Help! Layout, Multiple Monitors and CPU for 64-camera setup

[blueirisfan]

I plan on using BI5 to build a 64-camera 4K camera system but have a few newbie questions since I have not used BI5 before:

1. What is the maximum number of cameras I can squeeze into one single window?

2. Does BI5 support multiple monitors? I plan on having 32 cameras streaming live view on one monitor, and the other 32 cameras on the second monitor.

3. I also plan on building my own PC with state-of-the-art Intel Core i7-10700K Processor so the system won’t choke on basic things but is this the absolute best processor optimized on BI5?

4. How important is a good video card for this kind of setup? I don’t need those 3D gaming bells and whistle but I can’t find information on what cards are optimized for BI5 so some directions would be appreciated.

Looking forward to all your feedback.

[blueirisfan]

Nobody? At least some of the questions?

[Matts1984]

These are always kind of tough questions, scenarios....

1. What is the maximum number of cameras I can squeeze into one single window?
64 is the max supported by a single BI instance which is probably why you said a 64 camera set-up. I personally can't speak to getting past 9 cameras but I can see all 9 just fine in a single window. I would ASSUME (famous last words) that you can cram as many as you want in there with the expectation that each camera will start getting pretty tiny. There are options to have all the cameras present and then auto-maximize a camera on motion triggers.

2. Does BI5 support multiple monitors? I plan on having 32 cameras streaming live view on one monitor, and the other 32 cameras on the second monitor.
So I'm unaware of a direct option to achieve this. I have to make a few assumptions on this first. Is the viewing being done with monitors directly connected to your BI server or from a second workstation thats just connecting to it? I'm assuming you want to utilize the UI3 web interface from a separate workstation vs the actual console (better for performance reasons plus if this is a guard watching that doesn't need the ability to screw with your config - I'd recommend it). You could try opening two separate browser windows, one to each monitor. Then on Monitor 1 (browser 1)... utilize a login account that is limited to viewing 32 cameras. On monitor 2 (browser 2) utilize a separate user account that is limited to the other 32. There might be more elegant ways to achieve this but I think it's pretty simple and would do what you want without too much complexity - plus it's pretty simple to give lesser IT-capable users the instructions.

3. I also plan on building my own PC with state-of-the-art Intel Core i7-10700K Processor so the system won’t choke on basic things but is this the absolute best processor optimized on BI5?
I think you're pretty much right on track here. "The absolute best"... that could be like comparing a Lamborghini to a Ferrari, while you might have preference (*cough*Lambo*cough*) I don't think you'd be disappointed, but you could technically go with a Core i9 processor. The only other path forward I think would be to find a motherboard that supports multiple sockets. Blue Iris wants CPUs and the more cores the better, I'm using 10 old Xeon cores... RAM is pretty much an after thought. I to am using a state-of-the-art system (from 2010 ) and using Intel Hardware Acceleration is a major lifesaver - and contrary to what other forums say, it works just fine through VMware if you need/want to go that path.

4. How important is a good video card for this kind of setup? I don’t need those 3D gaming bells and whistle but I can’t find information on what cards are optimized for BI5 so some directions would be appreciated.
I'm not using one at all. Based on what I've read, while Nvidia decoding is supported, it's just not as good as Intel decoding. That said, it does give you the ability to have some cameras use Nvidia and some Intel which would help spread the load. If it was me, I think I'd skip the Nvidia card but keep that option in your back pocket if you find you need extra power once everything is up and running.