kifaru

I have several Axis P3364-LVE & P1204 cameras connecting to 2 fanless Cisco WS-C3560CG-8PC-S switches. Cisco 3560CG switches are enterprise class devices & are fully configurable & manageable. I also have a Hikvision DS-9632NI-ST NVR connecting to both switches, both NICs of the NVR connecting to both of the 2 switches. The switches are then trunked together. The switches do generate plenty of heat. To dissipate the heat I added a cabinet cooler. http://www.coolerguys.com/840556093145.html. Since I am adding more cameras & need more ports, I am migrating to a single switch that has the port density I need.. a Cisco WS-C2960S-24PS-L

I have a DS-9632NI-ST & no, it will not show all 32 channels at the very same time. The maximum number of channels you view is 4X4, that is 16 channels at any one time. After a certain amount of 'dwell time' seconds the screen switches to the next 16 channels & so forth.

This is excellent, it should help a lot folks trying decide on the lens to get for their needs.

Thanks for your suggestions. I think I might as well just go with the 850nm IR units

I would like to add 940nm IR illuminators around some Hikvision cameras. Does anyone know if Hikvision DS-2CD2032 or DS-2CD2132 can make use of 940nm illuminators or are they limited to 850nm IRs?

When I was doing researching for my NVR, I noticed that most manufactures list the number of channels based on a 1.0MP 720p camera calculation. Note that 1.0mp is still considered HD. When calculating NVR bandwidth per camera, add the main stream bandwidth + substream bandwidth. Most people forget to add the sub-stream into the bandwidth calculation. If your streams are stuttering start by reducing the substream to the bare minimum. If your cameras can do 30 fps reduce these to 15fps. To reduce the bandwidth further, lower the bitrate. If streams still stutter, you will want to reduce the the number of cameras on the NVR. Beyond this starting looking at other NVR alternatives BTW, what is your camera MP & maximum resolution? You may want look at additional NVRs to the mix or alternate NVR(s) that would support all the cameras at your specified resolution/bitrate.

Unfortunately, cutting the cable will void the warrant & you may not get the camera working right unless you get the cable pinouts right.

The covert Axis P12XX that Kawboy12R mentioned is a very good solution. A 720p camera in a very small form factor. It is literally the size of my thump. I have an Axis P1204 camera. Mine mounted below eye level, so even if you wear a cap I will still get a useable facial shot. The camera is so small you can not tell what is is if you mount it well. When my brother came to visit me I asked him to find my P1204 camera, after 10min he gave up. He could not tell where it was mounted until I pointed it out to him. He is now looking into getting one too.

The key things when looking at NVR specs are:- - Will it support my cameras? - How much hard drive space does it have? - What is the total bandwidth the NVR can support? DS-9XXX Hikvision NVR support a wide range of cameras and Axis is on the supported list. In terms of hard drive space the DS-96XX have plenty of space, & most units have room from 6+ hard drives, so no problem there. Some even have RAID options also. The sticking point with all NVRs is amount of bandwidth that the NVR can handle. This is total amount of camera video that streamed to & from the NVR. It takes into account cameras streaming directly to the NVR as well as a user(s) viewing the camera locally or remotely over the network. The specs for the DS-9664NI-ST(RT) shows an inbound bandwidth of 160Mbps. I currently have a DS-9632NI-ST & uses about 55Mbps of the bandwidth with 9 IP cameras. However, note that I have several 3Meg cameras as well as a couple 1.3Meg cameras in my scenario If all your Axis cameras are no more than 1.0MP each, then you may be able to pull it off using the DS-9664NI-ST. The greater the megapixels, the more the bandwidth required on the NVR. To help convey this point use this document as a reference point. http://www.hikvision.com/En/US/support_more.asp?id=217 I have not seen a similar document for the DS-9664 series NVR. You may need to get with Hikvision support on that. If Hikvision does not meet you needs, then you can look at the Dahua 6XXX Super NVR series. Alternatively, a custom built NVR unit from DVR Systems may also be a good fit, especially if you are also planning for further growth & additional camera placement.

Since my NVR has plenty of storage(18TB), I run all cameras at max resolution & fps.

