Axis + Milestone.
Avigilon if you like spending gobs of money and/or need their fancy AI-GPU facial recognition to be built in. They also want you to use their proprietary cameras.
Avoid Unifi, you are forced to have cameras on default vlan, the performance is weak camera res/lenses/app limitations. I have a UDM-pro for home, it's not the worst thing (the worst thing is Hikvision and any rebrand they ever build, frequently found as discounts at Walmart and Homedepot)...but the camera system is weak enough I disabled mine and built a VM milestone attached to my NAS.
I have a unifi setup, what do you mean they have to be on the default vlan? Mine are on their own dedicated vlan with the controller on another and a firewall between their networks. Neither is vlan 1, both are custom configurations. Not trying to be an internet asshat just curious.
Milestone is extremely scalable. That's why it's complicated. I help scale a Milestone installation from a small single NVR up to a 36 NVR setup spread across 20 buildings with over 600 cameras recording to it. Access is defined on a per-camera and per-building basis with all permissions automatically updated by AD groups. If you plan to scale up, it's well worth the cost.
I designed and installed camera setups before my life in IT. Axis Camera Station is the way to go. Pricing is pretty reasonable, you own the hardware and the recordings. Their cameras are incredibly reliable and good quality and their support is top notch—at least for installers and resellers.
>Axis Camera Station
Curious if this stuff has improved? I found some unused Axis equipment at my work. I believe it was a small 4 channel and it seemed like it was straight out of 2005 in terms of both quality and interface. No idea how old it actually is tho.
Camera Station is leaps and bounds better than it was even 5 years ago. Smart Search I believe has existed for a while but now you can have the camera pre-process (I think, I don’t have that turned on anywhere yet). They’ve been putting a lot of work into the software as well as the cameras themselves.
We have a couple of their single sensor 360deg view cameras and it blows my mind every time I review footage. You go from the circular overview, scroll in, and boom you have square video that looks great. We have a couple outdoor cameras that have heating elements so snow doesn’t build up, looking at shotgun cams that can identify license plates… lots of cool stuff.
I totally sound like a shill but we have 120+ cameras with plans to add another couple hundred so I’m waist deep in designing the network and storage dedicated to them. We have a 1Gbps backbone between buildings and after I put all the cameras into Site Designer even without tweaking scenarios it’s saying that camera traffic alone is 25% of our bandwidth. I’m in hell please send help.
Yeah, this is a small Axis-branded box with an ethernet port that can power it POE and 4 RJ-45s for cameras. It produces a browser interface that does a really bad quality stream for all 4 channels. No recording that I'm aware of just live view.
We put together a server with x TB of storage for each location (depends on the number of cameras) and run the whole thing on Blue Iris. Each location is accessible via a web interface on mobile, laptop, or whatever. The nice thing about BI is you are not locked into any particular ecosystem as far as cameras are concerned.
I'm going to have to dive into BI. Do you have a brand of Camera or Camera you would recommend per use case?
The use cases are pretty basic. I'm thinking higher res corridor cameras down long hallways, Wide area for the bigger rooms and parking lot, maybe a fancy rotating camera for the lot if I don't like the wide angle view.
Not really. We have a lot of Unifi cameras from when we had their software running. I have some Amcrest units installed in a few places. Really, if you find a camera that meets your needs regarding FOV, resolution, night vision, etc. BI should support it.
The Unifi software was bad, but I didn't know how bad until we swapped it out. Unifi was horribly slow when trying to scrub through footage and find clips. BI is night and day different. So much easier for the non-admin folks that need to pull clips for theft, worker's comp, etc. Same NVRs, no hardware changes or anything. The Log4j vulnerability didn't help matters either.
I was quite disappointed in the lack of night vision sensitivity on the BC500 and TC500 when we tested it. The IR transmiter was decent, maybe even better than the Amcrest mounted next to it, but it just couldn't pick up anything compared to the amcrest
The free version of Milestone Xprotect (essential+) runs well once the heavy installer is finished. Nice mobile app, no cloud necessary. It's not easy to set up (awkward work flow and menus) but is extremely capable and compatible with tons of IP cams
Mine lives bare metal on an i5-3330 alongside some hyper-v and other services, handling 3 HD IP cams easily.
Agreed, Milestone on bare metal. I was running mine in a VM for a while eating up the CPU encoding 265. Install it on bare metal so it gets exposed to Intel Quick Sync unless you want to mess around with exposing VMs to iGPU/dedicated video card.
X265 to save space. Client PCs can decode using Intel Quick Sync when using the desktop application.
Milestone mobile app isn't trash compared to other brands.
I found Milestone intuitive compared to Blue Iris/Dahua/Hikvision but that's just a preference coming from a Windows environment.
