Security NVR Software

[Phishfry]

Well I had an encounter that my Zoneminder did not catch so I decided I could not rely on it.
One option available on Linux is BlueCherry. It runs in a server mode.
I installled Deb8.6 on my Zoneminder rig, An APU2c4 with 256G mSATA and it works as planned.
CPU utilization is high with motion events on. I have maxed it out with 4 Megapixel cameras.
Even at 95% it does not feel hot to touch. Warm, not hot so I am going to let her rip for a few days. With motion off it uses 5 percent. This is only a 1 GIG CPU and they recommend i3 or better. But I wanted fanless cheap and we will see how it works out.
I would rather use the latest debian but with this commercial software I had best results using vanilla minimum install. With a Web interface it works on FreeBSD. I had it figured out in 1 day.
Very easy to use. Does cost $50 bucks minimum for each major version. Well worth it if it works.

 

[Phishfry]

The only bad thing I can say about it is that it does not remember the cameras in the WebGUI. Probably a cookie thing.

 

[Phishfry]

Well a couple of days in use and I figured out how to get the motion events to work with less CPU. I created motion zones for each camera and it dropped the CPU utilization to 60%. So that problem is solvable.
You might note that my events went down a good amount too.
I have more work to refine the motion maps for less false events like tree branches swaying and sun shadows.
These are traditional Security NVR tuning tasks. So BlueCherry on APU3 looks to be a success story.
Getting ready to move it to a permanent spot in the utility room.



Here are the negatives. Zoneminder had a motion map overlay on captured jpeg images so you could see the motion analysis and compensate on your motion map. I see nothing so nice on BlueCherry. They also seem to jam too much into one HTML screen. Most break out the playing video out into a separate screen. Blue Cherry embeddeds it into the webpage. Really just takes some getting used to.

 

[Phishfry]

So where I would normally double click on an event (in red) to launch video screen.
The embedded video shows up below the table of events.

 

[Phishfry]

Here is Zoneminders motion analysis. This is just one frame from night.


This is very useful in adjusting your motion mask.