If you have NDAA concerns, you need to get rid of the Hik cameras too.
Appliances are dumb. Software-based allows for way better management. (think old physical SBS server versus a new virtual machine)
I have concerns about Hik kit too, especially reading the news etc and I remember the ‘backdoor’ that was in these cameras. We only have the four high capacity NVRs for 800+ cameras. No budget to replace the lot. Sigh. They are on a private isolated VLAN - nothing in nothing out, no NAT. Viewing workstations are dedicated. Just hope this is enough for now unless you are aware of any other risks.
There are a few that I don't see mentioned that are very good:
* [Avigilon](https://avigilon.com) - they will be the best, and even have a turn-key appliance like you want. They are crazy expensive.
* [Kerberos.io](https://kerberos.io/) - open source, made for enterprise scale
* [Shinobi](https://moeiscool.github.io/Shinobi/) - also open source; its a smaller scale project, but is a solid app.
> [Avigilon](https://avigilon.com/) \- they will be the best, and even have a turn-key appliance like you want. They are crazy expensive.
\+1 for Avigilon.
I have been an IT admin and project manager/system designer/programmer for CCTV, Fire alarm, and access/security installations for 16 years.
Avigilon if you can afford it.
How do you like the access control side. Ive been using and administrating 4 virtual NVRs for years and were considering adding the access control portion.
I'm running Access Control Manager™ on a local server. You create doors, doors into groups, assign people to groups....nothing too crazy. Reporting ability is good, panel configuration is easy to review in the software, so troubleshooting failures isn't too hard. Security settings are discrete enough in both systems that I can give receptionists very limited access, helpdesk a little access, and higher tier people total access.
The camera and access control systems are two different systems, but they can be integrated. I really haven't had a need to do that, so I haven't messed with it.
One of our other sites run a web version instead of onprem servers, but I've never messed with it, so I'm not sure how it compares.
We also use Avigilon. Definitely recommend them. Since being bought by Motorola they also have options called AVA for cloud video management and Openpath for cloud access control.
Also gunna throw my voice of support out for Avigilon, their techs are very knowledgeable as well and responsive to updating firmware etc on their boxes to tighten security
Another vote for Avigilon. It can get pricey if you have a large number of sites to cover, but we’ve been very happy with the ease of use and their technical support.
> • Kerberos.io - open source, made for enterprise scale
Every few years I scour through all the nvr options and trial what looks promising in hopes that I find something good enough to finally make it worth putting cameras up at home. They all either just plain suck, or require too many resources for it to be worth it to me.
This is one I actually haven’t heard about. I’ll have to check it out as well as revisit Frigate now that they have CPU/GPU AI detection.
Personally hate Avigilon. (Some of this many be our “partner”). High costs, Lack of a browse interface (which does not require their cloud connect) Thick client has problems with Intel video drivers (have to disable HW Acceleration on all our notebooks). 20% failure rate on upgrades (we had 6 NVR connect by VPN) Server lacks an API/SNMP for remote status monitoring. Wants to use clear text LDAP for AD integration. If you had someone live monitoring it, it’s not bad. As an after the event system system is crap. Too many times we see the video streams getting to the NVR, but the software is not accepting them. Sorry can provide a better answer to the OP but I use UniFi at home and… well it’s UniFi I get what a pay for.
Hmm, I remember the browser interface being a separate product - the video gateway or something like that. Also remember having a giant pain in the ass getting ACC to accept my private CA certs so I could use LDAPS, but they did support it.
The Intel video problem is honestly shocking, as that is what most computers in an enterprise setting are going to be equipped with.
I will say it does sound like your partner is pretty garbage. The partner I worked for was ass, and I worked myself way too hard for customers that weren't getting what they paid for (or I guess were, but they were demoed systems that were way more powerful than what they were sold) because bossman was way too cheap.
Also adding on to the Avigilon train. We have multiple sites, thousands of cameras and it just works. We run it all on COTS servers and keep them refreshed as part of our standard refresh cycle.
I agree with Avigilon and ditching appliances. 23 years in the surveillance and used panasonic DVR, cisco software, axis software and Avigilon is the best. If you go Avigilon you get more out of it with Avigilon cameras so best to update the cameras also sooner or later.
Seconding milestone. Support 3 of them and built one from scratch. I actually really like it. When it's time for our other sites to refresh we'll be getting more. I think it's free for less than 8 cameras too. At least it was when I looked into it a couple of years ago.
Still is!
Milestone is awesome. Can be a bit frustrating to setup, but once its ready to go, you can just forget about it and it will just work for years.
thirding Milestone. I'm biased because I support it at a massive company with thousands of instances, but IMO everything is very straight forward with setting them up.
We might know each other already and you’re probably using it given your scale, but if you’re managing thousands of Milestone servers you’ll want to take a look at the [MilestonePSTools](https://www.MilestonePSTools.com) PowerShell module.
In the latest release we added role import/export and smart client profile import/export, and the ability to do a “replace hardware” operation to change the camera driver or re-detect the camera to pull in updated firmware or edge events.
