Hikvision NVR 5.0 Professional Installation Guide

Hardware Installation

Software Configuration

Additional Resources

Important Note: The provided steps serve as a general guideline. Specific configurations might differ based on your NVR model. Always refer to the official user manual for detailed instructions and advanced functionalities.

Setting up a Hikvision NVR (Network Video Recorder) involves several steps, including hardware setup, network configuration, and camera configuration. Here’s a detailed guide to help you set up your Hikvision NVR 5.0:

1. Hardware Setup

Step 1: Unbox and Connect Components

Step 2: Connect the NVR to a Monitor

Step 3: Connect the NVR to the Network

Step 4: Connect Cameras to the NVR

Step 5: Power Up the NVR

2. Initial Configuration

Step 1: Boot Up and Log In

Step 2: Set Date and Time

Step 3: Network Settings

3. Adding Cameras

Step 1: Detect and Add Cameras

Step 2: Configure Camera Settings

4. Recording Settings

Step 1: Set Up Recording Schedule

Step 2: Configure Storage Settings

5. Remote Access Setup

Step 1: Enable Hik-Connect

Step 2: Port Forwarding (if necessary)

Step 3: Mobile App Setup

6. Final Steps

Step 1: Test the System

Step 2: Backup Settings

Troubleshooting Tips

This guide should help you set up your Hikvision NVR 5.0 system. For more detailed instructions, refer to the user manual or the Hikvision support website.

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Create port forwarding rule in the router

Description

Port forwarding is a function of network routers that allows a user to configure specific communication ports to be routed to devices on an IP (Internet Protocol) network, such as a computer, DVR, or IP camera.In this case for CCTV equipment, it allows the user to view and control CCTV equipment remotely. Follow the step by step instructions and the instructions your manufacturers hardware to setup port forwarding, or try PortForward.com to search for your routers settings.

Prerequisites

Video Instructions

Step by Step Instructions

1. Connect NVR to network with a CAT5 cable.

2. Download and install ConfigTool from DahuaSecurity.com, under Support->Download Center->Software

3. Run the ConfigTool.

4. The ConfigTool should display your IP Camera. Click the, “” icon to open Internet Explorer and access your NVR.

5. Configure Internet Explorer security settings to allow the plugs to work. Link to Internet Explorer Setup

6. Login with the default credentials: User Name: admin Passsword: admin

7. Under, Main Menu -> Setup -> TCP/IP Change the IP Camera to, “Static” if the camera is currently set to, “DHCP”

8. Open another tab and enter the, “Gateway” address listed under your NVR’s Network settings. Example: 192.168.1.1, 192.168.0.1, 10.0.10.1

9. Login to your gateway and locate the, “Port Forwarding” section.

10. Create port forwarding rules for each port you wish to forward for the NVR. (Usually you will only need to forward the HTTP and the TCP port.) Default Ports: TCP: 37777 UDP: 37778 HTTP: 80 RTSP: 554 HTTPS: 443

11. The end result should look like the below image. We used a Cisco router for this example.

12. Hit, “Save” in the gateway interface, and open another tab.

13. Go to, “www.canyouseeme.org” and check that the ports you opened on the gateway.

Dahua XVR Remote Access Full Guide

Read Also : 2MN NVR XVR Troubleshooting 2024

How to locate device on LAN via ConfigTool 3.20

Description

Prerequisites

Video Instructions

Step by Step Instructions

Note: If your IP Camera is connected to the back of an NVR, these instructions will not apply. Please see, “How to Connect IP Camera to NVR” 

1. Download and install ConfigTool.

2. Run the ConfigTool.

3. The ConfigTool should display your IP Camera’s IP address. Click the, “” icon to open Internet Explorer and access your IP Camera. Alternatively, you can input that IP address into your browser manually.

4. Login with the default credentials: User Name: admin Passsword: admin

Configure Internet Explorer Security Settings

Prerequisites

Video Instructions

Step by Step Instructions

1. Open Internet Explorer.

2. Click on the gear icon in the upper right hand corner

3. Click, “Internet Options”

4. Click the, “Security” tab.

5. Click the, “Trusted sites” icon.

6. Click the, “Sites” box immediately below the zones.

7. Input your devices IP address into the top box, click, “Add” and then, “Close”

8. Click, “Custom level…”

9. Click the drop down box at the bottom of this window, and change the setting to, “Low”

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10. Click, “Reset” and then, “Yes” in the confirmation dialogue.

11. Click on the, “Advanced” tab.

12. Ensure the following are ENABLED:

13. Click, “Apply” and then, “OK”

14. Reboot your computer, and try to access your system.

Add a Device via P2P using SmartPSS

Description

This allows you to add cameras or recorders via P2P to SmartPSS

Prerequisites

Video Instructions

Step by Step Instructions

1. Locate the serial number of your NVR or DVR. The serial number can be found at the following locations:

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On the underside or side of the unit

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In the web interface, under Info->Version

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On the system interface under Main Menu->Settings->Network->P2P

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On the system interface under Main Menu->Info->System->Version

2. Launch SmartPSS. At the main page click Devices

3. Click +Add to add a device

4. The Manual Add window will appear.

5. Use the drop-down box to change ‘Method to add’ to ‘SN(For Device Support P2P)’

6. Enter the Serial Number for the unit in the field SN.

Enter the username and password for the device then click Add

7. The added device will appear in the Device List

8. From the main page of SmartPSS click Live View

9. The added device will apear in the Device List and can be expanded to view all video channels from the device.

DDNS Setup

Description

DDNS stands for Dynamic Domain Name System. The main advantage for DDNS is If you have a dynamic ip address, (where your address can change monthly by your ISP if not static) the DDNS service will track and update with your new IP address automatically. So no matter what your numeric IP address is, your DDNS address will work even if your numeric IP address changes.

Prerequisites

(port 37777 is default, 38888 is an example)

Video Instructions

Step by Step Instructions

Step 1. From the Main Menu Select Network

Step 2. Select DDNS ➞ Check off the “Enable” box.

Step 3. Select “DDNS Type” from the Drop Down menu. Please Note depending on the series model of the recorder you will have either Dahua DDNS or Quick DDNS as one of the options from the drop down menu.

After DDNS is selected it will automatically generate a Host IP. In this case because Dahua DDNS is an option it is www.dahuaddns.com . If Quick DDNS is an option it will automatically generate the designated www.quickddns.com as the host IP.

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Step 4. Select either “Default Domain” or “Custom Domain Name”. By Selecting “Default Domain” a Domain Name for the device recorder is the MAC address for this recorder. In this case 4C11BF0B0436.dahuaddns.com is the designated default domain name for this particular recorder. By selecting “Custom Domain Name” you may choose a custom name up to 60 max characters. Please note if you are using a custom domain name you cannot use the same custom domain name from or for another device.

Step 5. Input your email address ➞ Select “Test” and if successful it will prompt a pop up “Successfully Registered” ➞ Select “Yes” ➞ Select “Apply” ➞ Select “OK” to save settings.

DDNS Web Registration and Management

For QuickDDNS Go to www.quickddns.com

For DahuaDDNS Go to www.Dahuaddns.com

Please Note You cannot access the settings, live view or playback of the recorder through DDNS.

Step 1. DDNS Registration Click on Not registered link → Enter the registration page → Follow system instructions to complete registration.

Step 2. Go to The email you registered with to activate ddns account.

Step 3. After you have activated your username, you can log in DDNS website to manage and view devices under your account. When you login DDNS website, go to Equipment where you can view and manage devices under your account. Click on device domain name link to open corresponding Web interface.

Dahua DDNS Setup

NOTICE

Notice of Discontinuation of DahuaDDNS & QuickDDNS

Click Here to Download PDF Document

Description

DDNS stands for Dynamic Domain Name System. The main advantage for DDNS is If you have a dynamic ip address, (where your address can change monthly by your ISP if not static) the DDNS service will track and update with your new IP address automatically. So no matter what your numeric IP address is, your DDNS address will work even if your numeric IP address changes.

Prerequisites

(port 37777 is default, 38888 is an example)

Video Instructions

Step by Step Instructions

1. Go to www.DahuaDDNS.com and

2. Click, “Not Registered”

3.Input your information, and click, “Register”

4. Open your email and locate the activation email. Click the link in that email.

5. If you see the below message, please proceed with the below instructions. 

Enable Domain Name Access on Device

1. After the device boots up, please wait 1 to 3 min until the network indicator becomes green.

2. Locate your device with the ConfigTool. Click Here to Download ConfigTool.

3. Input your device’s IP address into Internet Explorer, and login.

4. Go to Settings -> Network -> DDNS

5. Click, “Test” once the test is complete, click, “Save”

DDNS Setup No-IP

NOTICE

Notice of Discontinuation of DahuaDDNS & QuickDDNS

Description

This article is a step by step setup guide for NoIP DDNS. NoIP DDNS is Dynamic Domain Name System which is a method of automatically updating a name server. This is primarily used if your public IP address on the internet changes from time to time (dynamic IP). Setting this feature up will give you another configured hostname.

Prerequisites

(port 37777 is default, 38888 is an example)

Video Instructions

Step by Step Instructions

1. Go to https://www.noip.com/

2. Create an account -> Go to your email registered with noip.com. An email activation will be sent to your registered email to activate noip.com account.

3. Once account is activated select “Create Host Name Now”

4. Input a host name of your choice > Select Add “Host Name”

5. Login into Recorder via Web Service or Physical recorder. From the Main Menu select the network tab > Select DDNS on the left hand side. Check off “Enable” > Click on Drop down to select “No-IP”

6. Input host IP > Domain Name > User Name > Password > Do not forget to click “APPLY” to save settings.

Enabling Quick DDNS from Local Recorder

Description

This article is a step by step setup guide for Quick DDNS. Quick DDNS is Dynamic Domain Name System which is a method of automatically updating a name server. This is primarily used if your public IP address on the internet changes from time to time (dynamic IP). Setting this feature up will give you another configured hostname.

Prerequisites

(port 37777 is default, 38888 is an example)  

Video Instructions

Step by Step Instructions

1. From the Main Menu Select Network

2. Select DDNS ➞ Check off the “Enable” box.

3. Select “DDNS Type” from the Drop Down menu. Please Note depending on the series model of the recorder you will have either Dahua DDNS or Quick DDNS as one of the options from the drop down menu.

After DDNS is selected it will automatically generate a Host IP. In this case because Dahua DDNS is an option it is www.dahuaddns.com . If Quick DDNS is an option it will automatically generate the designated www.quickddns.com as the host IP.

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4. Select either “Default Domain” or “Custom Domain Name”. By Selecting “Default Domain” a Domain Name for the device recorder is the MAC address for this recorder. In this case 4C11BF0B0436.dahuaddns.com is the designated default domain name for this particular recorder. By selecting “Custom Domain Name” you may choose a custom name up to 60 max characters. Please note if you are using a custom domain name you cannot use the same custom domain name from or for another device.

5. Input your email address ➞ Select “Test” and if successful it will prompt a pop up “Successfully Registered” ➞ Select “Yes” ➞ Select “Apply” ➞ Select “OK” to save settings.

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DDNS Web Registration and Management

For QuickDDNS Go to www.quickddns.com

For DahuaDDNS Go to www.Dahuaddns.com

1. DDNS Registration Click on Not registered link → Enter the registration page → Follow system instructions to complete registration.

2. Go to The email you registered with to activate ddns account.

3. After you have activated your username, you can log in DDNS website to manage and view devices under your account. When you login DDNS website, go to Equipment where you can view and manage devices under your account. Click on device domain name link to open corresponding Web interface.

View the RTSP stream with VLC media player

Prerequisites

Example URLs

Video Instructions

Step by Step Instructions

1. Download and install VLC. Click here to go to VLC Homepage

2. Click Media—Open Network Stream.

3. Input RTSP URL in Network Tab.

4. Click Play button, then the video will display.

About the URL of the RTSP, please see the explanation as follows.

URL Syntax

rtsp://:@:/cam/realmonitor?channel=&subtype=

For example, we request the extra stream 1 of channel 1,the URL is: rtsp://admin:admin@10.7.6.67:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=1.

The IP Camera supports both TCP and UDP transmission forms. It also supplies basic authentication and digest authentication ways.The authentication process is similar with 3.2 Authentication.

For the RTSP port, it is 554 in default, If it was changed, please change the port number in the RTSP URL.

For the IPC, you can see the RTSP port in the Web page:

Two Way Talk Setup

Description

This section will show how to setup / use Two Way Talk function with Dahua devices.

Testing

Computer Audio Setup Prerequisite (WebUI, SmartPSS and DSS Express)

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Typical Computer Audio Interface (inputs/Outputs)

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Microphone plugged into Microphone input (red) Speaker plugged into Output (green)

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Both Microphone and speaker plugged into computer

SystemUI Old

Prerequisites

Video Instructions

Step by Step Instructions

1. From Live View

2. Hover the mouse cursor near the top of the screen until the bar appears

3. Click the Microphone icon to begin Two Way Talk

4. The icon will highlight when Two Way Talk is active

5. Click the icon again to end Two Way Talk

SystemUI New

Prerequisites

Video Instructions

Step by Step Instructions

1. From Live View

2. Hover the mouse cursor near the top of the screen until the bar appears

3. Click the Microphone icon to begin Two Way Talk

4. The icon will highlight when Two Way Talk is active

5. Click the icon again to end Two Way Talk

How to Setup FTP to Record Snapshots and Sub-Stream

1. Download SmallFTPD from the following link: http://sourceforge.net/projects/smallftpd/

2. In the root of one of your hard drives, create a folder titled, “FTP”

3. Locate the file you downloaded and extract the contents of the zipped file to the FTP folder you just created in the root of your hard drive.

