Megapixel IP Cam Installations

I have some Arecont AV5155DN -5 Megapixel cameras which pull a good bit of bandwidth i noticed. I was wondering if anyone has worked with large arrays of cameras or even "Machine Vision" megapixel cameras and PfSense? Since they are so bandwidth intensive i am tempted to physically separate them into their own dedicated network. Anybody give some real world numbers on IP cameras and networks. They sell some "surround video" cameras which tie 4 ea. 5 megapixel cameras into one ethernet cable. Anyone running multiples of these?? 20 megapixels per camera is alot…Now i see a newer 40MP Version..

http://www.arecontvision.com/product/SurroundVideo+Series/AV20185DN#KeyFeatures

kejianshi

You can't address them individually?

I have a few scattered here and there and access them via vpn. 1 IP gets 1 camera for me.

Or you can attach them to a computer that manages them and uses software to compress and stream the images to reduce the bandwidth.

There is no video compression with your cams?

That cam supports:

H.264 (MPEG4, Part 10)
Motion JPEG

I'd go with H.264

Yes you can separate the streams. The point being they are now cramming 4 cams down one pipe, albeit Gig-e and that is newer development. Plus 40 megapixels -here&now- we are talking alot of bandwidth? Is Gig-E routing enough. I see the dramatically lower framerates on the 40MP so maybe same dataflow just bigger frame…

Was wondering about the motion sensing and capture features. In the past i worked with Avermedia NV6xxx and even with the death of analog cameras their software adapted to ethernet inputs and their software was well refined and they have nice I/O standard issue.

Fast-forward and now we have camera software AV200 that is free from Arecont and usable without the frills.... Is there anything else out there descent and not expensive?? I have used Blue Iris and it works great. Would like to separate from Windows soon. XP is dying. Zoneminder has been on my working wish list but every time i try it it is lacking and un-intuitive.

Hope this is not stray off the pfSense topic too much.

kejianshi

Its going to depend on your frame rate and compression settings.

It would be nice if the built in firmware would let you input a simple max bandwidth and adjust the compression and loss accordingly.

I have some small scale installations and i know i am really surprised how hot the single cameras get. I actually have been building custom enclosures for the AV5115DN and it gets so hot i can't believe many electronics could last long at that temp. I have had one go faulty -so i dove inside. Turns out the Day/Night motion wheel thing in front off image sensor had a wire pinched underneath a heatsink. Not good sign for made in the usa. The engineering inside looked solid and rugged. Thinking of running one without body to let it breathe. They look great image-wise. All the old analog lenses now have new lease on life.

And how about the Synology solution.
Put the camera stuff right on the NAS.

http://forum.synology.com/wiki/index.php/User_Reported_Compatible_IP_Cameras

Was even thinking this might be a good way to use visualization.

Currently:
Need Windows box for motion software capture AV200 or BlueIris
FreeNAS/Nas4free box for storage
pfSense routed network.

Maybe install multiple -4 port Gig-E POE cards with FreeNAS and Windows visualized…Areconts cameras directly attached. No real routing needed? Windows would assign IP's and NAS is ISCSI or should i consider third virtual machine with pfSense?
Keep the cameras at max POE cable length i know.

Sound feasible? Worthy approach?

I leaning twords Xen? Good or bad?
Not a lot of custom hardware that need passing thru so should be OK?

Thanks for your help

Could bite my tongue and buy Windows Storage Server and avoid the NAS altogether. Can Windows Storage Server networking hold up OK with 12 gig-e streams at full load. That is the question…..Blue Iris can holdup but in need of LOTS of help CPU wise. I haven't stress tested AV200 yet.

kejianshi

I'm not sure about those cameras or how many you can stream or processor required. I never stream more than 1 at a time due to bandwidth constraints. Mine are not open to public so when I'm not logged into one, its not burning bandwidth. The way I do it, I could support as many cams as I like on a little bandwidth.