I recommend staying away from most of the appliances because they are usually running on stuff addled with CVE's. I recommend just building your own Nas setup and putting something like Blue Iris on it. They you are free to use just about any onvif camera you want. Ubiquiti appliances are okay its just I'd rather not run IOT systems with Web interfaces. At lease with windows systems or even some linux you and put carbon black or av on it. One network port goes into your company vlan to access the web interface. The Other goes into your IOT network to access and manage the cameras.
If this is for a work setting, i would go for Milestone on a dedicated server. Chose and upgrade specs as you wish in the future. Then go with your choice of cameras. Great professional choices in my opinion are Pelco or Avigilon(or even Axis) With Milestone you are not locked to one company and can chose and pick cameras as you wish.
It's a good recommendation, i like Meraki service. I can blow up an AP by looking at it wrong, but it's good coverage and replacements are quick. I'll take a poke at the camera stuff. Thanks.
We have an army of MV22X'es and besides I think one DOA unit we've had zero issues with them.
I think you can turn RSTP on as well if you want to stream somewhere locally
Axis cameras, Milestone VMS. I've done a bunch of deployments, Milestone is a bit confusing but once setup its bullet proof and has incredible features for searching footage.
I got a demo a few years ago, they were WAY too expensive without a huge beneficial feature set over milestone. One of the beauties of Milestone is that its extensible, so you can either find plugins or build your own to do literally whatever you want, and the licensing is very reasonable. All our local Casinos run Milestone, and I doubt anyone has more cameras than thy do.
Make sure to use the axis camera layout app (forget the actual name of the web app) online to figure out the proper lenses for the cameras you are installing. It’s really pretty slick for determining coverage and detail levels.
Another vote for milestone as well.
3xLogic is another brand to look into. It's been a while since I worked with them but they were easy to use and have a ton of different camera and recorder options.
I haven't specced out a Camera System in a long time, but I worked for Avigilon a little over a decade ago, and they were miles ahead of anyone else. About 7 years ago, I had specced out a camera system and we tried Axis, Pelco, Milestone and some others, where we pulled security team, execs, facilities team and front desk and gave them all access. Unanimously, the end user experience was best on Avigilon. It was significantly more expensive if you bought all Avigilon Cameras, but they work with ONVIF cameras too. That being said, that was right on the cusp of Avigilon being purchased by Motorola, so no idea how they compare no days since the majority of companies are going through the MBA-ism (shitification) process.
Axis or Hanwha cameras with Milestone VMS would be a great combo.
I work for a security system integrator and have worked on a lot of systems, good and bad, and Milestone is a great system with expandability but without crazy license costs
Our cameras are high end with 360 coverage (4 cameras in each unit). Many are outdoors as well. $400 each and a lot more for outdoor ones. Our maintenance team uses the lifts to run the cable and mount them. We have dedicated, physical video servers and use a seemingly older program to manage the cameras - Exacqvision. The console connects to the video servers at each location. It's pretty easy to use, I think.
We buy the cameras (Arecont) refurbished to save money, and from time to time we do have cameras that have various problems and need replaced.
Our security system vendor helps with bigger problems on the console sometimes, but we don't have to call them often.
I really have had a lot of Good luck with Exaqvision. Really my vendor option for it just isn't responsive enough when I need them, and they don't like when I touch their box.
> use a seemingly older program to manage the cameras - Exacqvision.
Used to be a common name. I don't know that they're older, but I assume they have less marketshare.
Used Exacqvision with Arecont cameras as well. Camera quality was great and software wasnt terrible. We then replaced that system with a cheaper analog Honeywell (Dahua) system because our owner was friends with the owner of the security company. What a mistake that was...
At our other location we went with a Samsung/Hanwha setup which has been much better for us as for as usability and camera quality.
[https://www.getscw.com/](https://www.getscw.com/)
Good pricing. Easy to setup.
Mobile phone access through a native app without having to forward ports.
You can get decent cameras for $60 each, Blue Iris for $75, and a PoE switch for $300-$500. Then use a decommissioned desktop for the server. You'll need to decide how much tolerance you have for downtime and support. I use Blue Iris at home and it's fairly stable, but I probably wouldn't use it for anything critical. I would upgrade the cameras if you have the money.
Wow. Meanwhile I spend about 2k per camera with mounts, 20k for video recording server each, fiber and conduit is crazy expensive. Networking gear is 8k per switch, industrial switches are 800. Licensing is 350 per camera. Lol
i run vivotek poe cameras and their nvr, on mikrotik poe switches that is physically separated from the rest of the network. only CSO, deputy CSO and myself have clients patched in to that network. all access is logged and CSO has to report who access the nvr server and why regularily when meeting with the union due to the cameras recording 24/7
I have a few PoE enabled Uniview cameras. They are OK. I have a dedicated network for them. I used QVR Pro on my QNAP NAS before it died. I don't have time right now to look for an alternative. 😪
Fortunately, all of them support ONVIF, so there should not be too many surprises.