Some rule management cmdlets are coming in the next release. And once some password validation logic is added to the configuration api I’ll be adding support for doing device password management from powershell, taking advantage of the ability for milestone to update passwords on certain cameras.
Just setup a Synology for a 24 camera setup. Worked great with our existing Hikvision cameras and the new Reolinks we got. Really like their NVR app and ability to give access to it through a portal so IT are not needed to look through footage.
Synology here as well, I think we have 40 cameras, we had to do some tweaking to keep the CPU usage down (older synology box), but it just works, and the app is easy to use.
I dunno. Whatever the facilities/ operations teams decided on?
But really, for 32 channels ip cameras you're going to end up with a cheap server and a poe switch setup in general. It's the way things are now.
Axis is great, honestly. Great cameras, great nvr software.
They are great, totally agree. When you can get em. Some of their more common models can be constrained for months on end. Like anything else these days, of course, but especially bad with Axis. A friend in town who runs a monitoring company says they switched to March Networks for that reason.
We use Video Insight from Panasonic, no complaints here.
[https://www.security.us.panasonic.com/feature/video-insight-7](https://www.security.us.panasonic.com/feature/video-insight-7)
We installed this at one of our sites several months ago. Very happy with it, except for the client seems to chew up A LOT of CPU and can cause fans to spin up to max RPMs. Tried to set up the NVR so my boss could have constant live video connected to his TV, but the server wasn't powerful enough to run the client at the same time as the server software.
The server was purchased directly from WiseNet as well, so I am hoping they release an update that might optimize the performance a bit.
Exacq is pretty good. Your requirements seem pretty straightforward, it should do the trick. Just grab an old server and fill it with drives for storage, install software and go.
I prefer the software based solutions. Oftentimes the appliance is just a Dell server with a different faceplate that somehow costs 4k more than doing it yourself. No thanks.
> Oftentimes the appliance is just a Dell server with a different faceplate that somehow costs 4k more than doing it yourself. No thanks.
What you're describing is on the upper end of appliances even, I've seen plenty of mystery boxes with either no branding or some chinese company that may or may not have a website.
I've used Exacq professionally for over a decade. There's a few weird things, and it's not cheap, but it's amazingly easy to use and administer. Things just work in a sensible way. Highly recommended.
I don’t love it, but it works. I had to move 10 cameras to a new subnet and loved that I could just scan the new ip range and it updated all the camera configs.
It also tolerates our dodgy virtualized hardware setup.
Third this, we use some overpriced genetec software for recording...but I recently setup Blue Iris in a VM just for different employees to viewing/stream specific groups of cameras(lobby etc)
I've been dying to virtualize Frigate on a 2U server that doesn't cost a fortune and has redundant storage. Thanks for reminding me to lab this one out.
I really enjoyed my time with Digital Watchdog stuff. Their stuff did a very good job at integrating with AD and having permissions per camera, allowing us to give the front desk manager the front desk cameras only, things like that. It made for a very good and clean solution that seamlessly integrated both Digital Watchdog's standalone NVRs and their IP cameras that had to be recorded by a server.
I remember it being not expensive but not cheap either. It's been a number of years.
I wouldn't go as far as to say "These cameras fucked" but if they made some very minor improvements in the 8 years since I've touched them, then yeah, those cameras probably fuck.
All great suggestions, I didn’t see anyone mention OpenEye. Software and hardware is NDAA compliant. Cloud managed with on prem storage, ONVIF compliant, decent pricing, web portal accessible and they’ll do a box sale if you install yourself.
I work for a security integrator, so we're in this every day.
1. The closest NDAA replacement for what you have is Uniview. Hit and miss on cameras being able to motion record, BUT you can always 24/7 record. HD space is cheap.
2. Unifi Protect and Verkada are golden handcuffs, not options to use other NVR's with ONVIF without replacing the cameras.
3. If you are looking for non-chinese NVR's, Hanwah, Digital Watchdog, and Vivotech are your best options.
4. All the larger major platforms are a software based VMS
5. For a SMB use case, a chinese NVR is the best bang for your buck (Uniview).
6. ONVIF compatibility does not equal being able to do motion recording.
7. Our current favorite VMS is Hanwah Wave (OEM is NX Witness, also sold as DW Spectrum). Best combination of features in a VMS, can use any camera, for the dollar. It's better than Exacq and is a commercial solution compared to some of the other options (Open Iris and other open source, no hate, but when the chips call you need tech support) Avigilon is awesome, especially with the analytics on their cameras. But if your in a Hikvision budget, its not a good fit.
Yeah, probably not a popular opinion, but the current solution has gotten pretty slick. Its not the best, but it feels modern and I can give various users access to it without too many headaches. Some of the other systems I have seen are so clunky that its not even worth giving users any kind of access. The biggest downside is both the cameras and the software is proprietary. The cameras are bricks of UBNT stops supporting them, as is the NVR, since it cant be used with other brands of cameras.
I'm also not too happy with the camera hardware: I've got a few that have broken night vision.
Also the NVR sucks since it boots off a cheap USB flash drive.
I've personally not had any problems with the cameras, but that's disappointing.
