Large IP Camera Deployment w/ZoneMinder

bryanmci · Post by **bryanmci** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 1:55 pm

Hello. I'm doing some research in the hopes of providing security to a local business. I'm hoping that ZoneMinder is going to fit perfectly for what I'd like to do.

All cameras will be wireless IP cameras, on a dedicated network with no internet connection (until internet is needed). Quality is not of a concern, nor is FPS. The biggest concern will be the number of cameras that this project could scale to.

According to a bandwidth/diskspace calculator I downloaded, 128 cameras at 320x240 with MPEG4 compression at 1 FPS would utilize ~2Mbit of bandwidth; if all of those were recorded, I'd use 633GB of disk space over the course of 30 days.

Basically, I'm looking to make sure ZM could RECORD (just record, no need for hot zones, etc) multiple IP cameras at the lowest possible quality, for 30 days or so. Am I out in left field by thinking I could deploy this many (100 or so) IP cameras?

I'm just thinking that since essentially the server would just be saving JPG's every second (I could even go as low as 1 image every 3 seconds), could ZM handle it?

Also..is there a way to chain ZM servers?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

jameswilson · Post by **jameswilson** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 3:08 pm

if you use a low res say 160x120 that is a quarter of the load (ish) of 320x240
you could run a high powered machine at 320x240 at around 200 fps in record mode, so yes id say it would.

bryanmci · Post by **bryanmci** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 3:14 pm

Thanks for the reply James. Your information makes me feel much better about this.

My thoughts were exactly aligned with yours - if each cam was doing 1 fps (or even 1/3 fps - not sure if that's an option), and the server could essentially do 200fps, then that would be ~200 cameras.

Guess it's time to get ZM loaded on a test machine and purchase a few cameras.

If anyone else has any insight to this, I'd greatly appreciate it.

jameswilson · Post by **jameswilson** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 3:48 pm

.3 fps is certainly fine, i have done 0.01 fps before

bryanmci · Post by **bryanmci** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:08 pm

Second thought...

Since I don't have and haven't played around with any IP cameras yet, I wonder how ZM will handle a disassociation and re-association of a camera.

Say I have a wireless IP cam that ZM is monitoring/recording; and then the camera is turned off or moves out of range of the wireless AP. What will happen when the camera is turned back on or comes back in range? If the camera firmware is set to automatically reconnect to the assigned AP, will ZM automatically pick the camera up again, or will manual intervention be necessary?

Thanks much everyone!

jameswilson · Post by **jameswilson** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:26 pm

it will pick it up he next time the caqpture deamon checks. YOu can set this restart to be lower if needed

coke · Post by **coke** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 5:32 pm

I can agree with that from experience, until I got the rebooting (of the cameras) issue solved, I had cameras dropping out often, and ZM always picked them up when they came back to life.

bryanmci · Post by **bryanmci** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 12:17 pm

Absolutely sweet!!! That's exactly what I was hoping to hear. You guys are great. Thanks so much for the info!

Lee Sharp · Post by **Lee Sharp** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 5:04 pm

This assumes the cameras have a static IP or some form of functional name resolution.

Now viewing this will be tough. Montage is right out!