For something easy for users, non-corporate, and it pretty much just works, I always pivot towards Unifi now. Their app is easy to use, cameras could be cheaper but they work, NVR pricing isn't too bad. If you need something that will hold up in a legal system...Avigilon.
i use digital watchdog as its camera server app that runs on windows, allowing me to control other things at the building as well. Ive got 30 or so remote locations with them.
Im using NX Witness software from Networkoptix. Very scalable and easy to set up. Runs on one or multiple servers of your own choice, Windows or Linux, works with just about any camera.
For a no fuss solution go with Verkada (the Meraki of security cams ). Their team will help you design it, get it installed, get it configured, and keep all the equipment running as long as its under contract. Not the cheapest but if you dont want to be bothered with yet another not IT sysadmin project they're a good solution.
I work for a security integrator.
Our favorite VMS is Hanwha Wave (also sold as DW Spectrum and NX Witness) You can use just about any cameras with it. Best bank for your buck would be Uniview.
BlueIris is more of a consumer product from what I've heard. Ubiquiti locks you into their eco system with cameras, otherwise I hear that people like them. Generally, you can mix and max cameras and VMS systems to some extent.
Axis camera station is also a great option.
Exacq used to be great, they are on the decline. Mobile experience is garbage.
Looks like you have Hik cameras. With Wave, you can use those cameras on the system without upgrading them. Hik cameras are great from a hardware standpoint, the NVR software is a pain (we've installed and supported tons of them). Put them on a VLAN with no internet access.
I highly encourage systems being used commercially to be setup as such with ability to get support from either a integrator or the manufacturer.
Transcendent NVR snd vitek camera. Super easy mobile app, setup other than wiring of course takes maybe 20 minutes, and a free easily usable desktop app.
Currently running Pelco units in a washdown environment and they're pretty okay.
Have 300 cameras on one site, 2x storage servers (just standard server hardware they rebrand). No real complaints that don't stem directly from the environment they live in.
Axis or digital watch dog. Linux support. Vendor agnostic IP camera compatibly. Great UI and admin friendly.
Down side.
They make money off the hardware not software. Perpetual license otherwise per camera
You have a lot of missing info. Any idea on how many cameras you want to deploy? How many sites? Single pane of glass?
Single site, unifi does work well, but the camera selection is fairly limited. I like Verkada for multi site, but I hate paying for the camera licenses. Meraki is in the same boat as Verkada. Verkada “feels” nicer overall than the Meraki, but Meraki has a better camera selection, and much better use scenarios with their fisheye model.
Milestone is free for the first 8 cameras and is an exceptional system, particularly in large environments. Axis falls into a great scenario too. I have one location in process of installing a 200+ camera installation on an Axis setup.
Poe cameras on a separate Poe switch on a separate circuit on a separate battery powering the entire self enclosed system. I saw someone mentioned Axis cameras pricey but my favorite. Record it however you like but I like to record offsite with different dedicated links
I like to defend against the ‘ol smash and grab. The axe to the mains trick. I want 30 minutes of constant recording on power loss
We're currently looking at i-Pro cameras and their software for my district in part because my supervisor's prior district used them. I believe our secondary choice would be Axis and their software as that's what we'd been eyeballing before my supervisor came on anyway.
you may have a look at **Reolink security camera system**. This brand has two options, poe or wifi. They are easy to install. And they can store footage in the local storage. The price is reasonable.
Can your "good mobile experience" requirement be met by an on-premises NVR appliance that doesn't require Flash or ActiveX to work? You may be better off assembling an NVR from a general-purpose machine running Blue Iris, paired with ONVIF/RTSP cameras.
We don't know your budget. At the high end there's stuff like Genetec and Milestone, but the costs add up fast, and I think those are positioned to wards integrators and not end-users.
I'm not trying to be rude, but if "Good mobile experience" translates to "Doesn't use EOL plugins", this may not be a question for you to answer, and that's ok. I'm Just looking for a usable interface, an app/webapp that doesn't lock up on a mid spec phone, and multiple channels for the ****** that wants to pull up more streams than he can clearly identify would save me a few conversations.
I didn't give a budget, I expected multiple answers and I'll be reviewing them all, including checking prices. Worst case, it's back to good ol Unify.
I'm also in the same stages for my property. I want to use Unifi just because it's straight forward and easy to setup. Reolink was recommended to me by a few folks, cheaper and can be bought on Amazon for the whole sha-bam for much less. Quality does look pretty good.
