Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Security cameras are crucial for monitoring and safety, but they generate significant amounts of data. This article explores the key factors affecting how much data a security camera uses per day, offering insights to optimize storage and network use.
What is surveillance video retention?
Surveillance video retention refers to the duration for which video footage from security cameras is stored before being overwritten or deleted. Retention periods can vary widely, depending on the specific security requirements, storage capacity, and legal compliance needs of an organization.
While some may retain video for a few days, others might need to keep footage for months or even years to meet regulatory requirements or for ongoing investigations. This is especially true for cannabis security plans.
Why is video retention important?
Video retention is crucial for several reasons, impacting not just security but also compliance and operational efficiency. Retaining surveillance footage for an adequate period ensures that evidence is available when needed to investigate incidents, resolve disputes, and comply with legal or industry-specific requirements. Below are some advantages of proper video retention:
- It provides evidence for security investigations, helping to identify and prosecute offenders.
- It supports compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, which may dictate minimum retention periods.
- It aids in dispute resolution by offering clear, visual accounts of incidents.
- It enhances security measures by allowing for the review and improvement of safety protocols.
- It offers insights into customer behavior, which can be valuable for business analytics.
- It helps in monitoring employee productivity and adherence to company policies.
- It supports insurance claims by providing documented evidence of incidents.
- It helps identify and reduce internal theft.
- It assists in the management of access control and monitoring of restricted areas.
Approaches to storing security camera data
There are several methods for storing security camera data, each with its advantages and considerations. Network-attached storage (NAS) devices offer a scalable and flexible solution, allowing users to add more storage as needed.
Network video recorders (NVR) and digital video recorders (DVR) are popular for their simplicity and direct connection to security cameras, providing a standalone storage solution.
Cloud video storage has become increasingly popular for its scalability, remote accessibility, and enhanced security features.
Read up on the differences between NVRs and DVRs.
Solink presents a unique, hybrid approach to video storage, combining the benefits of local and cloud storage. It provides a hands-off, fully warrantied local storage device that ensures immediate data capture and retention, paired with the scalability and accessibility of indefinite cloud storage.
This dual approach ensures robust data protection and easy access, allowing businesses to benefit from comprehensive surveillance solutions without the complexities of managing extensive physical storage infrastructure.
What affects the amount of data used by security cameras per day?
The data usage of security cameras can vary widely from one system to another. Several key factors influence the amount of data generated daily by security cameras. These include the operational settings of the cameras, the quality of the footage, and the technology used for storing and transmitting the data.
Understanding these factors is crucial for optimizing your surveillance system’s efficiency and ensuring that your storage solutions are both adequate and cost-effective.
The primary factors that affect the amount of data used by security cameras per day are:
- Hours per day: The total time cameras are recording each day directly impacts data usage. More hours of recording result in more data.
- Days of retention: The length of time you store recorded footage affects the total storage required. Longer retention periods increase storage needs.
- Number of cameras: More cameras contribute to higher data usage, as each camera adds to the total amount of footage captured and stored.
- Frames per second (FPS): A higher frame rate means more frames are captured every second, leading to smoother video but also more data.
- Resolution: Higher resolution cameras capture more detail, resulting in larger video files. This clarity comes at the cost of increased data usage.
- Video quality: The quality setting of the video affects its size. Higher quality videos look better but use more data.
- Compression type: Different compression technologies can reduce file sizes to varying extents. More effective compression reduces data usage without significantly compromising video quality.
Each of these factors plays a significant role in determining the overall data consumption of security cameras. By adjusting these variables, you can find the right balance between video quality and storage requirements to meet your security needs.
Hours per day
The amount of data required for storage increases with the number of hours a security camera records each day. Cameras that operate around the clock accumulate more footage, demanding more storage space than those set to record only during specific periods or upon detecting motion. This operational setting is crucial for balancing security needs against storage capacity.
Choosing between continuous recording and selective recording depends on the security requirements and available storage resources. Continuous recording is essential in high-security areas to ensure no event is missed, though it significantly increases storage demands. Selective recording, on the other hand, can conserve storage but may risk missing important events that occur outside the predefined recording times.
