Upgrade / Maintenance Advice Needed

[HEDGE]

Hi

I look after a Hikvision CCTV system which was installed approx 3 years ago.

Existing infrastructure was replaced with Hikvision at that time. The existing cameras were coax wired so Turbo HD dome cameras were used feeding into an DS-6716HQHI-SATA encoder. The encoder then feeds an DS-7732NI-K4 / 16P NVR via an ethernet switch. Additional cameras are IP and not COAX and so feed directly into the NVR.

I have a couple of niggly issues. Firstly I am slowly losing cameras. One has died completely (suspect it is wiring or balun related). One is intermittently dropping off with 'no video' sometimes for a few seconds, sometimes much longer (worst has been a few days). Another camera is starting to show pretty bad break-up, the picture is fuzzy and wobbling.

The NVR is set to record 24 hours a day. It is also set to mark motion events but it seems to struggle very badly with this, especially if there is motion on multiple cameras at the same time.

All cameras are simple HD fixed domes, nothing fancy.

Questions:

1. Are all the camera slowly dying and is this 'normal'?

2. Is the encoder dying?

3. Does the NVR struggle with events because it's not got enough horse power?

4. Can the wiring and baluns be tested in a meaningful way, as in something more scientific that it works or it doesn't?

5. What would you replace/upgrade and with what?

Thanks

 

[macman]

If the cameras aren't too far away, you could run a temporary ethernet cable from each one in turn to a POE switch and then directly into your LAN/PC. If that's ok, run it into your NVR and test again. I keep a spare 100m cable for such tests.

Alternatively, you could temporarily lash up a known good camera to the remote end of your suspect cable and see if your problems go away.

Alternatively, you could bypass the NVR by plugging one of your suspect camera cables into a new POE switch and then into your LAN.

Are the issues spread across all cameras or only those connected directly to the NVR (or POE switch)?

Have you tried:

- deactivating all cameras bar one
- rebooting everything
- updating all firmware
- defragging or replacing your hard drive
- reducing frame rates
- reducing bitrates
- switching codec from H265 to H264 or vice versa
- checking your LAN bandwidth

 

[HEDGE]

Hi

Thanks for the reply.

The IP cameras are fine, they have been solid and issue free.

All the cameras that have issues are the Turbo HD domes which are running over coax.

I haven't tried deactivating all the cameras bar one, I will try that and see what happens.

Both the encoder and the NVR have been rebooted.

The NVR is always kept up to date with the latest firmware, unfortunately Hikvision haven't released a firmware update for the encoder since 2015.

No issues with hard drives.

Frame rates and bit rates have been tweaked both set at modest levels.

H265 not an option on the Turbo HD cameras.

LAN bandwidth is busy but well within the bounds of it's capability.