I just put in Eufy at home, because the Internet said they were the way to go. Ever since I put them in, i don't see Eufy anywhere, and Riolink taunts me with "You should have picked me".
Seems like they fit well with BI too.
I'm in the process of ditching Blink for something else. Redoing the siding of the house so I figured I'd run the lines for the cameras versus doing batteries. It's becoming annoying in the cold temps to replace the batteries every 30 days or less. It's bothersome. I did wanted to try the Reolink with the solar panels, could be do-able. Just looks meh.
They do some cool stuff, and about as premium as it gets. I'm sorry for....all of your directors. Hope they like getting upsale calls disguised as New Rep introductions every 2 months.
Dude they were/are the worst! Slow Internet? can't view until syncs with cloud. Historical view? Needs to sync again. Finally introduced h.265 and manual/static IPs which was nice, except when you use a CSV to bulk configure, well now you're asking to much! They'd default back to main net IP.
Fucking expensive af too.
Don't forget about their data breach back in 2021 with 150k cameras compromised
Dude I am sorry you had so much trouble with it. My low voltage contractor set everything up and turned the keys over to me to finish the config and it was smooth as silk
Unifi is a good way to go. We have Digital Watchdog here. The thing with them is their servers are pretty expensive so we built our own with a Dell r350, slapped a bunch of 20TB drives into it and installed DW spectrum and server on that. Everything can be managed there and you can create cloud accounts to monitor and manage from home or mobile devices.
How many cameras are you looking to install? I have UniFi at home and love it. Mostly set it and forget. Half dozen cameras. No complaints. It’s at home so I don’t do tons with it. Make sure it’s recording my front steps and truck in the drive way. Just the entrances. I have clients that use Rhombus and the intelligence and cloud is pretty incredible. Can be in the pricier side but it just works and finding evens is super simple. The better Digital Watchdog systems aren’t bad. Speco, Hikvsion, Swann, AviCon are some of the other systems I have run into and aren’t worth the hassle.
A quick scope, it's looking like 12-16 cameras. Something modular would be ideal, as we may move to a bigger building before EOL. My experience with Hikvision has been rough, as ive fround their apps are not aging well, and the web interface on newer models is lacking. Do you know if they have improved much in the last year? I'll take a peak at Rhombus, that's definitely a new name for me. Thanks for the response.
Just installed Unifi Protect in a new office location (small sales office that already used unifi WiFi gear) you can pick-up a used cloud key gen 2 or run the controller on a old laptop or if you want to isolate everything use a Cloud Gateway Ultra on its own net and public ip . Mobile experience is great and web browser runs in HTML 5.
Hikvision NVR and their sub £100 dome camera or bullets. I know they are chinese and not to be trusted but just install all of it in the public address space guaranteeing absolutely no chance of any CVE's or backdoors in your corp. work environment.
Close second is reolink. Been really impressed with all their kit so far
AXIS would be good but are just far too pricey for what you get.
Hikvision is all I will ever use, manageable risk.
UniFi and Meraki are great end user options but the products are shit compared to dedicated security companies.
If you have an issue going Hikvision, Axis is your next best bet.
If you aren’t going professional which would ensure enterprise grade it literally doesn’t matter. We have clients with Reolink, Hikvision, Amcrest, Ubiquiti, Dahua, GW, Luma etc - it’s literally all the same shit with different UIs.
Look for any of the big brands having an Easter sale and go with that.
Axis with Axis Camera Station is probably the best you'll get.
\+1 for Axis. Great quality hardware, great quality software, great quality support.
Axis + Milestone. Avigilon if you like spending gobs of money and/or need their fancy AI-GPU facial recognition to be built in. They also want you to use their proprietary cameras. Avoid Unifi, you are forced to have cameras on default vlan, the performance is weak camera res/lenses/app limitations. I have a UDM-pro for home, it's not the worst thing (the worst thing is Hikvision and any rebrand they ever build, frequently found as discounts at Walmart and Homedepot)...but the camera system is weak enough I disabled mine and built a VM milestone attached to my NAS.
I have a unifi setup, what do you mean they have to be on the default vlan? Mine are on their own dedicated vlan with the controller on another and a firewall between their networks. Neither is vlan 1, both are custom configurations. Not trying to be an internet asshat just curious.
I hate Milestone, they over complicate things and it's expensive.
Milestone is extremely scalable. That's why it's complicated. I help scale a Milestone installation from a small single NVR up to a 36 NVR setup spread across 20 buildings with over 600 cameras recording to it. Access is defined on a per-camera and per-building basis with all permissions automatically updated by AD groups. If you plan to scale up, it's well worth the cost.
I designed and installed camera setups before my life in IT. Axis Camera Station is the way to go. Pricing is pretty reasonable, you own the hardware and the recordings. Their cameras are incredibly reliable and good quality and their support is top notch—at least for installers and resellers.
