960h is basically widescreen d1.
AHD is pretty much open source analogue hd, cvi and tvi are similar but not open iirc
hd-sdi is a digital version but needs good coax. All of the above analouge will work past operating distance but loose quality where as digital just stops
i would agree that vSphere is better it does seem expensive just for a cctv vs.
Id also agree that it allows much better resource management
But i use vbox for all my vm's and last time i used VMware stuff was back at v2
as i said reminder in the morning. Assuming landing and all rooms of the hallway are protected then its not really a security issue but imo should always be fitted. In my experience post isnt an issue 99.9% of the time