CCTV Storage Calculation with Formula and Examples (step-by-step)

Storage calculation is very important for CCTV projects. I bet you want to learn how to calculate bandwidth and storage for your IP cameras and recorder devices, so you can estimate how much hard drive is necessary to record your CCTV footage. So it's time to learn, just keep reading... 

Yeah, I know... you are about to purchase a CCTV system but you have no idea how to calculate the necessary storage to record the camera footage. "What hard drive should I buy? How long can my DVR record for ?" If those are some questions you are asking right now, don't worry I have the answer.

The correct time to work on the storage calculation is when your CCTV project is still on paper, Wait,,,, your already purchased your cameras and recorders?  Don't worry, you still will benefit from reading this article...

Let's say you have a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) with 1 or 2 TB hard drive for video storage, guess what... you are good to go. It doesn't matter if it's a 4, 8 or 16 channel DVR, you can adjust the configuration and record videos for about 7 to 30 days or even longer period of time. But 30 is a good number.

OK, I've heard people asking for one year CCTV recording project. Although that can be possible, it's not a typical situation because the project can become quite expensive for such a long time video recording.  

Let's use a simple method to calculate the storage for your CCTV project, you just need to know how much bandwidth your security camera is using and that is the same as saying what's the bitrate for your camera.

If you are planning to use your camera with HD resolution a 1024 Kbps bitrate will be OK, for Full HD resolution use 2048 Kbps as your bitrate.

With that information you can use a formula or a storage calculator to input the bitrate, the number of days for recording and the number of cameras

Desperate looking for a CCTV storage calculation formula ?

There are more theory about CCTV storage calculation, but if you are really crazy about math and want to see the formula, here you go....

Storage = ( (cam_bitrate/8) * 3600 * 24 * Qty_cam * Qty_days ) /1G

OMG.,,, It's a big formula, isn't it ? Don't worry that's easy stuff, just take a look at the example and you will understand how to use this formula.

So how was that storage calculation formulla ? Did you understand it ?

I'm using the camera bitrate for the calculation, that means I know how much bandwidth the camera is using for the quality it was configured for.   

In the example number 1, the camera bitrate is 1024Kbps, that means it is using around 1,024,000 bps or 1Mbps to record the video.

In the example number 2, the camera bitrate is 2048Kbps, that means it is using around 2,048,000 bps or 2Mbps to record the video.

In the second example the camera uses more bandwidth (and storage) because probably its configured to to have higher video quality. 

OK, you hate math and all those storage calculation formula, don't you ?

You still need to calculate the camera storage, and are wondering if there's a easy way, perhaps you could use a CCTV bandwidth and storage calculator 

Is there something like this available to help you with your CCTV project?

Yes, my friend... there's some CCTV bandwidth and storage calculator out there that can make your life much easier, so let's talk about them.

This bandwidth and storage calculator it's easy to use, let's jump directly to the  example we used before. In the example number 1 there's one camera using 1024 Kbps with one day recording, right ? 

So, take a loot at the picture below, that's exactly what I put into the field in the red squares.... 1 Day, 1 Camera, 1024 Kbps can you see the result ?

Yes my friend, it's exactly the same I got before with the formula it's a total storage of 11GB, look at the Disk Space field and you gonna see it.

Click the link below to download the software

Click here to download the software

See below an example of a CCTV storage calculation using a software from the company Hanwha Techwin (former Samsung Techwin).

For the storage estimation, let's say there are 10 cameras, recording for 30 days in Full HD resolution with 15 FPS, using the H.264 CODEC in a scene with high activity and recording by event 60% of the time

Click the link below to download the software

Click to download the software

Can you see how powerful is storage calculator like this one ? Take a look at every one of those number, those are important information as follow: 

The camera is using 1920x1080 resolution, that's is a higher one, also known as Full HD or 2MP (Mega Pixel). Very common on modern IP cameras.

Here the I'm using 15 FPS, that's enough to make video scene looks smooth and without that annoying "robotization effect", do you know what I mean ?  

If you use a low frame rate such as 5 FPS you certainly is going to notice the moving objects, people, cars, etc with that small "frame to frame jumps" that what I mean by "robotization effect", so keep the frame rate at 15 FPS.

By using the H.264 CODEC the camera will compress the video without sacrifice too much the quality. Nowadays there's the H.265 CODEC that is a better option, but it's not available it this camera model,

If the environment is too busy, let's say something like a mall or store that'll be a lot of movement, so there will also be more events and more recording.

Take a look at the configuration and you will notice that it was setup to high.

How often there'll be movement in front of the camera during the day ? Let's say in a mall that opens for 12 hours a day the event frequency is 50%, just to be safer let's estimate 14 hours a day, so that's 60% of the time.

With this calculation, we know that it necessary 2.77 TB of storage for a period of 32 days and 11 hours, considering that in the store there's movement for a maximum of 14 hours a day.

So let's just use a 3TB disc for the recorder, which allows extra recording time for the this small CCTV project.

As you can see, it is nothing so complex, it's no rocket science and you can do it. But remember this is a storage calculation with an overall estimation. 

After 30 days of actual recording, it's possible to make sure that the system is recording in accordance with the projected, as long as the recorder can keep at least 30 days of footage everybody will be happy 🙂

So congratulation for your CCTV project and storage calculation, you can use the tools to practice and make sure you learnt everything.