CCTV server reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Oblec · 2023-10-06 10:54 Hi everybody, i partially own several companies and with quite a few real estates, shopping centers, tenancy & public garages. I'm quite tired of having people setup camera equipment that is way to expensive and quite frankly hardly works. We use Truevision DVR in each building complex that requires cameras. Each DVR is connected to all the cameras in that building complex via ip. So each building has their own ip to that dvr which is accessed via Truevision Navigator and setup via a website. They are horrendously slow. (100/100 mbit fiber) server cant handle it just. Enough with the chit chat, i wanna replace this with something better. Im guessing i can't just have one server to route the cameras? Or atleast in terms of security that not the best option? Help ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-10-06 11:02 Hire someone. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Oblec · 2023-10-06 11:06 Why would i do that? I find this fun to do on the side? It's my own company, already have access to most of the stuff... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-10-06 11:18 I meant hire someone to give you these answers, to give you advice. If you want to actually set it up yourself etc thats fine of course. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jmarmorato1 · 2023-10-06 11:31 Have you looked at Milestone XProtect? You would setup one recording server at each location, and can view each server separately through its webapp or the mobile app, and have a central server where recordings are copied or live cameras are monitored. Seems like a good option for your use case ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Oblec · 2023-10-06 11:47 I don’t want them separately, i need everyone at one simple website. Where i can create users. Permission and able to save, export and even add plugins. Mobil is definitely a plus. Something like zoneminder, ispy, blue iris etcetc Open source and can support pretty much all cameras out there. I don’t have that big of experience ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Oblec · 2023-10-06 11:48 It’s not a very difficult question if you setup or even used any of the applications i’m looking into. Professional advice isn’t always the best ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-10-06 11:50 Good luck! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Oblec · 2023-10-06 11:53 You not very helpful? Have you considered contributing to the community or are you gonna piss on everybody? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-10-06 11:55 > Have you considered contributing to the community Never. Have you? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Oblec · 2023-10-06 11:56 wow ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-10-06 11:57 What is your problem now? You asked for advice, i gave you the advice to hire someone. You dont seem to like that advice, fine with me. But dont complain about people replying to your posts. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jmarmorato1 · 2023-10-06 12:01 You can have central monitoring / management with Milestone - users can login to the central server and view content (live and recorded) they have permission to access on the remote servers. You would create those accounts and permissions on the central server. I don't believe the users would know that there are more than the one central server - the software abstracts that away. They just have one login to a single mobile / web interface. (The mobile app is excellent - simple but very functional and not buggy) While it is possible to use milestone **only** in a central location, I would highly recommend against it if these are all separate buildings with their own internet service. The problem is that you are dependent on your internet connection to remain functioning for the cameras to record, and on your upload bandwidth to be sufficient to be constantly uploading the camera streams to the central location. Don't forget that you will need some upload capacity reserved for any other things happening on the network. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Oblec · 2023-10-06 12:03 I did hire people to do that, i was not satisfied with it. That’s my problem… ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Oblec · 2023-10-06 12:17 >Milestone It think closed source and license software is not the way to go ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jmarmorato1 · 2023-10-06 12:23 Milestone is closed source, but it will do what you need and do it well. I'm a big open source guy myself, but there are times that there isn't a closed source solution that will do what you need. This is one of those times. You're running a business that has a need for CCTV. Don't try to half-ass a solution. You can deploy milestone yourself to save money - you don't need a support subscription either. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Legitimate_Farm_3095 · 2023-10-06 12:42 do you have an IT team to implement and support this? if not - hire someone like the other comments mention, ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Legitimate_Farm_3095 · 2023-10-06 12:45 > Professional advice isn’t always the best i'm no longer in IT/tech support, but when i was i heard this a lot. my current job is very different but i still hear this nonsense about half the time when someone hires me or wants to hire me. and it's usually the person that has no idea what they are talking about that questions my professional advice ---------------------------------------------------------------------- philbike · 2023-10-06 13:03 I don’t have any camera or NVR solutions to suggest that are open source and not licensed but I have a background in what I think your limitation will be. The problem with doing a single server deployment is as @jmarmorato1 mentioned, is your security footage is at the mercy of your internet connections stability and bandwidth. If each camera has to individually stream over the internet to a central server, a lot of your internet bandwidth will fill with camera traffic and be less reliable in the situation your ISP does a software upgrade during your robbery. The only solution I have found that addressed this without having servers at each site would be Verkada. Their cameras have an SSD in each of them, and a cloud portal to access the cameras. So when you are actively looking at footage or live feeds, its streaming the footage through your ISP, but anything your not looking at is caching locally to each camera all the time. Low bandwidth, higher reliability, and centrally managed in a cloud portal. The licensing I am sure is whats going to hurt, but if you are looking to do the install yourself and not become a full time sysadmin, it might be worth a looksie. I am long awaiting the day that an open source solutions similar to this hits github, but I am sure it will be a good while away. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- airclay · 2023-10-06 13:20 [Shinobi](https://shinobi.video/) is a pretty popular option, but it has its own weird license ---------------------------------------------------------------------- stratiuss · 2023-10-06 13:35 I actually help lots of small businesses set up camera systems. I would avoid 1 central server as it will require upload bandwidth for every camera. Instead have 1 server at each site accessible over a web interface. If security is a big concern we can router the web interfaces to a single central PC via wireguard, otherwise if you are fine with the web interface login being the only security you can have them be remotely viewable from any device. Then again I do this professionally so maybe my advice isn't the best. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jkirkcaldy · 2023-10-06 14:44 You can do what you want *technically* but the day you find out it doesn’t work very well will be the day you need to review footage. I’d be tempted to throw a UniFi nvr in each building. But then you’re limited to using their cameras. But it would be a single pane of glass that users log into. If you do decide to go white box, do it at one location and test for a couple of months before you invest thousands in kitting each building out only to find out your solution doesn’t do something you want. I use frigate at home, but it’s not ready for business use in my experience. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- edwardcactus · 2023-10-06 15:13 Milestone is the way. Use it for multiple facilities at the company I work for. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-10-06 16:29 *But getting advice on reddit and using open source software is $FREEEEE* ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Oblec · 2023-10-06 18:19 None of the footage is very important or exciting. But good security is always important. Ofc i would not want one server for every. But it need to be able to view it in one interface. It have to be quick and not wait 5 minutes every time you decide you wanna watch 30 seconds before. Time is money ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Oblec · 2023-10-06 18:20 Im aware of that and i take my chances ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Oblec · 2023-10-06 18:21 That’s usually true but professional help often time fail to understand the value of time and money ---------------------------------------------------------------------- penguinmatt · 2023-10-06 19:24 I use Shinobi. It's great amd actively developed ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ConversationSimple65 · 2023-10-08 05:53 What about if you connect the separate servers to the main using a vpn server, so all of them are going to be at same network, speed will be affected a little bit but you can accomplish which security VPN server on the main location, then connect slave servers to that vpn