Best way to handle live view stations
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A quick bit about my system. I've bought all of the main components and am now getting it configured. I have 3 Dell servers, each with dual Xeon 4208 processors, 32 GB RAM, and 40 TB storage. I will be running 150 Cameras initially (eventually as many as 400). It will mostly be 4MP cameras, but I may run them at 1080 to help performance. I'm about to be testing some Digital Watchdog 16MP multi-sensor cameras, so there may be some of those too. I have also purchased six 16 channel Digital Watchdog Spot Monitors for live-view stations. There may also be anywhere up to another half-dozen desktop clients or mobile apps watching live video at any given time as well.
I'm trying to figure out the best way to run all of these live views that is the least taxing on the servers. Just the Spot modules would be pulling nearly 100 live camera views. Is that a challenge for the servers?
I can't find it on the spec sheet, but most cameras I've seen can handle at least 5 simultaneous streams. Should I have the Spot modules connect directly to the camera instead of a video server? The cameras also offer multicast. Is that the route I need to go?
Also, I've read that H.265 saves disk space over H.264, but uses more system resources to work with. Does this have an effect on this software?
Any advise you can provide is most appreciative!
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Official comment
Hi Johnathan Powell,
Seems like a decent set up you bought.
For 150 cameras the servers are more than powerfull enough.
For 400 cameras I would add another one and add 100 cameras to each server.
If you want to benefit from the failover feature, you could add another server, so you can offer 100% failover in case 1 server dies.Regarding the resolution, 1080p or 4 MP, for the server it is less relevant. Your specs can handle it. It would make more sense to reduce the framerate , 15 fps @ quality High is fine for cameras intended for identification or recognition. For camera intended for detection or monitoring, 5 fps @ quality Low will be fine. In general only for really specific uses case >15 fps @ quality Best is desired.
Regarding the number of streams you can pull per camera is not so relevant in this case since the server pulls the primary and secondary stream to the server and the clients pull the streams from the server(s).
Each server can provide up to 2000 TCP connections.
So the number of live cameras is strongly dependent on which cameras per client and on how many clients.
I can't give you any advice if you should pull the stream from the server or the camera to the Spot Module. I would make my life easy and pull it all from the server, so I don't have to use and set up multicast. But it depends on the calculation of the number of TCP connections what is the most viable approach.
I would recommend to reach out to Digital Watchdog since I suppose they know their equipment the best and can give you the best advice in this case.
Regarding H.265 vs H.264. For relatively static images with a minimum of movement, H.265 outperforms H.264 in regard to storage use. But when there is a lot of movement the difference aren't that great anymore. Also, and you are correct, not every camera handles H.265 pretty well, and we notice an increase in packet loss and buffer overflows on the camera side.
On the server and client side the effect isn't that great and there are no real objections to use H.264 over H.265 and vice versa.
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Oh wow, your response is packed with great information, thank you!
Reading over that TCP connections link, it looks like I'm worried a lot over nothing, and the servers can handle what I plan on doing with no problem. Should I set up clients to connect to different servers to spread the connections out, or will the servers do that themselves?
I did plan to add another server once I get to around 300 cameras. Thanks to your advise, I'll be adding two servers. This system is for my local county government, including two detention facilities. I'd like it to be as robust as possible.
Thank you again!
PS: I really wish there was a way for me to buy NX Witness branded software, or at least use my DW Spectrum Keys on the NX branded stuff. I feel your branding is more professional, and clean.
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Hi Johnathan Powell,
Dividing the load is always good. That being said, as long as you stay below the 2000 TCP connections per server you should be fine.
Regarding your PS. Unfortunately Nx Witness isn't available in the United States. Regarding the branding; such things are also personal. But do you know you can add your own background image to the software, so your customer will see your logo all the time?
More information about this subject can be found HERE. Be aware that these are local settings and need to be changed per client computer.
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