Your computer should look similar to the image above.

4. Double click, “smallftpd.exe“

5. Click, “Settings” and then, “General”

6. Note the port, and click, “OK”

7. Click, “Settings” and then, “Advanced”

8. Click the box next to, “Use local IP” and click, “OK”

->

9. Click, “Settings” and then, “Users”

10. Click, “Add”

11. Input the following:

Login: admin

Password: admin

Max. simultaneous connections:3-100

Inactivity timeout(s): 999

12. Under Directories click, “Add”

13. Leave Virtual Path set to, “/” and set the Physical path to, “C:/FTP” and click, “OK”

14. Under Permissions click, “Add”

15. Leave Virtual Path set to, “/” and set the Permissions to, “LRW” and click, “OK”

16. Click, “OK” to exit the User Properties.

17. Click, “OK” to exit the User Menu.

18. Click the, “Play” button to start the FTP server.

19A. For a NVR or DVR, go to Main Menu-> Settings -> Network -> FTP, and input the following: NVR or DVR

Host IP: (Your PC’s IP address)

Port: 21 or the port you setup earlier in SmallFTPD

User Name: admin

Password: admin

Remote Directory: /

File Length: 10-512

Image Upload Interval: 10-60

Channel: (any)

Period: (any)

19B. For an IP Camera, login to the IP Camera via web browser and navigate to, Setup-> Storage -> Destination -> FTP, and input the following:

IP Camera

Server Address:(Your PC’s IP address)

Port: 21 or the port you setup earlier in SmallFTPD

User Name: admin

Password: admin

Remote Directory: /

Once complete click, “Save” or “OK”

20. Once complete, check the SmallFTPD and the “C:/FTP” folder. They should look like the below images:

 and 

How To Setup FTP Snapshot

Please Note You must have an FTP currently set up for this to work.

Step 1. From the Main Menu Select Camera > Encode > Snapshot

Step 2. Select Manual Snap Time. This selection will determine how many snapshots are taken at a time.> Select Channel you want snapshot enabled for > Select Mode Trigger or Timing. Trigger is for events such as motion detect or alarm. You can use timing to set periods for which day of the week and or time you want to snapshot > Select image size > select image quality > select interval > Select “Apply” > Select “OK”

• For Timing Go to the Storage tab > Select Schedule Select Snapshot > Choose which type of event snap shot such as motion, alarm and or IVS if model has IVS capabilities. > Set schedule for which event for the periods, days and hours you wany snapshots set for.

• You can also set the schedule by selecting the settings icon.

•For Trigger Go to Event tab > Choose event type > Check Enable > Check Snapshot and channels > Repeat process for the different types of events > Apply > Save

Step 3. Select Network Tab > Select FTP

Step 4. Check Enable > FTP Server address > Input Username > Input Password

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Step 5.Select Channel or all channels > Select Day or all Days > Input period times > Check off event types such as Alarm or Intel > Click “Apply” > Click “Save”

UPnP (Universal Plug and Play)

Definition

Prerequisites

Step by Step Instructions

1. From the local Device Recorder Menu select Networking

2. Select Networking ➞ Select UPnP

3. Select “Enable” ➞ Select OK Apply ➞ Save

Multicast

Here you can set a multiple cast group. Please refer to the following sheet for detailed information.

-224.0.0.0-239.255.255.255

-“D” address space

-224.0.0.0-224.0.0.255

-TTL=1 When sending out telegraph

-For example

224.0.0.13 PIMv2 router

-239.0.0.0-239.255.255.255

-Private address space

Except the above mentioned addresses of special meaning, you can use other addresses. For example:

Multiple cast IP: 235.8.8.36

Multiple cast PORT: 3666.

After you logged in the Web, the Web can automatically get multiple cast address and add it to the multiple cast groups. You can enable real-time monitor function to view the view.

Please note multiple cast function applies to special series only.

PPPoE

PPPoE interface is shown in the above image. Input “PPPoE name” and “PPPoE password” you get from your ISP (Internet service provider). Click save button, you need to restart to activate your configuration. After rebooting, NVR will connect to internet automatically. The IP in the PPPoE is the NVR dynamic value. You can access this IP to visit the unit.

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Can I add cameras over the network?

Yes, you can add cameras over the network, they do not have to always be connected directly to the NVR. You can use a switch on the network that connected to the same router as your NVR. Please follow these steps to set this up:

Log into the NVR and go to Camera>Camera Management, click on Manual Add, and enter the IP information for the camera. Use the default username: admin password: 123456

Can I connect all the cameras to a switch, then the switch to one of the NVR ports?

No, unfortunately each port on the back of the NVR is only designed for 1 camera. This will only allow about 2 cameras to show up. To use a switch, you’ll have to connect the switch to the same router that the NVR is connected to. Then you’ll proceed to setup the cameras over the network. Please see the Adding cameras over the network FAQ.

Can I use my PC to view my cameras remotely?

Yes, you can use your external IP address to view your cameras and manipulate configuration via Web Browser. Our plug in will only work on Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. Once one of those browsers are open, type in your external IP address in the URL bar. If the port forwarding is done correctly, it should bring you to your NVR log in page. Log in using the same credentials as you would directly on the system. After you’re logged in, click the link to download and install the plug in. Restart the browser and click the “All Main” button on the left-hand side, and it should bring up your camera streams.

LaView NVR setup and user guide

Read Also : LaView DVR User Guide

Can I use port forwarding to setup remote viewing for my NVR?

Yes, you can setup your system via port forwarding. Although, this setup is recommended for more advanced users. You will need to note the IP Address of the NVR/DVR. To obtain this, go to Main Menu>Maintenance>System Info>Network, your IP address will be the IPv4 address at the top. Then you’ll need to log into your router via web browser on a PC. Once logged in, you’ll need to add ports 80, 8000, and 554 to the port forwarding rules. For help with port forwarding for your router, contact the manufacturer or your ISP. There are also guides for a lot of various models of routers here https://portforward.com.

The port forwarding setup should look something like this:

Application   Start     End         Protocol   IP Address

DVR1                 80           80         TCP            192.168.x.x.

DVR2               8000      8000       TCP            192.168.x.x.

DVR3                554         554       TCP            192.168.x.x.

To make sure test the ports on www.canyouseeme.org, and if they are open you can add the information to your phone app.

LaView Net App Setup:

*Make sure Wi-Fi is off on the phone when attempting the remote view.

How do I change the camera names on my system?

To change the camera names go to Menu>Camera Management>Advanced>Basic>IP Camera Name. In that section, you can edit the “Camera Name” Option, please click apply at the bottom before selecting another camera.

How Do I Set up Remote Viewing for My Surveillance System?

Assuming you have the IP address of the NVR/DVR, there is a 4-step process to set up remote viewing. Learn more about remote view camera set-up here.

Are There Any Cameras that Also Allow Me to Monitor the Audio as Well as the Video?

Yes, we have multiple solutions available to our clients. Here is our most popular audio camera.

Does the Surveillance System Come with All of the Wires, Switches, and Accessories I Need?

Yes. The kit comes with everything you need to install the system and begin recording immediately, including  any necessary wire, PoE switch, or AC 12v adapter required for the system to operate.

How far Apart Can I Set up My Wireless Cameras?

The environment, particularly barriers such as cement walls, steel structures, or large trees, play a big role in transmission distance. A wifi camera will typically transmit well for about 150 feet outdoors and 50 feet indoors.

How do I connect my NVR to my Phone?

Please download and use LaView Patrol:

Note: The app set up is done on an Android device, the iPhone set up will be almost identical.

2. Click on the “BACK” button. Tap the “+ Device” option to add a device.

3. Enter IP address information and click “Save”. Your new device will be on the previous screen. To obtain his IP address go to Main Menu>Configuration>Network. Your IP address will be the “IP address”. (Please note: This setup will only work inside the local network. To enable remote viewing, setup port forwarding and use your WAN IP address from your network. See port forwarding instructions.)

4. Select new device and choose the channels you wish to see, click the Play/Live button.

How Do I find my system’s IP address?

To find your system’s IP address go to Main Menu>Configuration>Network. The IP Address at the top is your local IP. If your IP address is 0.0.0.0 or 192.0.0.64, this means your system is offline. There are a few causes from this, but usually it’s a bad ethernet cable or the cable is not plugged in properly to either the NVR or Router. If those are checked to be correct, try restarting your router by unplugging it for a minute and restarting the DVR.

Do I Need Internet to Activate My Wireless Security Camera System?

Not exactly. You can set up your wireless security camera system without any internet at all, as this is not a requirement to begin recording. In order to access remote viewing on your mobile devices, you will need a live internet connection.

Does the Surveillance System Come with All of the Wires, Switches, and Accessories I Need?

Yes. The kit comes with everything you need to install the system and begin recording immediately, including  any necessary wire, PoE switch, or AC 12v adapter required for the system to operate.

Are There Any Cameras that Also Allow Me to Monitor the Audio as Well as the Video?

Yes, we have multiple solutions available to our clients. Here is our most popular audio camera.

What are the Advantages of Installing a Wifi Security Camera System?

A wifi security camera system is significantly easier to install than a traditional system, because there is no need to run special wires to each wifi camera. This not only helps the day of installation, but also allows clients to position cameras in places they might not otherwise be able to place them.

How Do I format my HDD?

To format your HDD you’ll need to go to the Main Menu>System>Storage>Management Tab. Once in the HDD menu, highlight the HDD information. Then click on “Format” at the bottom. Please note this will delete all information off the HDD.

How do I playback my recordings?

To playback videos go to Main Menu>Playback. In that section choose your camera(s) on the right-hand side. Then double click any of the days on the calendar. This should automatically start playback for that day. Use the bar at the bottom to jump to a specific time during that day.

How Do I set up my recording schedule?

To set the recording schedule you’ll need to go to Main Menu>Configuration>Schedule>Record Plan. In that section, you’ll have access to each channel’s recording schedule. The camera’s will automatically start and stop, recording, at desired times. If you want to set up only motion recording to each camera, select “Setting” on the right-hand side for the desired day. Choose MD for Motion Detection for the day and set a desired time, if not all day. Then you can copy the schedule to other days at the bottom. Click apply then ok, then apply again. You can now click copy at the bottom and copy the schedule to other channels as well. Or choose another channel at the top to setup a different schedule.

How Do I upgrade my system’s Firmware?

Make sure to download your firmware from our website here: https://www.laviewsecurity.com/cms/download/

Once the file is downloaded, extract the file and place it onto a flash drive. Then connect the flash drive to a USB port on the NVR.
Please go to Main Menu>System>Maintenance>Version and select upgrade. Choose your Firmware file from the list.

How to I download videos off my NVR?

To download video footage you’ll need a flash drive inserted into one of the USB ports on the system. Then go to Main Menu>Backup. Once in the Backup page, you’ll need to select the USB device from the list. Then click on “Backup” at the bottom and you’ll have the file selector screen show up. Make sure AVI is checked, then proceed to backup. You can select a specific channel along with date and time you want to backup. Click on Add, then the list should update. Each file will have a start and end time. Check mark the files desired for back up and click backup at the bottom. Once the progress bar finishes, you now have the files on your USB drive.

I forgot the password for my system, how do I reset it?

Please email us at info@laviewusa.com to reset the password for this system. In the email please mention you need a password reset along with the model number and date that displays on the main view of the system. A technician will reply with some instructions and a temporary password for your system.

I have port forwarding setup, but my external IP address keeps changing. Can I fix this?

Yes, you can either contact your ISP and ask them for a static IP address or setup a DDNS. LaView does offer a free DDNS service that you can setup with these instructions:

To set up a DDNS please go to www.laviewddns.com and register.

After registering and creating your domain name we need to enable the DDNS feature.

Please go to Main Menu>App Center>DDNS.

Enable DDNS: √ (Checked)

DDNS Type: Laview

Domain Name: “yourdomainname”.laviewddns.com (“yourdomainname” is the name you created don’t use that or the “ “)

User Name: your email account used for www.laviewddns.com

Password: password used for www.laviewddns.com

Server IP: Laviewddns.com

Port: 8000

Please note, in order for the DDNS to work, port forwarding must be setup. You can now use your Domain name to access your system instead of IP.

I have some trees in my yard that are triggering my motion detection. How can I fix this?

You can setup areas for your motion recording within the camera’s configuration. Go to Main Menu>Configuration>Alarm>Set Area “Setting”. In that section, you’ll have a preview of one of the camera along with a red grid over it. You can clear the area and only draw specific areas with motion detection. Or you can just remove the areas by clicking and dragging over the red boxes. Everything in red will trigger motion, anything clear will not.

Which mobile app do I need?

