Tips for setting up large amount of cameras off site?

[rufunky]

This question is geared toward those of you that do this for a living.

Do you typically setup and configure your NVR and cameras off site so that you can just plug and play on site? If so, what tips do you have when you are dealing with 25 of more camaras. surely Individual configuration can def be cumbersome once you have this many cameras.

 

[bigredfish]

I’m not a pro installer but each location is different. You might get in the ballpark that way, but there’s no replacing accessing the cameras directly once installed to fine tune.

Remote config is Easy enough to do if you can install a remote such as TeamViewer on a pc on the same LAN as the cameras. I do it all the time.

 

[bp2008]

I don't install or support cameras for a living, but if I did, being a software engineer would really help. I could build my own batch configuration tool that takes care of a lot of stuff like setting up the time zone, NTP server, video/audio encoding parameters, timestamp format and location, and assigns static IP addresses. I know there are batch configuration tools already available but whenever I've tried to use one I found it rather cumbersome.

Anyway I think it is always a good idea to bench test and preconfigure as much as possible beforehand so that during installation you can just plug each camera in and have them appear on the NVR. You'll catch any DOA cameras this way, and reduce the time spent on-site considerably. How much you need to do beforehand would of course depend on the equipment being used. For Blue Iris for example, pre-configuring will save a great deal of time.

As it is, I install less than 6 cameras a year on average so individual configuration is the way to go.

 

[bigredfish]

Agree with @bp2008 above on setting up the basics. Sure many of us setup the NVR and register the cameras on a bench ahead of install, I was speaking to actually dialing in the cameras on-site with their unique scene requirements.

 

[IAmATeaf]

When installed my 6 cams I configured them all in my office room before getting them installed. As pointed out it’s a good way to check that they all work before fitting.

 

[sebastiantombs]

I don't use an NVR but from other posts I'll make the observation that if you do preconfigure them and connect them to the NVR make careful notes about which camera is plugged into which port of the NVR. That will save time since NVRs seem to not like a different camera being plugged into the port it was originally configured for.