I do worry that if I do get them I might hammer my router since the traffic streams will have to be routed between VLANs.
The key here is to not route traffic across VLANs. Choose one VLAN to host all your network video content (IP cameras and NVR). This way, since all traffic is on the same subnet, all the network traversal can happen on the switch (even layer 2 switches) and not need to ever touch the router.
Also, if you suspect there will be a decent amount of network traffic that needs to cross VLANs, it’s usually best to add an additional network interface that’s connected to the correct subnet. That way traffic can avoid the router.
Thanks, that makes a lot of sense! Will certainly look into getting a NVR in the same vnet as the cams if I ever get them. I was planning to have devices exposed to multiple vlans (e.g. home Assistant). However I wasn’t sure if that is good or bad practice (since it opens an attack vector to jump across vlans). I could always opt for a L3 switch if need be.
I actually just learned this lesson recently (in the last week). I have a NAS that I use for my PCs, and it also stores my media collection for Plex, it was natively sitting on the same network as my PCs, as that’s where I was most concerned about network speed. I was having it cross VLANs for the Plex stuff, and it was only when I got a Ubiquiti switch that I noticed that traffic was hitting the router when crossing the VLANs but not when the two subnets were the same.
I’m happy that my hard knock lesson can help someone avoid that same mistake.