-If you have DVR starting from LV-N52xxxx please download “LaView Patrol”

-If you have DVR starting from LV-N9xxxx, LV-D11xxxx, LV-D21xxx, or LV-T94xxxx, please download “LaView Net”

-If you have DVR starting from LV-D04xxxx, or LV-D51xxxx  please download “LaView Mobile”

The system worked seamlessly until last week when it suddenly shut off and now won’t come back on

Would suggestion you follow the instruction below for troubleshooting,

1.Please ensure the cameras are connected, would suggest you to connect them directly to the PoE ports at the back of the system.

2.At the day time, try to cover the camera lens with your hands to see if there is a IR red light on the problematic cameras. And please also check if the camera goes hot when it is connected.

3.The camera appears not to get powe if there is no light and heat. We will need to check if it is the camera/port/cable issue.

1.At first, please switch the problematic camera to the workable PoE ports to test. You can also go to your PoE Configuration setting to check the power.

2.If it still doesn’t work with another port, please exchange the cable to check again. If possible, you can also add the camera to another system to confirm the problem.

Please contact our support team for further support if it does not help.

What should I do if I connect a LaView Saturn Camera to LV-N96, LV-N95, LV-N98 series NVR but only get 720P maximum resolution in main stream?

If you only get 720p in mainstream, it means the IP camera is set to H.265. Please use the following instruction to switch the camera to H.264 compression.

What features are LaView Saturn Series Camera compatible with LaView (LV-N95, LV-N96, LV-N98, LV-N99) Series NVR?

LaView Saturn Series IP Cameras have many great features designed to work with LaView Saturn Series NVR. If you already have a LaView NVR and wish to add a LaView Saturn IP Camera, you can do so using this instruction. However, we recommend using LaView Saturn Series IP Cameras with a LaView Saturn Series NVR for best performance.

The following features of LaView Saturn IP Camera are compatible with LaView Series NVR:

The following features may NOT be compatible

How to reset LaView Saturn IP Camera

3. Press and hold the reset button for at least 5 seconds until the camera restarts, and then the camera will be restored to factory default settings.

How to connect a LaView Saturn Series IP Camera to a Non-Saturn Series NVR

5a. If you are connecting the camera to the NVR PoE port, set up the Target IP to 192.168.254.xxx (xxx being a random number from 2-254), and Gateway to  192.168.254.1, Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0. Then unplug the camera from the PoE switch or Router and connect it to the NVR using Cat5e cable.

5b. If you are connecting the camera via LAN, use DHCP or set up the IP address to your network range. For example: Target IP 192.168.0.217, Subnet 255.255.255.0, Gateway 192.168.0.1

6. Go the NVR Menu => Camera => Camera.

7. Click on the channel which the camera is connected to (ie if the camera is connected to port 3 on the back of the NVR, click on channel 3). If you are connecting the camera via LAN, Click on any unused channel.

8. Change ‘Plug and Play’ to ‘Manual’ and enter the camera IP address (192.168.254.xxx or 192.168.0.217 as in previous example)

9. Change protocol to ONVIF and Management port is 80

10. Enter user name and password you set up when you activated the camera in step 3.

.

.

Camera Site Features

Verkada sites have several features that make managing and viewing the devices in a site easier. This article details the features available for camera sites.

Read Next :

• How To Use Femii Security Cameras
• How to Add Cameras to Google Home
• How to Add Cameras to Amazon Alexa

Note: These options are only available to users with Site Admin permissions

Steps

1. Select the Cameras button from the All Products menu

2. Hover over a site until the ellipsis ⋮ appear next to the site name

3. Select the ellipsis ⋮ to view the site options

This menu has the following options:

• Add a Floorplan

  • Floor plans are a great way to plan and visualize your Verkada system. They can also be useful for a myriad of reasons, from historical activity hotspots to active motion detection.

• Reorder Cameras

  • The reorder cameras feature allows users to change the order in which they see the cameras. This feature is helpful as it allows the user to prioritize the feeds they want to see in a specific order.

• View as Grid

  • This feature displays all the cameras in the site as a grid.

• View Site Stats

  • View trends of data usage for cameras at the site and individual level

• Share Site

  • You can share cameras in bulk to give people temporary access to a site, sub-site, or specific floor plan.

• Add Devices to Site

  • This feature allows a user to quickly add a device to a site with the site name already configured.

     

   

Enabling Wi-Fi on Supported Verkada Cameras

Verkada CD61, CD61-E, CB61-E, CB61-TE, CM61, and D50W models support Wi-Fi. This article covers the process of enabling and using Wi-Fi.

In order to enable and use Wi-Fi on Verkada cameras, a few conditions must be met:

1. The camera model must be one of the following models:

   1. CD61

   2. CD61-E

   3. CB61-E

   4. CB61-TE

   5. CM61

   6. D50W

2. Wi-Fi must be enabled at the organization level. Contact Verkada Support to enable this if it is not already enabled. Verkada Support will only need a support token to perform this action, and you can generate one using this article for reference.

3. The Verkada camera must be connected to an Ethernet network and must be online to receive the Wi-Fi configuration. It is possible to enable Wi-Fi and configure your SSID and password if the device is offline, but it will need to connect to a wired network to pull this new configuration.

First, navigate to the camera’s settings by clicking the gear icon on the camera’s live feed page.

 

Next, click Device to navigate to the Wi-Fi option, and click Configure.

 

Finally, toggle on Enable camera Wi-Fi, select your wireless network, and enter your password to connect the camera. Click Connect once you’re ready to save.

 

Now you’re done! The camera will retain this configuration on reboot. You can confirm which connection is in use via the checkbox.

 

Note: If the SSID or password changes for the Wi-Fi network, you must pre-configure the new Wi-Fi network on the camera or use a wired network to re-configure the camera. If the camera is offline, it will not pull a new wireless configuration.

Low Bandwidth Mode

Reduce network utilization for your cameras

Verkada camera architecture is optimized to provide organizations with the best user experience with minimum bandwidth usage. In normal operation, Verkada cameras consume as low as 20-50 Kbps upload bandwidth depending on the camera model and features enabled. However, there are cases where Verkada cameras need to be deployed in extremely bandwidth constrained environments, such as remote locations, mobile deployments or sites with high camera densities.

For such deployments, we offer Low Bandwidth Mode that further reduces the resting bandwidth consumed by Verkada cameras by up to 75% and streaming bandwidth by up to 33% with a slight decrease in video quality and video scrubbing experience. Low Bandwidth Model enables customers to run their day to day security operations and incident response use cases without downtime, loss in productivity or overwhelming existing mission critical workloads. Low Bandwidth Mode is available for all Verkada cameras and can be enabled from Command for a single camera or in bulk for multiple cameras at the same time.

 

What features contribute to internet bandwidth consumption

Video streaming: remote video streaming (live or historical) constitutes the bulk of internet bandwidth consumption, with standard quality consuming 300-600 Kbps and high quality video consuming 1500-3000 Kbps of internet bandwidth depending on camera model and mode (live video vs historical playback). Details of bandwidth consumed by different camera models can be found here. Special notes:

• Remote playback of video consumes upload bandwidth on the camera’s network but consumes download bandwidth on the client’s network.

• If the client and camera are on the same network local video flows directly from the camera to the client and does not consume any internet bandwidth. Learn more about local streaming in this Knowledge Base article.

• If cloud backup has been enabled then the video upload to the cloud consumes upload bandwidth on the camera’s network. If the requested video is present in the cloud, the video flows directly from the cloud to the client, so no additional bandwidth is consumed for historical playback.

Resting bandwidth: Verkada cameras upload thumbnails once every 20 seconds. However, if the camera sees any motion in the 20 second interval, the camera uploads an additional thumbnail to capture the motion event. So, during active hours Verkada cameras send 2 thumbnails every 20 seconds.

In addition to thumbnails, cameras upload camera health metrics, and video metadata throughout the day. The thumbnails are used to deliver a smooth video scrubbing experience on the single cameras page and history player. The camera health metrics are used to monitor the health of the camera and ensure it is behaving as expected. The metadata helps with smooth video streaming and playback experience. Note that:

• Thumbnails constitute the majority of upload bandwidth

• People analytics, vehicle analytics, and timelapse features consume additional internet bandwidth.

• Timelapse needs high-resolution JPEG images to be periodically sent to the Verkada cloud and consumes additional bandwidth

 

How does Low Bandwidth Mode reduce the bandwidth consumed

Video streaming bandwidth:

Low Bandwidth Mode reduces the high quality video bitrates on 4K cameras (CD61, CD61-E, CD62, CD62-E, CB61-E, CB61-TE, CM61) and fisheye camera (CF81-E) from 3 Mbps to 2 Mbps that allows more video streams to play with minimal loss in video quality.

 

Note: The cloud backup feature cannot be used if the camera is operating in low bandwidth mode

 

Resting bandwidth:

Under Low Bandwidth Mode, non-motion thumbnails are uploaded only once every 5 minutes. Motion thumbnails are still uploaded at most once every 20 seconds if the camera sees motion during the 20 second interval. In addition to thumbnail upload frequency, thumbnail quality and size are also reduced to minimize thumbnail size.

 

Note:

1. The timelapse feature cannot be used if the camera is operating in low bandwidth mode.

2. When Low Bandwidth Mode is enabled for a camera any older or cached thumbnails stored on the camera are deleted and only new thumbnails from that point onwards are uploaded to the cloud.

 

Enabling Low Bandwidth Mode

Low Bandwidth Mode is available for all cameras and can be enabled at an individual camera level or in bulk for multiple cameras at the same time.

 

Enabling it for a single camera

The feature can be toggled on from the camera settings menu.

 

 

 

Enabling it for multiple cameras

From the Devices page, select all cameras that need Low Bandwidth Mode and click on Edit Settings in the top left-hand corner.

 

Permissions

Only Org Admins or Site Admins can enable or disable Low Bandwidth Mode.

Configuring License Plate Recognition

This guide goes over how to configure the LPR feature on the bullet series cameras

Our bullet series cameras can perform license plate recognition. This guide will take you through the requirements and steps to ensure LPR delivers the best results. For a more detailed explanation of how LPR works navigate to this guide.

 

Note: You must be an organization admin to enable LPR Mode.

 

Note: After enabling LPR mode on a camera and configuring it, it will take up to 5 minutes for results to populate.

 

Installing the LPR camera

Before installing your LPR Camera, there are a few considerations to keep in mind for the best results.

1. Lane Monitoring

   • The CB51 & CB61 cameras should be positioned to face a single lane of traffic for vehicles traveling 20 MPH or less, such as an entrance or drive-thru.

   • The CB52 cameras can be positioned to face a single lane of traffic for vehicles traveling 80 mph / 128 kph

   • The CB62 cameras can be positioned to face multiple lanes of traffic for vehicles traveling 80 mph / 128 kph

      

2. Optimal Plate Detection

   • To ensure optimal license plate detection with the CB51-E & CB61-E cameras, it is recommended that vehicles be within 60ft / 18m of the camera.

   • To ensure optimal license plate detection with the CB52-TE & CB62-TE cameras, it is recommended that vehicles be within 115ft / 35m of the camera. However, it is possible to detect license plate details from up to 164ft / 50m away or further.

   • To ensure optimal license plate detection with the CB52-E & CB62-E cameras, it is recommended that vehicles be within 46ft / 14m of the camera. However, it is possible to detect license plate details from up to 66ft / 20m away or further.

      

3. Proper Positioning Improves Accuracy

   • The CB51 & CB61 cameras should be positioned no more than 20º horizontally and/or 40º vertically from the location of the license plate.

   • The CB52 & CB62 cameras should be positioned less than 30° vertically or horizontally from the location of the license plate. It is acceptable to have a larger angle for lower speeds (e.g. 45° for parking lot deployments) and recommended to have a smaller angle for fast speeds (e.g. 15° for highway deployments). The camera may still be able to capture adequate images outside of these angles, but with a lesser degree of accuracy.

      

4. Lighting

   If the area where license plates will be captured is far away and not well lit, it is strongly recommended to use an external IR illuminator to improve the visibility of the license plates.

Enabling LPR on a camera

Note: You must be an organization admin to enable LPR Mode.

 

To enable LPR Mode

1. Navigate to the designated LPR Camera

2. Select Settings

3. Select Analytics

4. Next to License Plate Recognition (LPR) Mode select Enable

Once LPR has been enabled the camera will go through a firmware update which may take five minutes or more to finish.

 

Configuring the LPR camera

Once LPR mode has been enabled on a camera follow the prompts to complete the setup.

1. Ensure that the camera image is set to the recommended mounting angles then click Next.

2. Configure the Optical Zoom so that the passing vehicle takes up more than half of the frame. Use Auto Focus or Manual Focus if the image becomes blurry after using the Optical Zoom then click Next.

3. Click and drag a region of interest over the area that license plates will pass through then click Next. The selected area must be less than half of the entire frame.

4. Optional: Add a context camera to capture the scene for the full view of vehicle events then click I’m done.

Note: You can also get back to this menu by clicking the cogwheel to the right of a license plate event on the Events page.

 

Viewing License Plates on the Events Page

Viewing license plates captured

Once a camera has been enabled for LPR mode a new section of Command will be available to view under the Events page of all captured license plates. This area will show all the captured license plates along with a clip of when the capture happened.

 

 

 

Filtering for specific license plates

You can use the search bar to find a specific license plate. Entering the license plate will bring up the exact clip(s) of when it was seen. You are also able to filter for a specific camera along with a specific day.

