THE COMPLETE PROJECT WORKSPACE
One installation. One connected plan.
Work through recording, network and backup. Every change flows through the whole system, with capacity checks beside your inputs.
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.
How to use the system planner
Enter the number of cameras and a representative average bitrate first. Set your recording schedule and retention target, then enter usable disk capacity and recorder channels. In Network & PoE, use maximum camera watts and the switch's available powered ports and total PoE output budget. In UPS backup, include the recorder, switch base consumption and estimated power losses alongside the powered devices. All cameras in this MVP share one bitrate and one maximum watt value; for mixed cameras use conservative representative values and verify the final design separately.
Formula / method
Daily GB = camera count × average Mbps × hours/day × 0.45
Required powered ports = camera count + other PoE device ports
Estimated AC load W = camera maximum W + other PoE W + recorder/switch/loss allowance W
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.
For eight 12 W cameras and two other PoE devices consuming 20 W total, reserve 10 powered ports and at least 145 W of PoE budget with 25% headroom. A 16-channel recorder leaves eight spare channels. Adding 35 W for the recorder, switch and losses gives a 151 W UPS planning load.
Before you specify.
Why do my values appear in the other calculators?
The specialist pages are different views of one installation. They reuse your browser-saved project, so changing camera count in the storage tool also updates power, ports and channel checks.
What does WARNING mean?
A WARNING means an entered capacity falls below the calculated target, including your selected allowance where applicable. It can also indicate that a UPS load is above the UPS watt rating; in that case the energy-only runtime estimate is not an achievable operating time.
Can I hand the plan to an installer?
Use Copy summary for plain text, Share plan for an input-bearing link, or Print summary for a clean project sheet. The sheet includes the input assumptions and checks so an installer can validate the design against real equipment.