BigBrother

Turn a standard Linux / Unix PC or Raspberry Pi into a CCTV recorder

BigBrother records and live-streams your IP cameras with an intuitive interface, on hardware you can buy anywhere. There's no proprietary recorder to pay for, repair or replace. It's free, open source, and detects people and vehicles.

Download for Debian and Raspberry Pi OS Download for FreeBSD Source on GitHub

Version 2.4 was released on 21 September 2026. The code is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3. The AI Model is licensed under the BigBrother AI Model License.

Screenshot of BigBrother camera mirroring in web browser
Illustration of the live view

What's included

Why choose BigBrother

Easy to use

BigBrother is built to be simple. Its browser interface is intuitive, with live view, event snapshots and detection alerts in one place, and nothing to install on the device you watch from. That's a real difference from many commercial systems.

Hardware you can buy anywhere

BigBrother runs on a standard PC or a Raspberry Pi. Proprietary NVRs can be expensive to repair or replace. With BigBrother, a failed disk, power supply or whole computer is swapped for ordinary off-the-shelf hardware, and there are no license fees however many cameras or servers you add.

Built on ffmpeg, without the scripting

The open source ffmpeg can record and re-stream just about any video format. Turning that into a simple CCTV system normally takes a lot of custom scripting. BigBrother does that part for you.

Set up in three steps

  1. Install the package

    BigBrother uses ffmpeg to talk to your cameras. Live view also needs a web server with PHP, such as Apache.

    Debian and Raspberry Pi OS

    sudo apt install ./org.bigbrothercctv.bigbrother_2.4_all.deb

    FreeBSD, as root

    pkg add org.bigbrothercctv.bigbrother-2.4.pkg

  2. Describe your cameras

    Everything is set up in plain text files. A system file and a camera file, with one line per camera, are enough to start recording. Detection and PTZ control each add an optional file of their own. Add as many cameras as your server can handle. Examples are below, and the user guide explains every setting.

  3. Start recording

    Start the BigBrother service. Each camera then records continuously, one file per hour. Open the web interface from any browser to watch live.

    Linux

    sudo systemctl start bigbrotherd

    FreeBSD, as root

    service bigbrotherd start

    Prefer to follow along on video? Build an NVR on a Raspberry Pi covers installation and configuration.

What the configuration looks like

Cameras. One line per camera: name, stream URL, group, record by day (D), live view capped at 2 Mbit/s (HLS/2), folder and container. Use * for a column that doesn't apply.

BackGate rtsp://user:password@host:port Back D HLS/2 /cctv/recordings MP4
BackPath rtsp://host:port Back D HLS/2 /cctv/recordings MP4

Detection. One line per camera: name, folder for events, log by day (D), then P for people and V for vehicles, each followed by the times to ignore. [*] means never ignore.

BackPath /cctv/events D P [*] V [*]
BackGate /cctv/events D P [06:00-23:00]

The second line watches for people only between 23:00 and 06:00.

PTZ control (experimental). One line per camera: name, ONVIF address, and True or False for axis reversal. Use onvif:// if your camera uses HTTP and onvifs:// if it uses HTTPS. The host can be an IPv4 or IPv6 address, or a DNS hostname. Put an IPv6 address in square brackets.

CamName onvif://user:pass@host:port True
CamName onvifs://user:pass@host:port False

For more details on configuration see README

How it fits together

ffmpeg talks to your cameras over RTSP or HTTP. BigBrother turns those streams into live viewing and event monitoring in the browser, served by the web server you already run: Apache, lighttpd or Nginx.

Recordings are ordinary files on the local filesystem, and network access uses standard file sharing: Samba, NFS or WebDAV.

How the pieces fit together. Recordings are plain files (.mp4 etc), and live viewing runs through a web server you install on the system.

One file per camera per hour

Every camera records around the clock. Files are named by camera, date and time, so finding a moment means opening a single file. Group cameras into folders if it helps, for example one per floor.

BigBrother sorts recordings by day of the week and can delete each day's footage after seven days, so the disk never fills. If you want to keep footage for longer, you can.

Recordings are ordinary files on the server's filesystem. BigBrother follows the Unix philosophy: lots of specialised tools working together, so network access is left to tools built for the job. Set up a Samba, NFS or WebDAV share and reach them from Windows, macOS or Linux. The user guide has step-by-step Samba instructions.

Screenshot of BigBrother recording directory accessed remotely over Samba
One camera, one week. Recordings automatically organised by day and segmented into hour long files.

Watch from any browser

Live view uses HTTP Live Streaming, so it works across VLANs and subnets. Put your cameras on their own network and watch from another. Reach it off site through a VPN or a public IP address.

Cap the live bitrate anywhere from 100 kbit/s to 20 Mbit/s so remote viewing never affects what gets recorded.

BigBrother uses 3rd party web server software, such as Apache or lighttpd, so you can restrict access with its built-in authentication.

Version 2.4 adds experimental, unofficial support for controlling PTZ (pan, tilt and zoom) cameras that use ONVIF protocol. It hasn't been tested or approved by ONVIF.

IP camerasOn their own network
RTSP or HTTP
BigBrother serverRecords to disk and mirrors live streams through your web server
HTTP Live Streaming
BrowserOn another VLAN
BrowserOff site, over a VPN or public IP

Know when a person or vehicle appears

An AI model detects people and vehicles. Each event is saved as a JPEG snapshot, and the live view shows a visual alert and plays a sound and optionally can announce it using a voice if the browser supports it.

Choose times when detection is ignored, for people and for vehicles, separately on each camera.

Version 2.4 detects events faster and can use supported Nvidia GPUs for hardware acceleration.

Two licenses apply.

The software is GPL 3. The AI models shipped from version 2.3 onwards use the BigBrother AI Model License 1.1. Models shipped before that remain under the GPL.

The licensing FAQ explains the difference.

What it works with

Cameras
Anything ffmpeg can connect to over RTSP or HTTP, on IPv4 or IPv6.
Video and audio
Any codec ffmpeg supports, including H.264, H.265, VP9, AV1, AAC and Opus.
Recording formats
Including MP4 and MKV.
Operating systems
Linux and other Unix-like systems, including Raspberry Pi OS and FreeBSD.
Requirements
Python, a bash-compatible shell and ffmpeg. Live view also needs a web server with PHP enabled. You can get pre-built static ffmpeg binaries for Linux from an external site.
Packages
.deb for Debian and Raspberry Pi OS, and .pkg for FreeBSD. Pre-built packages for RedHat and Rocky Linux aren't available yet because of missing dependencies.
Scaling
Need more cameras than one server can handle? Spread them across as many servers as you like. BigBrother and ffmpeg are free, so there are no license fees.
Licenses
The code is GPL 3. The detection models use the BigBrother AI Model License 1.1.

Download and documentation

Version 2.4

Documentation

Other resources

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