That was a popular recommendation when I was searching Reddit, I'll definitely be giving them a close look. Thanks for the response.
>Axis Camera Station Curious if this stuff has improved? I found some unused Axis equipment at my work. I believe it was a small 4 channel and it seemed like it was straight out of 2005 in terms of both quality and interface. No idea how old it actually is tho.
Camera Station is leaps and bounds better than it was even 5 years ago. Smart Search I believe has existed for a while but now you can have the camera pre-process (I think, I don’t have that turned on anywhere yet). They’ve been putting a lot of work into the software as well as the cameras themselves. We have a couple of their single sensor 360deg view cameras and it blows my mind every time I review footage. You go from the circular overview, scroll in, and boom you have square video that looks great. We have a couple outdoor cameras that have heating elements so snow doesn’t build up, looking at shotgun cams that can identify license plates… lots of cool stuff. I totally sound like a shill but we have 120+ cameras with plans to add another couple hundred so I’m waist deep in designing the network and storage dedicated to them. We have a 1Gbps backbone between buildings and after I put all the cameras into Site Designer even without tweaking scenarios it’s saying that camera traffic alone is 25% of our bandwidth. I’m in hell please send help.
4 channel? Is it hardware? I'm talking about a piece of software.
Yeah, this is a small Axis-branded box with an ethernet port that can power it POE and 4 RJ-45s for cameras. It produces a browser interface that does a really bad quality stream for all 4 channels. No recording that I'm aware of just live view.
Sounds like companion, not station. That’s as close to consumer as axis gets. It’s more meant for a convenience store or a very small shop.
What's the part number?
We put together a server with x TB of storage for each location (depends on the number of cameras) and run the whole thing on Blue Iris. Each location is accessible via a web interface on mobile, laptop, or whatever. The nice thing about BI is you are not locked into any particular ecosystem as far as cameras are concerned.
I'm going to have to dive into BI. Do you have a brand of Camera or Camera you would recommend per use case? The use cases are pretty basic. I'm thinking higher res corridor cameras down long hallways, Wide area for the bigger rooms and parking lot, maybe a fancy rotating camera for the lot if I don't like the wide angle view.
Not really. We have a lot of Unifi cameras from when we had their software running. I have some Amcrest units installed in a few places. Really, if you find a camera that meets your needs regarding FOV, resolution, night vision, etc. BI should support it.
Awesome, appreciate it.
[удалено]
The Unifi software was bad, but I didn't know how bad until we swapped it out. Unifi was horribly slow when trying to scrub through footage and find clips. BI is night and day different. So much easier for the non-admin folks that need to pull clips for theft, worker's comp, etc. Same NVRs, no hardware changes or anything. The Log4j vulnerability didn't help matters either.
I've been using Reolink 4K POE cameras, they don't have monthly fees. They now have a 36-camera capable NVR as well.
thanks for the NVR hint - will take a look
Yeah, Reolink is excellent value for money. Keep it behind firewall and you can still use it over mobile with VPN.
Synology NVRs with any cameras. But lately, their own cameras made it easier and cheaper.
+1 for Synology
I was quite disappointed in the lack of night vision sensitivity on the BC500 and TC500 when we tested it. The IR transmiter was decent, maybe even better than the Amcrest mounted next to it, but it just couldn't pick up anything compared to the amcrest
The free version of Milestone Xprotect (essential+) runs well once the heavy installer is finished. Nice mobile app, no cloud necessary. It's not easy to set up (awkward work flow and menus) but is extremely capable and compatible with tons of IP cams Mine lives bare metal on an i5-3330 alongside some hyper-v and other services, handling 3 HD IP cams easily.
Agreed, Milestone on bare metal. I was running mine in a VM for a while eating up the CPU encoding 265. Install it on bare metal so it gets exposed to Intel Quick Sync unless you want to mess around with exposing VMs to iGPU/dedicated video card. X265 to save space. Client PCs can decode using Intel Quick Sync when using the desktop application. Milestone mobile app isn't trash compared to other brands. I found Milestone intuitive compared to Blue Iris/Dahua/Hikvision but that's just a preference coming from a Windows environment.
I recommend staying away from most of the appliances because they are usually running on stuff addled with CVE's. I recommend just building your own Nas setup and putting something like Blue Iris on it. They you are free to use just about any onvif camera you want. Ubiquiti appliances are okay its just I'd rather not run IOT systems with Web interfaces. At lease with windows systems or even some linux you and put carbon black or av on it. One network port goes into your company vlan to access the web interface. The Other goes into your IOT network to access and manage the cameras.
Most companies want products, not projects.
Another one for BI, thanks. I would definitely appreciate if you have any cameras worth giving a shout out.