For instance, a security camera set to record 24/7 at low video quality and 960p resolution with MJPEG compression will use about 3.09 GB of storage space per day. Adjusting the recording hours can directly impact this figure, reducing the storage requirement for systems where around-the-clock surveillance is not necessary.
Days of retention
The length of time you retain recorded footage significantly impacts storage requirements. Longer retention periods mean that data accumulates over time, requiring substantial storage capacity to hold days, weeks, or even months of video. This factor is often dictated by legal, regulatory, or operational needs.
Increasing retention periods can be crucial for compliance with legal standards or for effective case management, which may require access to historical footage. However, this comes at the cost of increased storage needs. In situations where detailed long-term archives are critical, the added storage cost is often justified.
For example, retaining footage for 30 days as opposed to just 1 day multiplies the storage requirement by 30, assuming all other factors remain constant. A single camera recording at 960p and low quality using H.264 compression would need approximately 1.66 GB for a day’s footage, which scales up to about 49.8 GB for a 30-day retention period.
Number of cameras
The total data storage required grows with each additional camera added to a business video surveillance system. More cameras generate more footage, which in turn increases the volume of data that must be stored. This factor is critical in designing a surveillance system that can scale with the needs of a facility or operation.
Adding more cameras can enhance security coverage and reduce blind spots, making it worth the increased storage investment in many cases. Indeed, for extensive areas or locations requiring detailed monitoring from multiple angles, the benefits of additional cameras often outweigh the cost of expanded storage capacity.
With a setup of four cameras, each recording 24 hours a day at 960p resolution and low quality using H.264 compression, the total data usage would be approximately 665.28 MB per day. This example illustrates how storage requirements scale with the number of cameras in the system.
Frames per second (FPS)
FPS affects the smoothness of the video and the ability to capture fast-moving events. Higher FPS rates produce more fluid footage but also increase the amount of data generated. This setting is essential for areas where detailed motion capture is necessary.
In scenarios requiring detailed analysis of movements, such as in high-risk areas or for capturing fast-moving vehicles, a higher FPS may be justified despite the increased storage demand. Lower FPS settings can suffice in less critical areas, helping to conserve storage space without significantly compromising the effectiveness of the surveillance.
Resolution
Resolution determines the clarity and detail of the video footage, with higher resolutions providing sharper images but also requiring more data storage. High-resolution footage is crucial for identifying details such as faces or license plates, making it an important consideration for security systems.
Higher resolutions, such as 1080p or 4K, are beneficial for areas where detail is critical for identification purposes or for capturing wide scenes without losing clarity. The trade-off is the increased storage requirement, which may necessitate careful planning or the use of advanced compression techniques to manage effectively.
For example, a camera recording at a low video quality in 1080p resolution uses about 11.18 GB of storage per day, compared to 5.13 GB at 720p resolution, highlighting the impact of resolution on storage needs.
Video quality
Video quality affects the data size of recorded footage, with higher quality settings producing larger files. This is because higher quality videos contain more data to represent the visual information more accurately, resulting in clearer and more detailed footage.
High-quality settings are essential for critical areas where the utmost clarity is required, such as points of entry or areas with high-value assets. However, this necessitates larger storage capacities or more efficient compression methods to manage the increased data volume.
A shift from low to high video quality significantly increases data usage. For example, moving from low to high quality at 960p resolution and MJPEG compression can increase daily data usage from 3.09 GB to 8.96 GB for a single camera, demonstrating the storage implications of video quality adjustments.
Compression type
Compression technology plays a crucial role in reducing the size of video files without severely compromising their quality. Advanced compression types like H.264 and H.265 can dramatically decrease storage requirements compared to older formats like MJPEG.
Choosing an efficient compression type allows for the storage of high-quality video with reduced data usage. H.265, for example, offers significant improvements in compression efficiency over H.264, enabling even higher reductions in storage space for the same quality of video.
A comparison from the provided data shows that switching from MJPEG to H.265 compression at a low video quality and 960p resolution decreases daily data usage from 3.09 GB to just 34.56 MB. This stark difference underscores the importance of selecting the right compression type to maximize storage efficiency.