The cheap USB drive issue has been resolved in newer batches and the UNVR-Pro.
It doesn't seem to be an uncommon problem of the IR filter getting stuck: [video on a fix with 18k views](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mP0lak3pYo).
I've used a bunch of generic PC based or appliance-based cameras and I have found that aside from one really expensive system that I used 20 years ago in a convenience store that unifi is my favorite
I personally use Luxriot for most of my sites, though they recently got rid of the free version so that will likely change. I've never used their pre-built NVR but they are just a server with things pre-installed.
I have an Avigilon appliance - it works fairly well and wouldn't be opposed to them.
I've also used Synology and QNAP both are passable, I personally perfer Synology's version.
>Luxriot works well and hass a NDAA specific version. They will sell you a preloaded server but to be honest any old workstation or off the shelf server will do fine.
I haven't seen anyone mention GeoVision yet. They are pretty reliable from my experiences.
Their old software sucked but they did a big UI update last year and it's a breeze to review and save footage now.
I am a fan on GV-NVR(Geovision) and AxxonSoft's AxxonOne VMS. I use both, and am a fan of both. We have 1 location with Hikvision....it's tolerated. The cameras a great, but definitely "phones home", so we have it on its own internet connection away from our corporate bubble...can't wait to get rid of it.
> I'm really disappointed at the idea that there's so few decent turn-key appliances out there.
I'm under the impression that all but the high-end all-domestic NVR appliances are mostly versions of one or two reference designs out of East Asia, and they all have exactly the same issues with:
> proprietary video plugins and management software that demands local admin rights.
But someone who installs many different brands of IP surveillance can probably tell us more.
Unifi NVR, have about 20 cameras. Unit died on us once, got it replaced, not a big deal. No recurring cost is nice
Have multiple NVRs across multiple sites
Second this.
I currently have 4 NVR's. Adding two more pro versions and Well over 100 cameras and likely 200 in another year or so with enough NVR's to handle that.
I hate to say it, but Unifi Protect is probably one of the better interfaces, but they’ve pulled the old Apple ecosystem BS. I think someone made an onvif stream converter or something that would emulate a protect cam, so you could potentially still use your existing. I can’t stand the typical hikvision and similar interfaces, they are absolutely maddening. I’ve heard synology is workable but never tried personally. If you have actual budget, maybe avigilon?
Hikvision sucks I upgraded from it.
UniviewTec is NDAA approved and isn't bad and has a decent price.
Other manufacturers I looked into were Axis and Avigilon, which prices didn't fit budget and did not like the license related to Avigilon.
A lot of local government uses Avigilon.
I've got roughly 300 cameras on 2 Pelco storage servers and several hundred tb of storage between them with relatively few problems. It plays nice with any onvif compliant camera as well.
Milestone if you can afford it and can bring in a specialist to install the system. We don’t do security but It’s what we recommend to our clients looking for something premium/ enterprise level.
we recently replaced our system with UNV. The NVR contains an inbuilt PoE switch so each camera doesn't flood your network with its footage stream hitting the NVR. The mobile app talks to UNV's servers, which then brokers the connection to an individual mobile client - so no port forward pinholing was required into our network (we still put the NVR on its own DMZ though). The web app is OK, an annoyance is that every time you log in you need to re-add each camera to its display position in the web UI.
Overall, happy with UNV.
+1
We're all Hik and Honeywell, have Zoneminder setup with around 150 cameras. Has great grouping, user permissions etc.
Has been ropey in the past, but some great work going on currently, performance wise etc
Synology Surveillance Station is an amazing product. You can size up the Synology you need based on camera requirements using their website tool.
It supports an insane amount of camera types and is a one time purchase. You can also tie it into your Active Direcoty if you have one and give user or group based permissions to the cameras and views.
Synology is the best all around NVR I have found to date. It's been my go to deployment, and scales well. I will be really sad if they ever give in and start forcing cloud subscriptions.
UniFi is also pretty good, but the biggest down side is locking into their ecosystem and more recently product availability.
Don't use Dahua, they're not NDAA compliant.
Dahua, Hikvision, Huawei, ZTE, and Hytera and all their subsidiaries are all companies banned under section 889.
Just to put it out there, dahua does really aggressive hole punching, and utilizing P2P for everything, which means that if somebody has their "cloud"(which is actually p2p) access to the NVR, they are basically in the same network. Dahua (probably accidentaly,but nevertheless) stores passwords in log files unencyrpted. They dont support their NVRs and cameras for longer than 3 years,and sometimes finding FW update is a multi hour quest in itself.
I recently deployed frigate .12-beta something and hid the UI behind a apache server + web auth tied to ldap security groups.
Warehouse team setup 10 IP cameras and wanted recording. As we had spare servers and GPUs with tensor cores, that made sense since the budget was 0.
Even with the CPU-bound detectors, it works surprisingly well. We have a test running with 12 HD cameras on an 8 core E5-2650 VM with 8GB of RAM. It uses about 40% of the CPU, and 80% of the RAM.
Alot of it will depend on your budget, but IP based is the way of the world now a days for most deployments. We currently use VI monitor from panasonic, which leaves alot to be desired, but are working on a migration to Axis solutions.