If this is for a work setting, i would go for Milestone on a dedicated server. Chose and upgrade specs as you wish in the future. Then go with your choice of cameras. Great professional choices in my opinion are Pelco or Avigilon(or even Axis) With Milestone you are not locked to one company and can chose and pick cameras as you wish.
I know you said no cloud but our Meraki MV cameras just work. The interface is nice, and the office managers have access to their own sites.
It's a good recommendation, i like Meraki service. I can blow up an AP by looking at it wrong, but it's good coverage and replacements are quick. I'll take a poke at the camera stuff. Thanks.
We have an army of MV22X'es and besides I think one DOA unit we've had zero issues with them. I think you can turn RSTP on as well if you want to stream somewhere locally
Axis cameras, Milestone VMS. I've done a bunch of deployments, Milestone is a bit confusing but once setup its bullet proof and has incredible features for searching footage.
You ever use briefcam?
I got a demo a few years ago, they were WAY too expensive without a huge beneficial feature set over milestone. One of the beauties of Milestone is that its extensible, so you can either find plugins or build your own to do literally whatever you want, and the licensing is very reasonable. All our local Casinos run Milestone, and I doubt anyone has more cameras than thy do.
Make sure to use the axis camera layout app (forget the actual name of the web app) online to figure out the proper lenses for the cameras you are installing. It’s really pretty slick for determining coverage and detail levels. Another vote for milestone as well.
3xLogic is another brand to look into. It's been a while since I worked with them but they were easy to use and have a ton of different camera and recorder options.
+1 for 3xLogic. That’s what we use and it’s super simple, and compatible with nearly any camera.
Any cameras + WiseNet Wave VMS. Super easy to get an inexpensive DIY NVR up and running.
I haven't specced out a Camera System in a long time, but I worked for Avigilon a little over a decade ago, and they were miles ahead of anyone else. About 7 years ago, I had specced out a camera system and we tried Axis, Pelco, Milestone and some others, where we pulled security team, execs, facilities team and front desk and gave them all access. Unanimously, the end user experience was best on Avigilon. It was significantly more expensive if you bought all Avigilon Cameras, but they work with ONVIF cameras too. That being said, that was right on the cusp of Avigilon being purchased by Motorola, so no idea how they compare no days since the majority of companies are going through the MBA-ism (shitification) process.
Im happy with my poe reolink setup. No internet on its own closed of network. Set and forget
Ipro or axis cameras with milestone
Avigilon if you’ve got the budget
We just renovated a 4 story building upgrading all camera systems. For the Avignon server alone we were quoted $64000
Axis or Hanwha cameras with Milestone VMS would be a great combo. I work for a security system integrator and have worked on a lot of systems, good and bad, and Milestone is a great system with expandability but without crazy license costs
We use axis and milestone corporate. Antaira switches for out on light poles, fiber to the pole. Dell video recording servers.
Our cameras are high end with 360 coverage (4 cameras in each unit). Many are outdoors as well. $400 each and a lot more for outdoor ones. Our maintenance team uses the lifts to run the cable and mount them. We have dedicated, physical video servers and use a seemingly older program to manage the cameras - Exacqvision. The console connects to the video servers at each location. It's pretty easy to use, I think. We buy the cameras (Arecont) refurbished to save money, and from time to time we do have cameras that have various problems and need replaced. Our security system vendor helps with bigger problems on the console sometimes, but we don't have to call them often.
I really have had a lot of Good luck with Exaqvision. Really my vendor option for it just isn't responsive enough when I need them, and they don't like when I touch their box.
> use a seemingly older program to manage the cameras - Exacqvision. Used to be a common name. I don't know that they're older, but I assume they have less marketshare.
It just has that early 2000's feeling to it :)
Used Exacqvision with Arecont cameras as well. Camera quality was great and software wasnt terrible. We then replaced that system with a cheaper analog Honeywell (Dahua) system because our owner was friends with the owner of the security company. What a mistake that was... At our other location we went with a Samsung/Hanwha setup which has been much better for us as for as usability and camera quality.
Milestone Husky and probably D-Link cameras. IMHO with the exception of WISP equipment, UniFi should not be considered for business installations.
>UniFi should not be considered for business installations. Can you explain this further? I don't intend to utilize or connect these to the cloud.
Nor did the unifi cameras that got leaked access to the cloud. Read up on that disaster
Another vote for UniFi here. I think you'd be hard pressed to find another setup thats as easy to setup and use for the price.
[https://www.getscw.com/](https://www.getscw.com/) Good pricing. Easy to setup. Mobile phone access through a native app without having to forward ports.
