Selecting A VMS For Short Term Events?

Big is questionable from a concurrent camera count standpoint - up to couple of dozen small event sites are online at 1 time, but less than 64 cameras.

I would agree that at the edge appliances work well for local viewing and recording, the challenge becomes federating the sites (somes a site may only have 1 camera) together into on common operating picture and centralizing recordings.

Synologies architecture seems interesting for these scenerios.

I'd recommend looking into "Edge" solutions. Exacq Edge is one option. Since the license is tied to the cameras MAC, and runs on the camera itself, moving cameras around shouldn't require wasted license expenditures. The cut sheet for Exacq Edge says it works with their "Enterprise" level software, which is supposed to allow for username management across multiple devices. Enterprise also has provisions for LDAP and Active Directory Integration. We haven't used it in your context so I'd recommend testing it first.

Your next best option would be any VMS that licenses to the server MAC and doesn't care what the camera MAC is. Exacq works this way (except for edge). Basically, if you buy 16 channels for a particular server, you can trade out cameras at will without needing additional license keys. You are going to be wasting some money on licensing if you take a server from a 16 camera site to a 2 camera site. But at least you won't be trying to keep specific cameras with specific servers.

My recollection of OnSSI's licensing scheme was that you needed to get a new key every time you added or swapped a camera. Licenses were tied both to the MAC of the server, and the MAC of the connected cameras. That seems like the worst possible licensing scheme for your setup.

Well to throw in my two bits here: my first suggestion from a usability standpoint would be 3xLogic Vigil... since I'm extremely familiar with it and I think it would fit all your criteria, including being easily configured by an on-site tech, and offering great central management with a fully-featured Windows client app that can show cameras from multiple sites all together, and the "RapidStream" feature would be handy if you're monitoring multiple sites over WAN.

It also doesn't tie specific cameras to a license, so if you bought, say, a 16-channel Hybrid system, you could plop that in any site and connect and combination of any brands of new or old IP and analog cameras, and be off to the races.

The downside is, it's not a cheap system. Not HORRENDOUSLY expensive either, but not cheap.

My other suggestion - and it may not be a popular one - would be Dahua-made (and sold under various other names outside China) DVRs, NVRs, or hybrids... again, extensive remote management, and viewing and playback of multiple sites using both main and sub-streams via the PSS client, direct configuration of both recorders and Dahua camera from PSS, which gives you the ability to connect to cameras directly from the same interface on small sites where you may only need one or two cameras and don't require a recorder.

If you use one of the NVRs with built-in PoE, cameras plugged into them will automatically grab an IP from the internal DHCP server (assuming the cameras are set for DHCP), and the system will find and add all Dahua and most ONVIF cameras with a couple of clicks - just click Search, click Select All, click Add, and you're done. Or drop the recorder on site, give it an internet connection (recorders support UPnP), plug in your cameras, give the WAN IP to the person on the remote site, and walk away - it can all be configured from PSS.

Best part is, it's a reliable yet extremely cost-effective setup and if something gets broken (being moved around to various environments, including outdoor), it won't cost a fortune to replace. And again, no per-camera license fees, and certain no tying of camera licenses to specific cameras.

Downside is, it's not the most user-friendly interface, with a lot of Engrish, BUT... once you're familiar with it, it's not bad to work with, and the configuration is pretty consistent across all the recorders and cameras.

keeping a copy of your various events seems to be of importance. One suggestion is to find a VMS that is connection based and not MAC based, license the VMS for your largest channel need and use a imaging software to create an image of the disk. Then purchase a new disk for each festival/event, reimage the new disk, remove it after the event and repeat for each event. A disk or even two will only run you ~100.00 for a 1TB drive. Cheap all in all. my 2 cents...

How many days is short term? I ask because several VMS offer 30-60 day demos and as many as 99 channels.

In addition...is there a need to keep the data after the event?

Milestone/Onssi has 30 days for 8 channels (10 maybe?)

VideoInsight allows 60 days for 99 channels.