System Hardware Requirement
The hardware requirement of an Axis Camera Station system depend on the total bandwidth retrieved from all video sources by the server for recording and the bandwidth fetched by clients for video viewing. The bitrate delivered by each video channel varies depending on the scene complexity and the chosen frame rate/resolution/video codec/compression/ illumination as well as the number of streams with different configurations from each video source.
The hardware recommendation for version 5 of AXIS Camera Station is based on the total bandwidth per server. Below you find an example scenario based on bandwidth estimation from the street corner scene used in Axis Site Designer. For similar bandwidth estimations, please use Axis Site Designer.
REMEMBER: ALWAYS CALCULATE ON THE WORST SCENARIO. IF LIVE VIEW AND RECORDINGS ARE USING DIFFERENT STREAM PROFILES, CALCULATE EACH STREAM SEPARATELY.

Small system
System size: Up to 40 Mbit/s.
With the following setup for each video channel, it accounts for 10 video channels:
Camera |
Stream |
Resolution |
FPS |
Video Codec |
Compression |
Scene Complexity |
Bandwidth |
Q1615 |
1x Recording |
1080p |
25 |
H.264 |
30%, zip strength low(10) |
Street Corner |
3.80 Mbit/s |
AXIS Camera Station client & server
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit*
CPU: Intel Core i3 3.7 GHz or above, such as Intel Core i3-4360 (4 CPUs) 3.7Ghz
RAM: 8GB, DDR3-1600
Hard drive**: SATA 6 Gb/s, 5400 RPM, 64 MB cache, Surveillance Class
UPS: To avoid unexpected system shutdowns, which could cause database corruption

Medium system
System size: Up to 100 Mbit/s.
With the following setup for each video channel, it accounts for 26 video channels:
Camera |
Stream |
Resolution |
FPS |
Video Codec |
Compression |
Scene Complexity |
Bandwidth |
Q1615 |
1x Recording |
1080p |
25 |
H.264 |
30%, zip strength low(10) |
Street Corner |
3.80 Mbit/s |
AXIS Camera Station client & server
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit*
CPU: Intel Core i5 2.9 GHz or above, such as Intel Core i5-4590 Quad Core 3.3Ghz.
RAM: 8GB, DDR3-1600
Hard drive**: SATA 6 Gb/s 7200 RPM Enterprise Class – Up to 48Mbps per drive for optimal performance
UPS: To avoid unexpected system shutdowns, which could cause database corruption

Large system
System size: Up to 256 Mbit/s
With the following setup for each video channel, this accounts for 67 video channels:
Camera |
Stream |
Resolution |
FPS |
Video Codec |
Compression |
Scene Complexity |
Bandwidth |
Q1615 |
1x Recording |
1080p |
25 |
H.264 |
30%, zip strength low(10) |
Street Corner |
3.80 Mbit/s |
AXIS Camera Station client
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit*
CPU: Intel Core i7, such as Intel Core i7-4770 Quad Core 3.4Ghz.
RAM: 8 GB, DDR3-1600
Network: 1 Gbps
AXIS Camera Station server
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit**
CPU: Intel Core i7, such as Intel Core i7-4770 Quad Core 3.4Ghz.
RAM: 8 GB, DDR3-1600
Network: 1 Gbps
Hard drives**: SATA 6 Gb/s 7200 RPM Enterprise Class – Up to 48Mbps per drive for optimal performance
UPS: To avoid unexpected system shutdowns, which could cause database corruption

Multi-server system
System size: Above 256 Mbit/s
All systems with higher performance requirements should use multiple servers. Add more ACS servers and divide bandwidth load equally per server, each within above specifications.
* For a list of all supported Operating Systems, please check the release notes. Please always use latest service pack from Microsoft.
** Recordings should be kept in a different partition than the operating system when on the same physical disk.
Please note:
- Always use the latest graphics card drivers.
- For multi-screen support (up to 3 monitors per graphic card) or multi-4K stream support, it is recommended to use graphic cards with more dedicated video memory than 1 GB (HDMI 2.0 or Display Port 1.2 support required). For example, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 2 GB or NVIDIA Quadro K1200 (for 24x7 operation).