Hikvision system upgrade options & recording my Doorbell?

[The_Z]

Hi all

I currently have:

2x Hikvision DS-2CD2347G2-LSU/SL
A Hikvision DS-KIS603-P Doorbell
A Hikvision DS-7608NI-I2/8P NVR

Since moving house I've been waiting to purchase more kit, I would like another 5 Hikvision cameras. My questions are:

1. Can my NVR cope with 8MP cameras? I believe it can but wondering if there's any issues (playback etc) through the Hik-Connect app? I'm just trying to make sure I've not missed possible limitations, in which case I'll get some higher mp and some lower.

2. I was originally under the impression my doorbell can't record to my NVR and be answered through the Hik-Connect app. The doorstation connects POE to a POE injector which then connects with a POE switch (which then connects to a Powerline as our router is in the lounge and our NVR is in the garage). I've seen people talking about recording their doorstation on the NVR. Is there a way around this?

3. We've had issues where our WiFi has dropped out numerous times and a couple of times where we've had power cuts. One day we will go full solar with battery and gateway. Until that time, has anyone managed to setup their system to have sim card and power backup? Is it hard/expensive?

4. One day I would like to get my head around Home Assistant and look at integrating our philips hue lighting/sensors/security with the Hikvision CCTV. Anyone here have any experience of that? The HUE app has become clunky and we've lost the ability to use both light timers with the sensors (it's now one or the other). Can Hikvison function with HA?

Thanks

 

[Dan]

Hi @The_Z

The answers to your questions are below:

1. Yes, the I-series NVR will support new 8MP cameras but as this NVR model only supports up to 80Mbps of incoming bandwidth and the new 8MP AcuSense/ColorVu/Hybrid Light can use as much as 20Mbps each, you will probably be limited to only 2-3 x 8MP cameras if you are also going to have some 4MP cameras on the NVR as well (4MP models like the 2347G2 use around 5-10Mbps each depending on the settings).

2. If your doorbell is connected to a separate PoE Injector then it should have its own IP address on your local network (same as the NVR or any cameras that aren't plugged directly into the NVR PoE ports), with that IP address you can manually add the doorbell to one of the available channels on your NVR the same way you would add a camera. Doing it this way, you will be able to record the stream from the doorbell camera whilst still being able to use the doorbell function to ring the mobile app.

3. In regards to SIM-based networks, this is something we've very rarely dealt with and is not a very popular solution in the CCTV industry. There was a company we used to recommend but they no longer exist, it should be technically possible to use any SIM card in a SIM router but you would need to check with the SIM provider as some SIM cards have limitations that mean they cannot be used for CCTV.

Power Backup is much simpler, quite a few customers use a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) which is basically just a big battery that can take over during power outages to keep your system running for minutes or hours depending on the size of the UPS you use (if you go to the brand websites of some the UPS models mentioned in the link above you'll find they offer tools/calculators to figure out the size of UPS you will need to cover the power usage of your CCTV system).

4. Currently no, Hikvision does not offer any kind of 3rd-party integration with Home Assistants/Smart Home devices. Some users out there on the forum might have found workarounds to get these devices to work with Hikvision but we are not aware of any solutions.

 

[The_Z]

Hi @The_Z

The answers to your questions are below:

1. Yes, the I-series NVR will support new 8MP cameras but as this NVR model only supports up to 80Mbps of incoming bandwidth and the new 8MP AcuSense/ColorVu/Hybrid Light can use as much as 20Mbps each, you will probably be limited to only 2-3 x 8MP cameras if you are also going to have some 4MP cameras on the NVR as well (4MP models like the 2347G2 use around 5-10Mbps each depending on the settings).

2. If your doorbell is connected to a separate PoE Injector then it should have its own IP address on your local network (same as the NVR or any cameras that aren't plugged directly into the NVR PoE ports), with that IP address you can manually add the doorbell to one of the available channels on your NVR the same way you would add a camera. Doing it this way, you will be able to record the stream from the doorbell camera whilst still being able to use the doorbell function to ring the mobile app.

3. In regards to SIM-based networks, this is something we've very rarely dealt with and is not a very popular solution in the CCTV industry. There was a company we used to recommend but they no longer exist, it should be technically possible to use any SIM card in a SIM router but you would need to check with the SIM provider as some SIM cards have limitations that mean they cannot be used for CCTV.

Power Backup is much simpler, quite a few customers use a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) which is basically just a big battery that can take over during power outages to keep your system running for minutes or hours depending on the size of the UPS you use (if you go to the brand websites of some the UPS models mentioned in the link above you'll find they offer tools/calculators to figure out the size of UPS you will need to cover the power usage of your CCTV system).

4. Currently no, Hikvision does not offer any kind of 3rd-party integration with Home Assistants/Smart Home devices. Some users out there on the forum might have found workarounds to get these devices to work with Hikvision but we are not aware of any solutions.

Thank you for the detailed reply. I think you answered everything!

I will try and add the Doorstation to the NVR (is there a guide on here)?

With the bandwidth. Is that the video bid rate? I believe the ones I'm looking at go up to 16Mbps and my old 4MPs are 8Mbps video bit rate. I'm assuming the 80Mbps limit can only be surpassed with an upgraded NVR? What happens if you reach that limit? I had looked at getting 4x 8MP and 1x 4MP to add to my 2x 4MP. If bandwidth is the same as video rate that would put me at 88Mbps.

Thanks

 

[Dan]

Hi @The_Z

The below guide should help you with adding the doorstation to the NVR:

How-to: - How do I add a Hikvision device to my NVR?

There are a couple of methods for getting your IP camera connected and recording to your NVR: Plug and Play - This is the most popular and simplest method for smaller setups, as all you need to do is plug your camera straight into the PoE ports in a Hikvision NVR. The NVR will then do the rest...

www.use-ip.co.uk

In regards to Bandwidth, yes this is the total bit rate that the NVR will support and the 8MP cameras should use somewhere between 15-20Mbps each depending on the settings.

The total incoming bandwidth that an NVR supports can only be increased by upgrading to larger/higher-spec NVRs, if the total bit rate of all the cameras is very close to the limit you will likely see some instability with the image that you get from some of the cameras and if you exceed the bandwidth limit then you won't get an image at all from one or more of the cameras.

4 x 8MP cameras on this NVR model is probably not going to be possible, you would likely have to reduce each camera's video/stream settings so much to keep the bitrate/bandwidth usage down that you wouldn't actually be getting 8MP images from those cameras. For the NVR model you have, we would usually say that 3 x 8MP cameras is the maximum you can have connected whilst having 3 x 4MP cameras also connected.