Spec me a CCTV System

Hi all.

Seems like everyone has a great depth of CCTV knowledge on this thread so I thought why not ask you guys.

I have three Reolink RLC-810A cameras sitting and waiting to be installed at my new home. I want to put two facing the front and one facing the garden.

I would like to use the PoE feature on the cameras as I have 3 access points with ethernet ports located at various locations in the property.

I want to be able to view the cameras from my phone and be able to record 24/7 continously with alerts for motion. I am not sure whether i need a NVR/DVR but I saw a YouTube video of someone using their desktop PC with BlueIris to record footage? Is this possible and does that mean I need to keep the PC on 24/7?

I'm a complete novice but would like to attempt to set this up myself so any advice/suggestions would be appreciated.

Or if anyone lives in Manchester and happy to help me out feel free to message me privately.

Thank you!
 
Kam89 said:
Hi all.

Seems like everyone has a great depth of CCTV knowledge on this thread so I thought why not ask you guys.

I have three Reolink RLC-810A cameras sitting and waiting to be installed at my new home. I want to put two facing the front and one facing the garden.

I would like to use the PoE feature on the cameras as I have 3 access points with ethernet ports located at various locations in the property.

I want to be able to view the cameras from my phone and be able to record 24/7 continously with alerts for motion. I am not sure whether i need a NVR/DVR but I saw a YouTube video of someone using their desktop PC with BlueIris to record footage? Is this possible and does that mean I need to keep the PC on 24/7?

I'm a complete novice but would like to attempt to set this up myself so any advice/suggestions would be appreciated.

Or if anyone lives in Manchester and happy to help me out feel free to message me privately.

Thank you!
Click to expand...
If you don’t have the PC on and BI running, it won’t record anything.
 
Kam89 said:
I want to be able to view the cameras from my phone and be able to record 24/7 continously with alerts for motion. I am not sure whether i need a NVR/DVR but I saw a YouTube video of someone using their desktop PC with BlueIris to record footage? Is this possible and does that mean I need to keep the PC on 24/7?
Click to expand...

You need an NVR or yes you'll need to have your PC on 24/7 - to be able to record anything at all.

I'd recommend investing in an NVR personally, much lower power usage too.
 
Sparx said:
You need an NVR or yes you'll need to have your PC on 24/7 - to be able to record anything at all.

I'd recommend investing in an NVR personally, much lower power usage too.
Click to expand...

While the principal of separated dedicated hardware specifically for CCTV is something I generally agree with from a security/functional/ease perspective, the power point doesn’t really apply. Modern PC’s are a lot more efficient than they used to be, also we live in a word where it’s increasingly common for users to have either a PC running 24/7 anyway or some form of self hosted environment, while BI may not be docker friendly, other options are and docker can share iGPU w/QS to different containers pretty efficiently.
 
Kam89 said:
Hi all.

Seems like everyone has a great depth of CCTV knowledge on this thread so I thought why not ask you guys.

I have three Reolink RLC-810A cameras sitting and waiting to be installed at my new home. I want to put two facing the front and one facing the garden.

I would like to use the PoE feature on the cameras as I have 3 access points with ethernet ports located at various locations in the property.

I want to be able to view the cameras from my phone and be able to record 24/7 continously with alerts for motion. I am not sure whether i need a NVR/DVR but I saw a YouTube video of someone using their desktop PC with BlueIris to record footage? Is this possible and does that mean I need to keep the PC on 24/7?

I'm a complete novice but would like to attempt to set this up myself so any advice/suggestions would be appreciated.

Or if anyone lives in Manchester and happy to help me out feel free to message me privately.

Thank you!
Click to expand...
Before you go to the trouble of installing, hook them up to your POE switch, initialize through the Reolink App (phone or Windows) and make sure you can access them via Onvif - I've got four 5mp cameras and they're playing extremely hard to get with my Uniview NVR (and not staying connected on Android app).

I'm very close to returning them and buying another brand that is less restricted. If I have any luck after trying again today (with kids home from school I've not had more than an hour each time to try sorting out) I'll report back with the solution.
 
RedMogg said:
Before you go to the trouble of installing, hook them up to your POE switch, initialize through the Reolink App (phone or Windows) and make sure you can access them via Onvif - I've got four 5mp cameras and they're playing extremely hard to get with my Uniview NVR (and not staying connected on Android app).

