Greetings group,
I am looking for recommendations for a large (900+ locations) CCTV upgrade program. We currently have a mix of older DVR manufacturers and yes, still quite a few VHS locations. Each location would require 4-6 cameras (2 for POS, 1 rear area, 1 manager's area, 1 height strip (door jam/mullion camera) and potentially 1 outdoor (entrance area) camera. A couple of key points:
- Our network is currently very limited and our IT team prefers onsite storage versus bringing the video back to a central server
- We cannot currently support IP with our limited bandwidth but want to ensure we are scalable to IP in the future (hybrid?)
- We require 90 days+ retention (figuring on 1tb - 2tb HD)
- Requirements of the central management system include:
- Capacity to manage 1500+ DVRs/NVRs/Appliances etc
- Health alerts for cameras, hard drive etc
- Hierarchy (tree) capabilities by location etc - and ability to set up users with varying access to locations and features (live vs recorded etc)
- Enterprise wide firmware updates
- Easy and secure video export to Law Enforcement
- Additionally, we are interested in feedback regarding the use of 180 or 360 cameras in an analog environment (heard it can be effective but we are skeptical).
- Also interested in traditional retail type analytics - people counting, dwell time, customer present etc
We are currently looking at the typical group of manufacturers (AD, March, DM) but looking for suggestions on other traditional NVR manufacturers or other solutions to evaluate (Digital Watchdog? SmartVue? Exaqvision?) Anyone else we should be considering for a low cost, analog, yet scalable to IP and analytics.
Thanks in advance for your feedback.