If you want to view many cameras on the same screen, or need to record the video, you must select a video management software product (VMS) or select one of the network video recorder (NVR) systems.
There are a number of different Video Management Software (VMS) products available. The primary job of the VMS is to record the video from many IP cameras on the network. It is very important to select software that is very reliable and doesn’t crash. You certainly don’t want to lose important video. It is also important to use a dedicated computer system to run the VMS.
The various software products available have many additional functions including motion detection, special alerts that tell you when something important has happened. Flexible display of real time and recorded video, and easy locating and display of multiple recorded video channels to name a few. The exact feature set depends on your objectives. Take a look at the table of VMS that compares a number of different products.
The network video server is a computer that runs special Video Management Software (VMS) and is used to record video from IP cameras. A Windows computer is usually used as the platform for the VMS. Video is recorded onto the computer’s hard drives in a special video format. Learn more about Video Management Software.
There has been some confusion with this term because a number of years ago a device that attached an analog camera to the network was also called a video or camera server. A video camera server, is now usually referred to as a Video Encoder.
There are three types of recording systems: Video Management Software, Network Video Recorders (NVR), and Cloud service systems. Each one provides some unique capability.
Video Management Software (VMS) is software only that runs on your Windows computer and can be scaled to any size of system.
Network Video Recorder (NVR) is a complete system that includes the computer and software and is typically proprietary and not expandable.
Cloud service provides remote recording (over the Internet) for IP cameras at many different locations.
For more details take a look at our review and comparison of a number of these IP video recording systems.