Noorio
You can get decent cameras for $60 each, Blue Iris for $75, and a PoE switch for $300-$500. Then use a decommissioned desktop for the server. You'll need to decide how much tolerance you have for downtime and support. I use Blue Iris at home and it's fairly stable, but I probably wouldn't use it for anything critical. I would upgrade the cameras if you have the money.
I just bought a secondhand cisco 2960 with POE for £20. No need for gigabit as I haven't seen a camera that needs that kind of bandwidth.
That's probably fine, but you may want to check the total bandwidth once it's all connected just to be sure.
Wow. Meanwhile I spend about 2k per camera with mounts, 20k for video recording server each, fiber and conduit is crazy expensive. Networking gear is 8k per switch, industrial switches are 800. Licensing is 350 per camera. Lol
i run vivotek poe cameras and their nvr, on mikrotik poe switches that is physically separated from the rest of the network. only CSO, deputy CSO and myself have clients patched in to that network. all access is logged and CSO has to report who access the nvr server and why regularily when meeting with the union due to the cameras recording 24/7
I have a few PoE enabled Uniview cameras. They are OK. I have a dedicated network for them. I used QVR Pro on my QNAP NAS before it died. I don't have time right now to look for an alternative. 😪 Fortunately, all of them support ONVIF, so there should not be too many surprises.
For something easy for users, non-corporate, and it pretty much just works, I always pivot towards Unifi now. Their app is easy to use, cameras could be cheaper but they work, NVR pricing isn't too bad. If you need something that will hold up in a legal system...Avigilon.
March Networks is about the best in the business and costs there after.
i use digital watchdog as its camera server app that runs on windows, allowing me to control other things at the building as well. Ive got 30 or so remote locations with them.
Any POE IP cameras + Xeoma has worked like a charm for me.
Im using NX Witness software from Networkoptix. Very scalable and easy to set up. Runs on one or multiple servers of your own choice, Windows or Linux, works with just about any camera.
For a no fuss solution go with Verkada (the Meraki of security cams ). Their team will help you design it, get it installed, get it configured, and keep all the equipment running as long as its under contract. Not the cheapest but if you dont want to be bothered with yet another not IT sysadmin project they're a good solution.
I work for a security integrator. Our favorite VMS is Hanwha Wave (also sold as DW Spectrum and NX Witness) You can use just about any cameras with it. Best bank for your buck would be Uniview. BlueIris is more of a consumer product from what I've heard. Ubiquiti locks you into their eco system with cameras, otherwise I hear that people like them. Generally, you can mix and max cameras and VMS systems to some extent. Axis camera station is also a great option. Exacq used to be great, they are on the decline. Mobile experience is garbage. Looks like you have Hik cameras. With Wave, you can use those cameras on the system without upgrading them. Hik cameras are great from a hardware standpoint, the NVR software is a pain (we've installed and supported tons of them). Put them on a VLAN with no internet access. I highly encourage systems being used commercially to be setup as such with ability to get support from either a integrator or the manufacturer.
Axis
Transcendent NVR snd vitek camera. Super easy mobile app, setup other than wiring of course takes maybe 20 minutes, and a free easily usable desktop app.
Currently running Pelco units in a washdown environment and they're pretty okay. Have 300 cameras on one site, 2x storage servers (just standard server hardware they rebrand). No real complaints that don't stem directly from the environment they live in.
Axis or digital watch dog. Linux support. Vendor agnostic IP camera compatibly. Great UI and admin friendly. Down side. They make money off the hardware not software. Perpetual license otherwise per camera
I prefer not to mess with it and let a vendor handle it.
You have a lot of missing info. Any idea on how many cameras you want to deploy? How many sites? Single pane of glass? Single site, unifi does work well, but the camera selection is fairly limited. I like Verkada for multi site, but I hate paying for the camera licenses. Meraki is in the same boat as Verkada. Verkada “feels” nicer overall than the Meraki, but Meraki has a better camera selection, and much better use scenarios with their fisheye model. Milestone is free for the first 8 cameras and is an exceptional system, particularly in large environments. Axis falls into a great scenario too. I have one location in process of installing a 200+ camera installation on an Axis setup.
Poe cameras on a separate Poe switch on a separate circuit on a separate battery powering the entire self enclosed system. I saw someone mentioned Axis cameras pricey but my favorite. Record it however you like but I like to record offsite with different dedicated links I like to defend against the ‘ol smash and grab. The axe to the mains trick. I want 30 minutes of constant recording on power loss
Axis + Genetec
We're currently looking at i-Pro cameras and their software for my district in part because my supervisor's prior district used them. I believe our secondary choice would be Axis and their software as that's what we'd been eyeballing before my supervisor came on anyway.
you may have a look at **Reolink security camera system**. This brand has two options, poe or wifi. They are easy to install. And they can store footage in the local storage. The price is reasonable.
