Q: What is the cost of this solution?
A: WolfRecorder is a free and open source software.
Q: What are the options for using WolfRecorder and what is it for?
A: Something like that.
Q: Are there any artificial camera quantity limits?
A: No.
Q: Which IP camera models WolfRecorder supports?
A: Theoretically - any cameras that support RTSP streams.
Q: How many cameras can WolfRecorder record?
A: This depends entirely on the performance of your storages and the architecture of the cluster you built.
Q: Can you give us some examples of the possible number of cameras per server?
A: The short answer is that a 300-400 cameras on an average server from this decade is not a problem. In production, we already have NVRs running on used servers, 8-10 years old, with 2-3 hundred cameras on each of them. Yep, thats about 0.4-0.5% per camera one core load, on CPU like Intel Xeon E5-2430L or about 0.6-0.7% core/per camera load on CPU like Intel Xeon x3440 from 2009.
Q: What camera recording modes or schedules are supported?
A: Only continuous recording. Our position is that if the camera is enabled, all data from it should be saved and available at any time when it is required. That is why the project is name is WolfRecorder and not WolfSometimesRecorder or WolfMaybeRecorder.
Q: What regulates how long the video archive of each camera is stored?
A: It depends only on the size of the storage and video bitrate.
Q: How is the available storage space distributed among the video captured from the cameras?
A: Equally within each storage. By default for video archive is reserved 90% of storage space.
Q: How can I determine the load on my storage? I mean, how can I determine if Disk IO or write speed is a bottleneck?
A: Well, for example, you can use the “gstat” command.
Q: How can I calculate how much disk space I need to record a certain number of days of video from my camera??
A: A 1Mbit/s bitrate generates approximately 11 gigabytes of data per day. Accordingly, a camera with a CBR bitrate of 4 Mbit/s will require about 44 gigabytes of data per day. So, do the math, just using multiplication.
Q: What is the recommended OS for installing WolfRecorder?
A: FreeBSD.
Q: Why?
A: It is always the same.
Q: I'm having problems during the installation process, how can I see what's wrong?
A: The full installation log can be found at /var/log/wrinstaller.log
Q: I'm having problems using the h265 codec, is there anything I can do about it?
A: Yes, we are aware of this issue. The problem is mainly related to poor codec support by browsers themselves. Please wait while we do some R&D, use h264 and stay tuned ;)
Q: What about video object recognition and motion detection?
A: Currently, we are developing the implementation of both object recognition and separation of video parts with motion using neural networks. But it will work only for already exported video files on demand. It is quite obvious that we are not ready to sacrifice all performance of the entire system to do this in real time.
Q: What is WolfRecorder serial?
A: That's unique instance identifier. Its can be used for integrations with other software via HTTP REST API. Its sensitive information - don't show it to anyone!
Q: Do you plan to implement transcode the video on the fly when saving and displaying it?
A: Yes, technologically, there is nothing complicated in this, but it is worth keeping in mind that this is guaranteed and degrades the performance of the entire NVR significantly.