starting out

[e-boy]

Hi All,
This is my first post and guess this type of question has been asked many times before, so appolgies to start with.
I am confident with analouge CCTV but am now interested with the IP megapixel possabilities but not having any experiance am looking for some guidance. I will understand better if I set a scenario, so if I wanted to install say 20 megapixel cameras all wired back separatly in cat5 using POE what next? Do they go to a switch and one computer running a program like g01984 I have read here about or should they go to a dediacted recorder? What sizes and specs are we talking about? If anyone can give suggestions I would be greatfull.
Cheers,
e-boy

 

[Phil]

Hello e-boy, thanks for dropping by.

Yes, it is essentially as you say.

IP CCTV cameras are Network Cameras. They sit on your network and you record them to a hard disc.

That hard disc can be local to the camera - look at models such as the Sanyo VCC-HD4000 with its dedicated locally attached hard disc caddy.

The hard disc storage might be in a dedicated Network Video Recorder (NVR) such as the Wavestore units.

Or you may choose to run software on a PC attached to the network and record to the drives in that PC.

Or even to just use Network Attached Storage (NAS) which is effectively just drives in a box (on the network) which your cameras can write their video to directly and you can then access from a networked PC to check the footage. NAS is getting cheaper all the time and is popular with small businesses and homeowners (and folk with holiday homes that they'd like to monitor remotely) because you don't have to leave a Windows PC running continuously at the camera site.

And, of course, there's the option of recording to flash cards e.g. via an SD card slot in the camera - once again you access the video via the network.

Regarding the network, this can be:

• Your Local Area Network (LAN)
• Your Wide Area Network (WAN)
• Or the internet
• Potentially, any images, from any place, and any time, to any other place ...

So, that's a simple overview of the kind of network connected-ness of the cameras and storage.

Interesting that you hit the ground big-style by giving the example of twenty megapixel cameras - you must have a big house!

So, if you need that many cameras on a network, and want to record a few images each second from each camera, then you need to think seriously about network bandwidth usage (all those images appear as many megabytes of data streaming around your network) and about storage provision (you might need many Terabytes to keep video of the quality you would like for the period of time that you'd like).

The best thing to do to get a handle on how much bandwidth and how much storage is to trial the JVSG calculator software and test some examples.

The good news is that hard discs and gigabit networks are 'cheap as chips'

Please feel free to ask for further clarification on any details ...

 

[e-boy]

Thanks for the reply Phil.
I have just had a look at the calculator, for example a 4 mega camera running at 12fps with 20x cameras I would need 898 Mbits/s.
What spec of computer and equipment does this require? Does it mean a normal 1 gig network would work?
e-boy

 

[Phil]

Theoretically a gigabit network will allow 1,000 Mbps - see wikipedia for details
NB this link takes you directly to the details on 1000BASE-T which applies to gigabit over copper cable specs and is probably therefore the most relevant.

However, in the real world, you are unlikely to achieve this (managing 20 megapixel camera setup you describe) with any stability with an ordinary PC.

An ordinary PC with gigabit networking will probably be fine for most user's system growth up to about eight cameras (there are, as you saw from the calculator, many variables).

IMHO the first variable to adjust, in order to allow your 'ordinary PC' to cope, is the video frame rate. For many years with analogue CCTV, multiplexers, and VCRs the best frame rate we could deliver for all the connected cameras was 6 frames per second e.g. total for the system, not per camera.

Of course, the term 'ordinary PC' is not very scientific in itself, and it is possible to put together PCs with fantastic specs now.

Dedicated NVRs (Network Video Recorders) would have at least two gigabit ports (that's two ports), which allows some degree of sharing of network bandwidth (effectively you can connect to two networks at the same time, both being load balanced to not have too many cameras connected). Bear in mind that this CCTV workstation is unlikely to be an isolated box i.e. you'll probably also want to allow bandwidth capacity for other users (clients) to connect to it and access its live and recorded images.

Of course, it's not just a matter of getting all that data across the network and into the box, it then needs to be processed, displayed, stored ... So the box needs to be up to that job too e.g. bus speeds, memory speeds, disk access & write speeds ...

Take a look at the datasheet specs for these souped-up rack-mount IPCCTV Recording PCs to get an idea of the components and specifications required.

As a guide, those boxes will run from about £1,600 to well over £5,000.

There are many ways of skinning this cat, key to achieving a solution which meets your requirement well is our old friend 'The Operational Requirement' - what exactly are you trying to achieve!? You need to know your end goal before starting out.

Most people contemplating a self-design/install do not have twenty megapixel cameras on their expected growth plan.

Therefore, they start off with a good spec PC, a gigabit network, suitable CCTV software, a terabyte of HDD storage in the box, and a few IP CCTV cameras ... all according to budgets and scale of issues being addressed ...

If you also bear in mind the basic cat5 cable length limitation of 100m, it's quite common to have zones of multiple cameras recording to one local PC replicated multiple times across a large site.

Hope that helps a little, feel free to pursue any details ...

 

[e-boy]

I have looked at the Wavestore NVRs I like the idea that they take both analogue and IP cameras allowing a process of upgrading to happen. Plus they have software and hardware straight out the box!
On another note are there any companies doing dedicated training courses for IP-CCTV that you know of? I see manufactures do dedicated courses for their equipment but wonderd if there was something to cover a more encompassing approach?

 

[Phil]

I'm happy to recommend Tavcom for IPCCTV Training Courses.

I've done several courses with them over the years, they specialise in security training and are very knowledgeable and professional.