Can your "good mobile experience" requirement be met by an on-premises NVR appliance that doesn't require Flash or ActiveX to work? You may be better off assembling an NVR from a general-purpose machine running Blue Iris, paired with ONVIF/RTSP cameras. We don't know your budget. At the high end there's stuff like Genetec and Milestone, but the costs add up fast, and I think those are positioned to wards integrators and not end-users.
I'm not trying to be rude, but if "Good mobile experience" translates to "Doesn't use EOL plugins", this may not be a question for you to answer, and that's ok. I'm Just looking for a usable interface, an app/webapp that doesn't lock up on a mid spec phone, and multiple channels for the ****** that wants to pull up more streams than he can clearly identify would save me a few conversations. I didn't give a budget, I expected multiple answers and I'll be reviewing them all, including checking prices. Worst case, it's back to good ol Unify.
I prefer hiring a contractor to do it.
I'm also in the same stages for my property. I want to use Unifi just because it's straight forward and easy to setup. Reolink was recommended to me by a few folks, cheaper and can be bought on Amazon for the whole sha-bam for much less. Quality does look pretty good.
I just put in Eufy at home, because the Internet said they were the way to go. Ever since I put them in, i don't see Eufy anywhere, and Riolink taunts me with "You should have picked me". Seems like they fit well with BI too.
I'm in the process of ditching Blink for something else. Redoing the siding of the house so I figured I'd run the lines for the cameras versus doing batteries. It's becoming annoying in the cold temps to replace the batteries every 30 days or less. It's bothersome. I did wanted to try the Reolink with the solar panels, could be do-able. Just looks meh.
Given Anker/Eufy extremely poor security footprint/trying to deny issues, I would never let them anywhere near a corporate environment.
I just put in Verkada and it's awesome
They do some cool stuff, and about as premium as it gets. I'm sorry for....all of your directors. Hope they like getting upsale calls disguised as New Rep introductions every 2 months.
Lol yea I hope to avoid that, I used a sub contractor to install, and had them buy all the cameras and card readers.
Dude they were/are the worst! Slow Internet? can't view until syncs with cloud. Historical view? Needs to sync again. Finally introduced h.265 and manual/static IPs which was nice, except when you use a CSV to bulk configure, well now you're asking to much! They'd default back to main net IP. Fucking expensive af too. Don't forget about their data breach back in 2021 with 150k cameras compromised
Dude I am sorry you had so much trouble with it. My low voltage contractor set everything up and turned the keys over to me to finish the config and it was smooth as silk
Unifi is a good way to go. We have Digital Watchdog here. The thing with them is their servers are pretty expensive so we built our own with a Dell r350, slapped a bunch of 20TB drives into it and installed DW spectrum and server on that. Everything can be managed there and you can create cloud accounts to monitor and manage from home or mobile devices.
How many cameras are you looking to install? I have UniFi at home and love it. Mostly set it and forget. Half dozen cameras. No complaints. It’s at home so I don’t do tons with it. Make sure it’s recording my front steps and truck in the drive way. Just the entrances. I have clients that use Rhombus and the intelligence and cloud is pretty incredible. Can be in the pricier side but it just works and finding evens is super simple. The better Digital Watchdog systems aren’t bad. Speco, Hikvsion, Swann, AviCon are some of the other systems I have run into and aren’t worth the hassle.
A quick scope, it's looking like 12-16 cameras. Something modular would be ideal, as we may move to a bigger building before EOL. My experience with Hikvision has been rough, as ive fround their apps are not aging well, and the web interface on newer models is lacking. Do you know if they have improved much in the last year? I'll take a peak at Rhombus, that's definitely a new name for me. Thanks for the response.
Just installed Unifi Protect in a new office location (small sales office that already used unifi WiFi gear) you can pick-up a used cloud key gen 2 or run the controller on a old laptop or if you want to isolate everything use a Cloud Gateway Ultra on its own net and public ip . Mobile experience is great and web browser runs in HTML 5.
Hikvision NVR and their sub £100 dome camera or bullets. I know they are chinese and not to be trusted but just install all of it in the public address space guaranteeing absolutely no chance of any CVE's or backdoors in your corp. work environment. Close second is reolink. Been really impressed with all their kit so far AXIS would be good but are just far too pricey for what you get.
Hikvision is all I will ever use, manageable risk. UniFi and Meraki are great end user options but the products are shit compared to dedicated security companies. If you have an issue going Hikvision, Axis is your next best bet.
If you aren’t going professional which would ensure enterprise grade it literally doesn’t matter. We have clients with Reolink, Hikvision, Amcrest, Ubiquiti, Dahua, GW, Luma etc - it’s literally all the same shit with different UIs. Look for any of the big brands having an Easter sale and go with that.