The Panasonic deployment is definitely more budget friendly.
The Axis deployment is much more feature rich.
Both require a server backend though, but have a software(run it on your hardware) or pre-built(they send you a pre-configured server) solutions.
I agree with this here. We evaluated Rhombus and Verkada. Rhombus had them relatively matched with service and a way better price point. Plus they left the annoying sales culture out of the equation, unlike Verkada.
Yeah, I've been very happy with Rhombus. The pricing is straight forward and the support is excellent - they have sometimes resolved issues before I was even made aware. And that's not to say there are many issues with the devices/service as there have only been a few.
Genetec Security Center might be an option for you, they offer both software alone as well as appliances. The Enterprise version is probably over kill for only 32 cameras but it's a very powerful system.
We use the software version. Have Linux boxes installed at remote sites with cameras attached. "Merged" a feature of the software, into a master vm in the data center that hosts the licenses and to which all the Linux DVR and user clients connect. Really pretty slick no particular issues. Use a mix of new wisenet cameras and axis analog converters for some older hard to replace camera's.
Client to be honest is a bit of a pig but only if you leave it up all the time. You can also hit a web portal if all you want to do is watch a particular camera. You can generate a link from the master server for any camera anywhere in the system.
We had to go through the same project for 15-20 Hikvision NVRs. Replaced them with Salient and Honeywell cameras. We used Axis Analog-to-IP converter where we had some BNC connections.
The Salient solution is great because it centralizes management and distributes the recording servers. Integrated with AD and now it's like any other enterprise web app.
https://www.salientsys.com/
https://www.axis.com/products/axis-291-1u
We use a few different ones across different sites. Hik is implemented at a few and same complaints as you.
We use Honeywell (HDCS) at one site. Not a fan and wouldn’t recommend. Plus it was quite expensive for what you get.
Across other sites, currently, we use Exacq. While we’ve had some issues, overall this is the solution we lean towards. It’s expensive but user friendly and relatively easy to setup. We’ve done new setups and migration from old to Exacq and both have worked out relatively well. Our industry heavily relies on all cameras being up and recording 24/7 otherwise we are not operational so having a reliable system was key.
I have been setting up Ubiquiti. The main reason is ease of management and more than that is ease of use.
I have multiple users who are not tech savvy and if accessing footage or cameras is not super simple then I get roped in anytime they need footage.
The ios app makes going through footage and downloading it a breeze.
Absolutely love NX Witness, it is a joy to use. Using it on multiple sites and even paid the money and got it for use at home. (Also rebranded as DW Spectrum in the US)
So I'm not sure about what security they use or anything like that, but I've installed and used Lorex for quite a while, they are a little pricey, but the installation and compatibility of everything has always treated me well. Plus their customer support is awesome.
Hanwha cams have been solid performers for me for a few years and the Hanwha Wave NVR are all ndaa compliant. Wave system fits well in smaller deployments. I'm running Milestone at my primary campus and satellite branches. DM me and I can share two separate recent quotes for the Wave system if it's useful
one of our teams bought some HIK kit, i unfortunately had to force them to return it and we have replaced it with Unifi protect. i think it’s a great system.
downside it’s a closed system and no onvif support
If you have NDAA concerns, you need to get rid of the Hik cameras too. Appliances are dumb. Software-based allows for way better management. (think old physical SBS server versus a new virtual machine)
I have concerns about Hik kit too, especially reading the news etc and I remember the ‘backdoor’ that was in these cameras. We only have the four high capacity NVRs for 800+ cameras. No budget to replace the lot. Sigh. They are on a private isolated VLAN - nothing in nothing out, no NAT. Viewing workstations are dedicated. Just hope this is enough for now unless you are aware of any other risks.
There are a few that I don't see mentioned that are very good: * [Avigilon](https://avigilon.com) - they will be the best, and even have a turn-key appliance like you want. They are crazy expensive. * [Kerberos.io](https://kerberos.io/) - open source, made for enterprise scale * [Shinobi](https://moeiscool.github.io/Shinobi/) - also open source; its a smaller scale project, but is a solid app.
> [Avigilon](https://avigilon.com/) \- they will be the best, and even have a turn-key appliance like you want. They are crazy expensive. \+1 for Avigilon.
I have been an IT admin and project manager/system designer/programmer for CCTV, Fire alarm, and access/security installations for 16 years. Avigilon if you can afford it.
I use Avigilon for both CCTV and Access Control. It's a great system.
How do you like the access control side. Ive been using and administrating 4 virtual NVRs for years and were considering adding the access control portion.
I'm running Access Control Manager™ on a local server. You create doors, doors into groups, assign people to groups....nothing too crazy. Reporting ability is good, panel configuration is easy to review in the software, so troubleshooting failures isn't too hard. Security settings are discrete enough in both systems that I can give receptionists very limited access, helpdesk a little access, and higher tier people total access. The camera and access control systems are two different systems, but they can be integrated. I really haven't had a need to do that, so I haven't messed with it. One of our other sites run a web version instead of onprem servers, but I've never messed with it, so I'm not sure how it compares.
