Axis Doubles Edge Storage Size

JH
John Honovich
•Published Nov 15, 2012 00:00 AM
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While edge recording has quickly become one of the top trends in the industry, one of the biggest limitations is the maximum size of SD card storage supported. Most IP cameras, including Axis, maxed out at 32GB SD cards even though significantly larger cards are widely available commercially. Now, as part of its next Axis Camera Companion release, Axis is doubling support to 64GB. In this note, we dig into the technical details and analyze the impact this may have.

Technical Details

Previously, Axis camera SD card support was SDHC only, limited to 32GB. While Axis is not offering full SDXC support (which would theoretically support up to 2TB), they are certifying most Axis cameras to support up to 64GB, beyond the SDHC standard.

Two requirements exist:

  • Firmware version must be 5.40 or higher. This covers pretty much all the cameras released in the past few years (see list).
  • SD card must be formatted for ext4 which can be done in ACC setup wizard or via the camera's web browser

While 64GB will be supported with those conditions, 128GB will not be. However, 128GB is theoretically possible and may be approved in the future.

This support is for edge storage in general and applies whether using ACC or 3rd party solutions like Genetec Trickling or Exacq Edge.

Application Impact

Moving from 32GB to 64GB storage helps a lot. A 32GB SD card per camera is equivalent to a 500GB 16 channel DVR, which is extremely limiting today, especially for MP cameras. By contrast, at 64GB per camera, it is comparable to a 1TB 16 channel DVR. While this is still not a huge amount, the increase makes a significant practical difference.

With 64GB, we expect most users will now easily be able to do motion recording for more than a month with megapixel resolution and at moderately high frame rates (10-15fps). Given the lower end, more basic needs of the ACC target market, this should be more than enough for most. Of course, ACC can be used/connected directly to a low cost NAS for even more storage.

Finally, the increase in storage price is fairly modest. Currently, 32GB cards cost $20-$30 USD while 64GB are $50-60 USD, enabling them to be justified in most applications looking at edge storage.

Competitive Positioning

This move further strengthens ACC - an offering that has gained a lot of momentum in the half year since it was released. While ACC still has some limitations in playback, export and remote access, doubling storage is another bullish indicator that Axis is seriously driving this forward as a major disruptor to traditional VMS software.