20 8MP cams for 30 days

S

Scott Buckley

n3wb
Mar 3, 2018
10
0
I have a client that wants 20 cameras, 8MP Amcrest ProHD, with 30 days of 24/7 recording. I'm thinking of using Blue Iris for the software, but it'll be around 150TB of storage ( I believe they use h.264). Any thoughts on the NVR build? I haven't used BI before, should I build a 1U server for the NVR and a NAS for the storage?
There will also be another one in the back with 10 cameras on it.
 
I don't think H.265 hardware acceleration is working yet in Blue Iris, so nobody really knows the decoding capabilities. 20x 8MP at 5 FPS each is 800 megapixels per second which should be doable with H.264 on any modern i7. Skylake or newer is supposed to support H.265 hardware acceleration, but again, I don't think it is working quite yet in Blue Iris.

Also, I question the validity of your storage calculations. I have one Dahua 8MP camera which is just old enough to not support H.265. Anyway at 3840x2160, 5 FPS, H.264H, it has a maximum bit rate of 6656 Kbps. Presumably you could get away with 4 Mbps or less with H.265 and still have acceptable image quality. But for arguments sake, lets assume you encode at 6656 Kbps.

20 * 6656 Kbps * 30 days = 43.13088 terabytes

And of course you should consider encoding as VBR so 43 terabytes becomes a worst-case scenario and true retention time could be longer.
 
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Just to be clear, this isn't a recommendation, just a possible suggestion - maybe some live broadcast software such as Wirecast could work:

Live Webcasting Software | Telestream Wirecast | Solutions

There are cheaper and even free options from other software vendors. As I have no knowledge of the output stream from BI or the input required for many of these softwares, nor have a I ever used any, I can't make any recommendations. However, it would seem there is probably a solution out there as many live sports and other events are broadcast live daily from around the world using this type of software.

Depending on the type of output from BI, I'm not sure if direct IP support or even multi-stream is really going to be necessary either. For the latter, provided you have control of BI as well, you can surely change the stream source using the BI software. Just a few thoughts.

There are some more possible suggestions here: Slant - 16 Best software tools for live streaming as of 2018

There are also many others out there both paid and free. Unfortunately I couldn't find the one used by a sport provider I've watched, although I rather suspect some of the pro level company provided solutions may charge by the mb and not as above for just the software.
 
I've tried several different storage calculators, and the results are all over the place. I'm not sure why they are so spread out. One says 1.85 TB/ camera, another gives me 5.5 TB/ camera for 30 days at 8MP.
This is my first time at a project this size, and my first venture into Blue Iris.
 
and it seems that the Amcrest Surveillance Pro doesn't let you zoom in, one of the big issues the client has with the current system.
Can someone verify or correct me?
 
Scott Buckley said:
I've tried several different storage calculators, and the results are all over the place. I'm not sure why they are so spread out. One says 1.85 TB/ camera, another gives me 5.5 TB/ camera for 30 days at 8MP.
This is my first time at a project this size, and my first venture into Blue Iris.
Click to expand...

CCTV storage calculators over-complicate and screw up what is really a very simple calculation. Google understands most units of measure, so you can simply "search" for the number of cameras times the average bit rate times a length of time. Enter 20 * 6656 Kbps * 30 days into google and it gives you the answer in terabytes. 43.13088 terabytes. Pretty neat. Be extremely careful with units though. Many people don't know the difference between a bit and a byte and could enter the unit label wrong: 20 * 6656 KBps * 30 days is 345.04704 terabytes which is ... somewhat misleading.

You can do this for a lot of things. Like if you enter 50 watts * 30 days then it tells you how much energy that is. 129600000 joules. Of course most people don't know what to do with a result in joules so you can have google convert the unit of the result to something more familiar. 50 watts * 30 days to kwh gives us 36 kilowatt hours.
 
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I guess part of my problem is calculating the bitrate.
Given your example of 6556 Kbps
6556 Kilobits /sec
6556*60 = 393,360 /min
393,360*60 = 23,601,600 /hr
23,601,600*24 = 266,438,400 /day
266,438,400/8 = 70,804,800 Kilobytes
70,804,800/1024 = 69,145.3 Megabytes
69,145.3/1024 = 67.5 Gigabytes
67.5/1024 = .0659 Terabytes /camera/day
.0659*20 cameras*30days = 39.57 Terabytes

Does my math add up for you?
My other concern is how accurate that 6656 Kbps number is.
 
Your result is wrong by the time you've reached bits per day. Too many manual steps. This is why we have computers.

Bit rate settings are usually pretty accurate when using CBR encoding, but of course you can always tweak it up or down to achieve the desired result.
 
Any recommendations for processor on this?
I know ideally it would be an I7, but trying to find a machine with that and enough storage is proving near impossible
 
Oh thirty days (thirty days!)
Oh thirty days (thirty days!)
Baby, I'mma see that you be back home in thirty days
Well, she's gonna send out a world wide hoodoo
That'll be the very thing that'll suit ya
I'm gonna see that you be back home in thirty days

 
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