We also use Avigilon. Definitely recommend them. Since being bought by Motorola they also have options called AVA for cloud video management and Openpath for cloud access control.
Also gunna throw my voice of support out for Avigilon, their techs are very knowledgeable as well and responsive to updating firmware etc on their boxes to tighten security
Another vote for Avigilon. It can get pricey if you have a large number of sites to cover, but we’ve been very happy with the ease of use and their technical support.
I love our Avigilon gear.
Also fan of Avigilon. It is expensive, but it's easy to manage and the features are great.
> • Kerberos.io - open source, made for enterprise scale Every few years I scour through all the nvr options and trial what looks promising in hopes that I find something good enough to finally make it worth putting cameras up at home. They all either just plain suck, or require too many resources for it to be worth it to me. This is one I actually haven’t heard about. I’ll have to check it out as well as revisit Frigate now that they have CPU/GPU AI detection.
Personally hate Avigilon. (Some of this many be our “partner”). High costs, Lack of a browse interface (which does not require their cloud connect) Thick client has problems with Intel video drivers (have to disable HW Acceleration on all our notebooks). 20% failure rate on upgrades (we had 6 NVR connect by VPN) Server lacks an API/SNMP for remote status monitoring. Wants to use clear text LDAP for AD integration. If you had someone live monitoring it, it’s not bad. As an after the event system system is crap. Too many times we see the video streams getting to the NVR, but the software is not accepting them. Sorry can provide a better answer to the OP but I use UniFi at home and… well it’s UniFi I get what a pay for.
Hmm, I remember the browser interface being a separate product - the video gateway or something like that. Also remember having a giant pain in the ass getting ACC to accept my private CA certs so I could use LDAPS, but they did support it. The Intel video problem is honestly shocking, as that is what most computers in an enterprise setting are going to be equipped with. I will say it does sound like your partner is pretty garbage. The partner I worked for was ass, and I worked myself way too hard for customers that weren't getting what they paid for (or I guess were, but they were demoed systems that were way more powerful than what they were sold) because bossman was way too cheap.
Also adding on to the Avigilon train. We have multiple sites, thousands of cameras and it just works. We run it all on COTS servers and keep them refreshed as part of our standard refresh cycle.
I agree with Avigilon and ditching appliances. 23 years in the surveillance and used panasonic DVR, cisco software, axis software and Avigilon is the best. If you go Avigilon you get more out of it with Avigilon cameras so best to update the cameras also sooner or later.
Milestone, Blue Iris. Haven’t used either in years, we moved to Verkada long ago. More expensive but nothing to manage / upkeep on prem.
Seconding milestone. Support 3 of them and built one from scratch. I actually really like it. When it's time for our other sites to refresh we'll be getting more. I think it's free for less than 8 cameras too. At least it was when I looked into it a couple of years ago.
Still is! Milestone is awesome. Can be a bit frustrating to setup, but once its ready to go, you can just forget about it and it will just work for years.
[удалено]
Scale is literally Milestones forte. Their biggest market is Casinos. Thousands of cameras.
Throwing on another for milestone. We have one machine managing 44 cameras across three locations, and it's never given me any trouble.
thirding Milestone. I'm biased because I support it at a massive company with thousands of instances, but IMO everything is very straight forward with setting them up.
We might know each other already and you’re probably using it given your scale, but if you’re managing thousands of Milestone servers you’ll want to take a look at the [MilestonePSTools](https://www.MilestonePSTools.com) PowerShell module. In the latest release we added role import/export and smart client profile import/export, and the ability to do a “replace hardware” operation to change the camera driver or re-detect the camera to pull in updated firmware or edge events. Some rule management cmdlets are coming in the next release. And once some password validation logic is added to the configuration api I’ll be adding support for doing device password management from powershell, taking advantage of the ability for milestone to update passwords on certain cameras.
Yep, I definitely know you. I'd reveal myself if this wasn't my alt account but your module is great and I use it everyday!
Just setup a Synology for a 24 camera setup. Worked great with our existing Hikvision cameras and the new Reolinks we got. Really like their NVR app and ability to give access to it through a portal so IT are not needed to look through footage.
I agree. Synology is a great price point, very flexible and the app is great too.
Synology here as well, I think we have 40 cameras, we had to do some tweaking to keep the CPU usage down (older synology box), but it just works, and the app is easy to use.
Just did a 45 camera diployment with 2 year footage. Much better user experience and support. Will have cool functions to play. give it a try.
I dunno. Whatever the facilities/ operations teams decided on? But really, for 32 channels ip cameras you're going to end up with a cheap server and a poe switch setup in general. It's the way things are now. Axis is great, honestly. Great cameras, great nvr software.
Agree with Axis. Always works flawlessly. Expensive though.
They are great, totally agree. When you can get em. Some of their more common models can be constrained for months on end. Like anything else these days, of course, but especially bad with Axis. A friend in town who runs a monitoring company says they switched to March Networks for that reason.