 

Enable License Plates of Interest Alerts

First, ensure you have alerts enabled for license plates. Click the bell icon next to the License Plates button.

 

Next, select the methods you wish to use to receive notifications.

 

To enable license plates of interest, select the bell icon next to the search bar to see a list of all the license plates of interest.

 

Click Add to add plates to the detection system.

 

Note: Any plate added as a license plate of interest affects all other users. If you add a plate, any other user configured to receive alerts will be notified if that plate is detected.

Wide Dynamic Range

How and when to enable WDR on your camera

Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) is a technology used to compensate for dramatic differences in light exposure across a camera’s image. It works by making brighter parts of the image darker while making darker parts of the image brighter to create a more balanced image.

 

WDR Disabled

WDR Enabled

To enable/disable WDR on your camera

1. Select the video quality button in the bottom left of the camera live feed

2. Select WDR

3. Choose ON or OFF

Naming a Camera

Naming your camera in Command

Once you’ve added your camera to Command, you can give it a name.

 

Note: You will need to have the role of Site Admin to make this change.

 

How to change the name of a camera

1. Select the camera you want to change the name on

2. Click the Settings button

3. Enter the desired name in the Name field

   

    

 

Adding a device to your Command account

To activate your Verkada device in Command, enter its serial number or scan its QR code

Once you’ve plugged your device into a PoE-enabled device, it will automatically begin to boot. You’ll then need to add your device to your Verkada Command account. You can either do this through the Command portal or the iOS app.

 

Verkada supports up to 1,000 sites with up to 2,500 cameras per site.

 

Note:

In order to add a new camera to your organization, you must be one of the following:

• An Organization Admin

• A Site Admin of the site you are adding cameras to

In order to add a new access controller, air quality sensor, or alarm panel you must be:

• An Organization Admin

Click here for more information on user permissions.

 

Command Website

On a desktop, laptop, or smartphone log into your Command account and select Devices from the All Products menu in the top left-hand corner. From here, select + Add Devices in the top right-hand corner.

 

Next, choose the site to put the device in and set the location. Then enter the device’s serial number. Click Activate to add the device to your Org.

 

You can also add all the devices in an order to bulk import cameras.

Click Add an Entire Order on the Add Device page. Select the site and location for the new cameras and enter the order number The order number should be the following order V1S-1234-5678 or V2S-1234-5678.

 

Quick Camera Setup

When adding new cameras to Command you will have the option to copy settings from any camera in the same site onto these new cameras. Once you click activate on the Devices page a quick setup menu should pop up. From the dropdown menu in the top right-hand corner, you can select a camera from the site to copy the settings from. Once the desired camera is selected select Activate with above settings to add the cameras. If you want to skip this step and add the cameras with default settings select Activate with default settings.

Adding cameras via the Command Mobile App

Select the > button in the bottom right-hand corner and select the Add Device button. Align the QR code on the camera or box within the 4 blue corners of the scan area.

 

Once aligned the code will automatically scan and the camera will be added to your organization. You’ll be brought to the camera’s settings page and can either add more cameras or tap DONE to return to the previous page.

 

Camera Online

Once you’ve entered or scanned your camera’s serial number, the camera will begin transmitting video. Typically it takes 3-4 minutes for the video stream to become visible in Command. A solid blue status light on the front of the camera will indicate that it is connected, recording, and transmitting video.

Camera Settings Page

View and edit your camera’s name, location, site and other settings in Command

To view a camera’s administration settings, select the Settings tab located below the video player. From the General tab, you can view general camera settings information such as time zone, serial number, model, storage, etc. For more information on configurable settings click on the links below.

 

 

From this page you can change the following tabs:

• General

  • Site

  • Name

  • Location

  • Reboot Device

  • Schedule Firmware Updates

  • Audit log

• Device

  • Orientation

  • Low Bandwidth Mode

  • Timelapse

  • RTSP

  • Audio

  • Autofocus

  • Identify

  • Onboard Retention

  • Delete Device

• Events

  • Motion events

  • Crowd events

  • Tamper events

  • Manage Alerts

• Privacy

  • Data Storage Location

  • Privacy Regions

• Analytics

  • People History

  • Vehicle History

• Backup

   

Navigating the Verkada Command Mobile App

Guide to understanding both icons and functionality for the Command video app

The Command mobile app allows you to bring your Verkada cameras right to your fingertips. Once logged in you will be greeted with many tools that will allow you to access Command from anywhere.

 

Command App Home Screen

 

The organization bar (located at the bottom) will allow you to easily navigate through the following from left to right:

• Home screen

• Search

• Notification events

• Archives

• Account settings

Just like in the Command web application, once logged in you will be able to navigate through all of your organization’s sites.

 

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Sites

On each site you can quickly tell if a camera is offline. There will also be three dots on the right-hand side which represent more options.

 

This will bring up the following:

• Site name

• Amount of cameras

• Ability to share a public link

 

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Viewing a camera

Once the desired camera is selected you will have the following tools to choose from:

 

• Face Search

  

   

• Calendar icon: This allows you to pick a specific date and time that will show all face results within that time frame.

• Upload a face icon: This allows you to either take a picture of someone’s face or upload a picture from your phone’s camera roll.

  • Once a face is uploaded then all faces captured on the camera that match that photo will appear.

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People History

People analytics uses powerful edge-based camera capabilities to detect people and faces.

 

Appearance: This filter searches based on the apparent sex, clothing color, and whether or not a backpack is present.

Calendar icon: This allows you to pick a specific date and time that will show all face results within that time frame.

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Vehicle History

Vehicle analytics uses powerful edge-based capabilities to detect vehicles.

 

Appearance: This filter searches based on the vehicle color and vehicle type.

Calendar icon: This allows you to pick a specific date and time that will show all vehicle results within that time frame.

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Motion Search

Motion search allows you to quickly find key events.

 

Calendar icon: This allows you to pick a specific date and time that will show all motion results within that time frame.

Grid search: Once clicked, the live stream will have a grid overlay. From there you can easily drag your finger over the boxes you would like to search, and the results will show any motion detected within those boxes.

 

 

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Settings

All of the following can be found under Camera Info and Settings.

 

• Camera settings – Camera name, site name, location, and orientation

• Serial number

• Model

• Firmware version

• Local IP address

   

Camera Deployment Best Practices Guide

How best to prepare for camera installation and what to do if you run into issues.

During a hardware installation, problems can arise. Issues can be caused by the network, physical environment, component failure, misconfiguration, or improper installation techniques. This guide covers ways to solve and prevent installation challenges by presenting a best-practice deployment approach in the field. It also suggests a simple staging process intended to mitigate costs and complexities related to post-install troubleshooting. The six parts to deployment are:

1. Preparing Command for install

2. Preparing the network

3. Staging cameras before installation

4. Installing cameras

5. Finalizing deployment

6. Troubleshooting installed cameras

Preparing Command for Install

• Create an Organization and set up your Command account

  • A Command organization is required to manage Verkada devices. Each camera needs to be added to the organization

• The installer should be an organization admin and a site admin for all sites containing cameras so they can confirm the devices are working and provide a support access token at the request of Verkada Technical Support in the event there is a technical issue

  • The installer can add the camera(s) to the organization using their order number which can be found on the packing slip or in the order confirmation email

     

• For security purposes, ensure that all Verkada devices are added to the organization prior to installation

Note: Verkada Technical Support requires a support access token to troubleshoot Verkada cameras. This token can only be generated by users who have admin permissions in the organization containing their cameras.

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Preparing the network

Network requirements

Verkada cameras require connectivity to the Verkada Cloud and NTP servers located on the internet. Without network connectivity, the platform will have limited functionality and may report inaccurately in Command.

 

Before installing a Verkada system, the network environment needs to support the following protocols and services:

• DHCP – Cameras receive their IP address and network settings via the DHCP protocol. They do not support static IP configurations. A DHCP server must be present on the LAN to provide the cameras with an IP address, default gateway, subnet mask, and DNS servers

• DNS – Cameras use the Domain Name System to resolve Verkada URLs to their associated IP addresses

• HTTPS – Cameras communicate with Verkada Command using HTTPS over TCP port 443

• NTP – Each camera is hardcoded with well-known NTP servers on the internet. NTP is used to sync the camera time so footage timestamps are correct. The correct time is also required for HTTPS to work

Refer to this KB for more detail on network requirements.

 

Verkada Technical Support will ask to troubleshoot these services when there is a network issue. The troubleshooting process can require a packet capture of network traffic to analyze the root cause.

 

Note: Cable integrity is important to supply PoE and data to a camera. Cable termination, interconnects, distance, and bends must all be taken into account.

 

Power budgeting

Each Camera requires PoE power to function. Make sure your network switch has enough PoE power to support all of the connected cameras at full power draw.

 

Don’t forget: Cameras use less power during the day. When cameras switch to night mode, the IR emitters activate to illuminate the scene for better visibility. The IRs increase power draw. If multiple cameras are connected to the same PoE switch, the PoE draw can increase significantly at night. If the switch does not have enough power to deliver to all the cameras, some cameras will go offline. A telltale sign of your switch not having enough power is that cameras will go offline each night around the same time as other cameras on the same switch when entering into night mode.

 

An easy way to spec power on a switch is to multiply the number of cameras connected by 30 Watts which is the maximum power delivered by PoE+. For example, if you had 10 cameras you would calculate like this:

 

10 cameras X 30 Watts = 300 Watt PoE budget on the switch

 

Note: Full power draw can be found on the datasheet for your camera model. Remember, each switch port should be able to supply the maximum amount of power required by the camera.

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Staging cameras before installation

Staging devices helps you to avoid the costs and difficulties of troubleshooting a faulty camera after it has been installed (such as needing a lift to physically access the camera). Staging involves confirming the devices function correctly before they are installed at their intended locations. Once a camera is staged correctly, further troubleshooting can focus on the physical and network environments.

 

Stage devices as follows:

1. Connect each device to your PoE switch

2. Allow the device to check in to the Command portal and update

   1. If the device does not check in or update in 30 minutes you will need to troubleshoot

3. Make sure that you are getting a video feed in Command

4. Make sure history is being populated in Command

Note: The plastic protective film on the camera dome should not be removed before installing at the actual end location.

 

Building a staging lab

Verkada Technical Support recommends investing in a mobile staging environment to test and upgrade devices before installing them at their final install location. A mobile staging lab can be transported in a case and shipped to a site before installation. The staging lab is made up of the following components:

• Internet uplink

• Managed PoE+ switch

• Router (includes, DHCP, DNS)

• Known good short ethernet patch cables

• Computer with Ethernet adapter

• PoE injector

• 5G mobile hotspot router with adequate data plan (optional)

Typically your staging lab will use the customer network for internet access. It is good practice to include a 5G mobile hotspot router in your staging kit so the cameras can get internet access when the customer network is not prepared or is having issues.

 

Pro Tip: Verkada Technical Support recommends not using a firewall in your staging environment because blocking the camera’s traffic could result in additional troubleshooting. The staging lab should only contain what is necessary for the cameras to operate.

 

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Installing cameras

Once staging is complete the cameras should be ready to install in their intended locations. You can find step-by-step guides to installing each camera model here. When you install cameras be sure to take into account image quality during the day and the night when determining orientation and placement.

 

Pro Tip: Verkada Technical Support recommends using the Verkada Command Mobile App during the installation process. You will be able to see the camera stream on your phone which will allow more accurate placement and orientation of the device when installing it in its final location.

 

Keep the following in mind when installing cameras:

• If IRs are reflected or obstructed they will cause glare in the image in night mode

  • Ensure the IRs are not facing a white or reflective surface

  • Ensure the IRs are not obstructed by camera housing

• Make sure outdoor cameras have a water-tight seal. Confirm the cable gland is properly secured and the seal is properly tightened

  • Make sure the desiccant pack is installed inside the camera case to prevent condensation build-up

• Do not remove the plastic film on the camera dome until you have positioned the camera properly to cover it until properly installed on location. If a dome gets grime it will show as glare in night mode. It may even make the image blurry in day mode

  • Do not touch the inside or outside of the camera dome because it will get fingerprints that cause glare when the IR illuminators come on

  • If you remove the plastic cover, wipe down the dome with a microfiber cloth and rubbing alcohol to remove grime and fingerprints

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Finalizing the deployment

The most important aspect of an installation is delivering a working solution to the customer that they can maintain and get help on when you leave. This means demonstrating to them that they have access to all of the devices they purchased and that the devices are fully functional. Complete the checks below to demonstrate that the installation was successful before you leave the site.

1. Make sure the plastic film is removed from all the camera domes

2. Make sure at least two customer users are added as org admins and site admin for all sites

3. Have the customer login and confirm they can see all of their cameras

4. Check with the customer to confirm the expected number of cameras are added to Command

5. Verify IR glare is not present at night

6. Check with the customer to confirm each camera is live streaming in HQ, SQ, local streaming, and recording history as expected

7. Once you confirm all the cameras are working and accessible, have the customer remove your account from their org if you are not going to manage their account on their behalf. You will want to confirm the customer access to the support page so they can leverage Verkada Technical Support if needed

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Troubleshooting deployed hardware

When installing cameras into production, issues may surface that were not present during staging.

