New Guy Software options / setup clarification
I'll start with I'm new here, new to IP cameras and new to NVRs.
I have looked a bunch of different NVR's and have really gravitated towards SecuritySpy given my Apple ecosystem and available hardware. I'm just not finding the answers to some questions I have generated in my search - so I figured I'd ask here!
I assume for continuous recording using the AI built into SecuritySpy as a "traditional but AI enabled NVR" you should:
- Turn off on camera AI and/or buy cameras without AI to save a few bucks
- Configure 2 cameras in Security Spy for each physical 4k camera - use the low res stream for continuous capture to HDD and the AI motion detection configuration and set it to trigger the second configuration of the same camera using the HD / 4K stream for the event?
- I assume the setting on the 4K stream under Motion Capture with the 5 second precapture and 15 second post capture is about all the high def stream needs?
- Where do you find the "traditional" NVR view showing camera recording timelines and events?
Other config questions:
- Is there any way / plugin / etc to add AI detection types beyond vehicle and person, like dog, deer, bear, etc? (I saw that the DeepStack integration in Blue Iris has all sorts of settings - and I'm rural so I'm more likely to see a deer or bear than a person)
- I see the process requires screen interaction - is there any way to restart / manage it via SSH or is NOTHING possible headless?
Questions about the iPhone app
- If you want to use the iPhone / Apple TV app for off network viewing and notifications
- Does the app give you rich notifications with a still image on your phone (like Ring), what about your Apple Watch?
- can you review prior timeline motion events and view them remotely via the app
- most importantly - do you need to poke any holes in your firewall for any port forwarding to use the app off network? (the manual looks like port forwarding is ONLY to use the built in webserver remotely)
Pricing:
- If I buy a 8 camera license to start - and later decide to add a 9th... is there an upgrade from 8 - 16, or do you have to re-buy the whole 16 version? (I have no issue with the pricing - just trying to understand if I grow the cameras - what happens)
I have more questions but I'll let somone help with these first because from other threads i have seen here - I might get them answered without even asking!
Comments
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Anyone?
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Wait for an answer from ben, I'm sure you'll get it.
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So another question you should consider is how active is this community, and how willing are users to answer questions. :)
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I believe that in the past we have been able to upgrade the license to add more cameras by paying the difference. You will want to confirm this with support as the policy might have changed.
Hopefully Ben can answer your other questions.
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Thank you all for your very helpful input above, and apologies @fishpick for my somewhat delayed response to your initial post. To answer your questions:
SecuritySpy can do both continuous and AI-enhanced motion detection capture for the same camera. However, if you want these to be different resolutions then you will have to add each camera twice to SecuritySpy: one low-res version for continuous and one high-res version for motion capture.
Yes, 3 second pre-capture and 15 post-capture is fine, though a longer post-capture time is probably advisable to prevent records from being cut short due to lack of motion.
As for the "traditional" NVR view you are referring to, perhaps you mean the "Browser" feature (available via the Window menu)? This does playback, with a 24-hour timeline where you can see the recorded events.
SecuritySpy has its own built-in AI; on-camera AI is not required.
You cannot add plug-in AIs; currently you can only use SecuritySpy's built-in AI classifiers which detect humans and vehicles.
People do manage via SSH sometimes. Alternatively screen sharing. And SecuritySpy has a built-in screen control feature that is available via its web interface, so this is probably the easiest way to manage a headless Mac running SecuritySpy.
Yes, our iOS app gives you rich notification with an image of the motion event, which you can enlarge by tap-hold on the notification.
Our iOS app gives you full access to all recordings on the SecuritySpy server.
Port forwarding is required to access SecuritySpy's web interface from the Internet. SecuritySpy will attempt to set this up automatically for you via UPnP if you enable the "Allow access from the Internet" options under Preferences > Web.
Yes, you can start with an 8-camera license now, and if you need to expand in the future, you can upgrade to a 16-camera license. The upgrade fee is simply the difference in price between the two licenses.
I hope this answers all your questions - please let me know if you have any further ones!
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@Ben - Thanks for the response...
So if you don't do multiple streams per camera - then if you wanted continuous - and you have 4K cameras - you need an epic storage sizes then if you want any form of retention more than a few days. Is there any plans on your roadmap to allow "1 camera license" to use multiple resolution streams off the same IP like a lot of other NVR's out there?
Found the browser and that's what I was looking for!
Just curious as to what you use for AI? And are there plans for adding more trained models? i.e. dog, cat, deer, etc?
Awesome on the rich notifications... not a fan of the pinholes in the firewall tho. Do the rich notifications work when the devices are off network without the pinholes? i.e. - I'm wandering around with the dogs... I get notice of vehicle at front camera, small thumbnail on the alert... BUT - if I wanted to watch video on the camera - I would VPN in and access via the app on the LAN. no open ports.
Currently my house is very "Apple-Centric" in terms devices - so your extensions for the iPhone and Apple TV really almost make this a no-brainer... but - some other alternatives out there offer a bit more flexibility in manaing the cameras with finer grained controls (Frigate NVR being at the top)... That said - it's just an aside really - I'm installing your trial on test system to just see how it all works out... I have worked with ffmpeg before - and knowing that's at the heart of Frigate with all it's 10000 config flags makes me run for the pretty UI of your product and stay there :)
Since I'm "new" - what's your development cycle - release schedule - feature grooming process?
I'm already beyond impressed that you respond to just about every inquiry!
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Generally, most users want either Continuous OR Motion recording. In the former case, they set the camera frame rates to a low value (e.g. 2-5fps) to avoid the need for huge amounts of storage, and in the latter case higher frame rates (e.g. 10-20 fps) to get fluid motion-capture recordings, that are infrequent enough to also not require huge amounts of storage.
If you want to add the same camera twice, but doing so would require a larger SecuritySpy license, please email us to demonstrate this situation and we will come up with a solution for you that doesn't involve paying double for a larger license in order to achieve this.
For the AI, we have created own ResNet50 classifier trained on hundreds of thousands of real CCTV images. It's extremely accurate for humans and vehicles. We are working towards adding an animal detector, however this is much harder for a few reasons. Firstly, animals are far rarer, so gathering enough training data is difficult. Secondly, many animals are small and fast-moving, so they appear as blurry blobs in many image from CCTV cameras, which inevitably leads to far lower classification accuracy.
Rich notifications do require that SecuritySpy is available to the Internet, as this is how our iOS app obtains the image for the notification. As long as you choose a strong password for all web account that you set up in SecuritySpy, and you only expose SecuritySpy's encrypted HTTPS service, allowing incoming access from the Internet to SecuritySpy is very safe.
I hope your test of the trial of SecuritySpy goes well - and we are here (and by email) to help with anything you need! We operate on a development cycle of a major release every 4 years or so, for which we charge a discounted upgrade fee to existing users. Once you purchase the software, you get free support and updates for the life of that product, with a minimum guarantee of 6 months (e.g. if you buy v5 now, and we release v6 in 5 months' time, you get a free upgrade). You can find more information under the "Terms & Conditions" link on the SecuritySpy Online Store.