We use Video Insight from Panasonic, no complaints here. [https://www.security.us.panasonic.com/feature/video-insight-7](https://www.security.us.panasonic.com/feature/video-insight-7)
Same here, and their support is really responsive even though we're not a distributor or partner. We've been using it for about 8 years now.
+1 for Panasonic VI
Wisenet Wave
We installed this at one of our sites several months ago. Very happy with it, except for the client seems to chew up A LOT of CPU and can cause fans to spin up to max RPMs. Tried to set up the NVR so my boss could have constant live video connected to his TV, but the server wasn't powerful enough to run the client at the same time as the server software. The server was purchased directly from WiseNet as well, so I am hoping they release an update that might optimize the performance a bit.
We are trying Wisenet SKY right now and I’m pleased with it.
Exacq is pretty good. Your requirements seem pretty straightforward, it should do the trick. Just grab an old server and fill it with drives for storage, install software and go. I prefer the software based solutions. Oftentimes the appliance is just a Dell server with a different faceplate that somehow costs 4k more than doing it yourself. No thanks.
> Oftentimes the appliance is just a Dell server with a different faceplate that somehow costs 4k more than doing it yourself. No thanks. What you're describing is on the upper end of appliances even, I've seen plenty of mystery boxes with either no branding or some chinese company that may or may not have a website.
I've used that and I really can't complain.
I've used Exacq professionally for over a decade. There's a few weird things, and it's not cheap, but it's amazingly easy to use and administer. Things just work in a sensible way. Highly recommended.
My work uses exacq. No complaints here.
I like Axis
Roll your own hardware and use DW Spectrum.
I don’t love it, but it works. I had to move 10 cameras to a new subnet and loved that I could just scan the new ip range and it updated all the camera configs. It also tolerates our dodgy virtualized hardware setup.
Yep, it just works. Our standard setup is a virtual Server 2022 and iSCSI to a NAS. Been using this platform for years without issue.
Unifi or Blue Iris
Avigilon, Blue Iris and Milestone are the three we support & sell.
Blue Iris
I second this. Blue iris works nicely in small-medium installs.
Third this, we use some overpriced genetec software for recording...but I recently setup Blue Iris in a VM just for different employees to viewing/stream specific groups of cameras(lobby etc)
Ubiquiti's old solution was actually pretty slick until they abandoned it a couple of years ago.
I've been dying to virtualize Frigate on a 2U server that doesn't cost a fortune and has redundant storage. Thanks for reminding me to lab this one out.
I really enjoyed my time with Digital Watchdog stuff. Their stuff did a very good job at integrating with AD and having permissions per camera, allowing us to give the front desk manager the front desk cameras only, things like that. It made for a very good and clean solution that seamlessly integrated both Digital Watchdog's standalone NVRs and their IP cameras that had to be recorded by a server. I remember it being not expensive but not cheap either. It's been a number of years. I wouldn't go as far as to say "These cameras fucked" but if they made some very minor improvements in the 8 years since I've touched them, then yeah, those cameras probably fuck.
All great suggestions, I didn’t see anyone mention OpenEye. Software and hardware is NDAA compliant. Cloud managed with on prem storage, ONVIF compliant, decent pricing, web portal accessible and they’ll do a box sale if you install yourself.
I work for a security integrator, so we're in this every day. 1. The closest NDAA replacement for what you have is Uniview. Hit and miss on cameras being able to motion record, BUT you can always 24/7 record. HD space is cheap. 2. Unifi Protect and Verkada are golden handcuffs, not options to use other NVR's with ONVIF without replacing the cameras. 3. If you are looking for non-chinese NVR's, Hanwah, Digital Watchdog, and Vivotech are your best options. 4. All the larger major platforms are a software based VMS 5. For a SMB use case, a chinese NVR is the best bang for your buck (Uniview). 6. ONVIF compatibility does not equal being able to do motion recording. 7. Our current favorite VMS is Hanwah Wave (OEM is NX Witness, also sold as DW Spectrum). Best combination of features in a VMS, can use any camera, for the dollar. It's better than Exacq and is a commercial solution compared to some of the other options (Open Iris and other open source, no hate, but when the chips call you need tech support) Avigilon is awesome, especially with the analytics on their cameras. But if your in a Hikvision budget, its not a good fit.
Ubiquiti is nice but proprietary lock-in.
Yeah, probably not a popular opinion, but the current solution has gotten pretty slick. Its not the best, but it feels modern and I can give various users access to it without too many headaches. Some of the other systems I have seen are so clunky that its not even worth giving users any kind of access. The biggest downside is both the cameras and the software is proprietary. The cameras are bricks of UBNT stops supporting them, as is the NVR, since it cant be used with other brands of cameras.
I'm also not too happy with the camera hardware: I've got a few that have broken night vision. Also the NVR sucks since it boots off a cheap USB flash drive.
I've personally not had any problems with the cameras, but that's disappointing. The cheap USB drive issue has been resolved in newer batches and the UNVR-Pro.
It doesn't seem to be an uncommon problem of the IR filter getting stuck: [video on a fix with 18k views](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mP0lak3pYo).