 

Pro tip: Before contacting Verkada Technical Support for camera troubleshooting assistance:

• Find the serial number on the back of the camera and ensure you can find that serial number in Verkada Command

• Have an active support token available for Technical Support. If the issue involves live streaming or history, ensure video access is enabled for the token

LED Status

Most issues yield LED behavior that suggests a probable root cause. Below are the LED statuses, their associated causes, and remediation steps. The LED is located on the front bezel of any Verkada camera.

 

What if the camera worked in staging, but doesn’t work when installed in the install location?

• If a camera worked in staging but not when it is installed, take the device back to your staging lab to see if it works

• If it does, you can show this to the customer and work with them to resolve the issue

• If the device does not work in staging, contact Verkada Technical Support so they can help diagnose the problem in the staging environment

LED Status	Issue	Troubleshooting step 1	Troubleshooting step 2
Flashing Blue	Network issue	Connect the camera with a known-good short patch cable to a known-good switch port	If the camera continues flashing blue, go through Troubleshooting network issues at the bottom of this document
LED Solid Orange	If the camera is solid orange for more than 5 minutes, it is not receiving enough power or the boot process has failed	Connect the camera with a known-good short patch cable to a known-good switch port	If the camera remains solid orange, take the camera to the staging lab and contact Verkada Technical Support
LED Solid Blue and the device shows offline in Command	The camera is not added to Command	Confirm the serial number on the backplate of the camera matches the serial number of the camera in Command. If they don’t match, add the correct serial number and wait for the camera to check-in	If the serials match, take a picture of the serial number on the device and contact Verkada Technical Support
LED Flashing Orange	If the camera LED continues flashing orange for 30 minutes or more, it is unable to finish a firmware upgrade	Connect the camera with a known-good short patch cable to a known-good switch port and wait 30 minutes to see if it clears	If the camera does not upgrade on the direct connection, take the camera to the staging lab and contact Verkada Technical Support
No LED	If LED is not illuminated it is not receiving power	Connect the camera with a known-good short patch cable to a known-good switch port. Try using a PoE injector	If the camera LED does not illuminate, take the camera to the staging lab and contact Verkada Technical Support

​​Troubleshooting network issues

First, try to eliminate the core network as the issue. With your mobile testing kit, you can test using your mobile hotspot, taking the customer network out of the equation.

 

Network Diagnostic Tests

This simple battery of tests uses your laptop and the IP address used by the camera to confirm the network is configured to work with Verkada.

1. Work with the DHCP server admin to get the following for the Camera: IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, and DNS servers. The camera can be identified on the DHCP server by its MAC address. You can find the MAC address on the backplate of the camera.

2. Disconnect the camera from the network. (This avoids an IP conflict when you configure your laptop to the same IP address.)

3. Assign your laptop the same IP settings as the camera

4. Connect your laptop to the same cable used previously by the camera

5. Verify that you can access the URLs in your browser:

   • https://access.control.verkada.com/ping

   • https://api.control.verkada.com/ping

   • https://relay.control.verkada.com/ping

   • https://index.control.verkada.com/ping

   • https://firmware.control.verkada.com/ping

     Expect to see an Access Denied response for the above URL

   • https://update.control.verkada.com/ping

6. Verify NTP reachability for Verkada’s NTP servers

   • For Mac users, open a terminal window and enter

     • sudo sntp -sS time.control.verkada.com

     • sudo sntp -sS 34.216.15.26

   • For Windows users, open a command prompt and enter

     • w32tm /stripchart /computer:time.control.verkada.com /samples:3 /dataonly

     • w32tm /stripchart /computer:34.216.15.26 /samples:3 /dataonly

If any of the above requests fail, work with the network administrator to permit outbound connections:

• TCP port 443 to

  • access.control.verkada.com

  • api.control.verkada.com

  • relay.control.verkada.com

  • Index.control.verkada.com

  • Firmware.control.verkada.com

  • update.control.verkada.com

• Bidirectional UDP port 123 for

  • time.control.verkada.com

  • time.cloudflare.com

  • 34.216.15.26

• TCP Port 4460 to

  • time.cloudflare.com

Checking network bandwidth

Run an Internet speed test to confirm the network has adequate upload and download bandwidth. You should have enough upload bandwidth to support the number of cameras the customer plans to view simultaneously.

 

If all the above tests succeed yet the camera LED continues to flash blue, reach out to Verkada Technical Support.

Device Firmware Updates & Integrity

Verkada devices update their firmware automatically

Verkada releases regular updates to its firmware. These updates enhance security and functionality, and they are included at no cost as part of your cloud license.

 

Scheduling firmware updates

Firmware is pushed automatically, if you would like to schedule firmware updates to happen during a certain time of day follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to the Settings tab of the camera you want to schedule updates on

2. Select General

3. Toggle on Schedule Firmware Updates

4. Set the desired window for when updates should occur

   Note: The update window needs to be a minimum of 2 hours and the camera may reboot during this time

Automatic failover

To ensure failsafe updates, each Verkada device is equipped with a dual-partition firmware bank. In the unusual event that a firmware update fails, the device will automatically revert back to the previous version of the firmware, and try the update at a later time.

 

If you have any questions, please email us at support@verkada.com.

 

Firmware integrity checks

Verkada runs a firmware integrity check periodically on all cameras to ensure there hasn’t been any tampering with our firmware. If a device were to fail an automated check, our security team would be notified immediately and you will be contacted.

 

Does my camera stop recording during firmware updates?

We take extra care to ensure failsafe firmware updates and minimize service interruptions. Your camera will go offline for a few moments as the software update process is being finalized. These updates should occur during our regularly scheduled maintenance windows so service interruptions are minimal.

Changing a Camera’s Orientation

Rotate and flip your camera’s feed to match the installation angle or if it’s upside down

In most cases, you’ll want to install your camera with normal orientation so that the video stream in Command appears as you’d expect. Some install locations may benefit from being installed in a non-standard orientation to maximize the field of view.

 

For example, a camera may be installed at 90 degrees to capture a full view of a long hallway or stairwell.

 

In these cases, you’ll want to rotate the orientation of your camera in Command.

 

Configuration Steps

1. Select the desired camera

2. Select the Settings tab

3. Select the Device tab

4. Under Orientation click Change and select the desired option

5. Select the desired orientation and select Save

 

 

Verkada Fisheye Mode

The CF81-E supports the following Fisheye Modes:

• Panoramic – Provides a 180° panoramic view which is best when the camera is wall mounted

• Four-Way Split – Splits out the panoramic view into 4 sections for a 360° view used mainly when the camera is ceiling mounted

• Pan/Tilt/Zoom – You can decide to show the video feed either as a 360° view, as a tiles view with different angles, or explore the video with your digital PTZ functionality

Note: Click here to learn more about the CF81-E modes.

 

To change the fisheye mode follow the steps below:

1. Select the desired camera

2. Select the Settings tab

3. Select the General tab

4. Under Fisheye Mode click Change and select the desired option

    

   

    

5. From the dialog box, select the desired mode and save. The camera will reboot to implement this change.

 

Privacy Regions

Privacy regions allow you to block out part of the camera’s field of view

Privacy regions allow a user to configure portions of a camera’s view to be blocked out. Areas blocked by a privacy region will be blocked out on the camera’s live feed and in historical footage.

 

Note: you will need to have Site Admin permissions to configure privacy regions for a camera.

 

Creating and Deleting a Privacy Region

Navigate to the camera you want to configure, then select the Settings tab

 

Select the Privacy tab, then select Mark Privacy Regions

 

To create the region, use the grid in the dialog box; click and drag over the area you want to hide. You will see a black box drawn over the area.

 

To delete the region, select the X on each configured privacy region in the dialog box.

 

The changes will save automatically. Once the camera updates (typically under a minute), you can expect your live feed to contain the privacy regions.

 

Privacy regions are not retroactive. The camera may take a minute or two to update its configuration, after which you will see the privacy region on the camera’s live feed and associated historical video going forward.

 

Note: the D80 does not support privacy regions.

Using Focus and Optical Zoom

Optical Zoom and Focus on D30, D50, CD51, CD61, CB51, and CB61

Verkada’s D30, D50, CD51, CD52, CD61, CD62, CB51, and CB61 cameras are equipped with a varifocal lens to zoom and focus. Optical zoom is meant to adjust the field of view during installation, not for continual adjustments. To zoom in on live or historical view you’ll want to use digital zoom.

 

Note: Zooming or focusing a camera requires Site Admin permissions.

 

Optical Zoom

• Select the camera

• Select the SQ/HQ menu in the bottom left-hand corner of the video player

• Select Optical Zoom

• Use the slider to adjust the zoom

Note: It may take 30-45 seconds to fully complete the zoom adjustment and auto-focus cycle.

 

Auto Focus

Fix blurry images with Auto Focus

A camera will attempt to intelligently focus on several regions automatically. In the event an image is blurry, rerun autofocus to bring the image into focus.

• Select the camera

• Select the SQ/HQ menu in the bottom left-hand corner of the video player

• Select Auto Focus

• Wait while the camera intelligently focuses the image

Fixing a blurry image with a custom focal point

If the image is still blurry after running autofocus or you want to select a certain object as the focal point, you can set a custom focal point.

• Select the camera

• Select Settings

• Select the Devices tab

• Select Custom under Autofocus and choose Change Focus Point

• Select the desired focus point from the grid, the changes will autosave

   

Manual focus

• Select the camera

• Select the SQ/HQ menu in the bottom left-hand corner of the video player

• Select Manual Focus

• Use the slider to manually focus the camera

• Wait a while the camera focuses the image

Troubleshooting

If none of the steps above work, try zooming in slightly and then run the autofocus feature.

• Select the camera

• Select the SQ/HQ menu in the bottom left-hand corner of the video player

• Select Optical Zoom

• Click the + button on the far right twice

• Wait for the optical zoom to adjust

• Run the autofocus by clicking the Autofocus button in the SQ/HQ menu

• Wait for the autofocus to finish

   

Using Sites and Sub-Sites

Sites and Sub-Sites divide your cameras into groups to manage permissions

Sites

Verkada makes it easy to keep all of your cameras organized by site within your organization. Users can only see cameras in the sites they have been granted permissions to. This allows you to scope which cameras are accessible to each user or group. Because site permissions are broken down into roles, you also have the ability to specify the type of access each user or group has to the cameras within a site (viewer or admin). Please see the article on user permissions for more information.

 

Creating a Site

1. Select Cameras from the All Products menu in the top left-hand corner

2. Select Manage Sites in the top right-hand corner

3. Click Create Site in the top right

4. Name your site and click Add

Adding Cameras to an Empty Site

1. Select Cameras from the All Products menu in the top left-hand corner

2. Scroll until the empty site is shown

3. Click the +camera icon

4. Select Move Cameras to this site and add the cameras you would like to move

5. Select Add New Cameras to be taken to the Add Devices page with this site preselected

Moving Cameras to a New Site

1. Select the checkbox in the top left-hand corner of the camera’s feed on the home page

2. Once the camera(s) have been selected, a bar will appear at the top of the page

3. Use the Select Site dropdown box to select the destination site to move the cameras to

4. Select Move camera(s).

Sub-Sites

Sub-sites are used to grant permissions to one or more cameras within a site. This eliminates having to create a new site each time you need to scope permissions to one or more cameras. A sub-site can be nested in other sub-sites providing a hierarchy of permissions for better access control.

 

Creating a Sub-Site

1. Select Cameras from the All Products menu in the top left-hand corner

2. Select Manage Sites in the top right-hand corner

3. Hover over the site you would like to create a sub-site for

4. Select Add Sub-site on the right-hand side

5. Name your site and click Add sub-site

Deleting a Site or Sub-Site

Note: You cannot delete a site or sub-site until all cameras and sub-sites have been removed.

1. Select Cameras from the All Products menu in the top left-hand corner

2. Select Manage Sites in the top right-hand corner

3. Hover over the site you would like to delete

4. Select the bin icon on the right-hand side

5. Select Delete to confirm

    

Change the location of the camera

Instructions on changing the map placement of a camera

Changing a camera’s location affects two things – the camera’s position on the map and its time zone. You can change a camera’s location from the camera’s settings page or from the Devices page.

 

Note: When a camera’s location is changed the camera will be removed from any floor plans it is currently on.

 

Change a Camera’s Location from the Settings page

1. Select the camera

2. Select Settings

3. Select General

4. Under Location select Change to update the address

5. A map and search bar will appear, enter the address of the location in the field and select it from the dropdown menu.

6. Select Save to apply the change

 

Change a Camera’s Location from the Devices Page

1. Select Devices from the All Products menu in the top left-hand corner

2. Select the camera for which you would like to change the location

3. Select the Location box in the camera details panel on the right

4. A map and search bar will appear, enter the address of the location in the field and select it from the dropdown menu

5. Select Save to apply the settings

    

Bulk change a Camera’s Location from the Devices Page

1. Select Devices from the All Products menu in the top left-hand corner

2. Select the checkbox next to any camera you would like to change the location on

3. Select Edit Settings at the top of the page

4. Next to Location select Change

5. A map and search bar will appear, enter the address of the location in the field and select it from the dropdown menu

6. Click Save to apply the settings

Note: Changing a camera’s location to certain jurisdictions may limit the people analytics features of the camera (i.e. gender search, face detection, and person of interest).

