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Version: V12

Add a Camera

Adding a camera is the moment surveillance goes from set up to live. It's where you hand the portal a feed, tell it what to watch for, and decide how it records and who can see it. The Add Camera form does this as a tabbed wizard, and each tab is really one decision: name the camera, connect it, set its alerts, shape its recordings, control access, and add any extra detail your portal tracks. Work left to right and you'll have a live, watched camera by the end.

To learn how cameras are organized and what their status means, see Understanding Camera Streams and Status.

Prerequisites​

Create a Folder for Cameras​

Folders are optional, but they pay off the moment you have more than a handful of cameras. Group them the way your site is laid out, then add cameras inside the right folder.

  1. Go to Library > Surveillance > Cameras.
  2. Select Create Folder.
  3. Enter a name and save.

Add a Camera​

On the Camera Streams page, select Add Camera. The form opens on the first tab. Fill in the tabs below, then select Save And Close to bring the camera online.

Basic Settings​

This tab is how people recognize the camera in the library, so give it a name they'll understand at a glance.

  • Title (required) is the camera's name, shown on its tile and everywhere it appears in surveillance. "North Entrance" beats "Camera 12."
  • Tags are keywords for search and filtering. Add a few, such as a building or zone, to find the camera fast in a long list.
  • Description is free space for notes about the camera, like what it covers or who owns it.
  • Uploader's Name records who added the camera.

Camera​

This is the connection itself: the RTSP Configuration that lets the portal reach the live feed. Pull these values from your camera or NVR documentation.

  • Domain/IP (required) is the camera's address on the network.
  • Port (required) is the RTSP port it streams on.
  • Stream Name (required) is the stream path on the camera.
  • Username and Password are the camera's credentials. Fill them in if the camera requires sign-in, and leave them blank if it doesn't.

Note: AI Live Insight reads the camera's existing H.264 or H.265 stream, so encoding stays on the camera. You're pointing the portal at a feed, not re-encoding it.

Camera Alert​

This tab decides what's worth your attention on this camera. Turn on Enable Detection Alert, then under Detection Settings add a row for each object you want to act on. A row has three parts:

  • Detection Class is the object to watch for, such as Face, Person, or Head.
  • Severity Level is how seriously to treat it: Low, Medium, or High. Severity drives how the alert is grouped and prioritized on the Operator Dashboard.
  • Confidence Threshold is how sure the AI must be before the detection counts, with 35 recommended. A higher number means fewer but more certain alerts.

Add as many rows as you need, and tune each one to the camera. A lobby camera might raise Face at High and Person at Low, while a perimeter camera weights Person differently. These per-camera rows build on the portal-wide defaults from the app settings. When a detection matches a row, the camera raises an alert and captures a recording. To learn what the AI recognizes, see How Live AI Detection Works.

Camera Recording​

When an alert fires, this tab decides how much video gets saved around it. Together the settings form the Alert Recording Window.

  • Pre record time (in seconds) is how many seconds to capture before the alert triggers, so the clip includes the run-up, not just the moment.
  • Post record time (in seconds) is how many seconds to keep after the alert ends, so the clip shows how things resolved.
  • Max Recording (in minutes) caps how long a single recording runs. When a recording reaches the limit, it closes and a new one begins, so a long stretch of activity becomes a series of manageable clips instead of one endless file.

Recordings are stored in the folder set in the app settings, unless this camera overrides it (see Custom Attributes). To learn how they're organized, see Understanding Surveillance Recordings.

Access and Sharing​

A camera follows the same access model as everything else in the library, so this tab controls who can see the feed and when.

Under Who can access it?, choose the audience:

  • All Account and Portal Viewers opens the camera to everyone with access to the account.
  • All Portal Viewers limits it to viewers of this portal.
  • Anonymous Viewers allows access without signing in. Add a Password (Optional) to gate it.
  • Limited Share Only keeps it private and shareable only through a direct link.

How To Access It? sets where viewers reach the camera, such as From Portal Library. Under When will it be available?, set an Available from date and time to schedule access, and Expires After to end it automatically.

Custom Attributes​

Custom Attributes are the extra fields your portal defines, such as building, floor, or asset ID, so the camera carries the metadata your team relies on.

One attribute you may see here is the camera's recording folder, SurveillanceRecordingFolderMashupId. Leave it as No mashup selected and the camera records to the global folder from the app settings. Pick a folder here and this camera records to its own instead, which is handy when one site or sensitive camera needs its recordings kept apart.

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