Who Offers NVRs With Embedded PoE Switches?

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.

Sentry360's new sentryEdge product has embedded PoE+, up to 16TB of storage, and is windows based so it works with any camera (with proper VMS support obviously).

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

John,

At Lanaccess (www.lanaccess.es), ONSAFE HM supports up to 16 IP cameras with a PoE integrated switch.

ONSAFE HM supports any ONVIF IP camera, and VAPIX from Axis cameras.

System powers the camera, detects the model, assigns an IP address and automatically configure available codecs. All cameras are configured with the same interface, so user doesn't need to access to each web camera interface.

Francesc

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.

John, Costar Video Systems has an embedded unit with POE switch. It is part of a new XDi product line. It supports 4, 8, 16, and 32 channels and has an 8 channel POE switch built in. They offer an 8 and 24 port POE switch to connect the remaining cameras.

I normally sell Enterprise deployments, but I jumped on the Hikvision bandwagon. Up until 4/30/14, they offer a 30% discount on their value lin e NVRs and cameras. I can not keep up with the $1500 sale of a 4 channel NVR (built in POE) and 4 x 1 MP IP66 cameras (42% margin drop shipped). I must say, I am very impressed with the client and mobile app that comes with this. Axis and all the others in the market, beware. All the Enterprise integrators may consider these systems for low cost low camera count solutions (especially for process monitoring). The cool thing is that all of the products are 3+ year warranty and the cameras are supported by most VMS offerings (which makes the $300 4 channel, $500 8 channel, and $800 16 channel NVRs with embedded PoE ) potential throwaway or Ebay items for entry to enterprise deployments.

@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.