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Latest QNAP NVR Firmware – Version 3.2.2 Available

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

QNAP have just released the latest firmware update (Version 3.2.2) for their range of Network Video Recorders.

Follow the links below for further information on each NVR or to download the latest firmware free of charge from their website:

NB QNAP’s Firmware update landing page for each Network Video Recorder lists in detail all of the improvements in this latest firmware version.

Be sure to check their web page – How to upgrade your QNAP NVR Firmware – before proceeding with your upgrade.

We offer the full range of QNAP NVRs in Bring Your Own Disk (BYOD) format – see our Storage Category for some Hard Disc Drive (HDD) suggestions for your NVR (currently a maximum of 1TB in the 104 models, and 2TB per slot for all the VioStor VS models).

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them in our QNAP NVR Forum.

QNAP VioStor NVRs

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

QNAP’s VioStor range of NVRs are now available from our webshop.

QNAP are a well known ‘Quality Network Appliance Provider’.

Their award winning range of Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices are very well known and respected in the IT world.

They now have a great range of Network Video Recorder (NVR) devices, specifically designed and built as an optimised network appliance to record CCTV from IP cameras on your network.

We have added the following NVR models:

QNAP NVR-104P – up to 4 IP cameras recording to a single hard disc unit of up to 1 Terabyte capacity
QNAP NVR-104V – as above. The only difference is the mix of compatible camera manufacturers (essentially P for Panasonic, V for Vivotek).
QNAP VioStor VS-2008 – up to 8 IP cameras recording to two HDDs to max total capacity of 4TB
QNAP VioStor VS-2012 – up to 12 IP cameras recording to two HDDs to max total capacity of 4TB
QNAP VioStor VS-5012 – up to 12 IP cameras recording to five HDDs to max total capacity of 10TB
QNAP VioStor VS-5020 – up to 20 IP cameras recording to five HDDs to max total capacity of 10TB
QNAP VioStor VS-8024 – up to 24 IP cameras recording to eight HDDs to max total capacity of 16TB
QNAP VioStor VS-8032 – up to 32 IP cameras recording to eight HDDs to max total capacity of 16TB
QNAP VioStor VS-8040 – up to 40 IP cameras recording to eight HDDs to max total capacity of 16TB

All of the units are supplied without hard discs. You can very simply fit your own – see the series of unboxing photos for the VS-2008 to understand how simply the drives are fitted or replaced.

You can purchase your drives from us or any supplier of your choice – they use standard 3.5″ SATA HDDs.

Anyone who has ever had a drive fail inside a traditional Digital Video Recorder (DVR) and been told by the manufacturer that “replacing drives is a specialist job and that’ll be £500 please” feel free to exclaim your delight in the comments below.

QNAP have a great website dedicated to their NVRs at www.QNAPsecurity.com with loads of information and useful resources.

They are compatible with a wide range of IP cameras – you can check for the latest list of proven cameras here.

Finally, just in case there is any doubt, these units are supplied with CCTV recording software to record your IP cameras. They’ve just released a free firmware upgrade to further enhance the feature set of their built-in NVR software, but more on that in a later post …

Network Camera Bandwidth Calculator

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

JVSG, the Joint Video Surveillance Group, have developed a great software tool which helps you to calculate the bandwidth needed for network CCTV cameras.

This is one of the major concerns expressed (typically by IT Managers) when people suggest adding video cameras to their network.

The software can calculate the bandwidth requirements for cameras with all the common resolution specifications and allows you to calculate the effects of varying resolution, frame rates, numbers of cameras, the video compression standard (H.264, MPEG4, MJPEG) etc.

You can even estimate the impact of varying amounts of motion activity in the scene.

See below for more information on the settable parameters, or click the image above to visit their website.

You can download and run a FREE 45-day evaluation copy of this software from their website, and if you decide to buy it’s just £39 to licence the software for continued use.

