Anyone use a cloud service for recording and playback of IP cameras? A client of mine is interested in using a service that does not require an NVR onsite and everything is hosted offsite. Anyone use such a service and what are your best recommendations?

Thanks!

I haven’t tried these, but they were recommended to me a year ago:

https://www.camcloud.com/
https://www.ivideon.com/

What your client wants is the definition of RING or NEST cam.

What you need to do, is educate him on why that is a bad idea.

1) Internet goes down, no recorded footage (that includes someone killing their internet on purpose). This alone should be enough.
2) Quality and capture is dependent on upload speed. The more cameras you add, the more saturated the connection. And the lower the quality of the captured video becomes. And higher chance of it missing the recording.
3) Privacy issues.
4) Monthly fees.

Cloud based CCTV has it uses for remote locations and special circumstances.
But for it to be a 'go to' for CCTV is f^n stupid. But again, look at the hordes of people flocking to it these days. All I can do is shake my head.

All of this is spot on.

To add to what Brad said about the internet going down, it's not even just a service disruption that can kill the recording - it could be *any* component in the line between the camera and the internet.

I have a Ring at the office in addition to an on-site NVR, and the other day I got a notification that the NVR was offline. I checked the Ring app, and it was offline too. So I went over to the office and the NVR and the Ring were still on, but the router power supply had died. The router itself ended up being fine, but the stupid power supply had died, and so there goes any remote access/recording.

So if a customer wants *a* camera, that's fine, they can get whatever. But if they're asking for more than, say, four? No way I'd want cloud based recording.

Client is dead set on cloud recording. I'm trying to tell him otherwise. They've already used a cloud based service at another location for the past 8 years without any issues. Bandwidth won't be an issue as it's business class fiber 1g/500 with 99% guaranteed uptime. There will only be 8 cameras and they will be the only devices on the local network. Thanks for the recs Crosen!

So what your go to NVR?

Hikvision. We used Luma for quite a while but they just got too expensive. Hikvision is locally available and they have a good rep who's very responsive. Not having OvrC kinda stinks but honestly, it never really bailed me out on NVR issues. It would be great if you could remote power cycle individual camera ports through OvrC, but you can't...which has led us to playing with a Synology server with their Surveillance package (and OvrC switch). So far, that's been pretty awesome, so we might use that in the future for certain deployments.

This is my go to and has been for years!

Synology's app kicks nads too! Can view recordings remotely as well. Plus, no need to open ports on the network. Just setup the quick connect feature on the NAS and you're good to go.

And.....you get a NAS that can store other crap too for the same price as most canned NVR solutions.