Well, if you cannot find the 8 channel Hik to meet you needs, you could try the 32 channel version....DS-9632NI-ST It does have 16 channel input & 4 channel output alarm. And yes, I currently have working PIR & stobe lights/siren attached the input/output ports. The RS-485 port is not noted as reserved. I have not found a PTZ camera that meets my need yet. When I do, I will make use of the RS-485 port. In any case Hik support team should be helpful if the need arises with cabling that port

After adding 3 Axis P3364-LVE cameras to my Dahua NVR3216 I noticed the recorded & viewed video stream was choppy & stuttering terribly. I thought something was wrong with the NVR & in the process of troubleshooting I narrowed down the issue to the amount of video stream being sent to the NVR...in short there was a 24Mbps bandwidth cap in the Dahua 3216 NVR. With the advent of 1080p+ cameras there are few NVRs that could do over 4 1080p cameras at full frame rate. The NVR series went straight from the 4 channel consumer class to the multichannel enterprise class devices, with no devices in the mid-range. You either had a choice of the existing NVRs that either supported 4 1080 cameras or an enterprise class NVR that supports 64+ cameras. During my search for an new NVR I looked at Synology, Nuuo, Qnap. I even called the folks at NVR systems to build me a custom NVR PC. Fortunately or unfortunately I was not too eager for another 4U rack chassis, since I currently have 2 other 4U PCs/Server hosting all my other media. While talking to the folks at NVR systems they suggested that I should first reduce the resolution & frame rate off all the cameras until the video 'problem' went away. I did this & saw the video issue clearing up. However the Dahua cameras maintained better video even with reduced resolution, all 3rd party cameras video stuttered terribly. I settled on a very low frame rate per second resolution on all cameras which was unacceptable to me. I still needed to add more cameras for surveillance & figured I needed a better solution than reducing camera frame-rate to make it 'fit' the current NVR. After doing some research, I came across the DH-SVR3016H, but I know Dahua takes forever to release products once they posted as new on their website. I settled on the Dahua NVR6XXX series, but could not get a reseller here in the US. I then discovered Hikvision 9600 NVR. I noticed that among all the NVR manufacturers only Hikvision actually posted the maximum supported bandwidth for their 9600 NVR(80Mbps). The NVR is 3 times bigger than the Dahua 3216. It Support 8 sata drives up to 4TB each. I currently have 6 drives mounted in it & assigned to 3 groups with 2 cameras each assigned per hard drive. video is written to 3 drives, while the other 3 drives are set to 'redundancy', which means a copy of the 3 main drives is also copied to the 3 redundant drives. I currently have a 50 & 100ft vga cable run connecting 2 TVs to the NVR,as well as a 50ft USB cable run for the mouse. This allows me to view NVR playback from multiple rooms. I currently have 7 cameras connected & intend to add more soon. The NVR has been holding up well as I add more cameras. If you keep your cameras resolution to the Hikvision recommended settings then you will get very good video results as you add more cameras. http://www.hikvision.com/en/us/support_more.asp?id=217 3 PIRs are connected to the input ports & 4 LED strobe lights to the output ports. When motion is detected the strobe lights light up & the cameras in that region take multiple 5sec snapshots & send me an email. I need to run some duct work to exhaust the cabinet housing the NVR The unit is pretty loud & I ended up sound proofing the cabinet that houses the unit & UPS. The one thing I did not like is the alarm input & outputs. They are tiny & it took me 2+ hrs trying to wire those tiny ports without the cables slipping out every so often. Overall this is a pretty good NVR & yes it is pricey. It is pretty much 3 times the price of the Dahua 3216 NVR.

Thats true, since I switched all my exterior lights to LED bulbs, I have also turned off night mode on some of my cameras since I prefer color images.

IMO, A cheaper & the next best thing to IR illuminators would be to use LED bulbs. You can find LED bulb alternatives to some if not most incandescent or CFL bulb fixtures.

Sometime 1 manufacturer does not have ALL the cameras that covers all users needs & niches. Hence mixing & matching cameras cannot be avoided. I tried running the Acti & the Axis NVRs in addition to BI. My problem came when trying to view all cameras on my TVs. I ended up using Dahua & Hikvision NVRs since both NVRs support Axis, Acti among other camera brands.