I'm very close to returning them and buying another brand that is less restricted. If I have any luck after trying again today (with kids home from school I've not had more than an hour each time to try sorting out) I'll report back with the solution.
Click to expand...

They‘re 4K cameras. They need a hellacious amount of bandwidth on the NVR. Try setting your cameras to 1080P on the main stream and see if that resolves your issues.

While in theory ONVIF is the surveillance camera lingua franca it does often pay to buy a complete suite of gear from one manufacturer.
 
RedMogg said:
Before you go to the trouble of installing, hook them up to your POE switch, initialize through the Reolink App (phone or Windows) and make sure you can access them via Onvif - I've got four 5mp cameras and they're playing extremely hard to get with my Uniview NVR (and not staying connected on Android app).

I'm very close to returning them and buying another brand that is less restricted. If I have any luck after trying again today (with kids home from school I've not had more than an hour each time to try sorting out) I'll report back with the solution.
Click to expand...

I've always avoided Reolink due to their low spec and missing features such as I-frame configuration which affects uses with some software (although I believe the latter is in latest firmware). Instead I've stuck with Hikvision and Dahua which have worked fine with the various surveillance software I've used over the years. Many people get on fine with cheaper cameras but I quickly realised good cameras with standalone software on a 24/7 server is the way to go for full features and reliable service plus the demands of more and higher res cameras. People often each overlook one 8MP(4K) cameras equals four HD 1080 camera (2MP).

4K cameras are great in the day, but at night sensor size area versus MP is an important factor. Cheap cameras are regularly a third of the sensor size of the better 4K IR cameras (and a sixth of say Hik ColorVu ones). The Reolink RLC-810A are 4K but only 1/2.49" which is about half area 1/1.8" 4K Hikvision that I would use as a minimum for that resolution.

You will get a better night picture (IR or colour) with 2MP (1080P) cameras with a small 1/3" sensor than those RLC-810A 1/2.49" sensor and place far less demands on the NVR. Motion detection also requires far more CPU for higher resolution images even if its just to downscale before checking for motion. However if you want to go 6 or 8MP(4K) and several cameras then the cameras and system behind it needs to be more powerful.

Currently I run about a dozen cameras, a mix of 5 to 8MP(4K) cameras and mostly Hik but a couple of Dahua but all with larger size sensors. Never have an issue even with compatibility or reliability even without rebooting the cameras for many months or even year+. My current CCTV server is overly powerful as in addition to BlueIris I also use AI (Deepstack/SenseAI), ANPR and a couple of other services. Despite being three year old hardware it still averages about 75W which isn't bad considering how much power those cameras use on their own and the 8 megabyte per second data rate. That's with 15FPS mostly as higher FPS isn't needed for most applications and shouldn't be confused with exposure time for capturing sharper moving images.

My advice is think about what you need the CCTV to achieve (it's not going to stop all crime, but can be fascinating to review), where you may want to go longer term, ease of setup and budget. For an easier life go with one manufacturer for cameras/NVR and ensure you're within that NVRs spec. Alternatively go for standalone software on a server (most software has iOS/Android apps that can be used remotely ideally via a VPN) which you can grow/upgrade over time and use a mix of many camera brands.
 
WJA96 said:
They‘re 4K cameras. They need a hellacious amount of bandwidth on the NVR. Try setting your cameras to 1080P on the main stream and see if that resolves your issues.

While in theory ONVIF is the surveillance camera lingua franca it does often pay to buy a complete suite of gear from one manufacturer.
Click to expand...
That surprises me, I would have thought it would only be low double digit Mbits of bandwidth using H264 at a reasonable frame rate, obviously more if something inefficient like MJPEG.

*edit* That assumes the encoding is done on the camera and not by the NVR.
 
Last edited:
Kam89 said:
Hi all.

Seems like everyone has a great depth of CCTV knowledge on this thread so I thought why not ask you guys.

I have three Reolink RLC-810A cameras sitting and waiting to be installed at my new home. I want to put two facing the front and one facing the garden.

I would like to use the PoE feature on the cameras as I have 3 access points with ethernet ports located at various locations in the property.

