, can be secured by the fitment of a high security door. Securing it from other employees could be as simple as not letting them have access to keys or passwords, the latter also covering digital security to an extent.

From outside digital interference, it could be as simple as having a good firewall. Best to look at the standards, but compliance might not be as hard as at 1st glance. I suspect digital security will come down to firewall and good passwords so probably not hard to comply with unless standalone enterprise level firewalls are required in which case setting them up might need some knowledge depending on what's used. Physical security is probably the more likely one to come under the most scrutiny and I'm envisaging probably a secure room which may mean bars on windows and high security steel door.

As I said, it's best to see if any guidance has been issued / consult relevent bodies as there's no point paying out unecessarily either for non compliant equipment / meausres that have to then be ripped out and replaced with higher level ones at a later date, or for high level ones that exceed the requirements by such a margin that the cost is excessive in the 1st place.

 

[elrojo14]

I too am a CA FFL that is trying to figure out what to do in the next two months. I have been looking at Ubiquity systems. What are your thoughts on them? Otherwise, another FFL buddy says he runs everything off of Blue Iris and a server at his two shops and sent me over here to seek input. TIA.

My shop is just two rooms and so I can probably do everything with two 360 cameras for compliance and then upgrade and keep most of my other 7 cameras for just my monitoring. I appreciate any suggestions.

 

[smiticans]

I too am a CA FFL that is trying to figure out what to do in the next two months. I have been looking at Ubiquity systems. What are your thoughts on them? Otherwise, another FFL buddy says he runs everything off of Blue Iris and a server at his two shops and sent me over here to seek input. TIA.

My shop is just two rooms and so I can probably do everything with two 360 cameras for compliance and then upgrade and keep most of my other 7 cameras for just my monitoring. I appreciate any suggestions.

Not a fan of Ubiquity system as most of it is proprietary. Although, I've heard you can login to the cameras and enable the RTSP stream so it'll work with 3rd party systems. Their cameras are also overpriced for what their capable of (expensive and have small image sensors). I wouldn't trust Blue Iris to stay compliant with this new law because the database is too fragile.

In my opinion, you should really be using an enterprise grade solution like Digital Watchdog Spectrum IPVMS. There are other options too but Digital Watchdog is one of the cheaper ones. Read my previous posts in this thread for some of its features.

 

[bve]

Older thread I know, but you (or others) may want to consider going this route on a few different Linux devices recording to their local disc & copy them using NFS for longer term storage - no licensing fees, open source & simple to set-up -- and it is essentially doing the exact same thing any NVR solution is going to do. Won't cost you anything to try it or use it either.

Record and archive video from IP cameras

You'll definitely need to tailor it to your needs, however I have been using this as secondary recording for many years without fail - I don't archive or do any compression though, I just use it to record all 8 cameras & purge after a set number of days. So I only use a version of the first script and a cron job to run it and then secondary cron job to purge older files.

 

[smiticans]

Older thread I know, but you (or others) may want to consider going this route on a few different Linux devices recording to their local disc & copy them using NFS for longer term storage - no licensing fees, open source & simple to set-up -- and it is essentially doing the exact same thing any NVR solution is going to do. Won't cost you anything to try it or use it either.

Record and archive video from IP cameras

You'll definitely need to tailor it to your needs, however I have been using this as secondary recording for many years without fail - I don't archive or do any compression though, I just use it to record all 8 cameras & purge after a set number of days. So I only use a version of the first script and a cron job to run it and then secondary cron job to purge older files.

Looks interesting.. Does it send notifications upon a storage error, camera offline or other issue? Part of the law requires notifications if there are any malfunctions with the system. If it can't do that it probably won't meet the requirement.

 

[bve]

Looks interesting.. Does it send notifications upon a storage error, camera offline or other issue? Part of the law requires notifications if there are any malfunctions with the system. If it can't do that it probably won't meet the requirement.

Well it doesn't by default and I suppose I missed some of the requirements posted.

In my case I am pulling the streams via the virtual host iports of the NVR - which does / can do alerts. If you used multiple devices to record all streams to secondary & tertiary drives it's unlikely for everything to fail at once.

A simple shell script could be used to verify files are accumulating on each of the remote recorders - I don't have one off hand to share, but conceptually it's possible.

 

[sdkid]

The new law required recording 24/7 365 day.

The law allows Ca DOJ and ATF the ability to access footage without a warrant, kinda. We can say no. Then our ffl is immediately revoked.

Can you give us an update? I suddenly am helping an organization with a project that needs 26 cams and they want a LOT of video stored so it can be recalled.

If database maint is a dealbreaker....
You could run those 5-6 cams to an NVR or even 2 NVR's and simultaneously to BI.....and if at 2AM... the Bandito's come knocking.... the NVR's will have your back...
Some NVR's can take up to 2-10 TB drives or more in some cases even more.....So possibly 40 TB of space...across 2 NVR's.
and that roughly might be enough space get you your 1 year of compliant video...
Meanwhile BI will have those cams as well, but for a shorter duration...like 3-4 weeks.

If the Database maintenance is done while the business is CLOSED, would it matter? I have my home machine reboot every night, and when the BI service comes back (takes about 90 seconds), doesn't it do db maintenance as it starts?