Synology Surveillance Station vs Blue Iris on a Server?

[ToddW2]

Thinking about adding a 2nd Synology NAS for DVR/Camera DUTY. Licenses cost $200 for 4 cameras, and obviously the NAS cost + drive cost.


What are the Pros/Cons of going with the Synology Surveillance Station vs Blue Iris?

I'm looking for something simple to setup, easy to use (for my wife and family). But, it also must have the ability to expand in the future so that it can handle 8 or 10 cameras. I don't expect to record all cameras at once, record/alert on motion and maybe record 1-2 days wroth of the drive-way camera.

What "speed" synology will I need for say 10 cameras doing 1080p each? I'm not sure how much CPU is required for that much recording, or even disk write performance.

With Blue Iris I know I can design/build the system around my needs but that takes more time, but something I may need to do if a pre-built NAS can't handle my needs.

So...

Opinions on synology surveillance?
Opinions on Blue Iris?

Etc...
Let me know what's working.

PS: I already have 2x2TB drives and will probably want to go with a 4 or 5 bay system ideally.

 

[Pocatello]

I have this same question 9 years later. I used the search function. Not much results at [H]. I am leaning towards Synology with their Surveillance Station version 9.0 which gets great reviews. Maybe the OP ToddW2 found his answers elsewhere?

 

[mwroobel]

Honestly, it depends on how much you want to babysit it. Synology has a NVR/DVR calculator where you can plug in the number of cameras, resolution, retention time and more where it will suggest what you need as far as power (which boxes will suffice for your needs) and availability. You can drop the Synology box in the corner, plug it into your network and 5 minutes of setup and you are golden. It will handle updates, notifications etc all on its own. In addition, you can also use the Synology for docker containers such as piehole, plex etc. The Synology will likely cost a little more than a blue iris build depending on how you spec it out, but as a set-it-and-forget-it "appliance" you can't beat it. I did a box for my brother's store with a DS923+ with 12 4k cameras. Nvme 1TB cache stick and 4x20TB drives in SHR (essentially RAID5.)

 

[Abula]

Blue Iris imo is a better surveillance software than Surveillance station from Synology, much more tweaking and less expensive if you run multiple camaras, but Synology is easier to setup and use, the only thing lacking imo is hardware on Synlogy is on the low end, but they do maximize their dsm and software to deliver more than we expect.

That said, i used Blue iris for 5 years, but i have moved on from it, because i wanted something much more efficient, no need for a VPN for remote viewing, and a better phone app. I ended with Nx Witness, its expensive, $75 per license, but it works in windows, mac or linux, atm im running a 10x 4mp camara setup on a Pentium J5040, runs like a champ drawing less than 20w load (i record to high endurance ssd, cant stand the mechanical noise). I still play around with Blue Iris, specially since the author has introduced AI with codeproject and deepstack, and imo its great for people that don't want to pay for licenses.

Another brand you should check or at least research is Ubiquiti, while their value of cameras are not as good as Dahua/Hikvision, the total package in terms of NVR + Cameras + ease of management (adoption, update), is pretty solid imo, imo not as good as NxWitness, but certainly a contender, specially if you own or use any other Ubiquiti gear, like switches, access points, etc.

 

[SomeFknGuy]

Blue Iris imo is a better surveillance software than Surveillance station from Synology, much more tweaking and less expensive if you run multiple camaras, but Synology is easier to setup and use, the only thing lacking imo is hardware on Synlogy is on the low end, but they do maximize their dsm and software to deliver more than we expect.

That said, i used Blue iris for 5 years, but i have moved on from it, because i wanted something much more efficient, no need for a VPN for remote viewing, and a better phone app. I ended with Nx Witness, its expensive, $75 per license, but it works in windows, mac or linux, atm im running a 10x 4mp camara setup on a Pentium J5040, runs like a champ drawing less than 20w load (i record to high endurance ssd, cant stand the mechanical noise). I still play around with Blue Iris, specially since the author has introduced AI with codeproject and deepstack, and imo its great for people that don't want to pay for licenses.

Another brand you should check or at least research is Ubiquiti, while their value of cameras are not as good as Dahua/Hikvision, the total package in terms of NVR + Cameras + ease of management (adoption, update), is pretty solid imo, imo not as good as NxWitness, but certainly a contender, specially if you own or use any other Ubiquiti gear, like switches, access points, etc.

I've been doing the same research myself. I have a UDM-SE and a HDD to throw in...but have you priced a PTZ camera from ubiquiti? Their prices are INSANE. Can get a similarly specced camera from reolink for ~200 compared to the 1800 for a single unifi PTZ cam. Their closed ecosystem refusing to talk to non-unifi cameras is starting to turn me off... I had planned out a full unifi cam system but there are 2 spots that need a PTZ cam and quite literally one of them costs more than the rest of the system combined, and that was a major deal breaker for me

 

[German Muscle]

I've been doing the same research myself. I have a UDM-SE and a HDD to throw in...but have you priced a PTZ camera from ubiquiti? Their prices are INSANE. Can get a similarly specced camera from reolink for ~200 compared to the 1800 for a single unifi PTZ cam. Their closed ecosystem refusing to talk to non-unifi cameras is starting to turn me off... I had planned out a full unifi cam system but there are 2 spots that need a PTZ cam and quite literally one of them costs more than the rest of the system combined, and that was a major deal breaker for me

Its pretty much inline with Axis Outdoor PTZ which is who they are competing with.

 

[ochadd]

Blue Iris has been great for me. Been using for eight years. I've used Synology for two deployments and just replaced both with Blue Iris a couple months ago. They went end of life. For me it's familiarity. It's Windows. I have it virtualized in a VM on a server that hosts two other VMs. Intel Quicksync worked just fine for me and took allot of the CPU load off.

 

[Sickb0y]

Opinions on synology surveillance?

I installed a Synology DS 920+ system at my parents' house with 6 cameras (a combination of Dahua and Hikvision cameras). The setup process went smoothly, zero issues setting them up via Synology Surveillance, software works as expected a bit slow compare to Unifi cloud key.

I also own 3 Ubiquiti cameras at my studio apt connected to an Ubiquiti cloud key Gen2, but I would recommend avoiding them. They perform well, easy to setup and the Android app surpasses the Synology app in terms of speed and simplicity, but the cameras video quality doesn't even come close to Hikvision, especially when it comes to night vision and they are quite overpriced by a mile. I would suggest opting for Hikvision, particularly their ColorVu line.