Some questions regard a recording PC and setup.

[dnfv]

Hello,

So after two recent smaller breakins in our fairly small company my employer asked me if i could install some IP Camera's in/outside of our building that records the premises.

As of right now we are using 4 foscam camera's connected to a POE+ Switch which are setup and recorded through Foscam's VMS Software and saved onto a local 2TB hard drive on that system.
That specific system (Pentium if i recall correctly) is fairly weak in processing power and already starts to struggle with encoding the video footage and in addition i already have 3 more IP Cams
lying around and plans to add more camera's in the near future so a upgrade to our main recording system is necessary.

What would be a recommended system for upto 16 Full-HD IP Cameras?
Does it make more sense to invest in a more powerful graphics card paired with a mid range CPU and encode everything through a GPU encoder f.e. NvEnc?

Also we would like to have some camera's visible on multiple systems, f.e. the camera that records loading ramp on the system that is placed in our warehouse or the entrance cam in the office.
Is it possible to actually encode the stream on the main recording system and forward it to other systems in the network using a software like Blue Iris or similar?

Also any general advice is appreciated.

 

[TonyR]

Does it make more sense to invest in a more powerful graphics card paired with a mid range CPU and encode everything through a GPU encoder f.e. NvEnc?

Welcome to IPCT!

If you have not done so already I suggest you read the Wiki up at the top and the Cliff Notes found in there.

Being a Blue Iris ("BI") user, I lean toward it instead of a NVR. I'd obtain a PC (refurb if possible) that conforms to or exceeds these minimum specifications, set it up to optimize BI's performance.

Perform a fresh install of Windows 10 using the Media Creation Tool on a SSD that will contain the BI program and BI's "db" (database) folder and install a 4TB surveillance-rated HDD, such as a WD Purple, for BI's video clips.

Is it possible to actually encode the stream on the main recording system and forward it to other systems in the network using a software like Blue Iris or similar?

Using a browser, designated network users could log into to BI's built-in web server, called UI3, to view cameras and/or clips; each user can be tailored as to length of viewing, which cams or clips they can view, bandwidth used, etc. No special software on their PC needed, just a browser (Chrome recommended).

 

[crw030]

And worth trying out is Blue Iris 5 SUBSTREAMS feature, which is quite good now and should drastically reduce the power/GPU requirements you need to run your recording PC (Blue Iris NVR). Support would primarily be these forums or direct to the developer but allow a few days for him to get bacK to you.

If you want to go with something more commercial, look for some of @fenderman’s recommendations around commercial software with support that can handle even more cameras, is more efficient and you would have dedicated support.

Example (but there are many): Commercial Setup

 

[dnfv]

If you have not done so already I suggest you read the Wiki up at the top and the Cliff Notes found in there.

Being a Blue Iris ("BI") user, I lean toward it instead of a NVR. I'd obtain a PC (refurb if possible) that conforms to or exceeds these minimum specifications, set it up to optimize BI's performance.

Perform a fresh install of Windows 10 using the Media Creation Tool on a SSD that will contain the BI program and BI's "db" (database) folder and install a 4TB surveillance-rated HDD, such as a WD Purple, for BI's video clips.


Using a browser, designated network users could log into to BI's built-in web server, called UI3, to view cameras and/or clips; each user can be tailored as to length of viewing, which cams or clips they can view, bandwidth used, etc. No special software on their PC needed, just a browser (Chrome recommended).

We might have a older Ryzen 1700 8 Core 16 Thread CPU + 16GB Ram and a GTX 1070 lying around, that might be enough for the job

.

And worth trying out is Blue Iris 5 SUBSTREAMS feature, which is quite good now and should drastically reduce the power/you requirements you need to run your recording PC (Blue Iris NVR). Support would primarily be these forums or direct to the developer but allow a few days for him to get bacK to you.

If you want to go with something more commercial, look for some of @fenderman’s recommendations around commercial software with support that can handle even more cameras, is more efficient and you would have dedicated support.

Example (but there are many): Commercial Setup

I mean according to what i've read online BI can handle 64 Cam's, i highly doubt we'll be going over 16-24 even if our POE Network could handle upto 48.

 

[TonyR]

We might have a older Ryzen 1700 8 Core 16 Thread CPU + 16GB Ram and a GTX 1070 lying around, that might be enough for the job

Since the Ryzen doesn't have the QuickSync hardware video acceleration of certain Intel CPUs, I think the outboard GTX1070 would perform that task and be sufficient (I think),