RECORDING / NVR PLANNING
Match your recorder to the job.
Check disk capacity and channel count together. A recorder needs room for both your footage and every connected camera.
Built for installers.
Useful before the first cable.
Installation planner
The recording plan
Start with your streams and how long you need to keep them.
All cameras use the bitrate and maximum watts below.
Use a measured or configured average. Resolution alone does not determine bitrate.
Use 24 for continuous recording; motion recording duration is an estimate.
How long recordings should be kept.
Extra capacity above calculated footage. Set to 0 to omit.
Capacity available for footage after RAID, formatting and other reservations.
Check the recorder's separate incoming bandwidth limit too.
Bitrate is manual. Codec, frame rate, scene activity and noise all matter; resolution alone is not enough.
Your system, sized.
- Storage with margin
- 12.442 TB
10.368 TB footage + 20% allowance
- Camera traffic
- 32 Mbps
40 Mbps with 25% headroom
- Recommended PoE
- 145 W
116 W devices + 25% headroom
- Estimated UPS runtime
- 73 min
151 W estimated load
Recording capacity
WARNING345.6 GB/day · 2 TB usable. Estimated retention with margin: 4.8 days (4 complete days); target 30.
Network uplink
PASS40 Mbps minimum planned capacity. 100 Mbps nominal link suggested. 1,000 Mbps available.
PoE power budget
PASS96 W cameras + 20 W other devices. 145 W recommended / 150 W available. 34 W above device load.
Powered switch ports
PASS10 required / 16 available. 6 spare powered ports. Uplinks are separate.
Recorder channels
PASS8 channels required / 16 available. 8 spare channels. Verify recorder incoming bandwidth separately.
UPS output capacity
PASS151 W estimated load / 600 W output capacity. Includes 35 W for recorder, switch and losses.
UPS battery energy
PASS183.6 Wh usable gives approximately 73 minutes; target 30 minutes. Required: 75.5 Wh usable / 88.8 Wh nominal at 85% usable. Validate against the UPS runtime curve.
Decimal GB/TB · Unrounded calculations, rounded display · All results are planning estimates
View plain-text project summary
CCTVPlan — CCTV project estimate 8 cameras · 4 Mbps/camera · 24 recording hours/day · 30 days target retention Storage: 345.6 GB/day; 10.368 TB footage; 12.442 TB including 20% margin. WARNING Available: 2 TB usable; estimated retention with margin: 4.8 days. Network: 32 Mbps streams; 40 Mbps minimum with 25% headroom; 100 Mbps nominal uplink suggested; 1000 Mbps available. PASS PoE: 96 W cameras + 20 W other devices; 145 W recommended with 25% headroom; 150 W available. PASS Ports: 10 powered ports required; 16 available. PASS NVR: 8 channels required; 16 available; 8 spare (negative = shortfall). PASS UPS: 151 W estimated load, including 35 W recorder/switch/loss allowance; 600 W capacity. PASS Battery: 216 Wh nominal at 85% estimated usable fraction; 73 min estimated runtime vs 30 min target. PASS Required battery: 75.5 Wh usable AC energy / 88.8 Wh nominal at 85%. Decimal units: 1 GB = 10^9 bytes; 1 TB = 1,000 GB. Estimates use a constant average bitrate and maximum device power. Verify VBR peaks, recorder throughput, per-port PoE standards and UPS manufacturer runtime curves. No equipment compatibility guarantee.
CCTVPlan · Project summary
CCTVPlan — CCTV project estimate 8 cameras · 4 Mbps/camera · 24 recording hours/day · 30 days target retention Storage: 345.6 GB/day; 10.368 TB footage; 12.442 TB including 20% margin. WARNING Available: 2 TB usable; estimated retention with margin: 4.8 days. Network: 32 Mbps streams; 40 Mbps minimum with 25% headroom; 100 Mbps nominal uplink suggested; 1000 Mbps available. PASS PoE: 96 W cameras + 20 W other devices; 145 W recommended with 25% headroom; 150 W available. PASS Ports: 10 powered ports required; 16 available. PASS NVR: 8 channels required; 16 available; 8 spare (negative = shortfall). PASS UPS: 151 W estimated load, including 35 W recorder/switch/loss allowance; 600 W capacity. PASS Battery: 216 Wh nominal at 85% estimated usable fraction; 73 min estimated runtime vs 30 min target. PASS Required battery: 75.5 Wh usable AC energy / 88.8 Wh nominal at 85%. Decimal units: 1 GB = 10^9 bytes; 1 TB = 1,000 GB. Estimates use a constant average bitrate and maximum device power. Verify VBR peaks, recorder throughput, per-port PoE standards and UPS manufacturer runtime curves. No equipment compatibility guarantee.
Transparent assumptions.
Practical estimates.
Check three different NVR limits
An NVR needs sufficient channels, usable storage and incoming recording throughput. Channel count alone does not confirm that a recorder can ingest all streams. This planner checks one channel per camera and shows aggregate camera traffic; compare that traffic and expected peaks with the recorder's published recording bandwidth. Playback, decoding and outgoing live-view capacity may have separate limits. Disk estimates assume one recorded stream per camera and exclude audio unless it is included in your entered bitrate.
Formula / method
Required NVR channels = number of cameras
Spare channels = available recorder channels − camera count
Footage TB = cameras × Mbps × hours/day × 0.45 × retention days ÷ 1,000
Units: Mbps = 1,000,000 bits/second; 8 bits = 1 byte. 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes; 1 TB = 1,000 GB. W measures power; Wh measures energy. Values are calculated without intermediate rounding. A displayed estimate is not a guarantee.
Sixteen cameras at 2 Mbps, recording 24/7 for 14 days, require 4.8384 TB before margin and 5.80608 TB with 20% extra. Their aggregate stream rate is 32 Mbps. A 16-channel NVR has zero spare channels; a 32-channel unit has 16 spare, subject to its throughput and disk limits.
Before you specify.
Does a 16-channel NVR guarantee 16 cameras at any bitrate?
No. A recorder can have separate incoming bandwidth, decoding, resolution and storage limits. CCTVPlan checks channel arithmetic and shows aggregate bitrate; verify the actual recorder specifications yourself.
Should I enter raw disk size?
Enter capacity available to recordings after RAID, system reservations and any other usage. The tool does not infer usable capacity from drive count or RAID level.
Do spare channels include future disk capacity?
No. Spare channels only measure recorder camera slots. Adding cameras also increases storage, network and power demand, so update the project camera count to evaluate expansion.