Taiwanese Network Video Recorder specialists QNAP Security have released their latest Firmware update V3.5.0 for their VioStor NVR series for free. Their press release describes the key improvements of this version and new features such as:

• Dynamic E-map: allows users to pinpoint the position of each IP camera on a multi-layered digital map.
• Video Segment Backup to External USB Device: users can now back up specific video segments of the camera channels from the VioStor NVR to an external USB storage device.
• Real-time Digital Watermarking: real-time digital watermarks are embedded to the videos of the IP cameras as soon as they are recorded to the VioStor NVR.
• 16-channel Simultaneous Video Playback: the new V3.5.0 firmware has largely increased the maximum number of channels for simultaneous remote playback from 4 to 16 to enhance the efficiency of video investigation.
• New IP Cameras Support: in addition to more than 1,000 models of IP camera and video server, QNAP Security has added the support for Samsung, Yokogawa, and ONVIF-compliant Bosch, EverFocus and Hunt IP cameras to its compatibility list for the VioStor NVR series.

For more information, the QNAP press release, the firmware download and our product pages for QNAP VioStor NVRs please use the links below:

• QNAP Security Press Release
• QNAP Firmware V3.5.0 Download
• QNAP NVR Product Pages

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:

• QNAP NVR-104V – Latest Firmware for the NVR-104V
• QNAP NVR-104P – Latest Firmware for the NVR-104P
• QNAP VS-2008 NVR – Latest Firmware for the VS-2008
• QNAP VS-2012 NVR – Latest Firmware for the VS-2012
• QNAP VS-4016U-RP – Latest Firmware for the VS-4016U-RP
• QNAP VS-5012 NVR – Latest Firmware for the VS-5012
• QNAP VS-5020 NVR – Latest Firmware for the VS-5020
• QNAP VS-8024 NVR – Latest Firmware for the VS-8024
• QNAP VS-8032 NVR – Latest Firmware for the VS-8032
• QNAP VS-8040 NVR – Latest Firmware for the VS-8040
• QNAP VS-8024U-RP NVR – Latest Firmware for the VS-8024U-RP
• QNAP VS-8032U-RP NVR – Latest Firmware for the VS-8032U-RP
• QNAP VS-8040U-RP NVR – Latest Firmware for the VS-8040U-RP

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’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 …

Hard disc drives continue to get larger all the time, especially when you need them to record megapixel CCTV cameras 24hrs per day.

As unlikely as it seems, we are now headed towards 2 TeraBytes on an SD card!

We’ve covered this topic of MegaBytes, GigaBytes, TeraBytes and PetaBytes before, but we realise that it still confuses people, so we just thought it might be worthwhile mentioning Google’s inbuilt converter and calculation functions for those that aren’t already aware of them.

If you want to know exactly how MegaBytes compares to GigaBytes (or whatever), just type your query into Google’s search box in the following format:

500MB in GB

Google’s first ‘search result’ will be:

500 megabytes = 0.48828125 gigabytes

You can use this for any conversion using:

KB = KiloBytes

MB = MegaBytes

GB = GigaBytes

TB = TeraBytes

PB = PetaBytes

It also works for other conversions:

4 pounds in kilos

4 pounds = 1.81436948 kilograms

2 feet in cm

2 feet = 60.96 centimeters

Google will also tell you the current time in most World Cities:

time Brisbane

10:18am Wednesday (EST) – Time in Brisbane, Queensland

Hope that’s handy to know?

Two TeraBytes on an SD card!

That’s incredible.

Spotted over at ZDnet as just another new gadget announcement from the CES show in Las Vegas this week.

The SD Association have announced a new SD XC format which will be capable of storing up to 2 TB (a TeraByte is 1,000 Gigabytes).

What’s more, read/write speeds of up to 300 Mbits/second are on the product roadmap.

From the SD Association website:

A 2 TB SDXC memory card can store 100 HD movies, 480 hours of HD recording or 136,000 fine-grade photos. Faster bus speeds will enable professional-level recording in compact consumer camcorders and increase the number of frames shot in a second with SDXC cameras.

Put one of these in the back of a surveillance camera and you’ve got yourself a built-in 20-day HD Digital Video Recorder!

There’s a good write-up over at the CES Show site.

We shall have to wait and see how long before any manufacturer actually releases a product that can live up to the potential in this new specification – product being; either SDXC cards with the above capability OR devices able to utilise it …