I want to be able to view the cameras from my phone and be able to record 24/7 continously with alerts for motion. I am not sure whether i need a NVR/DVR but I saw a YouTube video of someone using their desktop PC with BlueIris to record footage? Is this possible and does that mean I need to keep the PC on 24/7?

I'm a complete novice but would like to attempt to set this up myself so any advice/suggestions would be appreciated.

Or if anyone lives in Manchester and happy to help me out feel free to message me privately.

Thank you!
Click to expand...

Unless you have ethernet ports outside, you’re almost certainly going to have to run new cables back to your switch if that’s what you’re using to power everything.

Those cameras will do their own image processing and send alerts back to the NVR so you don‘t necessarily need a smart NVR. Current purpose-built NVR is basically some lightweight x86 hardware that runs a Linux recording programme. That’s effectively what Blue Iris is, it just runs on your PC rather than a dedicated hardware box. If you just want to record ‘action’ then you might get away with a 128 or 256Gb SD Card in each camera and for some people that works really well.

The cameras themselves are 4K which is quite a lot of bandwidth so make sure whatever you get to record you get something oomphy that can handle that much bandwidth.
 
Avalon said:
That surprises me, I would have thought it would only be low double digit Mbits of bandwidth using H264 at a reasonable frame rate, obviously more if something inefficient like MJPEG.
Click to expand...

I don‘t think it’s the bandwidth per se, it’s the fact that the manufacturers fit the least capable processor and ram they can for any given task. Very few NVRs will record more than 4 4K streams even at H264, never mind H265+. Some of these cameras are only running 10Mbps ethernet ports. Most of the ports in the recorders are 100Mbps with only the main comms port being gigabit.
 
what size lens do you recommend for cameras that will sit in the eaves of a house up at say 5m ?
I will (initially at least) install 4 cameras 1 on each corner of the house to cover the driveway and rear garden

all the cameras I have bought in the past have been 2.8mm but they are all at ceiling height. (business premises)
 
MassiveJim said:
what size lens do you recommend for cameras that will sit in the eaves of a house up at say 5m ?
I will (initially at least) install 4 cameras 1 on each corner of the house to cover the driveway and rear garden

all the cameras I have bought in the past have been 2.8mm but they are all at ceiling height. (business premises)
Click to expand...

It would depend on the area being covered and the detail required. 2.8mm should give you roughly 90 degrees FOV. For larger drives and gardens, a 2.8mm is great for general coverage. For a gate, or door, you may choose something with a narrower FOV.
 
Appreciate all the knowledgeable advice from everyone - I finally managed to make time to pull all my networking gear, the Uniview NVR & each camera and set myself up next to my PC.

Spent the morning using the Reolink Windows client to reset everything to factory defaults, then took each camera in turn, initialised, updated to latest firmware, set to static IP (I think this was the key issue) and made sure all ports (Onvif/Media/RTSP, etc) were set the same across each device.

As soon as they were set up within the Reolink client, the Uniview NVR picked up the feeds immediately.

Just need to mount the second garden camera (looking back towards the rear of the house) and the camera that overlooks the drive and front gate (need the Old Man for that, since my Spiderman days are long gone).

Glad I persevered - so much extra functionality with the Uniview and future proofed for another 8x 4K cameras if needed. I won't buy Reolink again (@Simon42 I appreciate what you're saying re. Sensor sizes), but the ones I have already will suffice for now.

Main mission was to get Front & Rear covered before the school summer break started and my next few weeks away in London - so I'm happy.
 
Can anyone tell me what are the latest Hik colorvu cams 4/8MP with sound? I was having a look and there seems to be more letters after these cams than when I first installed mine nearly 3 years ago now.
 
The whole ‘latest camera’ thing is a jungle. There are the newest cameras on Hikvision’s website and there are the latest ones you can actually buy. And then there are the ‘ranges’. So do you want a cheap & cheerful 8MP ColorVu, a decent ColorVu or a top-end ColorVu? White lights or just a great sensor with a big aperture? It’s quite literally almost impossible to keep up with what they’re launching.
 
I believe DS-2CD3387G2-LSU is the latest and greatest turret and DS-2CD2087G2-LU is the latest bullet I can actually buy but that is due for replacement very soon.

Unless you’re counting the DS-2CD2387G2P-LSU-SL which looks like excellent value.
 
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