Resolution – Camera resolution in pixels. You can select resolution from the drop-down list. The list contains most popular PAL and NTSC camera resolutions (like 352×288 CIF PAL, 704×576 4 CIF PAL) as well as some typical network cameras resolutions (like 640×480) including megapixel resolutions (1280×1024, 1600×1200), HD and full HD resolutions (1920×1080) as well as others.
Compression – Video compression. You can choose from MPEG4, H.264, four levels of Motion JPEG (MJPG) compression (from Low to High) and “RAW Data”. If you use Motion JPEG you can use different JPEG compression levels. If you use low MJPEG compression (level 10) you get best quality of picture and about 10 times lower frame size. If you use Medium MJPEG compression (level 20) you usually obtain a good picture quality and an optimal Quality/Frame Size ratio. With a JPEG level of more than 50 your picture becomes bad for video surveillance purpose.
FPS – Frames Per Second. Typical FPS for video surveillance system is from 5 to 15 frames per second. In some applications (like CCTV in casino) it is required to use higher speed values (25-60 FPS). Alternative name for FPS is IPS (Images Per Second).
Days – Required length of video archive in days (24 hours). Used for storage space calculation.
Cameras – Number of cameras in your CCTV installation with the same parameters.
Recording % – Estimated motion recording activity. 100% for constant recording. This parameter is used to calculate disk storage space in case the video is recorded on a schedule or on a motion detector.
Image Complexity – Frames from some CCTV cameras are more detailed and have a higher frame size.
Motion % – Motion activity (100% for constant activity). This parameter is used for MPEG4 and H.264 bandwidth estimation.

Home CCTV on your TV

Thursday, January 15th, 2009

As our home networks extend to connect more and more devices utilising our broadband internet routers, gigabit switches, media centres, wireless networks, multiple family PCs etc. it is becoming ever simpler to share any data on the network.

We don’t normally comment much on developments in televisions here, but just in case it has passed you by, we think it is worth mentioning the advanced connectivity options available from sets such as Sony’s latest Bravia range.

This HD TV comes with ethernet connectivity and is ready to connect to the internet:

Sony’s new XBR9 and Z-series models feature an Ethernet connection, allowing the sets to directly access Sony BRAVIA Internet Video content using an existing broadband connection. The service offers one of the largest selections of free and premium movies, TV shows, sports, music and more from an array of partners like Amazon Video on Demand, YouTube®, Yahoo!®, Slacker(sm), and others.

7-megapixel, 180-degree HD network camera

Friday, January 9th, 2009

HD Network Camera delivering 180° seven megapixel images!

We found this over at Geek.com:

The D7 is a 7 megapixel camera capable of processing 100 megapixels of information per second. It also doesn’t have just one lens, instead incorporating 5 separate lenses allowing for a full 180-degree capture at 15fps.

As well as the high resolution capture, the camera doesn’t need a connection to a power point as it is powered over Ethernet. That means with a single cable you can have a very wide-angled security camera capturing HD footage.

Great for wide-angle CCTV surveillance!

Scallop’s Press Release says:

A single 180° Digital Window camera feeding into one DVR port can replace multiple conventional cameras for most security applications, enabling significant cost savings and faster ROI upon deployment. Customers benefit from an extraordinary increase in capability, at lower cost and lower bandwidth requirements than present IP camera solutions. The Digital Window camera delivers a down-sampled 180° situational awareness view simultaneously with a full resolution zoom window.

Digital Window also offers:
• Excellent facial recognition, in place of existing wide angle solutions that produce only a blur;
• Instant pan and zoom, with no camera movement;
• No fisheye distortion or blind spots;
• paired units can provide a 360° field of view;
• Compatible with video analytics software;
• Power over Ethernet (PoE);
• H.264 image compression; and
• 15 fps video streaming with seven megapixels of detail over standard 10/100 Ethernet networks.

Visit the Scallop Imaging website

Checkout the panoramic images with digital zooming

Posts Tagged ‘network video’

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