Daily security camera chart
These columns should give you an idea of how all the variables interact with each other to understand how much data security cameras use per day. The last two columns are more typical arrangements.
| Hours per day | Days of Retention | Number of Cameras | Frames per second (FPS) | Resolution | Video quality | Compression Type | Storage requirements |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 960 | Low | MJPEG | 3.09 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 960 | Low | H.264 | 166.32 MB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 960 | Low | H.265 | 34.56 MB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 960 | Medium | MJPEG | 6.28 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 960 | Medium | H.264 | 200.88 MB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 960 | Medium | H.265 | 63.72 MB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 960 | High | MJPEG | 8.96 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 960 | High | H.264 | 908.28 MB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 960 | High | H.265 | 103.68 MB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 720p | Low | MJPEG | 5.13 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 720p | Low | H.264 | 200.88 MB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 720p | Low | H.265 | 166.32 MB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1080p | Low | MJPEG | 11.18 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1080p | Low | H.264 | 942.84 MB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1080p | Low | H.265 | 137.16 MB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3MP | Low | MJPEG | 16.99 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3MP | Low | H.264 | 1.05 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3MP | Low | H.265 | 942.84 MB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5MP | Low | MJPEG | 27.12 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5MP | Low | H.264 | 1.35 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5MP | Low | H.265 | 947.16 MB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8MP/4K | Low | MJPEG | 44.34 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8MP/4K | Low | H.264 | 2.3 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8MP/4K | Low | H.265 | 2.12 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 960 | Low | MJPEG | 222.66 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 960 | Low | H.264 | 12.72 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 960 | Low | H.265 | 8.8 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 960 | Low | MJPEG | 445.56 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 960 | Low | H.264 | 25.74 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 960 | Low | H.265 | 17.15 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 960 | Low | MJPEG | 668.46 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 960 | Low | H.264 | 38.77 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 960 | Low | H.265 | 25.49 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 20 | 960 | Low | MJPEG | 891.37 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 20 | 960 | Low | H.264 | 51.79 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 20 | 960 | Low | H.265 | 33.84 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 25 | 960 | Low | MJPEG | 1.11 TB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 25 | 960 | Low | H.264 | 64.82 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 25 | 960 | Low | H.265 | 42.19 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 30 | 960 | Low | MJPEG | 1.34 TB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 30 | 960 | Low | H.264 | 77.84 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 1 | 30 | 960 | Low | H.265 | 50.54 GB |
| 24 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 960 | Low | MJPEG | 30.91 GB |
| 24 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 960 | Low | H.264 | 1.66 GB |
| 24 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 960 | Low | H.265 | 345.6 MB |
| 24 | 30 | 1 | 1 | 960 | Low | MJPEG | 92.73 GB |
| 24 | 30 | 1 | 1 | 960 | Low | H.264 | 4.99 GB |
| 24 | 30 | 1 | 1 | 960 | Low | H.265 | 1.04 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 960 | Low | MJPEG | 12.36 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 960 | Low | H.264 | 665.28 MB |
| 24 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 960 | Low | H.265 | 138.24 MB |
| 24 | 1 | 16 | 1 | 960 | Low | MJPEG | 49.46 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 16 | 1 | 960 | Low | H.264 | 2.66 GB |
| 24 | 1 | 16 | 1 | 960 | Low | H.265 | 552.96 MB |
| 12 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 960 | Low | MJPEG | 1.55 GB |
| 12 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 960 | Low | H.264 | 83.16 MB |
| 12 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 960 | Low | H.265 | 17.28 MB |
| 24 | 30 | 4 | 24 | 1080p | High | MJPEG | 98.42 TB |
| 24 | 30 | 8 | 12 | 5MP | High | MJPEG | 239.15 TB |
Solink provides cloud video surveillance tailored to your storage needs
Solink offers flexible cloud video surveillance solutions that adapt to the specific storage needs and budget constraints of any company. By allowing customizable retention settings, Solink ensures that businesses can find the perfect balance between their security requirements and available resources.
Whether you need to store high-resolution video for extended periods or are looking for cost-effective ways to manage data, Solink’s scalable services provide the ideal solution. With Solink, companies can leverage advanced surveillance technology without compromising on efficiency or effectiveness, ensuring that their surveillance system is as dynamic and adaptable as their operations.