Camera Stats

Check motion, online status, and bandwidth consumption with camera stats

Camera stats can be used to check trends of the following information over a period of time:

• The volume of motion activity in the frame

• Camera connectivity

• Camera uptime

• Bandwidth consumption

Navigating Camera Stats

Check camera stats by selecting a live camera stream and navigating to the Stats icon under the live view. The default timeline is 24 hours but it can be changed to a week or month to see stats over a longer period of time.

 

Motion activity

The Motion timeline shows the volume of motion detected in the frame over a period of time. You can move your cursor over the timeline and see the stats associated with the motion.

 

Camera connectivity

The online timeline shows the camera’s connectivity to the Verkada cloud over a period of time. Blue bars indicate the camera was connected to the Verkada servers while red indicates the camera lost connectivity to the cloud. Place your cursor over the timeline to see the date, time, and outage duration.

 

The uptime timeline shows the period of time a camera was powered on and recording. Under most circumstances the two charts will be the same, however, if a network interruption is occurring the uptime will remain blue. Significant differences between the uptime and online timelines may indicate a local network issue.

 

Bandwidth Consumption

Traffic Out and Traffic In show the upload and download bandwidth consumption over a period of time.

 

 

Traffic Out indicates the camera upload bit rate. The following data contributes to the upload bit rate; thumbnails, metadata, streams, archives, and cloud backups.

 

Traffic In indicates the camera download bitrate. The following data contributes to the download bitrate; firmware downloads, configuration changes, as well as commands sent from the cloud such as a reboot request.

Devices Page Overview

An overview of the devices details from the Devices page

The Devices page allows for quick navigation through your Verkada devices. Here you will be able to add devices to the org, see device information, change a camera’s site location, and reach individual camera live streams. Devices are also sorted by the site that they are placed in for easy visibility.

 

Add a device

At any time you can add a device to your organization by clicking + Add Devices button on the top right-hand corner.

 

Change devices view from sites to a list

At any time you can change the device page view from the Sites view to a List by clicking the list button on the top right corner.

 

In the List view use the triple dot icon in the top right-hand corner to add/remove columns from the view.

 

Change a device’s site location

Once a device is selected, you will be able to change its site location by clicking Site then selecting the pertaining site for the device to be, click Save to confirm.

 

 

Change a device’s physical address

Once a device is selected, you will be able to change its physical address by clicking Location then enter the desired address and select it from the drop-down, click Save to confirm.

 

 

 

Bulk changes

Lastly, the Devices page can be used to make bulk changes to a site. Currently, we support the following bulk option:

• Site

• Location

• Motion events

• Tamper events

• Crowd events

• Data storage location

• Analytics features

Simply click the check box next to the cameras you wish to change and select Edit Settings, you may also bulk delete cameras by selecting Delete.

 

Find a Camera’s MAC Address

Find your camera’s MAC address in Command

Note: All Verkada MAC addresses start with E0:A7:00

 

In some cases, such as for troubleshooting, static DHCP assignments, firewall whitelists, etc. it is useful to know the MAC address of the camera.

 

There are two main ways to find your camera’s MAC address:

1. Printed on the camera label – On the bottom of each camera is a label containing the serial number, a quick-add QR code, as well as the MAC address.

   

    

2. Camera Info Page – Once the camera has come online in command, you can find the MAC address from the camera’s info page:

   1. Select the devices tab

   2. From the list of devices, select the camera in question

   3. You will find the MAC address on the camera info section on the right

Note: Viewing the camera’s MAC address from Command requires the Org Admin permission level.

 

People Heatmaps for Floorplans

People heatmaps offer a more detailed view of activity within a building by displaying a history of individuals’ movements on floorplans using color-coded contours. This feature can help businesses better understand how their spaces are being used, such as identifying high-traffic areas and analyzing traffic patterns and behavior.

 

In order to use people heatmaps you will need at least one floorplan uploaded with cameras placed on it. The cameras will need to be calibrated to set up regions of interest.

 

Note: People analytics needs to be enabled on a camera before it can be calibrated.

 

How To Access

1. From the Home page select the Map icon in the bottom right-hand corner.

2. Select the desired building and floor you want to view.

3. In the top right-hand corner, People Heatmap should already be selected. If not, select the dropdown to select it from the menu.

    

   

    

4. From here, you can select the desired time interval in the bottom right-hand corner. The default is 1 hour but you can increase it up to 1 day.

    

   

    

   You can also select a date and time from the calendar menu in the middle of the page.

    

   

    

    

5. In the bottom left-hand corner, you can play a time timelapse to see people’s movement over time.

Example of the timelapse feature

Deleting a Camera

Instructions for deleting or factory resetting a camera

Organization Admins and Site Admins have the ability to delete a camera. Deleting a camera can be used to accomplish two things:

1. Remove a camera from your organization

2. Erase all recorded footage

IMPORTANT: Deleting a camera from Command will erase all of its recorded footage and it will not be able to be recovered!

Deleting a Camera

Sometimes you need to remove a camera from your account either because you want to use it in a different organization or it is no longer needed. Follow the steps below to delete a camera from your organization.

Note: If you plan to re-add the camera, make sure you document the camera’s serial number.

1. Select Devices from the All Products menu in the top left-hand corner

2. Select the camera(s) by clicking on the check box on the left

3. Select Delete

4. Enter the verification code and select Delete

Deleting cameras from the Command App

1. Press and hold the camera you want to delete

2. Select Edit Device

3. Select Delete Camera

4. Enter the 4-digit code to confirm that you want to delete the camera

 

Resetting a Camera

If you need to erase footage on a camera and start over, follow the above steps to delete the camera. Once the camera is removed from your organization, follow the steps in this article to re-add the camera to your Command account.

 

Note: This option resets the camera name, site, settings, and map location

Calibrating Cameras for Floorplan Heatmaps

Instructions to calibrate cameras for the heatmaps feature on floor plans

In order to use people heatmaps on floorplans, you will need to calibrate the cameras you want to see heatmaps for. People heatmaps will only show on a floorplan for motion detected by cameras that have been calibrated.

 

Note: Before calibrating cameras please ensure that you have enabled people analytics on all cameras you wish to calibrate. Cameras will need to be placed on the floorplan map for them to start collecting motion data. If a camera is removed from the floor plan, this will reset its calibration.

 

For best results, the camera’s field of view should be pointed straight down towards the floor/ground as much as possible. An angle of at least 70 degrees from the horizontal is recommended.

 

Process

1. Select Floorplans on the top right-hand corner of the Home page

2. Select the floorplan you wish to calibrate cameras on

3. Select the camera you wish to calibrate and select the Calibrate for heatmap button

    

   

    

4. In the floor plan, click and drop 4 points to select the area where you wish to track people’s motions with the camera.

5. In the camera view, click to drop 4 points in the same order and for the same area as in the last step to complete the calibration.

    

   Note: The sequence of the dropped points is important and should be identical between the floor plan and the camera floor footage. The video below illustrates how to calibrate cameras with dropped points in the correct sequence.

Compatible models: Certain models like D30, D50, or D80 which don’t have analytics can’t be calibrated. Additionally, certain camera settings which disable analytics are also not compatible with calibration like CF81s on ePTZ mode or cameras used for LPR.

How to add an NVR in FusionPro

Users now have the ability to add NVRs to their account, as well as adding cameras to the NVR.

IMPORTANT NOTE: We recommend that the cameras are first configured individually and then added to the ClareVision app before adding them through FusionPro. This ensures that the password is reset on the camera. If attempting to add the camera in FusionPro with a 6-character password or less (which is the default) it will fail.

To add a new NVR:

1. Access the desired FusionPro account and click to add a new device.
   Desired Account > Devices tab > Add Devices > Cameras > (Select an NVR type)
   
2. Enter all the required info (IP address, username, password) and select the desired channels.
   
3. Click Create Device.

   Devices are created until an error occurs. If an error occurs, device creation will stop and it notes which channels were successfully added. If the user accidentally checked a channel that is not in use, simply uncheck the problematic channel and click Create Device.

   If the user returns to the add device screen and enters the IP of an existing NVR, the existing channels are displayed.

To add a camera to an existing NVR:

1. Follow the steps above for adding a camera.
   – or –
   Edit an existing camera on the NVR.
2. Scroll down to the NVR Cameras table.
3. Click on an unconfigured row.
   
4. Re-enter the username and password and click Save.
   You can also navigate to any NVR channel device from another NVR channel device by clicking Edit in the NVR Cameras table of a configured channel.

To delete an NVR camera:

1. Go to the Devices tab.
2. Select the checkbox for the desired camera, and then select Delete in the Select an Action drop-down.

Read Next : ClareVision Camera and NVR Firmware

ClareVision FAQ

Cameras, NVRs, and ClareVision App Frequently Asked Questions

CAMERAS

Does Clare plan to release any WiFi cameras?

Yes, they are available as of Q1 2022.  Check them out in the SnapOne store.

Are your cameras NDAA compliant?

Yes, the ClareVision product line is compliant with NDAA regulations.

Are your cameras ETL listed?

Yes, our cameras are ETL/ETL-C listed.

Are your cameras ONVIF Compliant?

Yes, ClareVision cameras are compliant with Profile S and T.

What is the difference between the Value Series, Performance series, and Color at Night?

The Value Series is intended to service accounts with basic surveillance requirements without sacrificing video quality and reliability. You will find the value series in the same high quality IP67 housings as the performance series and the video performance to be outstanding. The Performance Series adds:

• True Wide Dynamic Range (120db)
• Smart Events (Intrusion, line crossing, loitering, people gathering)
• Sony® Starvis image sensors for improved low light performance
• Higher power on-board processor which will allow new smart event processing features in the future

Color at Night cameras feature everything included in Performance Series cameras with the added benefit of a warm white LED light that can illuminate the scene and produce vivid color in night time settings. This allows for important details to be captured that are normally lost with IR night vision cameras such as vehicle colors, facial features, licence plates, etc.

Do all cameras come with SD Cards?

No. The 2MP and 4MP Value Series and 4MP Performance series come with pre-installed SD cards. The 8MP and varifocal Performance Series cameras do not come with SD cards. SD Cards are available for purchase should you need to add or upgrade capacity.

What can I store on the SD Card?

The SD card is intended for event storage, but you can configure normal (full time) record as well. You can only record ONE event type to record on the SD card: basic motion, smart events, OR normal record. NVR’s do not have this restriction.

What is the lapse time for the SD Card, and will it loop back?

The SD card in the 2MP is 16GB and 32GB in the 4MP cameras (both Performance and Value). For the 4MP cameras, if the defaults in the camera are left unchanged, you will be able to record approximately 18 hours of fulltime video or just over 1,000 on minute events. If the compression is changed to H.265, you will be able to store about 36 hours of fulltime video or 2,000 one-minute events. The 2mp will last slightly longer.  The default setting for the cameras is loop-back enabled, meaning the camera will overwrite the oldest stored video once it runs out of storage space (FIFO).

Can I use the SD card as a ‘backup’ to the NVR by storing events locally and fulltime record and events on the NVR?

Yes. Camera recording can be set up independent from NVR recording.

What wall brackets and junction boxes are compatible with ClareVision cameras?

You can see a complete list of all ClareVision wall brackets and junction boxes, as well as cameras they are compatible with HERE.

Why is my camera recording full time when it’s configured for motion only?

All 4M V100 cameras (part number CLR-V100-4X36X) record full time and tag the motion events in the time line when motion occurs.

What are some of the important default settings I should know?

ClareVision have been configured for best out-of-box settings and experience. The default settings should be ‘ready to go’ for 90% of applications reducing training and field installation errors. The important settings are as follows:

• FPS: 15
• Compression: H.264
• IR: automatic
• WDR (when available): off
• Time: NTP time server on, refresh every 10 min, Eastern Time Zone, DST on
• Motion Record: enabled, 7 days, 24 hours a day
• Motion Events: enabled, 7 days, 24 hours a day
• Smart Events: disabled

Do any of the ClareVision cameras include built in microphones or I/O connections?

Yes, please refer to the following article for a complete list. CLICK HERE.

What is the password process and what if I lose it?

The default password is the first six characters of the UUID. The first time you log into the camera from the web console you will be prompted to change the password. You will be prompted with setting up security questions and offered to download an encryption key for password recovery. Either those questions or the encryption key can be used to reset the password. If you do not take these steps and store this information, the only way to recover the camera is a physical factory restore. (See manual). When that is done, the camera will restore to factory default settings allowing you to enter the first fix digits of the UUID as the password.

I use Hikvision, is there an ‘activation key’?

There is no ‘activation key’ for the ClareVision cameras.

What is the difference between the calendar in the storage settings menu and the calendar in the events menu?

The events menu is essentially an ‘arming’ feature. In order to propagate events to the mobile app, linked services (e.g., relays, FTP, email), or to record you need to arm an event type. The configuration of the event along with the event calendar control the CONFIGURATION of the event (e.g., H/M/L sensitivity, motion area) and the time of day / day of week the camera will trigger on an event. The event ‘arming’ controls when and how an event happens, and no other system or service will receive those events without this feature set up. The record calendar simply controls when events (or normal video) will be recorded provided they are armed at that time.

What do you recommend I do for setup with the two calendars?

The flexibility of these calendars is virtually endless, but in a majority of use cases we recommend the following:

• Set the record calendar to 7×24 record for the event type you wish to record.
• Use the event calendar to control when an event will be triggered which will in turn control when it is recorded.

