VR-N100U USERS MANUAL
Page 9 of 98 All Items Are Subject To Change Without Notice Feb. 2004 Rev 1.0
1.3.3. Digital Video Recorders (DVR’s)
Digital Video Recorders or better known as “DVR’s” is the first attempt for companies to offer an alternative solution to the
traditional analog systems. By adding video capture cards to a PC, many companies are trying to use this type of solution to
replace the popular VCR as the means of capturing and storing the security video digitally. T he video from analog cameras are
converted to a digital format and then stored onto hard disk drives. Once the hard drives fill up with video, the customer has
the option to manually archive any of the video to a CD or DVD disc as well as delete the captured video in order to make
space for newer data. T hese solutions c annot be implement ed into most existing net work infrastructures as the dev ices eat up
valuable bandwidth and network resources.
1.3.4. Software-Based Solutions
There are many software-based security products and most require Intel-compatible computers running Microsoft Windows
server operating systems. They offer the ability to capture video from analog cameras with capture cards or from IP-based
network cameras as well as manage the video. These solutions can become very complex as well as very costly as each
feature and function is normally broken into various software modules. In addition to the options, license costs per camera
and/or per user normally apply, and don’t forget about the Microsoft server licenses. Finally, hidden costs such as new
infrastructures and separate dedicated high-speed networks must be implemented to utilize these solutions, plus dedicated
personnel trained to use and maintain the s ecurity system. T he cost of ownership is dramaticall y increased for such solutions.
For companies with multiple locations, it becomes too expensive and an impossible situation to manage and maintain.
1.3.5. The Solution…VR-N100U Security Appliance
With each VR-N100U appliance, a dedicated RAID set of large capacity hard disk drives for online storage is utilized and
occupies a very small 19” 1U form-factor footprint. Options are availab le to add additional hard disk drive storage or ar chiving
to other media such as CD, DVD and tape in a seamless automated manner provides the maximum flexibility for the VR-
N100U customer. Thus, the video could reside on non-volatile and random access write-once or rewritable media that has a
life expectancy of at least 50 years for pennies per gigabyte. There is no need for special environments, large dedicated rooms
for media storage, rerecording of discs, or playback compatibilit y. VR-N100U also supports auto-discovery and configuring of
IP cameras as well as supports analog cameras via network encoders. The camer a types can be fixed, pan-tilt-zoom as well
as motion detection. Up to sixteen cameras can be supported by each VR-N100U appliance and completely scalable to
support the enterprise. As more cameras are needed, additional VR-N100U appliances can be implemented. Nearly an
unlimited number of VR-N100U appliances and their cameras can easily be managed from a single software interface.
Installation into existing network infrastructures is supported with minimal resources utilized. A single IP address is required
for a VR-N100U appliance and 16 cameras. For larger and enterprise environments, we offer the ability to utilize our unique
dynamic IP addressing schema to associate a single IP address for an unlimited number of VR-N100U appliances and their
associated cameras. With hundreds and thousands of cameras simultaneously archiving video 24x7x365 in real-time at their
highest resolution and frame rate, there is literally no impact on the network bandwidth. Monitoring and managing the VR-
N100U security app liance c a n be done from an ywhere in th e world with an internet con ne ction and usin g either a web browser
or the enterprise client software utility called VDRView. No hidden costs exist as unlimited user license is included with each
VR-N100U security appliance.