CCTV IP NVR Help

[RTi78]

Hello,

 

I've been asked to look into CCTV. We would only have 2-3 cameras to start and add more later.

 

I'm looking at Hikvision and Dahua NVR systems. They have PoE ports at the back of the NVR..

 

My question is: Does each camera have to be cabled back to the NVR or can we plug it into the nearest PoE switch on the network; and the NVR will detect it?

 

Thanks

[welshman]

We use software called BlueIris to manage our IP CCTV system. We have about 60 PoE cameras, each of which connects to its nearest PoE switch. We use static IP addresses for each camera and we then configure the BlueIris software to connect to those IPs.

[TMBS]

We've just had a Hikvision system installed and use their software (iVMS) to view on PCs. The IP cameras can be plugged into the nearest switch but it does mean that traffic will run across your network. I'm not an expert but I think ideally you should have them all running into the NVR.

[ChrisH]

With the Hikvision it will have a number of ports it supports and these can usually be a physical port or a network connected camera, so say it is 8 physical ports it can connect a combination of 4 direct and 4 through the network. Check the particular models though!

[welshman]

We run our IP CCTV traffic on its own VLAN so camera's can be connected to any data switch. Obviously the switch-port that the camera is connected to must be added to the necessary VLAN, and your VLAN trunk ports must be configured to allow trunking of the VLAN traffic.

[RTi78]

Thanks for the replies. If it's being connected to the nearest switch would there be any noticeable performance issues across the network?

[ChrisH]

I think with a camera connected to a 100 meg port at HD resolution it is usually about 8-10% on ours so it isn't noticeable on the back bone (currently a gig). We have about 30 cameras but I do try and run them back to the NVR as we have them spread around in secure locations.

[welshman]

There are many variables that could affect this so I can only speak for my setup. Our 60 (or so) cameras doesn't cause any network bandwidth/availability problems. We are 1Gbps throughout the network and all IP CCTV traffic is carried on its own VLAN (for security more than anything else).