Yep, Im a CA FFL and rebuilt my entire security camera system for the law that went into effect Jan 1.
As stated above I have to maintain 24 hour and 365 days of audio/ video recording for all entries, exits, places guns are displayed, and points of sale.
I originally had 30 cameras around my range. I used a i7-8700 PC with 32gb ram and 60tb of WD purple HDs for storage. The cameras ranged from 2k-4k quality.
With the new law I needed to make sure everything is perfect with fail-safes in place. I can’t have any issues so I tried to make a bullet proof system.
Started with the network. I replaced the 6 year old ASUS router annd no-name POE with Trendnet (NDAA compliant) devices. I replaced almost all of the older
CAT5e cable runs with new CAT6a. The two computers running
blue iris in my office I used certified CAT7 cable.
I replaced all my old cameras (mix of Lorex, Hikivision, and Dahua) with new NDAA complaint Bolide cameras. I will have a total of 48 cameras when Im done installing. For now, 30 are up and running.
For my business I needed four cameras to comply with the law. I decided to use two cameras for the Point of Sale areas to make sure I captured the audio. This is an issue since we are a shooting range and sometimes large caliber rifles drown out the conversations recorded. This gave me a total of six cameras for audio/ video recording.
The next issue was determining resolution for the six DOJ cameras. The law just states the video must be able to identify persons. Not a lot of help there. So, with some searching I found DORI specifications. I used this standard to come up with 5mp being my minimum. I know other FFLs are using as low as 2mp but I’d rather be ahead of the game.
I did a ton of calculations and testing for space needed for 365 days. My final configuration is 10 WD Purple 18tb HDs in a pool configuration To hold the six cameras worth of audio/video for the year.
Now the computer(s) part.
The older i7 PC with 60tb is being used for just the six DOJ cameras as a backup. This gives me some redundancy if the other computer needs a windows, blue iris, driver or other update or repair. The law requires uninterrupted recording. With the battery backups I used any power outage under 15 minutes I’m good. Longer power outages or disaster and I’m out of luck. Eventually Ill add enough HD space to get the same 365 days of recording, for now, I ran out of money.
Now onto the fun part. Being a Star Wars fan the old i7 is called Deathstar. This new machine is Deathstar 2.
Cooler Master HAF 700 Evo Case (look it up, its huge!)
i9-14900k cpu
ASUS ROG motherboard
64gb DDR5 ram
NVidia 4070ti Graphics card
1600 watt platinum power supply
14 WD Purple 18tb HDs (yes, 14 HDs fit easily in the case)
1tb Samsung 990 Pro NVME HD (OS Drive)
4tb WD Black NVME HD for whatever files
Noctua NH-D15 CPU Cooler
Four 200mm cooling fans
Five 140mm cooling fans
Attatched to Deathstar 2 is…
RAID enclosure with two WD Red Pro 18tb HDs ran in Raid 1 to hold critical incident video files
JBOD enclosure with six WD Purple 18tb HDs
JBOD enclosure with 10 WD Purple 18tb HDs
Total HD space is 513.4tb of usable HD space.
I decided to use a program called Drivepool instead of RAID. I can get into why in a later post if requested.
Pool 1, 10 HDs pooled as one drive with enough extra space if one drive fails the software will attempt to move the files to other drives before failure. This pool is for six DOJ cameras for 365 days of audio/ video.
Pool 2, is identical to Pool 1. This pool is for the same six DOJ cameras. I cloned the six cameras in BI and have them recording to this pool. This gives me some redundancy, one is none and two is one.
Pool 3, 10 HDs pooled as one drive to save as much recording for all my other cameras.
The two drive raid setup is to save critical video files.
I also have 64gb USB thumb drive and 512gb USB-C thumb drive plugged into the front of the PC if DOJ or law enforcement needs video quickly. If Im not there, I have remote-in software on my iPad and laptop to transfer the video and let an employee hand the drive over to LE.
Having owned a FFL and Shooting range in California I try to be prepared for worst case. Things happen and it’s best to be ready.
As for the law. Most FFLs appeared to go with Cloud Based solutions. I believe this is gonna fail long term. Constantly uploading that much data is probably gonna trigger very expensive commercial data plans. The internet always goes out no matter what you have, now you have to worry about power outages and internet outages. I also worry about ransomeware attacks on any cloud based system. With my system, its been separated from the outside in every way possible but its doubtful some Russian hacker is gonna go after a random range compared to a large companies servers. I will add a Sonicwall firewall shortly.
The costs of cloud based solutions were way more than building this entire system. The quotes I got were only 2mp recording using the cameras I already have. The costs rapidly increase with higher MP. I cant imagine six years of recording quotes, crazy! If that is what California does, Ill just secure the HDs each year and buy new ones, way cheaper than a cloud solution based on the quotes I got.
Also, looking into NAS enclosures, I felt they are a weak option. Most of the makers have suffered from ransomeware attacks. All of the manufacturers dont give support for larger 18tb or 22tb WD Purple drives. It would probably be fine but didn’t want to risk it.
Any questions, suggestions, or comments let me have it. This is just what I came up with my research. Maybe it will help someone else.
