DW Spectrum Client Hardware Requirements

DW Spectrum® Client Hardware Requirements

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Affected Roles:  Administrator, Owner

Related Digital Watchdog VMS Apps:  DW Spectrum® IPVMS

Software Version:  DW Spectrum Client v4.2

Last Edit:  July 1, 2021

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What are the recommended hardware specifications for the DW Spectrum® Client?

The DW Spectrum® IPVMS program can be installed on most modern computers with an x64-bit architecture.  However, while DW Spectrum® is a relatively lightweight application, it does use a varying amount of hardware resources, depending on the intensity that it is used.

This article will outline the recommended hardware specifications required for DW Spectrum® IPVMS for your consideration.

Related Articles

• DW Spectrum IPVMS Maximum System Size
• Using the DW Spectrum IP Storage Calculator

**NOTE:  32-bit operating systems, Ubuntu 14.04, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2 are no longer supported by DW Spectrum®.  Additionally, the desktop client will not function when using Macintosh OS X 10.11, 10.12, or 10.13.

**NOTE:  It is highly recommended to use a computer that is separate from the device hosting the DW Spectrum® Server application when using the DW Spectrum® Client, rather than run both programs fulltime on the same device.  This will help to keep the server device’s CPU from being overused and mitigate processing issues.

Prerequisites

To use the DW Spectrum® Client, a computer must meet the following prerequisites:

• A supported 64-bit Operating System
  • Windows 8, 8.1, 10 Pro/Enterprise
  • Windows Server 2012, 2012 R2, 2016 v1607 and later, 2019
  • Ubuntu LTS 16.04, 18.04, 20.04
  • MacOS 11
• OpenGL 2.1 Support or better
• An Intel or AMD CPU

Hardware Recommendations

The following specifications and aforementioned prerequisites will ensure a smooth user experience when using the DW Spectrum® IPVMS with up to 64 devices in a layout.

Single Monitor Workstation

Type	Requirement
CPU	Intel i5 8th gen or AMD Ryzen 5 3000 Quad-Core or better
RAM	8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz or better
Network Interface	1 Gbit or better
GPU	Intel HD Graphics onboard GPU or better
Storage	Dedicated SSD or NVME disk for the OS, 128 GB or larger

Dual Monitor Workstation

Type	Requirement
CPU	Intel i7 8th gen or AMD Ryzen 7 3000 Quad-Core or better
RAM	16 GB DDR3 1600 MHz or better
Network Interface	2 x 1 Gbit or better
GPU	Intel HD Graphics onboard GPU or better
Storage	Dedicated SSD or NVME disk for the OS, 128 GB or larger

Quad Monitor Workstation

Type	Requirement
CPU	Intel i9 or AMD Ryzen 9 Quad-Core or better
RAM	32 GB or better
Network Interface	2 x 1 Gbit or better
GPU	GeForce GTX 1650 or better
Storage	Dedicated SSD or NVME disk for the OS, 128 GB or larger

**NOTE 1: DW Spectrum® Client uses only the CPU for video decoding and can display up to 64 items on the viewing grid.  The GPU is used for dewarping on the fly, drawing animations, controls, and rendering UI elements in the client.

**NOTE 2:  We assume that only one instance of DW Spectrum® Client will run on a single monitor system.  If you intend to run two instances of the program on a single monitor, use the recommended specs of the “Dual Monitor Workstation”.  For three or four instances of DW Spectrum® Client, use the recommended specs for the “Quad Monitor Station”.

**NOTE 3:  Please take notice that dewarping a fisheye camera will set the resolution to “High”.  As a result, the specifications as mentioned above may not apply and are dependent on the cameras settings (e.g. resolution, framerate, etc.).  It is better to take the suggestions mentioned below in the decoding capabilities paragraph.

Decoding Capabilities

Although it is difficult to offer recommended specifications with regard to decoding capabilities of a system due to the multiple variables of a stream, the following camera settings were taken into consideration:

• Resolution of 1920 x 1080 or less
• Framerate of 15 fps or fewer
• Bandwidth of 2 Mbps or fewer
• Group of Pictures (GOP) of 15 (IBBBBPBBBBPBBBBI)
• H.264 compression method

Up to 8 High-Resolution Streams

Type	Requirement
CPU	Intel i5 8th gen or AMD Ryzen 5 3000 Quad-Core or better
RAM	8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz or better
Network Interface	1 Gbit or better
GPU	Intel HD Graphics onboard GPU or better
Storage	Dedicated SSD or NVME disk for the OS, 128 GB or larger

Up to 16 High-Resolution Streams

Type	Requirement
CPU	Intel i7 8th gen or AMD Ryzen 7 3000 Quad-Core or better
RAM	16 GB DDR3 1600 MHz or better
Network Interface	2 x 1 Gbit or better
GPU	Intel HD Graphics onboard GPU or better
Storage	Dedicated SSD or NVME disk for the OS, 128 GB or larger

Up to 32 High-Resolution Streams

Type	Requirement
CPU	Intel i9 or AMD Ryzen 9 Quad-Core or better
RAM	32 GB or better
Network Interface	2 x 1 Gbit or better
GPU	GeForce GTX 1650 or better
Storage	Dedicated SSD or NVME disk for the OS, 128 GB or larger

**NOTE:  Please take into consideration that most monitors have a native resolution of 1920x1080.  There is no benefit of displaying more than 1 Full HD camera in High Resolution on such a screen.  The same applies to displaying more than 4 Full HD cameras on a 4K screen or more than 16 Full HD cameras on an 8K screen.