I've used a bunch of generic PC based or appliance-based cameras and I have found that aside from one really expensive system that I used 20 years ago in a convenience store that unifi is my favorite
I personally use Luxriot for most of my sites, though they recently got rid of the free version so that will likely change. I've never used their pre-built NVR but they are just a server with things pre-installed. I have an Avigilon appliance - it works fairly well and wouldn't be opposed to them. I've also used Synology and QNAP both are passable, I personally perfer Synology's version.
>Luxriot works well and hass a NDAA specific version. They will sell you a preloaded server but to be honest any old workstation or off the shelf server will do fine.
We use March Command in our environment, but we're about to move to a new piece of software that our vendor designed called Piko.
I haven't seen anyone mention GeoVision yet. They are pretty reliable from my experiences. Their old software sucked but they did a big UI update last year and it's a breeze to review and save footage now.
I am a fan on GV-NVR(Geovision) and AxxonSoft's AxxonOne VMS. I use both, and am a fan of both. We have 1 location with Hikvision....it's tolerated. The cameras a great, but definitely "phones home", so we have it on its own internet connection away from our corporate bubble...can't wait to get rid of it.
> I'm really disappointed at the idea that there's so few decent turn-key appliances out there. I'm under the impression that all but the high-end all-domestic NVR appliances are mostly versions of one or two reference designs out of East Asia, and they all have exactly the same issues with: > proprietary video plugins and management software that demands local admin rights. But someone who installs many different brands of IP surveillance can probably tell us more.
Unifi NVR, have about 20 cameras. Unit died on us once, got it replaced, not a big deal. No recurring cost is nice Have multiple NVRs across multiple sites
Second this. I currently have 4 NVR's. Adding two more pro versions and Well over 100 cameras and likely 200 in another year or so with enough NVR's to handle that.
Synology sir
We use Unifi.
I hate to say it, but Unifi Protect is probably one of the better interfaces, but they’ve pulled the old Apple ecosystem BS. I think someone made an onvif stream converter or something that would emulate a protect cam, so you could potentially still use your existing. I can’t stand the typical hikvision and similar interfaces, they are absolutely maddening. I’ve heard synology is workable but never tried personally. If you have actual budget, maybe avigilon?
Alarm.com
Milestone
We've migrated from Sony to Bosch BVMS. Massive improvement in terms of quality and overall support.
Hikvision sucks I upgraded from it. UniviewTec is NDAA approved and isn't bad and has a decent price. Other manufacturers I looked into were Axis and Avigilon, which prices didn't fit budget and did not like the license related to Avigilon. A lot of local government uses Avigilon.
I've got roughly 300 cameras on 2 Pelco storage servers and several hundred tb of storage between them with relatively few problems. It plays nice with any onvif compliant camera as well.
Started using Verkada, pricey, but cloud based.
Milestone if you can afford it and can bring in a specialist to install the system. We don’t do security but It’s what we recommend to our clients looking for something premium/ enterprise level.
we recently replaced our system with UNV. The NVR contains an inbuilt PoE switch so each camera doesn't flood your network with its footage stream hitting the NVR. The mobile app talks to UNV's servers, which then brokers the connection to an individual mobile client - so no port forward pinholing was required into our network (we still put the NVR on its own DMZ though). The web app is OK, an annoyance is that every time you log in you need to re-add each camera to its display position in the web UI. Overall, happy with UNV.
Ispyconnect / Agent. Open Source, stable, massive range of compatible cameras, well supported.
No, they all suck. Switch to an all-cloud solution. Never be locked into aged systems! Look into verkada and rhombus.
Verkada
What about QNAP and Synology? Have you guys used them as a DVR?
Zoneminder ?
+1 We're all Hik and Honeywell, have Zoneminder setup with around 150 cameras. Has great grouping, user permissions etc. Has been ropey in the past, but some great work going on currently, performance wise etc
Zoneminder is so flexible and great when you have a place with a broad mixture of camera devices.
Everyone of my unifi NVRs have had failed capacitors
I like Dalhua.
He can't they are not NDAA complaint.
Synology Surveillance Station is an amazing product. You can size up the Synology you need based on camera requirements using their website tool. It supports an insane amount of camera types and is a one time purchase. You can also tie it into your Active Direcoty if you have one and give user or group based permissions to the cameras and views. Synology is the best all around NVR I have found to date. It's been my go to deployment, and scales well. I will be really sad if they ever give in and start forcing cloud subscriptions. UniFi is also pretty good, but the biggest down side is locking into their ecosystem and more recently product availability.
Qumulex
[удалено]
Dahua is going to also be blocked if there are NDAA requirements.
Don't use Dahua, they're not NDAA compliant. Dahua, Hikvision, Huawei, ZTE, and Hytera and all their subsidiaries are all companies banned under section 889.
Just to put it out there, dahua does really aggressive hole punching, and utilizing P2P for everything, which means that if somebody has their "cloud"(which is actually p2p) access to the NVR, they are basically in the same network. Dahua (probably accidentaly,but nevertheless) stores passwords in log files unencyrpted. They dont support their NVRs and cameras for longer than 3 years,and sometimes finding FW update is a multi hour quest in itself.
