Evaluation: QNAP VS-201A Network Video Recorder
QNAP (Quality Network Appliance Provider) are a Taiwanese-based company focused on creating the “World’s best solutions in the areas of Network Attached Storage (NAS) and Network Video Recorders (NVR)”. They caught our eye by offering simple video surveillance solutions in complete, easy to use devices.
We are going to look at the VioStor VS-201 which is a compact NVR, ideally suited for security surveillance for small-office/home-office (SOHO) or small-medium sized businesses (SMEs).
QNAP VioStor 201
The first thing we noticed about the unit is that it comes in a compact, attractive looking box. It looks modern with a glossy front panel, secured with rugged looking stainless steel screws and bright LEDs. It’s also very sturdy and weighs a substantial 3.5kg. We like the design.
With the unit you get a CDROM containing setup software, an Ethernet cable, power supply and a Quick Installation Guide. It’s everything you need.
The unit has 2 drive bays which can accommodate 2x SATA drives up to a capacity of 2TB. Our demo unit came with 1x 500GB drive.
This particular model is an 8-channel unit suitable for the recording of up to 8 camera devices simultaneously.
What is it?
The VioStor-201 is a network-based video recorder featuring live monitoring and playback for up to 8 IP cameras. It features of range of recording methods which can be scheduled on a per-camera basis, it supports MJPEG, MPEG-4 and H.264 video recording and will record audio from compatible cameras.
The VS-201 offers reliability with secure data protection using RAID 1 mirroring (RAID 0 and JBOD [just a bunch of disks] modes also available for larger storage capacities). You can also back up your data quickly using the device’s 1-touch auto video backup button and UPS support provides an uninterrupted service in the event of power failure.
Also, with remote access support you can view your live or recorded images from any machine on the local network or from across the Internet using Microsoft Internet Explorer.
This unit supports a maximum of 8 cameras but if you operate more than 1 VS-201 you can chain them together. This allows a number of servers to be recording footage from different departments and all monitored from a central location.
Installation
There’s lots of help available when you first get started. The included ‘quick installation guide’ gives you step-by-step instructions when setting up the unit and this is also delivered in an interactive guide found on the CDROM.
It’s easy to follow, exact in its instructions and we found ourselves up and running in no time. The VS-201 is really easy to set up.
Network Configuration
Part of the installation procedure makes use of QNAP’s installation tool, QNAP finder. This will search the local network for any available QNAP devices and report their IP address. It works well and will help you find the device on the local network for the first time easily.
By default, the VS-201 is set to receive its IP address automatically by DHCP but you can give it a static IP address if required.
You can also alter the HTTP port for remote access.
Accessing for the first time
Before you try to access the VS-201 for the first time you should know the web interface relies on ActiveX so this means Internet Explorer only. No Mac or Linux support here either, unfortunately. The manual actually recommends the use of IE6 which indicates it’s either badly out of date or there may be issues with the modern versions however we did test the device using IE8 and saw no problems whatsoever.
We used the default administrator account when we signed in for the first time:
Username: administrator
Password: admin
It then asked us to perform a quick-setup routine using a 6-step wizard taking us through setting the server name, password, date/time, network settings, disk initialisation and finally camera configuration. The 6 step process is quick a painless and will have anyone up and running in no time, whether they are technically minded or not.
Disk Setup
We couldn’t test this as the demo unit we were provided only came with 1x 500GB HDD but it is possible to configure your drives in many different ways to include redundancy. RAID 1 mirroring, RAID 0 striping and JBOD modes all supported.
So far so good. Once through the initial setup we are taken to the live viewing page:
User Interface
The interface is thoughtfully laid out. It’s not overly stylised, but it is functional.
The icons along the top are your main navigation for access to the VS-201’s configuration, playback or help pages. You can also change the language, access the E-MAP and browse the server list from here too. More on those later.
At the top right hand side you have controls to adjust the monitor display ranging from 1 camera view up to a 5×4 grid. Below these are controls which affect the display. Aspect ratio correction, full screen display and sequential mode (carousel).
At the bottom right hand side is the PTZ control panel. This allows direct operation of PTZ cameras from the VS-201. Note, some models allow you to ‘click to center’ by clicking on the live image in the VS-201. You can also use digital zoom on any camera by right clicking on the live image and selecting ‘Digital Zoom’ from the context sensitive menu.
