Camera & NVR recommendations please

[Technoir]

Hello, long time lurker, first time poster!


Been reading around what's what for a few weeks and wanted to get your expert opinions on the right equipment for my needs. I'd like to buy a number of cameras (PoE) and an NVR.


There are 6 camera locations covering different sized areas and so wanted to get some recommendations on what would be most suitable. I'd like a performant 4K system with the highest framerate possible without going 'crazy' on cost (< around £1.5K). Seem to be liking the Hikvision stuff from my research, but am open to any manufacturer.


Cameras:

Camera 1 & 2: Front of house - covering around a 6 x 9m area. Have looked at the Hikvision DS-2CD2387G2-LSU/SL.


Camera 3: Porch camera - will be mounted around 2.5m high looking downwards at a an area of 1 x 2.5m. I have a motion-sensor light that comes on. Unsure.


Camera 4: Driveway - mounted vertically on wall around 3m high - facing towards front of house. Have looked at the Hikvision DS-2CD2387G2-LSU/SL.


Camera 5: Side of kitchen facing along side door walkway, covering area of around 2 x 7m. Unsure.


Camera 6: Back garden - facing outwards to garden (~20m). Have looked at the Hikvision DS-2CD2387G2-LSU/SL.
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NVR:

This is an area that I'm unfortunately not-so-well educated on. I've read around the forum and have seen the Hikvision DS-7716NXI-I4/S (non-PoE) and Hikvision DS-7616NI-M2/16P (PoE) recommended for multiple cameras to cover the required bandwidth. So, I'm currently using a 24-port PoE switch (300W) which should cover the power requirements of all cameras. I'd like to know if I can use the non-PoE version with my PoE switch, or are non-PoE NVRs are only intended for systems with cameras with individual power sources, and not used with PoE at all?



Thanks in advance!

 

[Dan]

Hi @Technoir

Thanks for all the information, the DS-2CD2387G2-LSU/SL will work in locations that you have selected it for but it is important to point out that the LSU/SL model includes the Live-Guard features (white flashing light & audible alarm) which might not be suitable for a residential install and you can save some money going for just the standard ColorVu without Live-Guard - DS-2CD2387G2-LU

One other thing, do the locations for cameras 1, 2, 4, and 6 have ambient lighting (e.g. street lights, security lights, etc...) already in place? I ask this because the ColorVu cameras operate best when there is some lighting present in the scene. They do have a built-in white light but this does not offer even lighting across the whole scene.

If, for example, the back garden is completely dark at night you might actually get a clearer night image using an IR AcuSense camera like the DS-2CD2386G2-IU

For the porch, we would recommend a 2.8mm Mini Dome like the DS-2CD2586G2-IS or DS-2CD2547G2-LS (ColorVu Mini Dome is not available in 8MP currently).

For the walkway/side door camera, we would recommend a 6mm Mini Bullet like the DS-2CD2046G2-IU or DS-2CD2047G2-LU

In regards to the NVR, yes if you have all the PoE cameras connected to a PoE switch you can add them to a non-PoE NVR over the local network. Either NVR will work, but we do often recommend PoE NVRs because they give you more options in how you connect the cameras to the NVR (e.g. all cameras can be directly connected, all can be remotely connected, or you can have a mix of both).

 

[Technoir]

Hi @Dan

Thanks for taking the time to reply with the suggestions - I’ll check out the cameras!

To answer your questions about the light levels in some of the locations:

1 & 2 - these will have a decent amount of street lighting.
4 - much darker, but there is a PIR security light that triggers when the driveway is entered.
6 - again, much darker but there is another PIR security light mounted on the patio wall, facing the garden. This also illuminates the front half of the garden but not the back.

For the Walkway cam, can I ask why you've opted go with a bullet rather than a turret? I'm not massively keen on the look of bullets, as they're more difficult to conceal Would you have an alternative suggestion for a turret that's fits the bill?

Regarding the NVR, the flexibility in how you can connect sounds great - this seems a better way to go.
I also wanted to ask about storage, the NVR has a max local capacity of 2 x 14TB, I think (sounds way too much?). Can you recommend an appropriate configuration for the DS-7616NI-M2/16P with the camera set up I'm considering - how many drives, drive model, capacity, etc?


Thanks in advance.

 

[Dan]

Hi @Technoir

Thanks for confirming the lighting at those different locations, I think the level of ambient light you have in all those locations should be enough for ColorVu to work.

For the walkway camera, I suggested a bullet camera because you will need to wall mount the camera and then angle it to look along the walkway, the bullet camera can get closer to 90 degrees perpendicular to the wall than the turret cameras can. You could use a turret camera but to get the best results/coverage you would need to mount the turret on a wall bracket, which would stand out more than a bullet camera.

For storage, we recommend Western Digital Purple Surveillance HDDs which are available in sizes from 2-10TB. For 6 x 8MP cameras recording continuously for 14 days, we would recommend 16TB (2 x 8TB).

 

[Technoir]

Great, that makes sense - thanks for the explanation.

I've come across another NVR that looks interesting - Hikvision DS-7616NI-I2-16P, which includes additional AI features than the DS-7616NI-M2/16P but has slightly lesser bandwidth capability.

I wonder if you can help me with a few questions I have.

What are the main differences between these and would the I2-16P be suitable for my configuration?

Also, I notice the cameras don't appear to have some of the AI features the I2-16P is capable of (facial recognition, motion detection 2.0). In this case, does the NVR then do the work, meaning the cameras don't need to include these features?

Do Hikvision offer NVRs with more advanced AI features, as this is something I'm quite interested in?

 

[Dan]

Hi @Technoir

The main differences are the bandwidth, we recently posted a new thread that compares all the currently available NVR models.

The AI features are only supported on the I-series AcuSense models (76xxNXI) and not the standard I-series models (76xxNI)

Motion detection 2.0 is built-in to certain NVR models and so should work with all cameras, face recognition only works when paired with a specialist face recognition camera.

The top-spec NVR models with the most advanced features are the DeepinMind NVRs

 

[Technoir]

Thanks for the great responses.

I have a question regarding the connection of the cameras to the NVR. If I wanted to split one of the ethernet cables coming from the NVR so that it could connect to 2 cameras instead of the 1, would a single port support this scenario (bandwidth/power output, etc), or is this not recommended?

 

[Dan]

No, the ports on the NVR are linked to individual channels so you cannot directly connect 2 cameras to one port.

What you should be able to do is connect a PoE switch to one of the ports on the NVR and then connect multiple cameras to the NVR via that switch, but when you do this you have to disable the ports that correspond on the NVR (e.g. if you connect a 4-port switch to port 1 on the NVR and then connect 4 cameras to that switch you will have to disable PoE on NVR ports 1-4)

See this demo video on How To Connect a PoE Switch to the NVR PoE Ports

 

[Ultra4]

Just reading this @Dan and wanted to say your support is outstanding. I see it consistently makes this forum so good to use.

 

[Technoir]

Couldn't agree more!
Thanks again for all the help @Dan, hope you're having a fantastic holiday period!