16 Cameras 720p

[bmw325is89]

Hey guys--

I am currently looking setting up 16 cameras for a friends shop. Planning to use the Dahua IPC-HDW2100 1.3MP Megapixel 720P HD's and I really like the Sighthound software thus far.

Any thoughts on using a Mac Mini with i5 to power it all? I was hoping to hold back on the i7 due to cost but after reading some items here, it's sounding like even that *May not be enough.

Also if anyone is running a large amount of camera's, can you post what you are using as your Sighthound box?

Thanks,

Kevin

[ryan]

If you configure the cameras to stream at 1024x768 rather than 1280x720p, you *might* be able to squeeze them all on the i5 mac mini, though you'll need to up the ram on the base model from 4 to 8gb. We had a user report 10 1024x768 streams on a base mac mini - I don't know how much CPU he had left, but he was nearing maximum memory limits with only 4gb. The app wouldn't stop running if that happened, but would be severely impacted if this was exceeded, as memory would be swapped in and out of disk frequently, a very slow operation.

The i7 should be able to run 16 cameras, though I'm not sure if it could handle all of them at 1280x720, you might need to decrease the resolution on some of the incoming streams. Note that aside from processor usage, disk I/O becomes a significant bottleneck with that many cameras, especially at the higher resolution.

I've posted notes about several different machines and setups at the bottom of http://www.sighthound.com/support/system-requirements - hope that helps provide some direction.

[bmw325is89]

Hey Ryan--

Pretty awesome to have a response this quick from ya! I had read that support page already and was basing some of my numbers off of it. I agree, i will likely only use the 720p where needed. May end up just going i7 but the pc has been my main concern at this point.

Storage is a very good point. I noticed with my foscam set to 640/480, I am using about .5 gig per hour (a large proportion is temporary vid since it's a low traffic area). So just for that at 16 cameras, i would need at least 384 gig for just the temporary vid (.5 * 48 * 16). I figure bring that number up to 1tb for temp vid to cover the new cameras . So right now i'm planning on 3tb of storage for the whole setup which will allow me 48hrs of temp vid.

Thinking that will be sufficient, if anything sounds out of whack let me know.

[ryan]

That sounds reasonable, though keep in mind that with that many simultaneous streams being written, disk throughput may become an issue. I assume you won't be setting up a speed optimized raid array, but at least consider specific hard drive specs when purchasing - if mechanical, 7200rpm vs. 5400, larger on drive memory buffer, etc...

Also, always consider what amount of "temporarily save all video" storage you need for your usage scenario. Depending on your scene, you'll get somewhere between several days or several weeks of clip storage for the same space a single day of "record everything" will use. You seem aware of that already, but figured I'd throw it out in case, or for anyone else reading this thread.

[bmw325is89]

Good point Ryan, I need to consider throughput for drive and at this point network throughput as well. 1 gig may not be enough for this unless i considered turning off temporary vid entirely which may be an option.

By the way thanks for this product, it's pretty awesome thus far and am excited to use it.

Do you have any experience with 10+ cameras and how much bandwidth that takes to support?

Kevin

[ryan]

Hi Kevin,

The network bandwidth required will vary based on camera and resolution. Regardless of resolution, most should let you set the bitrate. If you set the max to 3mbps for instance, 16 cameras would use 48mbps. Wired connections, preferably to a gigabit router, is certainly nice.

Note that some cameras only support CBR (constant bit rate), while others allow VBR (variable bit rate). Definitely set the latter if you can, that way, if a camera from the above example didn't really need 3mbps to convey the stream, it wouldn't artificially inflate the images and could instead drop to a lower bandwidth usage.

[bmw325is89]

Thanks for the info Ryan. One more question here, do you know of any DVR's off hand that have the ability to send their video streams to sighthound. Even better would be what "feature" indicates that can do it. I have been looking into video encoders but am not sure if that's needed just to send it to sighthound from the dvr...


Kevin

[ryan]

Hi Kevin,

As video encoding and streaming can be both a lot of extra technical work, as well as computationally expensive requiring more hardware, most DVR systems do not do this. They simply read from their analog cameras and store the data locally.

Some do expose video streams, some expose one at a time rather than all, etc... It varies greatly. You'd want to either contact the manufacturer and ask if the camera feeds can be accessed from third party software, read the manual and look for an http or rtsp interface for the individual streams, or google and search for anyone able to connect to the cameras from other media players such as VLC or Quicktime. The latter might be mentioned in the manual as well, but in either case ensure the text or user is talking about connecting to the live streams and not simply playing back clips created by the DVR.

[bmw325is89]

Thanks for the feedback Ryan!

[williamjames07]

hi bmw325is89,
It is sound good to hear that you are setting up 16 cameras for a friends shop.
gud luck!

Regards
williamjames07