An indicator at the bottom left shows how much disk space is free and the remainder of the page is used to show the live images from the cameras. A helpful feature of the VS-201 is the set of icons which appear along the taskbar of each camera window which indicates the camera status. These could show PTZ, audio capability, scheduled or motion detection recording.
Although functional we think the UI could still be improved to make it more usable. For example, we found the sequential mode works fine if your view is set to a single camera but if you have set up 4 cameras on 2×2 grid the sequential mode will display page 2, even if you have no cameras set up on that page.
Recording
The VS-201 supports recording of MJPEG, MPEG-4 and H.264 (in selected cameras). It will handle all resolutions including high-definition megapixel IP cameras and will record at a combined frame rate of 240fps (8 cameras at QVGA/CIF) or 80fps (8 cameras at VGA).
Our model supports up to 8 cameras and these can be available over either the local network or remotely across the Internet.
Recording options are:
- Continuous recording based on a pre-determined schedule
- Alarm recording based on external sensor input (camera dependent)
- Alarm recording based on motion detection (camera dependent)
- Manual recording based on button press from user
Audio recording for compatible cameras is also supported.
We found that the unit works very well running in continuous mode. You can schedule the VS-201 per camera so that recording can be set to start/stop recording at specific times of the day or night.
A note about motion detection
We found during our test that the motion detection was quite difficult to set up.
First, not all cameras support the motion detection feature so it’s best to check the compatibility list beforehand: http://www.qnap.com/NVR/CompatibilityX01P.html
Secondly, the VS-201 didn’t work with motion detection recording at first. Out of the 7 cameras we added only 2 would record using motion detection. After some investigation and a quick call or two we resolved the issue by updating the firmware in the VS-201. It seems that the VS-201 is very dependent on the firmware it runs being compatible with the firmware in the cameras.
For this reason you should be aware that upgrading firmware in a camera working on the VS-201 *may* cause it to lose functionality in the system.
Security
The device offers a range of security features to keep your data secure. Comprehensive user management tools allow creation of user accounts with customisable admin and camera access.
You can also control who logs into the device using Host Access Control. This allows you to filter access by IP address. The VS-201 will also allow you to see who is currently logged in as well as provide a log for all previous login activity.
Data can be kept secure using a RAID 1 configuration. This configuration mirrors the data stored on 1 drive to a second, redundant drive protecting your data if one of the drives fails. Drives are also hot-swappable in this configuration so can be replaced while the device is on and recording. Convenient.
Support for UPS (uniterruptable power supply) allows the VS-201 to be powered in the event of a power outage. A UPS will keep the server alive for short power outages or initiate a graceful shutdown of the server in the event of the power going out for a longer period. If the unit is shutdown after an unexpected power outage then another useful feature is that it will automatically start up when the power is reconnected instead of relying on a user to turn the server back on.
All in all, the device is secure and reliable.
Advanced features
A couple of features we didn’t expect but were happy to see included were:
Dynamic DNS
The VS-201 has integrated compatibility for the free Dynamic DNS service at www.dyndns.com. This enables remote access when using the server on a network with a dynamic public IP address. For more information on dynamic DNS see our article ‘Dynamic IP Address vs Static IP Address’.
E-MAP
This is a feature of the VS-201 which allows you to upload a jpeg image showing a map with the layout of your cameras. They include the following example as default:
Having a overview map of your camera layout is a feature normally found in higher-end video surveillance systems so it’s nice to see it included here. Although it will require some work from the end-user to be used effectively.
Scalability
We have mentioned this but it’s worth mentioning again as it’s definitely a selling point of the VS-201. The VS-201 can be daisy-chained with other VS-201 servers if you want to add additional cameras/capacity to your system. It is a seamless addition and you can view all your cameras on a single page from 1 server.
This provides peace of mind that your video surveillance system can grow as your business grows.
Performance
Monitoring performance
The monitoring performance is adequate for most SMB security needs. The VS-201 comes with a good range of display modes and includes a full screen mode and sequential mode (camera carousel). It even has a picture in picture mode:
Camera views can be dragged and dropped to allow you to fine-tune the display to meet your exact requirements and notifications can be displayed for alarm activity including an audible alarm.
However, we did find the display to be a little sluggish at times when the cameras are set to full frame rate. In a test we set up 4 cameras in VGA resolution at full frame rate with recording based on motion detection. While the VS-201 still recorded at a reasonable 10+ frames per second it would only update on the monitor at around 1 frame every 3 seconds at the time when motion was detected. This is probably a result of a processor intensive task and the PC we were using may also be a contributing factor but it is definitely worth mentioning.
