Resilient and redundant recording solutions are becoming important to many CCTV users that require potentially valuable recordings to be protected against equipment and network failures. IndigoVision already provides a scalable and distributed solution that allows NVRs to be transparently located at any point on the network, removing single-point failures, which are common with traditional analogue/DVR recording systems. The new upgrade takes this further by allowing NVRs to work as failover backups and mirrors for primary NVRs. The backup NVR can continuously record the same video in parallel as the primary NVR (mirroring) or automatically takeover recording if the primary NVR fails. The backup NVRs can be located at a different physical location to the primary NVRs, adding further to the resilience of the system.

The backup NVRs continuously monitor the primary NVRs to check availability and synchronise configurations. The switching of the primary NVR to a backup unit can also be manually initiated to allow routine maintenance or fault investigation of the primary NVR. Several backup NVRs can monitor a single primary NVR and similarly a single backup NVR can monitor several primary NVRs. Sophisticated webs or chains of NVR redundancy can be implemented allowing the user to choose their level of redundancy based on a risk/cost analysis. IndigoVision’s family of robust standalone NVR products also provides a level of built-in resilience with dual redundant network connections and power supplies, RAID configurations and hot-swappable drives.

‘Control Center’ PC software allows users to view live and recorded video from any CCTV camera on the network and provides a range of tools for the management of alarms and the analysis and fast-searching of recorded footage. ‘Control Center’ is also used to configure the recording strategies for each NVR. Uniquely, IndigoVision’s ‘Control Center’ software is licence-free, allowing users to install any number of CCTV viewing workstations, at any location, for no more cost than an entry-level PC.

In addition to the NVR redundancy features, the latest upgrade to ‘Control Center’ also includes many new features including video bookmarks and advanced IRIS control for PTZ cameras. Video bookmarks allow the user to add notes associated with a specific section of recorded video. Like alarms, bookmarks are saved on the NVR and associated with the recording so that other operators can view them.