How does all this relate to the mobile app and the user experience?

The event ‘arming’ controls the propagation of the event to the mobile app via push notifications. This is INDEPENDENT from whether the event is recorded. The recording under storage management controls what ends up on the SD Card which is where the mobile app goes for the event history. We cannot stress this enough: keep the storage settings calendar set to 7×24 and use the event calendar to control when a motion event (example) is triggered (push notification) and stored to the SD card (event lookup in the mobile app). If you do not do that you risk having a push notification sent to the user with no recording to view when they go to the event log.

Why then are the event arming schedules and record schedules separate?

There are plenty of use cases where you may want to record on a different schedule than the arming schedule. This can be common in more complex installs where the linkage feature for event arming is used. (see manual for more information).

What are Smart Events and how do they work?

Smart Events are events that require the presence of a human to trigger. They are also specific in nature: intrusion zone, line crossing, loiter, people gather.

What is the difference between a Motion Event and a Smart Intrusion Event?

You can essentially use the Smart Intrusion event to reduce false triggers if the primary interest is detecting the presence of a person. Motion events use a typical grid pattern and sensitivity settings to control which areas of the field of view are analyzed for motion and at what sensitivity. A car, dog, or any real motion in the included field of view will trigger an event. A smart intrusion event is set up by drawing a box around the area of interest, setting the sensitivity and detection type. Once configured, a human will have to enter the intrusion zone for the event to trigger.

How do I power the cameras?

Nearly all ClareVision cameras (excluding CLR-V100-4B36WF-W and CLR-V100-4T36WF-W) are PoE AF and do not require PoE+ (PoE AT). You can also power the cameras with a 12V DC 1amp power supply (not included).

Do the cameras support remote access?

The cameras support remote access via the mobile app via Clare’s free P2P service. Additionally, you may use Dynamic DNS or configure the local router to enable remote web access.

How do I predict the storage and bandwidth required for an installation?

You may use the Clare bandwidth and storage calculator located HERE to calculate your bandwidth and storage requirements for a project.

How do the cameras receive firmware updates?

All Clare cameras can be updated via the ClareVision OTA server using the mobile app. This is the easiest way to update the cameras. Update notices happen two different ways:

• Upon adding the camera to the app, the app will check the OTA server for a firmware update and, if available, require the user to download the update.
• Once added, if the camera is eligible for an update an icon will appear in the live view indicating there is an available update. Updates are in the device configuration dropdown under “Device Information”.

Which browsers does Clare support?

Currently, ClareVision cameras and NVRs support Google Chrome and Edge browsers.

Is there a Control4 driver for ClareVision cameras?

Yes. The Control4 driver supports live view and events including motion events and smart events. SDDP is not currently supported but will be released along with OVRC support before the end of 2021.

Is there a ClareOne driver for ClareVision cameras?

Yes. The ClareVision driver supports live view on the mobile app and ClareOne panel as well as motion and smart event propagation for automation rules and notifications.

Are the ClareVision cameras/NVRs OVRC enabled?

Currently, only ClareVision NVRs support OvrC. OvrC Support for cameras will be coming at a later date.

Do I need to do port forwarding?

No. ClareVision cameras and NVRs do not require any port forwarding.

NETWORK VIDEO RECORDERS (NVRS)

Are your NVR’s NDAA compliant?

Yes, ClareVision products are in full compliance with the NDAA regulations.

Which browsers does Clare support?

ClareVision NVR’s currently support Google Chrome and Edge browsers.

Can I record normal video (full time), smart events and motion events on independent schedules?

Yes. Recording schedules are controlled under storage management.

How much storage is on an NVR?

The 4-Channel has 1TB, the 8-Channel has 2TB and the 16-channel (upcoming) has 4TB of HDD storage on-board. The 4-channel and 8-channel support one HDD up to 8TB’s. The 16-channel supports up to 2 HDD or 16TB’s of total capacity

Do your NVR’s support outboard storage?

Yes. They support USB drives and NAS drives.

I see you list your NVR’s as 4, 8 and 16 channel but the camera support figures are higher, please explain?

The model ID for the NVR (e.g., 4-channel) is the number of PoE ports on-board. The channel support listed in the data sheet is the actual number of cameras the NVR will support. The four channel will support 9 cameras, the 8 channel will support 16 cameras and the 16 channel will support 25 cameras.

Keep in mind the cameras supported number is a license number and is not an absolute support figure. The incoming and outgoing bandwidth of the NVR will dictate the number of cameras the NVR can support in a real application. The bandwidth calculations are impacted by VBR settings, compression settings, framerate settings, motion in the field of view among other factors.

Does your NVR support 4K?

Yes. The NVR output is 4K. If the camera is not a 4K camera, the NVR will up-sample the video to 4K as it passes video to the HDMI port. The NVR will record up to 4k (8MP) camera streams.

Do your NVR’s have sensor inputs and relay outputs?

Yes. There are 16 sensor inputs and 4 relay outputs on the 16 channel NVR.

Does the NVR expose the camera settings for easy setup?

Yes, the NVR provides access to nearly all camera settings via the NVR web UI.

Is there a Control4 driver for the NVR?

Yes, the Control4 driver supports live view. If you would like events from a camera on the NVR, connect the camera to the NVR on the general LAN and not the PoE ports. When that is done, the camera driver can be used to directly access the cameras.

Is there a ClareOne Driver for the NVR?

Yes, the ClareOne driver supports live view. If you would like events from a camera on the NVR, connect the camera to the NVR on the general LAN and not the PoE ports. When that is done, the camera driver can be used to directly access the cameras.

Are the ClareVision NVR’s OVRC enabled?

Yes. ClareVision NVRs feature native OvrC Support.

Do the ClareVision NVR’s work with legacy ClareVision Plus cameras?

Yes. We have tested all ClareVision Plus cameras on the ClareVision NVR’s. They will add as ‘ONFIV’ cameras.

Do the ClareVision NVR’s work with Luma cameras?

Yes. We have tested products from each Luma category on the ClareVision NVR’s. They will add as ‘ONVIF’ cameras.

When a ClareVision Plus camera or Luma camera are connected to a ClareVision NVR, which app do I use?

Connecting a ClareVision Plus camera, Luma camera (or ONVIF camera) to a ClareVision NVR enables the ClareVision app to gain access to the cameras for purposes of live view and event playback. The live view NVR integration to ClareOne and Control4 will also function. In effect, the ClareVision NVR ‘adapts’ a ClareVision Plus or third party ONVIF camera to the ClareVision cloud. You can use this technique to take over camera systems that are ONVIF compliant and bring them to the Clare Cloud!

Can I add or change a ClareVision NVR hard disk drive?

Yes, the four, eight and sixteen channel NVR’s have 1TB, 2TB and 4TB hard disk drives pre-installed. The four and eight channel NVR’s can support one hard disk drive up to 8TB. The sixteen channel NVR has four drive bays total and ships with 1 4TB HDD pre-installed. The sixteen channel NVR can be equipped with up to four 8TB internal hard disk drives, or 32TB’s total storage. Additionally, the sixteen channel NVR has an external SATA port for connection to external hard disk arrays. The warranty is not voided when you change or upgrade hard disk drives.

What manufacturer and model hard drives are recommended?

Clare installs and recommends Toshiba DT series hard disk drives designed for surveillance applications.

CLAREVISION APP

Which operating systems is the app available on?

The ClareVision App is available on the Google Play store for Android and Apple App store for iOS.

Does the mobile app support NVR’s and cameras?

Yes. There is a different view for NVR’s (grid view) than cameras. The features and actions are nearly identical other than the device presentation.

How do I add cameras to the mobile app?

Adding cameras is extremely simple in ClareVision. Tap the “+” sign on the home page, tap ‘device is on the network’ if you are on the same network as the camera (e.g., home LAN), the app will scan the local network for all unattached cameras and NVR’s and produce a list of cameras for inclusion. Select the camera you would like to add and enter the password. You can now access the camera for live view and view all stored events on the camera or NVR.

How do I configure the mobile app or cameras for remote viewing?

No configuration required. Once you add the device to the mobile app, the Camera is enabled in the ClareVision cloud automatically.

Can I add a camera remotely?

Yes.  Tap the “+” button on the home screen and either scan the UUID or enter it by hand, enter the password and done.

I have noticed there are very few configuration options for camera events in the mobile app. Why is that?

That was intentional. Most pro-style apps do not provide configuration features in the end user mobile app. We did not want the user to inadvertently alter the configuration you enabled thereby causing a service visit. We will gradually enable end user configuration when that feature (e.g., motion) can be completely displayed to the end user and you can remotely view the changes and correct them in the event a user configured something incorrectly.

Which events are supported by the mobile app at launch?

Motion events are supported at launch. Smart events are not. We expect to release smart events support before the end of Q2 2021.

Can I search for a recording or event by date/time?

Yes, tap ‘Filter’ in the event log to filter by event type and/or date/time.

I see you still have ClareHome/ClareOne and now ClareVision. What do I need to do to enable the best consumer experience?

While there are several ways to configure a ClareOne/ClareVision system, we recommend the following sequence as a guide to best practices:

During the setup of the ClareOne panel via FusionPro, go to the “Add Devices” tab and select Cameras. When in that screen FusionPro/ClareOne will scan the local network for ClareVision Cameras and produce a list of devices you may add. In that screen, each camera discovered on the network includes a configuration web console link. Use that link to connect to the ClareVision Camera(s) or NVR web interface.

Use the web console for the cameras or NVR to set the password and configure the camera/NVR including event arming and recording schedules

Once complete, enter the new device username (default admin) and the new;y changed password in FusionPro to enable the camera(s) and NVR in ClareOne.

Once the cameras are installed, have the user download the ClarOne/ClareHome app and the ClareVision app. Once the user has signed into the ClarHome app and added the desired cameras to the ClareVision app the two apps will deep link.

A deep link action happens when a user taps the ClareHome camera icon on the favorites page. Doing so will automatically take the user to the ClareVision app to that camera’s live feed. Tapping the back arrow in Android or the app name in the upper left corner of an iOS device will return the user to ClareHome/ClareOne.

Why did you release ClareVision on a second app?

After a great deal of deliberation, we determined that the stand-alone use cases for the camera line did not need the burden of the entire ClareHome application, and that through deep linking we could create a near ‘single app’ experience for the user when both systems are present.

Where else is deep linking used?

Everywhere. Any app you use where you touch an icon or hyperlink uses deep linking to take you to the destination app/web site. The most well-known example of deep linking is Facebook and Facebook Messenger. The messaging app is an independent app from the base Facebook app and uses deep linking to provide a seamless user experience.

Will there be a single account in the future for users with ClareOne and ClareVision?

Yes. We are working hard to provide a single-sign-on experience for the Clare Ecosystem.

Is there a monthly fee for ClareVision services?

No. The P2P service and all cloud services are free of charge. We encourage dealers to charge for this service as part of your recurring monthly fee however making 100% of your service fee drop to your bottom line!

ClareVision Cameras Quick Start Guide

Introduction

The ClareVision camera line includes Value, Performance, and Varifocal series cameras which are available in bullet, dome, and turret forms. This guide covers the setup process for using these cameras standalone with only the ClareVision App and how to add them to work with the ClareOne Panel and ClareHome App.

FAQ’s, Best Practices, and How-To’s:

How do I configure ClareVision WiFi Cameras?

How can I fix streaming issues when viewing a camera feed in the ClareVision App?

What video encoding does the ClareOne Panel or Control4 system support?

How do I configure Smart Events like humanoid detection?

How do I set up Cloud Storage for ClareVision cameras?

Understanding Recording Schedules vs. Arming Schedules on ClareVision Cameras

Part 1 of 3: ClareVision Camera Setup:

1.  Download the IP Search Tool to your computer and launch the program.

2. Ensure your computer is connected to the same network as the cameras to discover all the cameras available on the network.

3. Copy the IP Address of the camera you would like to start configuring and paste it into your web browser to open the camera console. (We highly recommend you use Internet Explorer for optimal performance).

4.  Enter default camera username and password.

 5.  You will be prompted to change the default password. Please have the primary user change the password and write it down on the back of the Installation Manual that came with the camera. Leave this manual with the primary user for future technical servicing.

6.  Have the user select and input their security questions for password recovery. We also recommend that the password reset key be downloaded and emailed to the primary user for safe keeping in the event that the password and security reset answers are lost.

 

5.  FusionPro will search the network for compatible cameras and display a list of all available cameras found.

Basic Setup & Adding Cameras (NVR) Amcrest NVR Troubleshooting

There are 2 types of NVR:

• PoE (Power over Ethernet)
• Non-PoE (this model has no Ethernet ports on the back panel)

Note: If needed, a PoE camera can be setup on a Non-PoE NVR. Please note, since the Non-PoE NVR will not have PoE ports available, the PoE camera will have to be set up on the same network segment as the NVR using a PoE switch or injector. For more information on how to set up a PoE camera, click here.

Power over Ethernet models is used when cameras, that also have the PoE specification, need to be powered by being directly plugged into the NVR’s PoE ports and do not require a separate power adapter to work.

