— CCTV Storage · 8MP
Bosch FLEXIDOME IP starlight 8000i (4K) storage & retention
Problem. An 8MP camera recording continuously generates far more footage than a 2MP or 4MP unit, so a fleet-wide storage and NVR plan needs to be sized around the actual bitrate this model produces, not a generic rule of thumb. Getting the 30-day retention figure right up front avoids a mid-project scramble to add drives or swap the head-end once real footage volumes show up.
Answer. For 16 Bosch FLEXIDOME IP starlight 8000i (4K) cameras recording continuously at 30-day retention, plan for roughly 47 TB of usable storage, worked out from about 97 GB per camera per day. At this camera count and bitrate, the recording head-end sits in the Entry NVR class.
02 / In depth
How this preset reads — the engineering view.
The storage driver here is the combination of 8MP resolution and a 9 Mbps H.265 bitrate at 30 fps, which works out to roughly 97 GB per camera per day of continuous recording. H.265's smart-codec efficiency is what keeps that figure in check - the same 8MP sensor encoded in plain H.264 would typically push meaningfully more data per day for a similar image quality, since H.265 compresses static scene detail more aggressively between motion frames.
Scaling from a single camera to a fleet is linear: 16 cameras times 30 days at ~97 GB/camera/day lands at approximately 47 TB of continuous-recording storage. Push retention to 60 or 90 days, or add more cameras, and the figure scales up in direct proportion. At 16 cameras and this bitrate, the recording head-end falls into the Entry NVR class - enough channel and throughput headroom for this fleet size without stepping up to a mid-tier or enterprise chassis.
Use the calculator by dragging the camera count and retention-period sliders and switching the recording schedule to see the storage total recompute instantly. Selecting a motion-only or scheduled-recording profile instead of always-on applies a duty factor that reduces the effective recording hours per day, which can meaningfully cut the total versus continuous 24/7 capture.
The calculator sizes storage capacity: it does not account for real-world scene-activity variance (a busy entrance will push past the 9 Mbps average more often than a quiet corridor), RAID or redundancy overhead on the physical drives, a separate failover or long-term archive tier, network write-bandwidth limits across the fleet, or the exact make, model and count of drives to fit in the NVR. Those decisions sit with the storage and network design, not this planning figure.
What this preset deliberately does not solve
- The 9 Mbps figure is a scene-average bitrate for typical activity levels; busier scenes with more motion will record at a higher instantaneous bitrate than this planning estimate.
- The 47 TB total assumes continuous 24/7 recording; switching to a motion-only or scheduled profile will reduce the effective figure below this planning number.
- This is raw storage capacity before RAID or redundancy overhead - the usable capacity after a redundant array is configured will be lower than the raw total shown here.
How this preset differs from its siblings
The FLEXIDOME IP starlight 8000i (4K) sits at 8MP with a 9 Mbps H.265 bitrate, which is meaningfully higher than a typical 2MP or 4MP camera line on the same codec, so its per-camera daily footprint of ~97 GB is proportionally larger even before fleet size is considered. Cameras at lower resolutions, older H.264-only encoders, or higher frame-rate profiles will each land on a different storage curve, which is why this preset exists as its own reference point rather than being folded into a generic 4K entry.
03 / Hydrated calculator
Try the configuration — live.
The calculator below is preloaded with this preset’s state. Adjust any input — your URL stays shareable.
— Calculator · CCTV storage retention
Cameras, codec, retention — storage estimated.
Pick a camera brand and model, recording schedule and retention window. The calculator returns storage volume, HDD plan, recorded bandwidth and an NVR / VMS class recommendation. Sources cited per profile.
Storage estimated
57.9
TB · 30-day retention
Recorded bandwidth
144
Mbps to NVR / VMS
Architecture
Entry NVR
Entry NVR (8–16 channel)
Indicative planning figure on the H.265 bitrate assumption above — real recording rate varies with scene activity, motion and lighting. Confirm against a site survey and a test-recording sample before sizing the final storage array.
A planning link — not a quote.
- camera
- Bosch FLEXIDOME IP 8000i Starlight 4K
- resolution
- 3840 × 2160 (8MP)
- codec
- H.265 · 30 fps
- bitrate
- 9 Mbps per camera
- duty
- 24/7 continuous
- bandwidth
- live 144.0 Mbps · recorded 144.0 Mbps
- 8 TB drives
- 8 drives
- 10 TB drives
- 6 drives
- 16 TB drives
- 4 drives
Reference 4K dome with IDNR smart-codec features. Common choice for industrial and critical-infrastructure deployments.
What changes this estimate
- Scene activity & motion in the actual footage
- Final camera codec & bitrate ladder
- Retention policy confirmed with the client
- Test-recording sample on site
A planning link — not a quote.
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