Advice on a new set up please

[Gjw19]

Hi guys

I would very much appreciate your advice and suggestions please.
I’ve currently got a 9 camera analogue system which is ‘just’ ok but dated compared to some of the features available now.
My biggest issue is that it uses shotgun cable and I have 9 x sets of cable thread down a cavity and into a spare room before being powered and connected to the back of the NVR.
It’s a lot of cable and a lot of individual plugs.

I’m therefore wanting to upgrade to IP cameras but don’t want all of the cables in the spare room.

I’m looking at increasing the cameras to 13, so would look at a 16 channel NVR.
I’m wanting something that will record for 3+weeks before recording over, so an NVR with card capable of that.
The longest and widest field of view will be 20m long by 12m. All of the other areas will be less.
I’m wanting a decent image regarding MP but don’t need the best/most expensive.
It’s been suggested that in order to avoid all of the cables coming into the spare room is to have a POE switch in the loft, with all of the cameras plugged into that and just have the leads from that to the NVR and router in the spare room.
I’d like the NVR and TV monitor in the spare room so that it can be viewed easily.
I’d welcome any suggestions for the above system as I’m getting a bit lost.

Is the above set up possible?
Or is there a better way of doing it?
Regarding the POE switch, am I right in that it needs mains power?
Can one cable connected between the POE switch and the NVR cover the 13 cameras?
Will power be supplied to all 13 cameras all of the time? (Which is what I want. I don’t want to have to select cameras that need power)
thank you in advance
Gavin

 

[Dan]

Hi @Gjw19

For the NVR we would recommend the DS-7616NI-I2/16P 16-Channel NVR and if all 13 cameras are going to be outdoors we would recommend the DS-2CD2346G2-IU 4MP AcuSense Turret camera with Built-in Microphone

For the larger 20m area we would probably recommend the 4mm as the space is long but quite narrow at 12m, for all the other positions that are covering areas smaller than 20m we would stick with the 2.8mm as it will give you the widest FoV over the shortest distances.

If you want to record 13 x 4MP cameras continuously for 3 weeks you will need around 12TB (this is actually more than enough but will leave you extra space for the 3 remaining channels you may use in the future and the potential that you may upgrade some cameras in the future), the HDD we recommend are Western Digital Purple Surveillance HDDs which are available in sizes from 1-14TB and because the 7616 NVR has 2 HDD bays you can either use 1 x 12TB or 2 x 6TB to reach the recommended capacity.

The NVR features an HDMI & VGA output for connecting direct monitor for local access.

The PoE switch setup you describe is exactly what we would recommend anyone creating a system larger than 8 cameras does because it just makes the system look tidier and makes it easier to manage camera-specific settings. You can find a variety of different PoE switch options here

The PoE switch will need mains power and it may be possible to directly connect the switch to the NVR but with this many cameras, we would recommend connecting the switch to your router and then add each camera to the NVR over your local network with their individual IP addresses.

Each of the 2346G2 cameras I have recommended above use a max. 6.8W of PoE, so as long as you have a PoE switch with a PoE budget of 90W or greater you should be fine to power all those cameras all the time. Just as an example if you look at the datasheet for this Zyxel 16-port PoE switch you will see it has a PoE budget of 170W.

 

[Gjw19]

Thanks Dan

Is there a big difference in cost between the 4MP camera and an 8MP camera that you have suggested?
And by having some larger MP camera's, would the NVR be able to manage or would this need to be a different model?

 

[Dan]

The equivalent 8MP turret (DS-2CD2386G2-IU) is roughly £60 more expensive per camera than the 4MP model, the 16-channel I-series NVR will manage this many 8MP cameras but to maintain the 3-week continuous storage you would need to increase the capacity of your HDDs to around 35-40TB.

That capacity is obviously not achievable with a 2 HDD bay NVR and so you would need to scale up to the DS-7716NI-I4/16P 16-channel NVR which has 4 HDD bays, the bigger NVR is roughly £130 more expensive than the 7616NI-I2

Personally, we would say that for the distances and areas you want to cover the 4MP cameras will be more than enough. If you are considering a mix of resolutions (e.g. 6 x 8MP / 7 x 4MP) then we would recommend taking a look at the Western Digital Capacity Calculator which will help you work out the total capacity required to record any combination of cameras.