Need help putting together an 18+ camera system

[loglobal]

I am in the process of picking out or building a surveillance system to monitor a 100,000 SF commercial facility. Blue Iris is one of the possible routes I could go. The new system will replace a preexisting 16-channel analog DVR system, which does not work very well because of the low-resolution cameras and poor software interface.

How well will Blue Iris handle an 18-camera system that could easily grow to 25 cameras over the next year? I am only beginning to learn about Blue Iris and what it can do, but it sounds like it's not as simple as purchasing cameras and plugging them in. It also sounds like having that many cameras is not a good idea. Ideally, I would like to have the entire system recording 15 at 1920 x 1080. We might find that a few cameras only need to be set at 1280 x 720, and, likewise, we might find that we want one or two cameras that are of greater resolution than 1920 x 1080.

I don't think we will want to do anything beyond being able to monitor live feeds and store and retrieve footage from the past three or four days. But we might look into detection if it wouldn't cause resource issues.

 

[nayr]

25 cameras is alot for BluIris.. and hardware NVR's that do 32ch are pretty pricey..

Since you just want to view live feeds and retrieve footage, might consider a pair of 16ch NVR's.. it'll provide you with a bit of redundancy so if a NVR fails for any reason only half the cameras will stop recording and if you have any really important feeds down you can move them to the other nvr.

 

[fenderman]

It depends on the camera resolution you intend to run on the cameras...you can easily run 25 2mp cameras on an i7-6700 system - 15fps...I just recently picked one up for 400...the blue iris mobile app is MUCH easier to use than any NVR mobile app.

 

[fbnoise]

the blue iris mobile app is MUCH easier to use than any NVR mobile app.

Amen to that. At a time where things like this are moving to mobile, NVR manufacturers are super neglectful with their apps. I personally had a maddening experience with Hikvision's app (iVMS - S stands for shit) that I expected to at least do some of what Blue Iris could do. Horrible. Blue Iris' app is better than I even realized it was.

 

[bike_rider]

Blue Iris on a strong CPU should have no problem. I have about a mix of cameras, .3MP to 3.1MP, around 18 cameras when you count secondary feeds. BI says 300 MP/sec. WiFI says 55Mbps, CPU is at 30-35%. i7-6700 at 4.0G, with 16G.

 

[Q™]

25 cameras on a i7-6700 Skylake will not be a problem IMO.

 

[loglobal]

1) Will a Dell Optiplex 3040 mini tower w/ 16GB RAM, i7-6700 Skylake Windows 10 Professional, and 128GB SSD be fine for this purpose? What size hard drive will I have to install into the machine to store, say, a few days of 1080p footage?

2) Is there anything wrong with recording at 15 fps vs 30? Will the system better handle the lesser load?

3) Where do I start in regards to looking for cameras? Are there specific features I need to look for? I have spent some time browsing Amazon, and it looks like GW Security makes a good product at a fair price. I'm looking to spend around $100 each, give or take, for the majority of the cameras.

 

[nayr]

1. http://www.supercircuits.com/resources/tools/security-nvr-storage-calculator
2. 30FPS is way overkill, most people suggest 15FPS.. load is based upon bitrates not fps.
3. Dahua or Hikvision, stay off Amazon thats all consumer shit with reviews by idiots.

 

[loglobal]

I just found some public h.264 camera feeds on the internet around 1MP in size and pulled four into Blue Iris @ 5 fps using DTD. CPU usage is nothing, bandwidth is so little at only around 150 kbps, and my boss is floored at the quality compared to our old system. He is also amazed at the flexibility and ease of use of BI after only a five-minute demo. I think we will DEFINITELY Be going for this over a traditional NVR.

If Dahua and Hikvision are the standards, what models would you suggest I look at? I suspect even a $50 or $75 camera will be leaps and bounds better than what we have been using the past few years on our analog system.

 

[Kawboy12R]

Cheap turrets provide great video quality and aren't as in-your-face as bullets. Some like that, some don't. Lens selection tends to be limited with turrets though. Try looking at Dahua 4431C turrets for cheap 4mp solutions, and the 4231Cs for even cheaper 2mp solutions. The 4231s are quite good in low light by themselves as well. Not quite as good side-by-side at night as IMX322 solutions but still quite good. Need more detail in the dark? An external IR illuminator livens them both right up. Need a longer lens than 6mm or so? 4431M is a good cheap 4mp bullet solution up to 12mm.