Recording Performance
The VS-201 has a set limit when it comes to recording. QNAP state in the specs that it is 240fps for 8 cameras running at 320×240, which is full frame rate. If you increase the resolution to VGA (or equivalent) you will reduce the frame rate to around 10fps per camera, which is still more than adequate for home/small-business security.
We ran a test using 4x VGA cameras at full frame rate. We were interested if the unit would give us double the recording frame rate if we halved the number of cameras. There’s no accurate way given to measure the frame rate we achieved but it looked to us like it was definitely over 10 frames per second and was probably getting close to 25/30fps.
Our findings suggest it shares the recording limit with all attached devices which is something to bear in mind if you want to record from megapixel cameras. Large resolutions will ultimately slow down the refresh rate of all cameras attached. These limits imposed on recording speeds shows us that the unit is aimed at smaller applications rather than enterprise-wide solutions. If megapixel clarity at full frame rate is an essential requirement then perhaps you would need to look at a higher-end solution but for video surveillance around the home or in any small/medium sized business then this is ideal.
Playback Performance
There needs to be a bit of work done on the usability of the playback interface. After you selected the cameras and time period you wish to view you are taken to the main viewing page but you have to then click on the recordings, per camera, to view the images. The problem we found is that the cameras are automatically allocated a position 1-4 on the main plackback viewer but there is no indication what they are until you start loading images.
QNAP VS-201 – Searching for archives
QNAP VS-201 – Playback viewer
Once loaded it is possible to view recorded footage from up to 4 cameras simultaneously and you can save snapshots or export video clips direct from the playback interface.
Interestingly you can also browse directly to the video files using a number of protocols such as SMB/CIFS, HTTP or FTP directly from the playback screen using a row of icons along the top of the display. The video files are stored in a .avi format sorted by filenames which included a date/times stamp. These .avi files can be played back using Windows Media Player and this method of archive retrieval provides an alternative way of browsing your files or backing up your archives.
Event Performance
The unit initially gave us a lot of trouble when we attempted to get it to record from our cameras using motion detection. After we upgraded the unit to the latest firmware this seemed to fix our problems. We can see users running into problems with this. Because of the complex way the cameras interface with the VS-201 it is very reliant on the firmware in the cameras being compatible (and this extends beyond alarms).
The VS-201 is actually quite clever. It doesn’t contain any motion detection routines of its own but instead uses the camera’s built-in motion detection. This means all the processing is done at the edge leaving no processing to be done on the server. On closer inspection we noticed the VS-201 creates its own event in the camera, e.g. in an Axis camera it creates a motion detection window called ‘nvr1’ and sets up an FTP event for it. This does allow the user to adjust the sensitivity settings to suit their requirements but on the downside this procedure is quite invasive and there is no warning given beforehand. If you have already set up any events in the camera before you connected it to the VS-201 then you should probably check they are still there afterwards.
Notification emails can be set up to either report on critical failures (such as camera disconnection, storage space full etc.) or you can have it set to report on every camera alarm. We tested this function and it worked smoothly first time with no problems.
Conclusion
The VioStor VS-201 offers simplicity for the end user. It offers a complete recording solution for IP video surveillance and it offers it in a tidy, easy to use package.
Our main concern is the NVR’s reliance on firmware. The firmware in the NVR must be compatible with the firmware installed in each camera that you add. The relationship between these 2 firmwares affects the camera’s ability to record on a scheduled or manual basis, to record based on motion or external sensor input, to be controlled using PTZ operation, PTZ presets etc. We ran into a few problems with our demo unit which we resolved by upgrading the firmware in the VS-201. QNAP suggest that all cameras should be on the latest firmware to be fully compatible but we think that most users will come across some kind of firmware-related problem during set this up. We stress that if you are running a QNAP server successfully you should think twice before upgrading the firmware in any of your cameras as this may change or distrupt the functionality of your system. QNAP do provide a list of supported cameras but this does not show compatible firmware. We will request this information from QNAP if it is available.
Aside from the concerns about firmware the device is really good. The VioStor 201 offers a neat solution to video surveillance for the home or small-business. It is compact, attractive and scalable and can be set up in 6 easy steps. We wouldn’t have a problem recommending it to users who are looking for a simple video surveillance solution.