ZoneMinder is intended for use in single or multi-camera video security applications, including commercial or home CCTV, theft prevention and child, family member or home monitoring and other domestic care scenarios such as nanny cam installations. It supports capture, analysis, recording, and monitoring of video data coming from one or more video or network cameras attached to a Linux system. ZoneMinder also support web and semi-automatic control of Pan/Tilt/Zoom cameras using a variety of protocols. It is suitable for use as a DIY home video security system and for commercial or professional video security and surveillance. It can also be integrated into a home automation system via X.10 or other protocols.
ZoneMinder is an integrated set of applications which provide a complete surveillance solution allowing capture, analysis, recording and monitoring of any CCTV or security cameras attached to a Linux based machine. It is designed to run on distributions which support the Video For Linux (V4L) interface and has been tested with video cameras attached to BTTV cards, various USB cameras and also supports most IP network cameras. A partial list is given in the Wiki and Support sections, please give feedback in the Forums if it works with yours. ZoneMinder also requires MySQL and PHP, and is enhanced by a webserver such as Apache.
ZoneMinder is highly componentised and comprises both the back-end daemons which do the actual image capture and analysis and a user friendly web GUI enabling you to both monitor the current situation and view and organise historical events that have taken place. The web GUI allows you to check and control your ZoneMinder installation from other computers in your home or from anywhere in the world. ZoneMinder does not require X at all, or the web interface for day-to-day functions and so is also suitable for 'headless' systems. There is also a simple xHTML interface allowing basic monitoring from suitable phones! Recent versions of ZoneMinder also include optional DVR (digital video recorder) functions allowing you to pause, rewind and even digitally zoom both live and historical video.
There is no hard upper or lower limit to the number of cameras that ZoneMinder can support, it entirely depends on the resources available on the host PC. This means that a basic home CCTV system can often be installed on old hardware that may be lying around unused giving you DIY CCTV completely for free!
Take a look at the feature list and screenshots to see a bit more detail on what it does and then please feel free to download it and have a play. If you have any problems then please have a look through the Support and FAQ pages and the Forums and see if they help solve your problem. If you're after compatible hardware then I sometimes have special deals on the Shop page.
