Design lab: a complete worked example
Take a three-building site from requirements to camera list, PoE, bandwidth, storage, servers and integration.
- Apply every module in sequence to one realistic design
- Produce numbers you can defend in a proposal
The brief
A regional healthcare office campus: 3 buildings, 24 controlled doors, a 150-space parking lot, a pharmacy store room and a server room. Retention required by policy: 30 days for all video, 90 days for pharmacy and server room cameras. The customer already runs Synergis access control on Security Center and wants video unified with it. No procurement restrictions except NDAA Section 889 compliance (they receive federal funding).
1. Operational requirements
| Area | Requirement (2014 DORI) | Camera approach |
|---|---|---|
| 24 controlled doors (inside) | Identify people entering | Fixed dome per door at face height, 1080p, narrow FOV |
| 3 main entrances (outside) | Identify; strong backlight | Fixed 4 MP with WDR, plus overview |
| Parking lot | Observe vehicles and people; read plates at 2 entrances | 4 multisensor (4 × 4 MP) + 2 LPR cameras |
| Corridors and lobbies | Recognize | 40 fixed domes, mix of 1080p and 4 MP |
| Pharmacy & server room | Identify; 90-day retention | 4 fixed 4 MP |
| Building perimeters | Detect at night | 6 bullets with IR and object analytics |
2. Camera count and assumed bitrates
Bitrates below are assumed averages for the exercise (H.265 with a smart codec, 15 fps). In a real project, measure them with a pilot.
| Group | Qty | Streams | Avg Mbps each | Total Mbps | PoE class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Door domes 1080p | 24 | 24 | 2 | 48 | 3 |
| Entrance 4 MP WDR | 3 | 3 | 4 | 12 | 3 |
| Corridor/lobby domes | 40 | 40 | 2.5 | 100 | 3 |
| Pharmacy/server 4 MP | 4 | 4 | 3 | 12 | 3 |
| Perimeter bullets IR | 6 | 6 | 3 | 18 | 4 |
| Multisensor 4 × 4 MP | 4 | 16 | 3 | 48 | 4 (check datasheet) |
| LPR | 2 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 4 |
| Total | 83 cameras | 95 | 246 Mbps |
3. PoE
Building B's main closet feeds 30 Class 3 domes and the 4 Class 4 parking-lot multisensors: 30 × 15.4 + 4 × 30 = 462 + 120 = 582 W reserved. With ~20% headroom ≈ 700 W: choose switch(es) with at least that PoE budget, on UPS.
4. Network
Aggregate recording traffic: 246 Mbps. Add live viewing for 4 operators × 16 tiles × 0.5 Mbps = 32 Mbps plus detail streams ≈ 30 Mbps → about 310 Mbps at the core. Building uplinks: largest building ~120 Mbps. 10 Gbps fiber between buildings gives ample headroom; 1 Gbps would technically work but leaves little room for growth, bursts and playback. Cameras on a video VLAN per building, access controllers on their own VLAN, IGMP snooping enabled if multicast is used for the SOC wall.
5. Storage
Two retention tiers
30-day group: 246 − 12 = 234 Mbps × 10.8 = 2,527 GB/day × 30 = 75.8 TB.
90-day group (pharmacy/server, 12 Mbps): 12 × 10.8 = 129.6 GB/day × 90 = 11.7 TB.
Total video: 87.5 TB. With 10% free space: 87.5 ÷ 0.9 = 97.2 TB usable. With RAID 6 (83% efficiency): ≈ 117 TB raw. Add 20% growth → plan ~140 TB raw, e.g. two Archiver servers each with 12 × 8 TB drives in RAID 6 (80 TB usable each, 160 TB total, which covers the ~117 TB usable needed with 20% growth), or follow the server vendor's validated configurations.
6. VMS architecture
- Existing main server hosts Directory, Access Manager and Media Router (check load).
- Two Archiver servers (Archiver A: buildings A and B; Archiver B: building C and parking), each with failover to a shared standby server.
- Auxiliary Archiver or redundant archiving for pharmacy and server room cameras if the customer requires a second copy.
- Media Gateway for the security manager's mobile app.
- Edge recording on parking lot multisensors with archive transfer to cover network outages.
7. Integration with access control
- Associate each door dome with its door entity; outside cameras with the outside side.
- Alarms: door forced and door held at pharmacy and server room with attached cameras and automatic recording; operator procedures in the alarm instructions.
- Cardholder photos refreshed at next badge renewal so visual verification works.
- LPR plates as credentials for staff parking gate (if AutoVu is in scope).
- Lockdown threat level that locks perimeter doors and pushes entrance cameras to the video wall.
8. Cybersecurity and compliance
- All cameras and controllers NDAA Section 889 compliant; manufacturer compliance statements in the submittal.
- Unique credentials per device, firmware at current LTS, HTTPS with customer CA certs, 802.1X where switches support it.
- Camera encryption in transit from Archiver for pharmacy/server room cameras (or all cameras if the customer requires it).
- Hardening per Genetec's and Axis' guides; documented in the as-built.
9. Presenting it
Summarize the design on one page for the customer: requirements met per area, camera count, retention, storage, servers, and the operator workflow for a forced door. Put the calculations in an appendix so their IT team can check them. See Designing a solution and BOM.
Try it: bandwidth and storage calculator
Decimal units (1 TB = 1,000 GB), matching how drives are sold. Operating systems often show binary TiB, which reads about 9% smaller. Use measured bitrates from a pilot camera whenever possible.
Check your understanding
1.In the design lab, why are pharmacy and server room cameras calculated separately?
2.Recalculate: if the 30-day group bitrate rises 30% at night on average over 24 h, what happens to the 75.8 TB figure?