New business owner here...

obbitar

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Starting up a business and a friend recommended this site for my security concerns/questions. I'm in the process of opening a 40,000 sf facility where I will be using 20+ HD cameras and I'm looking for suggestions... I hope people here can help through experience and expertise. My background is in IT/IS, but limited exposure to IP cameras.

Happy New Year!
 

dalepa

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20+ POE Hikvisions $2k+, 5 POE switches $250, 20 cables $500, i7 PC $1K, and BlueIris $60. ~$4k Done.

Being an IT/IS guy myself, Im more interested in what kind of business your opening in a 40k sf facility :)
 

obbitar

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A few things I'd like to ask...

Is it necessary or recommended for 5 separate POE Switches?

What model camera would you recommend for internal storage as well as on the server/NVR?

Will I be able to use my phone to access and monitor each camera? Is there a recommended application? I figure I can open ports to access them directly, but would prefer software I can manage from my mobile devices...

If I were to do continuous recording at high resolutions, what space am I looking at per camera for a 30 day retention?

Am I only needing one PC if I'm doing continuous recording off of 20+ cameras?

A gymnastics arena... for liability purposes, maximum video retention and angles is required to dismiss negligence
 

obbitar

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A few additional questions...

Are the cable lengths limited?

Can I make my own? Cat5/5e/6 ? which ends to terminate with? I've seen Revo which terminate in a RJ12

Thanks in advance for any and all advice...
 

dalepa

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See inline answers

A few things I'd like to ask...

Is it necessary or recommended for 5 separate POE Switches?

-- 8, 16, or 24 port POE should work fine.

What model camera would you recommend for internal storage as well as on the server/NVR?

-- The hikvision 2332 and/or 2532 appears to be latest pics from this forum.

Will I be able to use my phone to access and monitor each camera? Is there a recommended application? I figure I can open ports to access them directly, but would prefer software I can manage from my mobile devices...

-- You can use BlueIris app from your tablet, phone, web for remote viewing. Works well.


If I were to do continuous recording at high resolutions, what space am I looking at per camera for a 30 day retention?

-- You probably don't need continuous as motion detection works very well at a fraction of the space. Use storage spaces and raid 0 3 3tb 7200 drives together, get a 256g SSD for C: and only put BlueIris database on C:



Am I only needing one PC if I'm doing continuous recording off of 20+ cameras?

-- The latest I7 should be able to handle it, but you may need to adjust the FPS a little which should be ok

A gymnastics arena... for liability purposes, maximum video retention and angles is required to dismiss negligence
 

dalepa

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300ft is Ethernet specs I think, and I highly recommend buying cables to length. I've spent an endless amount of time troubshooting weird issues only to learn it was my cables that I made.


A few additional questions...

Are the cable lengths limited?

Can I make my own? Cat5/5e/6 ? which ends to terminate with? I've seen Revo which terminate in a RJ12

Thanks in advance for any and all advice...
 

fenderman

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Note that the 2332 does not have onboard storage...the 2532 does, as well as the 2732 and 2632...
You need to consider how long you need your retention...note the statute of limitations for personal injury is generally 2 years so you may have to keep it that long or longer (because they can file the suit on the last day)...
Storage is cheap so it may not be that crazy.....
Blue iris allows you to split the cameras up and write to separate drives..being that this will be a facility with lots of motion, it is entirely possible that many cameras if not all will be recording at once...so splitting them up among drives is important...You can then offload old recordings automatically to a NAS....
You may have to run in 2mp to keep the load down...but you will still have a great image...i run my hiks in 2mp mode because it produces a wider horizontal fov..
Buy quality solid copper cable..not copper clad aluminum...
 

obbitar

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Thanks for the advice. Are there preferred AliExpress vendors on the forums?

As far as retention goes, I'm referring to retention until it writes over itself. If there are incidents that occur the footage will immediately be backed up and stored.

HIKs in 2mp mode still record at 30fps? I may only use a few in high resolution at the doors and office area for security purposes.
 
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300ft is Ethernet specs I think, and I highly recommend buying cables to length. I've spent an endless amount of time troubshooting weird issues only to learn it was my cables that I made.
I would never buy cable to length, especially in his situation. If he is looking at 20 camera plus that's a lot of pre-made wire that is going to get very expensive. For a fraction of the cost he can get 1000' cat 5e shielded on Amazon for 60 dollars. They have some decent testers out there but if you're building your own cables you should always run a tester on them.
 
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Is it necessary or recommended for 5 separate POE Switches?
A 24 port PoE switch is good enough; however it wouldn't hurt if you designed your server room to allow an additional 24 port PoE switch. This allows you room to add additional IP cams if you ever need it or if a physical network port gets damaged or unusable, you'll have other spare ports to use.

What model camera would you recommend for internal storage as well as on the server/NVR?
Nowadays, I stick with HikVision. That brand seems to have the best video quality and some of them have internal micro SD storage. As far as server/NVR storage, it depends on what you want to use.

Will I be able to use my phone to access and monitor each camera? Is there a recommended application? I figure I can open ports to access them directly, but would prefer software I can manage from my mobile devices...
At this time, I am personally using BlueIris. Other people may have better recommendations, as I'm no expert in camera softwares.

If I were to do continuous recording at high resolutions, what space am I looking at per camera for a 30 day retention?
This depends on a variety of factors (FPS, bitrate, whether or not you're only recording video when there's movement, additional video quality settings, video format - mp4, avi, etc..., whether the camera has ability to record sound, etc...). Each camera can be individually configured for different video quality settings and it also depends on whether or not the camera has the ability to record sounds. For my home network, I have all IP cameras between 20-25 FPS and to record only when there's either 1) movement on the screen 2) whenever something or someone enters the configured hot zone. For a 60 day retention rate, each of my IP cams utilizes between 260-300 gigs of storage for a mp4 format video. It's always a good idea to budget additional storage for each camera.

Am I only needing one PC if I'm doing continuous recording off of 20+ cameras?
For 20+ cameras, you're going to need a very fast computer if you want to record decent video quality. There's so many different factors that come into play, so it's best to add one camera at a time and check the CPU usage & memory usage. I would personally not exceed more than 80% of CPU or RAM. Also, be sure to disable automatic Windows updates. The last thing you want is the computer to automatically download updates and reboot itself.

Are the cable lengths limited?
I personally would follow the 100 meter cable limit. If you know you're going to be running really long cables, either switch to fiber optic and use a fiber media converter or strategically place your PoE switches closer to the IP cameras.

Can I make my own? Cat5/5e/6 ? which ends to terminate with? I've seen Revo which terminate in a RJ12
I personally recommend making your own CAT6 cable. I have CAT6 cables running throughout my home and CAT6 ensures you have plenty of room for expansion in the future. I bought 2x 1000 ft CAT6 network cable and by doing this, I can cut the cables to the exact length I need and terminate one end to a patch panel and the other directly to an RJ45 wall outlet or to the IP camera itself.
 
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