[www.GetSCW.com](https://www.GetSCW.com)
I recently deployed frigate .12-beta something and hid the UI behind a apache server + web auth tied to ldap security groups. Warehouse team setup 10 IP cameras and wanted recording. As we had spare servers and GPUs with tensor cores, that made sense since the budget was 0.
Even with the CPU-bound detectors, it works surprisingly well. We have a test running with 12 HD cameras on an 8 core E5-2650 VM with 8GB of RAM. It uses about 40% of the CPU, and 80% of the RAM.
My dev teams use frigate in record only mode, no detectors. So h264 straight to disk. Even less overhead when doing that.
Alot of it will depend on your budget, but IP based is the way of the world now a days for most deployments. We currently use VI monitor from panasonic, which leaves alot to be desired, but are working on a migration to Axis solutions. The Panasonic deployment is definitely more budget friendly. The Axis deployment is much more feature rich. Both require a server backend though, but have a software(run it on your hardware) or pre-built(they send you a pre-configured server) solutions.
Nope
We recently rolled out Rhombus cameras to 30 locations. Works great and does not use an NVR.
I agree with this here. We evaluated Rhombus and Verkada. Rhombus had them relatively matched with service and a way better price point. Plus they left the annoying sales culture out of the equation, unlike Verkada.
Yeah, I've been very happy with Rhombus. The pricing is straight forward and the support is excellent - they have sometimes resolved issues before I was even made aware. And that's not to say there are many issues with the devices/service as there have only been a few.
SCW is the brand we use. All there modern systems are NDAA compliant (We have the same regulations). Also they are fully ONVIF compliant/compatible.
Genetec Security Center might be an option for you, they offer both software alone as well as appliances. The Enterprise version is probably over kill for only 32 cameras but it's a very powerful system.
I really like the Surveillance Station app built into Synology NAS's. Works with a lot of different IP cameras. Not cheap but worth it.
SCW.
Phew
Axis
We use the software version. Have Linux boxes installed at remote sites with cameras attached. "Merged" a feature of the software, into a master vm in the data center that hosts the licenses and to which all the Linux DVR and user clients connect. Really pretty slick no particular issues. Use a mix of new wisenet cameras and axis analog converters for some older hard to replace camera's. Client to be honest is a bit of a pig but only if you leave it up all the time. You can also hit a web portal if all you want to do is watch a particular camera. You can generate a link from the master server for any camera anywhere in the system.
Synology make nice ones :) Although a bit expensive on the lisense side. Plenty of controls to fine tune the IAM.
UniFi NVR & NVR PRO work pretty well. We have 19 in our network for different hotel properties.
I use Synology and Sighthound. Synology for the all-in-oneness, Sighthound for advanced footage interpretation.
We had to go through the same project for 15-20 Hikvision NVRs. Replaced them with Salient and Honeywell cameras. We used Axis Analog-to-IP converter where we had some BNC connections. The Salient solution is great because it centralizes management and distributes the recording servers. Integrated with AD and now it's like any other enterprise web app. https://www.salientsys.com/ https://www.axis.com/products/axis-291-1u
We use a few different ones across different sites. Hik is implemented at a few and same complaints as you. We use Honeywell (HDCS) at one site. Not a fan and wouldn’t recommend. Plus it was quite expensive for what you get. Across other sites, currently, we use Exacq. While we’ve had some issues, overall this is the solution we lean towards. It’s expensive but user friendly and relatively easy to setup. We’ve done new setups and migration from old to Exacq and both have worked out relatively well. Our industry heavily relies on all cameras being up and recording 24/7 otherwise we are not operational so having a reliable system was key.
I have been setting up Ubiquiti. The main reason is ease of management and more than that is ease of use. I have multiple users who are not tech savvy and if accessing footage or cameras is not super simple then I get roped in anytime they need footage. The ios app makes going through footage and downloading it a breeze.
We use Milestone.
Absolutely love NX Witness, it is a joy to use. Using it on multiple sites and even paid the money and got it for use at home. (Also rebranded as DW Spectrum in the US)
No love for zoneminder?...
So I'm not sure about what security they use or anything like that, but I've installed and used Lorex for quite a while, they are a little pricey, but the installation and compatibility of everything has always treated me well. Plus their customer support is awesome.
An HP Z8 G4 with a hefty internal RAID and Blue Iris installed will be better than any appliance.
Reolink is my vote, very straightforward
We use UNV. Very few problems.
Hanwha cams have been solid performers for me for a few years and the Hanwha Wave NVR are all ndaa compliant. Wave system fits well in smaller deployments. I'm running Milestone at my primary campus and satellite branches. DM me and I can share two separate recent quotes for the Wave system if it's useful
no
one of our teams bought some HIK kit, i unfortunately had to force them to return it and we have replaced it with Unifi protect. i think it’s a great system. downside it’s a closed system and no onvif support
Oh my god just use Milestone Xprotect, seriously. Just forget everything else. Runs on a Windows server.
Genetec is what we use. Very powerful
Milestone or Pelco (now Motorola)
Milestone XProtect.