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Taking Analogue Cameras to the Cloud: How SEiNG Makes It Possible

written on 1 September 2026 by Megan Armstrong

You don't need to replace working analogue cameras to move to cloud CCTV. With an analogue-to-IP encoder, SEiNG can bring your existing cameras into the cloud.

If your business is still running analogue CCTV, you’re in good company. Thousands of UK sites rely on coax cameras feeding a DVR in a back office, with footage that’s rarely reviewed until something goes wrong. Cloud video surveillance promises remote access, AI-powered search, and off-site storage that a local recorder simply can’t match, but the idea of ripping out a working analogue camera estate to get there puts most businesses off.

The good news is that you don’t have to choose between “stick with analogue” and “replace everything.” With the right hardware bridging the gap, you can take your existing analogue cameras to the cloud, keep the cameras and cabling you already have, and still get full cloud CCTV functionality through a platform like  .

Why Take Analogue Cameras to the Cloud?

A DVR-based analogue system has a hard ceiling. Footage lives on a single hard drive on site, gets overwritten every few days or weeks, and is only viewable from that one box unless you set up a VPN yourself. If the DVR is stolen, damaged in a break-in, or simply fails, the evidence goes with it.

Moving that footage into the cloud with a video surveillance as a service (VSaaS) changes the picture:

  • Off-site, encrypted storage that survives a break-in, fire, or hardware failure at the site itself.
  • Remote access from anywhere, on any device with a browser, instead of being tied to one DVR.
  • AI-powered video search and alerts — finding a person, vehicle, or event in minutes rather than scrubbing through hours of footage.
  • One platform across multiple sites, instead of a different DVR login for every location.
  • Secure, tamper-proof sharing of footage with police, insurers, or other stakeholders without handing over a USB stick.
  • Predictable monthly payments rather than high upfront costs and maintenance fees, often with a lower total cost of ownership

None of this requires new cameras. It requires a way to get the analogue video signal into a format the cloud can understand.

How It Actually Works: Analogue-to-IP Encoders

Analogue cameras output a raw composite video signal over coax cable — they have no concept of a network, an IP address, or a streaming protocol. Cloud platforms, including SEiNG, are built to ingest video over standard IP protocols such as ONVIF and RTSP. The bridge between the two is an analogue-to-IP video encoder.

An encoder sits between your existing coax cabling and your network switch. Each analogue channel plugs into the encoder, which digitises the signal, compresses it (typically to H.264 or H.265), and outputs it as a standard IP video stream. From that point on, the feed looks and behaves exactly like a native IP camera to whatever's receiving it — including SEiNG.

In practice, the path looks like this: existing analogue camera → coax cable → encoder (usually mounted where the DVR used to sit) → network switch → SEiNG Cloud Gateway → the cloud.

Two Encoders We Commonly Use

We're not tied to a single manufacturer — any ONVIF-compliant analogue-to-IP encoder will work with SEiNG — but two models come up regularly on real deployments:

Avigilon ENC-4P-H264 is a compact 4-channel encoder that suits smaller sites or estates with only a handful of analogue cameras left in service. It's PoE-powered, so a single network cable handles both power and data, supports H.264 compression with up to four audio channels, and includes RS-485 for PTZ control where needed.

Hanwha SPE-1630 is a 16-channel encoder built for larger analogue estates — think warehouses, multi-camera retail sites, or car parks with a lot of legacy cameras still in place. It supports both H.264 and H.265 compression for better bandwidth efficiency, includes HDMI output for local monitoring, and offers alarm inputs and outputs for integrating with other on-site systems.

Because both output a standard IP stream, cameras behind either encoder get the same treatment in SEiNG as a native IP camera would: AI analytics, remote access, UK cloud storage, and everything else the platform offers.

Hanwha encoder: analogue cameras to cloud

From Encoder to Cloud: The Deployment Path

SEiNG Cloud Gateway

Once your analogue feeds have been converted to IP by the encoder, connecting them to SEiNG works the same way as it does for any IP camera.

Most sites use SEiNG's Cloud Gateway — a small on-site device that securely uploads video and metadata to the cloud, with local buffer storage to handle internet outages. Sites with sufficient bandwidth and a suitable network setup can connect more directly. Either way, the encoded analogue feeds land in the same UK-based, encrypted cloud storage as every other camera on the platform, searchable and manageable from one place.

Why Not Just Replace the Cameras?

Full estate replacement is expensive, disruptive to install, and often unnecessary — plenty of analogue cameras still produce perfectly usable footage for their purpose, particularly in lower-risk internal areas. Encoders let you take the cloud CCTV upgrade now and handle camera replacement on your own timeline, swapping in IP cameras as budget allows or as individual units fail, with everything managed through the same SEiNG platform throughout the transition.

Getting Started

If you've got an analogue camera estate you'd rather keep than replace, get in touch with SEiNG for an assessment of your existing setup. We'll recommend the right mix of encoders, gateways, or direct IP connections to get your footage into the cloud with minimal disruption and no wasted hardware.

Frequently asked questions

Yes. Analogue cameras connect to SEiNG through an analogue-to-IP video encoder, which converts the coax signal into a standard IP stream the platform can ingest, store, and analyse. No camera replacement is required.

No. As long as the cameras are in working order, an analogue-to-IP encoder lets you keep them in service while adding cloud storage, remote access, and AI analytics on top via a cloud VMS like SEiNG. Camera replacement becomes optional, not a prerequisite.

SEiNG works with any ONVIF-compliant analogue-to-IP encoder. Two commonly used models are the Avigilon ENC-4P-H264 (4-channel, PoE-powered) and the Hanwha SPE-1630 (16-channel, H.264/H.265), but SEiNG isn't limited to these two.


The encoder outputs an ONVIF/RTSP IP stream, which connects to SEiNG through a Cloud Gateway — a small on-site device that uploads footage securely — or, on suitable networks, directly over IP, the same way a native IP camera would.


SEiNG's Cloud Gateway includes local buffer storage, so recording continues during an outage and the footage uploads automatically once the connection is restored, with no gap in the timeline.

Usually, yes. Encoders let you reuse existing cameras and cabling, reducing e-waste and avoiding the cost and disruption of a full camera and cabling replacement, while still getting cloud storage, remote access, and AI analytics.


Yes. Once analogue cameras are converted via an encoder, they appear in SEiNG the same way as native IP cameras, so a hybrid estate — old and new — is managed from a single platform and login.

No. The encoder digitises the same signal the camera already produces; it doesn't reduce the camera's native image quality. Overall footage clarity still depends on the camera itself, not the cloud connection.

Off-site encrypted storage, remote access from any device, AI-powered video search and alerts, and centralised management alongside any other cameras on the same SEiNG account — without touching a working analogue camera.

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