I know most systems can report outages via email and true VMS can report more detailed failures like HDD failures etc. I think even Dahua can report camera and HDD failures.
I am talking more about confirming everything is recording, time is correct, image quality is good day/night, etc.
We notice most of our clients are not paying attention to these things, and they do not realize anything is wrong until it is too late.
Is there any type of database or reporting method you use to log this?
We do a true visual inspection two times a day for the first 90 days after installation.
We encourage our customers to setup a DL in their Email environment and configure the Email in the NVR/VMS to alert them to any issues. We configure their firewall to allow a secure SMTP message out only from the NVR device etc.
If a customer pays for a proactive service plan we have a human verify camera views, recording integrity, and overall system health for 24 to 60 months 7 days a week. About 50 percent of our customers opt for that option, closer to 75 percent if they don't have an in-house IT department. We tried relying on NVR / Camera notifications for tampering, scene changes, system failures but have been burned too many times by those systems not working correctly. We trust our fellow teammates who do the true inspection every day. It may hurt our bottom line some, but our customers did not choose to partner with us because we were the cheapest option. We don't want those types of customers.
Anyone can sell cameras, but we focus on building a partnership.
We have maintenance contracts with some of our clients that include semiannual checkups. That's when we'll look at every camera, look at what's being recorded, make sure the IR illuminators are working, make sure the server OS is updated, etc.
There's a checklist that we use each time. It's mainly for telling the client, "Hey we did something for you," but it also gets filed away.
Beyond that, we've got network/server monitoring programs running all the time, so if there's something major going on (VMS program crashing, disk space running out, etc), we'll have advanced warning.
And this is all in addition to the VMS program's daily email reports.
As part of a Monthly service contract program we do weekly checks on the system and scan of each camera on the system to verify proper operation...Actually we do it every other day for those on the program however we are a smaller scale integrator and more of a niche player who provides a more detailed set of services of course at higher price then most...Our customers really appreciate it and we have gotten quite a few referrals and add ons at sites because of us doing this regularly...
Good luck
Dennis
http://www.checkmysystems.com
I know this is an old post, but I wanted to point you to my company's website. We specialize in these daily (or multi-day) checks, day or night. We would be happy to let you demo it.
Are you doing any check of the server? Recording status? Recording period?
We query the server to get to the cameras, so if the server is unreachable we would know it and report that all its cameras are down.
We do not currently address the recording specifically. However, our system would be running each day (or multiple times a day) so you would know to look for any problems around that time if there is a view issue or a feed-down notification.
In case anyone chances on this post: we also check the recording history (e.g., is the camera currently recording and does it have a certain number of days of recordings).
Ask questions and get answers to your physical security questions from IPVM team members and fellow subscribers.
