Who Offers NVRs With Embedded PoE Switches?

Avtech 4 and 8 ch NVR has PoE switch.

Vivotek has NVR with PoE

Hikvision DS-760*NI-SE/P

Speco N*NSP

Speco also offers non ONVIF compliant NVRs with built in PoE switches, but... blah.

Dedicated Micros has the NVR MEDIA SERVER, with a 16 port PoE switch. I thought Axis had one, but maybe it was a mobile application I'm remembering and has since been discontinued.

I've used the HikVision one and I like it. Solid device with good feature set. If it's a small install and you use HikVision cameras it is as close to plug and play you can get. Creates it's own subnet... If you want.

John,

With complete disclosure, I can state FLIR, who I work for, does offer the entry level DNR204 and DNR208 Series NVR/POE. We also offer the DNR308 and DNR316 Series NVR/POE (only 8 POE ports). Coming soon will be 16 Internal POE Ports, but in the mean time we sell an 8 port POE switch with a separate uplink to solve the extra POE requirements.

A separate discussion could be "Why are they popular" and "Where do they apply." I can hear the crowds yelling "it fits the trunk slammer perfectly." Maybe so. I had a conversation with an IT Director recently who saw the value in these for his 100+ locations. Is that a trunk slammer sale?

Having the POE built in, which is usually powered by a separate supply than the NVR itself, reduces the amount of cabling required and simplifies the connectivity. I would suggest anyone installing these purchase an Extech CT-100 cable tester also (another self promotion as FLIR owns Extech). Cat5e cable seems to run about 70% or so of the cost of a Siamese RG59/18-2 cable. It's also easier to pull from my experience....and I ran a lot of RG59u in my life.

Having the ability to add cameras using the subscribers LAN is a bonus when cabling a large building and the IT department has already provided a decent back-bone. At that point the IT guy is usually involved and can manage addressing and routing for the less technical installers.

Let's face it, even an average 720 or 1080p image in decent lighting looks far superior on the customers HD flat panel monitor which is now cheap. So cheap that it is driving this change. When television was SD, Security could be SD, now that television is HD for almost all, Security has to be as well, even in the least demanding environments.

Fear kept many from embracing IP technology and these kits or packages remove most of the fear. Many of them are so simple they almost set themselves up. Cable the cameras, plug in the cameras and unit and watch the images appear. Just like an SD DVR but clearer. Less fear. Techs only need to walk through the easy setup sheets to make it accessible to the end user via a remote device such as Android / iPhone / PC and Mac. Those requirements are there even in a DVR these days.

One of the limitations of these low cost NVR solutions is still the bandwidth available throughout the unit. How many images per second and at what frame rate will be confusing to some or not clearly defined just like when DVR's first appeared. Which cameras are they compatible with will be another. Do the units share the network between the cameras and the NVR or are they separate? Does the unit Auto-Address the cameras?

In one of those separate discussions I will outline how an IT manager for 100+ locations found value in these systems for those who think it's only going to be popular for homeowners and "Stop and Rob's."

Greg

Dahua as mentioned above has a complete line. We distribute it locally here as a seperate business from our integration side, customers and installers both seem to really like the units, but 80% of sales are for homes, remaining 20% for small businesses. To me these products are aimed at bridging the gap from Analog to IP on the Q-See, Swann type deals, not sure if we'll see much of this on the enterprise level but would be interesting to see if Genetc, Avigilon & Exacq decide to start manufacturing integrated POE appliances.

Geutebruck has their new Netporter line which supports up to 16 PoE channels.

Netporter

We deal with both Dahua and Hikvision POE NVR's. Dahua was one of the first to start doing this and still better than any other I have seen.

The only downside to POE NVR's, atleast the ones I have dealt with, is that you cannot access the cameras web interface when the camera is connected to the embedded POE switch without doing some jimmy rigging. The internal POE switch has its own private subnet which is inaccessible to the outside world and this gives the system its plug and play features. Basically the cameras IP addresses will be on a different subnet than the NVR's This is real nice for end users who have no clue on how to setup IP cameras as it gives them the option to plug in the camera to the NVR and you get video a few seconds later. Its a downside to installers who like to "tinker" with all of the configurable settings an IP camera would have to offer.

Also, its kind of funky when mixing brands of cameras with POE NVR's. For example, if you tried to hook up an Axis camera to a Dahua POE NVR, you would first have to find out what the funky subnet format is of the internal switch is and then set your IP camera to that funky subnet on a seperate switch or router, and then plug it in to the POE NVR. Not exactly intuitive, but doable.

I'd prefer to atleast have the option of the internal switch to be a typical dumb switch without its own private subnet so the cameras IP's and the NVR IP can be on the same subnet.

Well there's always a trade off between ease of use and granular control. The best way to make something idiot-proof (or at least idiot-resistant) is to lock down all possible settings to prevent someone from changing the subnet or whatever to an incorrect value, crashing the entire system. Take Apple products. One reason it "just works" is most of the settings are locked down out of the box, so the chance of two weird settings conflicting with each other is severly reduced.

CBC/Ganz has an embedded NVR. Like some of the other ones mentioned, they embed an 8-port POE switch and then include an external 8-Port POE switch for the rest of the cameras. I am told that this is done because of the heat generated by embedding a 16 port POE switch, but I'm not sure on that.

Ganz PixelMaster Pro

@Rukmini....sorry for the delay in your answer. 2 months is extreme. They are not related products. The other post seemed resolved with the customer changing products. @John H.....processing is very important and very limited in the small units, expanded in the larger units. Amazingly it makes a difference in the live view. These systems are here to stay and good points were brought up about camera interoperability, hard drive options, APPS and ease if configuration. I also believe these will be starter systems for larger users and will help ease the transition to IP for those still installing Analog and have that customer that insists on a better image. There were a few other good points mentioned but they are usually best learned through the experience so I won't highlight them. Frankly they are a great way to introduce lower cost IP cameras to integrators that have their favorites already. The next question is going to be what more can be done to simplify an install and the inevitable customer changes and how good is the service from the manufacturer. These units represent low cost and convenience with reasonably good video. Of course I am absolutely biased as a manufacturer sales person so feel free to discount my comments as such.

We have evaluated a few POE PSE devices to integrate into the servers we design and build.

Some of them behave like a switch and present a single IP to the system while others present an IP from each of the ports.

The POE power aspect has been the tricky one to validate, but we have weeded out those devices that simply could not maintain the power out to several 9W IR cams.

The other thing to bear in mind is that these devices may be POE ModeA or ModeB from the PSE side as allowed by the spec. The cameras themselves must allow both modes to be called POE compatible. Note that the M12 connected cameras are NOT POE compliant because they only have 4 of the 8 wires coming in.