How can a simple NVR from Unifi handle AI on 16 cameras simultaneously just by buying 16 x $200 = $3200 in licenses. Isn't there a hardware bottleneck?
it's messy where do the 16 devices go?
it's messy where do the 16 devices go?
Which NVR to upgrade with from Hikvision
- Thread starter blocksog
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I have that model. Works well. However, I can only get 8 channels at 4K and that is with 15fps.
Thanks for letting me know. I am within the return window and need to make a decision within a couple of weeks. I am really starting to buy into this Unifi NVR. Just watched a bunch of videos and might be a good idea.
@Ookie thanks for your help. Can you clarify a few things for me please:
- I guess I would need a PoE switch to plug in all the cameras and then connect the switch to the UNVR, right? Would any PoE switch work or does it need to be Unifi, too?
- Can you do any sort of search on recordings from third party cameras, like smart search of an area, vehicles passing, or anything at all? Are you relying only on the AI Port to detect any events at all? Losing all the events and just having continuous recording seems like a bad solution.
- Are you keeping the cameras in the same home LAN? Do you know a way to keep the cameras in a separate LAN like Hikvision does?
- With Hikvision, I "jailed" the NVR within the home network and connect to it only after I VPN to the home router. Do you know if it is possible to ban all internet connections of the UNVR and still connect to it locally (after VPNing at home)? Just in case I don't want a company to be in between the connection to my NVR.
I am almost convinced to fire up an order but will see a few more videos. The Unifi ecosystem is filled with names and people just drop model names in videos without explaining what those things are. Many Unify devices are hybrids that serve multiple traditional purposes.
No need for Ubiquti switch. Any PoE switch is fine.
At this point, the NVR cannot recognize events of any type created the cameras themselves--either AI or tradition motion detection. That said, the AI Port also does traditional motion detection for each camera as well. There is no downside here.
Segmenting cameras into a separate sandbox (read: creating a VLAN) is a router function, not an NVR function. And traffic to the internet zone for that VLAM can be disabled.
Yes, it is possible to connect to the NVR via local IP. That said, I'm not sure why you would do this. The product is made by an American company, not the PRC.
Is it perfect? No. But the trade offs are well worth it to be able to use a modern interface that is incredible intuitive.
At this point, the NVR cannot recognize events of any type created the cameras themselves--either AI or tradition motion detection. That said, the AI Port also does traditional motion detection for each camera as well. There is no downside here.
Segmenting cameras into a separate sandbox (read: creating a VLAN) is a router function, not an NVR function. And traffic to the internet zone for that VLAM can be disabled.
Yes, it is possible to connect to the NVR via local IP. That said, I'm not sure why you would do this. The product is made by an American company, not the PRC.
Is it perfect? No. But the trade offs are well worth it to be able to use a modern interface that is incredible intuitive.
A small update. I found out that Synology is making an NVR with some AI capability. I already have a Synology NAS and I am a bit familiar with Surveillance Station. So I am starting to consider to get their 2 bay NVR for now. Any thoughts are welcome. This is the Synology NVR:
Amazon.com (only drawback is it comes with only 8 camera license, needs more money to bring it to 16)
Amazon.com (only drawback is it comes with only 8 camera license, needs more money to bring it to 16)
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That's a bit odd, what is stopping you running more and what bitrate have you set them up to?
I've got four running on my old DS-7608NI-I2/8P, the problem being the 10Mbps max on each channel limits the image quality. (I don't know if it will run more than four, as that's all I have.)
Ok folks, here is an update on what I tried and what I upgraded with.
Synology DVA1622:
This turned out to be useless. It has some AI features, but there are only two threads (they call them tasks), so only two cameras can benefit from AI. On top of this, turns out that the bandwidth of this NVR is worse than my 5 year old Synology 918+, so upgrading to 4K cameras in the future may be a problem. Then it came the nightmare of networking. The DVA1622 has only a single port, which means it is not easy to put the cameras on a separate subnet or VLAN without internet access. I had to connect the home LAN to a router, and manage the DHCP and the camera network from that router. It is very dumb to make a dedicated NVR device with a single ethernet port when most Synology NASes have two ports.
My existing Synology 918+ (final choice)
Since I have better features with my 918+ (minus AI, of course), I simply turned that into my NVR. Put a nice 8Tb WD Purple drive dedicated to Surveillance Station with ext4 filesystem, and added the cameras one by one. The 918+ has two ethernet ports, so I connect one to the camera network and the other to the home network. Easy peasy, no router needed in between. The NAS can run DHCP and VPN servers too (if I want to connect to the camera network to manage the cameras). I have used Surveillance System occasionally for several years, and never had problems with it, but I thought my NAS was too slow to handle many cameras. That's until I saw the specs of the DVA1622 which is worse.
As for the camera licenses, Synology wants $50 for each camera you connect. For the DVA1622 for example, they want $600 for the device and $400 for licenses to allow you to use 16 cameras, $1000 total. Seriously!? There are other solutions to the problem, thanks to github.
NVR solved. Now I am open to any camera brand, no restrictions anymore. Anyone can suggest what cameras should I upgrade with? I found a list of cameras recommended by @wittaj although it's a bit old: Reolink CX410
@Ookie , you were talking about some good Dahua cameras if I remember well.
Myself, I like the idea of ColorVU (or hybrid).
Appreciate your input.
Synology DVA1622:
This turned out to be useless. It has some AI features, but there are only two threads (they call them tasks), so only two cameras can benefit from AI. On top of this, turns out that the bandwidth of this NVR is worse than my 5 year old Synology 918+, so upgrading to 4K cameras in the future may be a problem. Then it came the nightmare of networking. The DVA1622 has only a single port, which means it is not easy to put the cameras on a separate subnet or VLAN without internet access. I had to connect the home LAN to a router, and manage the DHCP and the camera network from that router. It is very dumb to make a dedicated NVR device with a single ethernet port when most Synology NASes have two ports.
My existing Synology 918+ (final choice)
Since I have better features with my 918+ (minus AI, of course), I simply turned that into my NVR. Put a nice 8Tb WD Purple drive dedicated to Surveillance Station with ext4 filesystem, and added the cameras one by one. The 918+ has two ethernet ports, so I connect one to the camera network and the other to the home network. Easy peasy, no router needed in between. The NAS can run DHCP and VPN servers too (if I want to connect to the camera network to manage the cameras). I have used Surveillance System occasionally for several years, and never had problems with it, but I thought my NAS was too slow to handle many cameras. That's until I saw the specs of the DVA1622 which is worse.
As for the camera licenses, Synology wants $50 for each camera you connect. For the DVA1622 for example, they want $600 for the device and $400 for licenses to allow you to use 16 cameras, $1000 total. Seriously!? There are other solutions to the problem, thanks to github.
NVR solved. Now I am open to any camera brand, no restrictions anymore. Anyone can suggest what cameras should I upgrade with? I found a list of cameras recommended by @wittaj although it's a bit old: Reolink CX410
@Ookie , you were talking about some good Dahua cameras if I remember well.
Myself, I like the idea of ColorVU (or hybrid).
Appreciate your input.
This is your thread, so it is fine here.
Here is the thread with the most recent recommended cameras. Even though the post date is older, you will notice the edit date is recent as it is updated as new cameras become available
Here is the thread with the most recent recommended cameras. Even though the post date is older, you will notice the edit date is recent as it is updated as new cameras become available
