ZoneMinder Forums

Hello,

I volunteer for a 501(c)3 Non Profit food bank as their IT administrator.
I have finally gotten the powers to be to recognize that our current analog DVR system (Harbor Freight Cobra 8ch) is not able to provide the things we need.

I need to know what would be the correct system to procure to run a hybrid 16+ channel NVR system. I would like to reuse the 8 channels of analog cameras we have, but it's not a deal breaker for us to go full NVR, and I have recommended that to the powers that be. We really need to record audio for at least 4 of the channels of the system, and we need to be able to retain 45 days of information, at 16 channels at 8MP 30/25 FPS.

We really need to have 4K (3840X2160) 8MP 30/25 fps IP67, 1/1.8” CMOS, with microphone or better cameras, Preferably IP/POE.

If I did go Hybrid what 8ch analog card would be best? I know that the analog cameras we have are not going to give us the detail I've spoken of, but I can put them in areas that are not used often, and don't require intense processing for identification of people or cars.

What would be the best Processor, amount of memory, RAID/SATA, for this kind of system.

Did I miss any information you need to help me with this query? Please let me know.

Yes, I'm asking you folks for a lot of information, If this was a business I'd tell them to go hire a security specialist, but we cannot afford one, and I'm trying to keep the system under $1000.00 USD.. We have some dual core xenon systems we can obtain for nothing, but I'm not sure of memory or drives. I know I will need a POE Switch, I have a 32port Cisco switch 1/100 already, but I don't know if that's going to cut it regarding the bandwidth.

Thank you in advance.
Gabriel

gjdunga wrote: ↑Sat Jun 24, 2023 9:07 pm I need to know what would be the correct system to procure to run a hybrid 16+ channel NVR system. I would like to reuse the 8 channels of analog cameras we have, but it's not a deal breaker for us to go full NVR, and I have recommended that to the powers that be. We really need to record audio for at least 4 of the channels of the system, and we need to be able to retain 45 days of information, at 16 channels at 8MP 30/25 FPS.

Not difficult to record 45 days of 4K video, but you will have to do h264 passthrough / disable analysis on the hi res stream, and then do motion detection (if needed) on the low res stream. For long term storage, you just need a couple large capacity HDDs (which have become cheap in the last couple years).

Coaxial is not worth the trouble. If you have any opportunity, run ethernet cabling. I can say from personal experience that people expect HD, and will not be as satisfied with coax.

For the server, you're just going to need a fairly powerful rack server. Maybe 16 actual cores, though I haven't run many 4K cameras, so I can't say for sure. Might need more.

Keeping this under $1000 is probably impossible. (cost of server, a couple large HDDs, 8 4K cameras...)