Questions · Video software
What is the difference between a VMS and an NVR recorder?
A recorder is a closed box that does one thing: record the cameras that fit on it and let people watch them. A video management system —a VMS— is a program installed on servers that separates the functions: one records, another holds the configuration and the users, another serves the clients doing the watching, and each piece grows on its own.
That separation is what changes the behaviour as things grow. A recorder fills up and you buy another, and you end up with six recorders that are six islands with six user lists and six clocks that do not agree. A VMS adds one more recording server and it is still one system, with one user list, one search that crosses every camera and one place to look at what is failing.
The trade-off is that a VMS is a computer system, with its servers, its database, its updates and somebody to administer it. For a shop with eight cameras, a well-chosen recorder is the right answer and building a VMS is making life difficult. The point where the answer changes is not a number of cameras: it is when there are several sites, when fine control of who sees what is needed, or when the video has to talk to other systems.
Where it is set out in full.
Where you can see it working.
On the IRIS Neural website, on real scenes.
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A written answer is enough to decide whether it interests you. To know whether it works at your site you have to see it on a real scene, with the image as it is and, on top of it, what the system understands from it. That is on the IRIS Neural website, which is the group's product.