Blue Iris for Educational facilities?

I

inforlonghaul

Getting the hang of it
Jul 12, 2015
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Is Blue Iris ideal for use in Educational Facilities?

At this time, we're currently doing to a retrofit from old analog DVR's/cameras and replacing them with Hikvision (Nelly's) cameras and NVRs.

We currently have almost 400 cameras on our campus. Approximately half of those are now 2MP IP cameras (on motion detection) and we have about 25 4k cameras recording 24/7 as they are outside monitoring parking lots.

Is Blue Iris capable of handling the current load of IP cameras we have and expandable up to the total of 400 once we get all of them replaced?

What kind of server build would be we looking at to handle all of this? I'm figuring multiple servers would be needed, correct?

Is BI easily capable of handling user segregation so individuals have access to certain groups of cameras for live view and playback?

We've been looking into Hikvison's VMS software HikCentral to unify all the systems into one for easy management and configuration, but it carries a hefty price tag to license the cameras we have installed so I just wanted to explore our options.
 
Blue Iris allows for user accounts with access to specific user-defined camera groups, and seems to work really well, but as I recall the number of cameras it can support is 50. It has a feature now called 'remote maintenance' which I think would be to connect to other PCs; so perhaps you could build 8 PCs to cover the 400 cameras?
 
DLONG2 said:
Blue Iris allows for user accounts with access to specific user-defined camera groups, and seems to work really well, but as I recall the number of cameras it can support is 50. It has a feature now called 'remote maintenance' which I think would be to connect to other PCs; so perhaps you could build 8 PCs to cover the 400 cameras?
Click to expand...
its just the wrong software for this application
 
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I second what Fenderman said. You really need an Enterprise solution such as Avigilon, Genetec, or Milestone (among others). I mention those three in particular because I have implemented and integrated them into situations such as yours and even larger with great success. Blue Iris just isn't the right solution.

As a side note, because of the size and scope of your project, I would suggest that you consider your security system as a whole. intercoms, duress alarms, access control, utilities, etc. and how they all work together (or don't). While you might not have the funds to integrate everything now, down the road you might want/need to. So make sure that what you buy into today will serve you when the time comes.
 
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Ha, I remember when my high school got security cameras in around 2004. They recorded to VHS tapes. Blue Iris would have been much better even back then I am sure. But then this was an extremely small school.
 
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bp2008 said:
Ha, I remember when my high school got security cameras in around 2004. They recorded to VHS tapes. Blue Iris would have been much better even back then I am sure. But then this was an extremely small school.
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Wow.....in 2004 Pelco, Bosch, Integral, Vicon, and others had DVRs available. That would have been one of the last years that you could get time lapse VCRs. Pelco dropped support for VCRs entirely not long after that (wouldn't even repair them). Sure, a 16 channel DVR would have cost more, but your school bought a system that was already end of life.

I know of a certain state facility that still has an entire rack full of Pelco VCRs utilizing a Pelco matrix video switch and Pelco mulitplexers. The analog matrix switch is still up and supported, but the rest is end of life. The VCRs haven't been used in over a decade. They aren't recording anything.....just live viewing. Crazy....and a liability.

This is why I recommended to the OP to look over his entire security system and plan for the future. BI is great at what it does, but it is not an Enterprise system.
 
bp2008 said:
Ha, I remember when my high school got security cameras in around 2004. They recorded to VHS tapes. Blue Iris would have been much better even back then I am sure. But then this was an extremely small school.
Click to expand...

My first job was mall security in 2006. They had 4 VCRs that recorded 16 camera’s each. Every 8 hours you had to swap the tapes and put them into 4 rewinders. There was a wall floor to ceiling with shelves full of tapes so they could have the retention length they wanted. If you forgot to swap tapes you just didn’t have video for that time.

I’m still in touch with folks there and they upgraded to DVRs several years back. They thankfully have a plan in place to go full IP. They upgraded to I believe avigilon using video encoders last year. And this year they have budget to replace their most frequent/primary camera’s with IP and the remaining being replaced the following year. It’s fun to see technology upgrades and I’m thankful I’m not paying the bill!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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Well there were only I think 4 cameras on this install and they had two VCRs and no security staff, just one overworked teacher who was also the entire IT staff and I guess it was his responsibility to swap tapes.
 
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Bringing this back to topic...

I agree with others - Blue iris is not suitable for your size - you will need Enterprise solution.

We tested a few software and we've narrowed down to Milestone Systems which meets our needs.
 
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