Overview

What is NVR Recording?

NVR recording is the capability to store the incoming video streams from the surveillance cameras to the storage disks of the NVR. The most typical recording method is to continuously record everything, 24/7, without gaps. While this creates the seamless video evidence of everything, it may require very large storage space. There are also ways to reduce that storage and reduce the solution cost significantly using event recording.

What is Event Recording?

Event recording is the special feature of the NVR to only record when there is an event occurring, to save the storage space significantly. The events usually come from the cameras along with the video stream. These events may include motion detection, panic button alerts, AI-based object detection alerts, etc. When the NVR receives the event, it will start recording the video stream. The recording process will last as long as the event is active. For example, while the panic button is still being pressed or while the moving object is still in the view of the camera.

What is Pre-Event Recording?

Sometimes, when the event is triggered and the recording starts, we would also want to see what happened right before that event, even just 10-20 seconds. For that, the NVR can be set to do pre-event recording - so when the event is triggered, NVR records not only the duration of the event, but also includes the defined amount of seconds prior to the event to the video clip. The pre-event recording uses the buffering concept - NVR would receive continuous stream from the cameras and temporarily record it. When no event occurs, it would remove that recording a few seconds later and thereby freeing the storage immediately. But if the event occurs, then the pre-recorded clip will be kept and merged with the event video clip.

Playback of the Event Recordings

The NVR interface is designed to conveniently browse through the event recorded clips using the timeline or event search.

Applications

Event Recording is used for the application where the storage cost is a significant factor and has to be optimized. Furthermore, the event recording is used for the applications where there is almost never any motion or activities on the site. Recording a still image 90% of the time would seem such as waste of storage. In such cases, the event recording is a perfect solution.

Solutions

ACTi's NVR 3 has the most advanced event recording solution. It supports tens of different event trigger types to define how the event recording is being triggered. It also allows defining the time periods where such rules are active. Furthermore, NVR 3 supports pre-event recording as well.