control4 Hikvision NVR and network?

[onesunnyday]

Hi,

I am wandering if anyone has any experience with getting a HikVISION NVR to behave with Control 4 and have some questions about the correct network structure.

 

I currently have a Hikvision NVR with with the updated firmware.  It has 16 inbuilt POE ports for the cameras.  HOWEVER, I am currently not using the inbuilt POE ports and have configured a separate POE switch for the cameras. The cameras are currently on a separate VLAN from the NVR. The NVR is configured on the "home" network but has access to the cameras too, via the switch. 

 

My question is, will this be compatible with Control4. I.e. C4 having only direct access to the NVR and NOT the cameras?  or should i just use the POE ports on the NVR to connect the cameras?  The only thing i want to do is view cameras via the C4 interface. (not too concerned about confining the NVR via C4).

 

would appreciate any advise as not too sure?

[THEORY]

There are a few reasons it would be beneficial to have the cameras in the ports on the NVR.

• If you want the cameras to keep recording in a power outage you only need to UPS the NVR
• keeps the camera throughput off your network switches
• if Hikvision cameras easier management (plug and play)

Control4 needs access to the cameras, so if using the virtual host via the NVR or an IP connection to the cameras, it must have a direct path from the Control4 controller.

[onesunnyday]

On 09/02/2018 at 3:26 PM, THEORY said:

There are a few reasons it would be beneficial to have the cameras in the ports on the NVR.

• If you want the cameras to keep recording in a power outage you only need to UPS the NVR
• keeps the camera throughput off your network switches
• if Hikvision cameras easier management (plug and play)

Control4 needs access to the cameras, so if using the virtual host via the NVR or an IP connection to the cameras, it must have a direct path from the Control4 controller.

Thanks for your reply!

 

- The POE switch has its own dedicated UPS so power outage is not an issue

- The network has its own dedicated POE L3 switch for the cameras which routes the Camera VLAN directly to the NVR (on the same switch).  Therefore all the separate camera traffic at the moment stays within the switch. This means the camera traffic doesnt touch the main router in any way.

- I have static IPs for all the camera on the VLAN. I prefer this to the plug and play anyway.

 

I think what you are saying is that the control4 controller needs access to the camera VLAN (which is currently within the seperate POE switch).   So C4 wont work with access to the NVR only (which has access to the cameras?)