Happy New Year, This is my last rant on IPVM for all trunk slammers and design-o-saurs.
Since everyone is yapping about Mercury systems I thought I would be the DA(Deviant Advocate). Here is some brief, Beer felt notes along with some circles and sticks to indicate another approach to the all in one NVR kit, lenel(lol VMSer) /security slammer.
Most importantly, this is all in fun and I want you to have this perspective. So I will depict a simple MSP end-to-end ACS/VMS solution for a small customer that only needs 3-7 readers along with 5-12 cameras nationwide at 50 locations. The point is..BYON.
Build Your Own Network. Sell those IT services. This is just a generic model, it is simple dead network WAN. Here are some notes, diagram below.
For all of you MR50, MR52....RS-485 splicing add on boards. PFFT. Shame on you. The below is a proprietary system, it can easily be a Mercury platform(so everyone can compete on it). However it is just a thought, a simple system at the end of the year for all you mercury lovin nerds to hate on.
You will find the future of installation technicians is going to be IT. That dolphin splicing, can't wire a relay to save his life will no longer be sought after.
Before hating on proprietary systems, understand someone has to bring the alternative since the rest of the thread(s) here and elsewhere are usually mercury favored. Cheers, this 12 pack of tasty IPA is all but done and I will see you in 2019! (UD#5).
1. PACS runs entirely off LTE. LTE can be dual WAN such as Verizon, AT&T (failover redundancy).
2. Integrator maintenance performed via LTE, diagnostics, SMTP, SNMP, Firmware etc.
3. LTE network is private, the connections are PACS data source = NIC #2 of iStar Ultra Network and NIC #2 of local VMS server. Local VMS NIC #1 is the only remote connection to the Corp WAN, this is for streaming/accessing live/recorded video from the remote location.
4. This is for a small site, say 8 readers and 10 cameras. No massive VMS Xeon Gold needed to process 5-10 cameras. NAS storage is cheap and easy to build and the integrator should learn how to do it. It is an option rather than using an all in one unit or a VMS server building vendor.
5. Integrator manages the VMS, NAS, Private Network Switch, LTE routers, IP-ACMS, IP Cameras and all other devices added to the network.
6. Scale the system as needed. A local hardwired panel can be installed for elevators, gates, maglocks. A more powerful VMS server can be installed to support 100+ cameras, Analytics etc. Make sure all devices can be managed remotely down to power cycle reboot over the WAN via power strip or smart power supply modules, Lynx, Life Safety Power or Netbotz.
7. Add Raspberry Pi for more network diagnostics tools such as nmap or wireshark.
8. As the integrator scales into IT adding and supporting stronger firewall rules even further security configurations are possible, you just need to learn how to do it.