A non-PoE model has no ports for cameras to connect to on the back panel but can add cameras with the built-in scan function that finds cameras connected to the same network. A PoE model can also use this scan feature, but additionally has PoE ports to power its cameras. The scan feature allows for compatible IP cameras to be added from the network whether they are PoE or WiFi.

For the purposes of this guide, the setup procedure will be divided between both the PoE and non-PoE NVR types. Each of these sections will have both a hardware setup and software setup portion.

For more information about what is included with your NVR, click here

Load More :

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3. Amcrest All Downloads Mobile PC Software

PoE NVR

Hardware Setup

1. Connect an Ethernet cable from your router to the back of your NVR. It will go into the Ethernet port in between the HDMI port and the PoE ports. Make sure the NVR is powered on.
2. Connect an Ethernet cable from one of the PoE ports on your NVR to your camera. This will confirm that it is powered on.
3. Connect a VGA or HDMI cable from the back panel of your NVR to a monitor or TV. Make sure that the monitor or TV is set to the correct input (e.g. VGA, HDMI 1, HDMI 2, etc.)
4. Connect the included mouse to a USB port on the front or back of your NVR.

Note: The network LEDs will start to blink on the back of the NVR when you properly connect the Ethernet cable from there to the router. Any PoE ports on the NVR do not have these LEDs. The same applies to the network LEDs that will begin to blink on the back of most cameras once they’re connected to an NVR’s PoE port.

Software Setup

     1. Please make sure NVR is turned on and then log into your NVR with your NVR’s login credentials. 

     2. Access the NVR’s main menu and go to, Camera in the Management section. In this menu click on the device Search option to search for your device on the network. 

     3. Click the Device Search button, and you can view the searched IP addresses at the top pane of the interface. Double click an IP address or check one IP address and then click the Add button to add the current device to the bottom pane of the interface. The system supports batch adding.

     4. Click the Manual Add button to add a device directly. Here you can set TCP/UPD/auto connection mode. The default setup is TCP.

Note: The manual add function is for Foscam, Dahua, Panasonic, Sony, Dynacolor, Samsung, AXIS, Arecont, ONVIF, and Custom. When the type is custom, you can input the URL address, user name, and password to connect to the network camera without selecting the network camera manufacturer. Please contact your network camera manufacturer for the URL address.

Non-PoE NVR

Hardware Setup

1. Connect an Ethernet cable from your router to the back of your NVR. It will go into the Ethernet port in between the HDMI port and the PoE ports. Make sure the NVR is powered on.
2. Connect a camera to your switch or another router port on the same network as the NVR and make sure it is powered on. The camera must be on the same network for the NVR to connect to it. 
3. Connect a VGA or HDMI cable from the back panel of your NVR to a monitor or TV. Make sure that the monitor or TV is set to the correct input (e.g. VGA, HDMI 1, HDMI 2, etc.)
4. Connect the included mouse to a USB port on the front or back of your NVR.

Note: The network LEDs will start to blink on the back of the NVR when you properly connect the Ethernet cable from there to the router. Any PoE ports on the NVR do not have these LEDs. The same applies to the network LEDs that will begin to blink on the back of most cameras once they’re connected to an NVR’s PoE port.

Software Setup

     1. Please make sure NVR is turned on and then log into your NVR with your NVR’s login credentials. 

     2. Access the NVR’s main menu and go to, Setting->Camera. In this menu click on the Device Search option to search for your device on the network. 

     3. Click the Device Search button, and you can view the searched IP addresses at the top pane of the interface. Double click an IP address or check one IP address and then click the Add button to add the current device to the bottom pane of the interface. The system supports batch adding.

     4. Click the Manual Add button to add a device directly. Here you can set TCP/UPD/auto connection mode. The default setup is TCP.

Note: The manual add function is for Foscam, Dahua, Panasonic, Sony, Dynacolor, Samsung, AXIS, Arecont, ONVIF, and Custom. When the type is custom, you can input the URL address, user name, and password to connect to the network camera without selecting the network camera manufacturer. Please contact your network camera manufacturer for the URL address.

How to Download a Recording from an NVR or DVR

The device will need a hard drive installed to view recorded events. The recordings can be downloaded using the Amcrest View Pro app if you would like to download the recording to a mobile device, the Amcrest Surveillance Pro software, or using a web browser like Internet Explorer.

Please note, some web browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, etc. may not be applicable in this process as it requires the use of a plugin if accessing from a browser.

Download a Recording Using Amcrest View Pro

For more information on how to download events using the Amcrest View Pro app, please refer to the information provided below.

Step 1: Open the Amcerst View Pro app and access your camera.

Step 2: Tap on the main menu icon (  ).

Step 3: Tap on Playback.

Step 4: Tap on the ( + ) icon.

Step 5: Select a channel that you would like to view and allow the recordings to load in the interface. Tap on the record type option to select a record type (All, Regular, Alarm, Motion, Smart) and tap Start Playback.

 

Note: Scroll through the playback timeline to select a specific time or event if needed.

Step 6: While the event is playing, use the manual record icon (  ) or the manual photo (snapshot) icon (  ) to retain the event to your app. If you are manually recording an event, tap the manual record icon again to stop the recording.

Note: All manually retained events will be saved into the My Saved Files folder located in the main menu of the app.

Step 6: Tap on the main menu icon (  ) again and tap on My Saved Files.

Step 8: Tap and hold the selected file located in the folder that you want to download.

Note: All manually recorded video events will be stored in the video folder (). If you took a manual snapshot, click on the snapshot icon (  ) to access the snapshot menu. If you would like to select all recordings, tap on the select all icon (  ).

Step 9: Tap on the download icon (  ) to download the file to your mobile device.

All any permissions requested to download the file. The file will then begin downloading to the photo/ gallery on your mobile device.

Download a Recording Using the Amcrest Surveillance Pro 

Recordings in the playback menu can be downloaded (exported) using the Amcrest Surveillance Pro software. To download the free software click here.

For more information on how to add a device into Amcrest Surveillance Pro click here

Step 1: Open the Amcrest Surveillance Pro software and click on Playback.

Step 2: Select your device from the device menu and click on the Time option to display the calendar

Note: If a recording is present the date will have a blue dot. Enter the start and end times of the recording and click Search.

The Event menu will display all events located on the microSD card for your selected device from the date range entered.

Step 4: Choose a recording from the records menu. Please note, if you do not want to trim the recording, click on the export icon  to begin downloading.

Trimming a Recording

If you would like to trim the recording before downloading it, click on the scissor icon (  ). You will notice a start and end duration displayed for the selected recording on the time bar. The first red bar will be the start time and the second red bar will be the end time of the event. Use your mouse to drag the red bars and modify them to a specified start and end time.

Click on the scissor icon again to begin exporting the file.

Step 5: Click on Browse to choose a destination folder for your recording, then click on the Export Format dropdown menu and select MP4. Click OK.

Note: Since the default format is ASF it is highly recommended to choose either AVI or MP4 to view your recording.

The recording will begin to download.

Once the recording has finished downloading, click on the Downloaded tab. In the Downloaded tab, click on the Folder icon to access the recording.

The recording can be played on the default media player of your computer.

Download a Recording Using a Web Browser

The Playback or Search menu allows you to view recorded data retained in the system. This includes recording types such as regular, motion detection, (MD), Alarm, etc.

Step 1: Open Internet Explorer, and access the web user interface (web UI) for your device. For more information on how to access the web UI, click here.

Step 2: Click on Playback or Search.

Step 3: In this menu, you will notice a calendar, if events are available for this day a small dot will be visible underneath the day. Select the date from the calendar and click on the File List option.

Step 4: Select a recording from the file list. Note the start and end times of the recording and click on the scissor icon.

Step 5: Enter the start and end time of the recording into the video clip (scissor icon) interface and click the Save icon.

Choose a path that you would like the recording to download to and click OK. The recording will download to your computer using the specified path.

How to Filter AI Recordings in the Playback Menu (AI NVR)

Standalone AI cameras may not be able to differentiate between AI record types. To filter and display these recordings it is highly recommended to use an Amcrest AI NVR that supports this function.

Amcrest AI NVRs utilize four record types in the playback menu, “Regular” (green) which supports 24/7 continuous recordings, “Alarm” (red) which displays external alarm events (if applicable), “Motion” (yellow) which displays motion detection events, and IVS (blue) which displays AI events detected by the system. Please note, if you are using face detection, the IVS record type maybe indicated in the playback menu with a “F” next to the IVS record event.

Note: To view AI recordings it is highly recommended to use the Smart Search option located in the AI menu. For more information on using the smart search menu, click here.

To filter between different recording types in the playback menu, use the record type selection banner at the bottom of the interface.

The device will be set to display all recording types in the file list. To display only AI recordings in the file list, deselect the All checkbox and enable the IVS checkbox only. Click on the File List icon to display the record types.

For more information on how to download the recordings, click here.

How to Use the Smart Search Menu (AI NVR)

The Smart Search menu allows the user to view and access AI events from a centralized location. For more information, please refer to the information provided below.

Viewing Face Detection Events

All face detection data retained by the system can be accessed via the Face Detection option located in the Smart Search menu. Enter a start and end date and time for the event and list any attributes of the event such as Gender, Age, Expressions, etc. that you would like to view in the Smart Search interface and click Search.

A display of all face detection data will be displayed along with facial attributes. Click on the event you would like to view, and a clip of the event will be displayed in the built-in player. Click on the play icon to view the event.

Viewing Face Recognition Events
All face recognition data retained by the system can be accessed via the Face Recognition option located in the Smart Search menu. A search by attributes or a search by picture can be performed. Searching by attributes will load all face recognition data found in the system whereas searching by a picture will filter and display only the faces chosen by the user.
To search by attributes, enter a start and end time of the event in the interface and then click Search.

The interface will display all face recognition data. To view the event, click on the event you would like to view then click the play button in the interface.
To view specific face recognition data by image, click on the Search by Picture tab located in the Face Recognition interface.
If searchable images are already uploaded into a face library click on Face Library and select an image from the interface, then click OK to begin a search. If you would like to add images locally click Local Upload and follow the on-screen prompts to upload images. A USB flash drive with applicable images (in jpeg format) can be used to upload images to the DVR if using the local interface. Once an image has been loaded, enter a start and end time of the event, and click Search.

Viewing IVS Events
Any IVS data retained on the system can be viewed using the IVS Smart Search interface or via the playback menu if an IVS schedule is set in the system.
To view IVS data using the IVS smart search interface, click on the IVS option located in the Smart Search menu. Enter a start and end time of the event and click Search.

A layout of all IVS events captured by the device will be displayed. To view the event, select the event from the interface and click the play button.

How to Access an Amcrest NVR in a Web Browser Using Internet Explorer Mode on Microsoft Edge

Internet Explorer Mode (IE Mode) is a functionality built inside the Microsoft Edge browser that will allow your device to function inside a traditional IE infrastructure. IE Mode is available in both Windows 10 and Windows 11 OS and is useful for devices or features that do not currently support javascript in other web browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, etc. For more information on how to view your device using IE mode inside Edge, please refer to the information provided below.

Step 1: Open Microsoft Edge and enter edge://settings/defaultbrowser into the browser

Step 2: In the Default Browser menu, click on the “Allow sites to be reloaded in Internet Explorer mode” dropdown menu and select Allow then click Restart to restart the browser.

Step 3: Locate the IP address for your camera (Amcrest IP Config tool, etc). Once you have the IP address for your camera, navigate back to the Default Browser settings menu and in the Internet Explorer mode pages section, click Add.

Step 4: Enter the IP address for your device into the Add a page prompt and click Add. The IP address you entered will be displayed in the Internet Explorer mode pages section.

Step 5: Exit out of Edge and open the browser. Enter the IP address you entered into the browser to load the device’s interface. You can now access the web user interface for your device using internet explorer mode, if any plugins are required please allow all plugins to view and access all camera functions.

How to Export and View Recordings From a NVR/DVR

This quick article will show you how to export and view any recorded events or videos located on your device.  This process will require the use of a USB flash drive. We recommend a flash drive with a minimum of 8GB to efficiently complete the process. For more information on how to export and view recordings, please refer to the information provided below.

Step 1: Log into the local GUI of your device.

Step 2: Click Playback.

Step 3: Insert a flash drive into a USB port on your device. 

Right click on the interface to exit the prompt.

Step 4: Click on the File List icon.

Step 5: Select which recording you would like to export from the file list and click the Save icon.

Step 6: Ensure the correct files are selected and click Backup.

Step 7: Select or create a folder in which the recording will be exported and click Start.

Step 8: Allow the recording or recordings to export and click Save.

Step 9: Remove the flash drive from the device and insert it into your computer to locate the .dav file. If you are having trouble playing back the .dav you can use the Amcrest Smart Player to play the file or you can use a third party video converting software to convert the file to a proper format.

Exporting a Recording Using a Web Browser. 

If you would like to export a recording in a web browser, access the web user interface (web UI) of the device using Internet Explorer or IE mode in Microsoft Edge. This process requires the use of a plugin in the web browser so a compatible browser is required for this process.

Step 1: Open the web UI and log into the interface using the username and password for your device. Allow all permissions to access the interface. Click on Playback.

Step 2: Click on the File List icon.

Step 3: Select the recording from the file list and notate the start and end times. Click on the trim icon.

Step 4: Enter the start and end time into the interface and click the Save icon.

Step 5: Choose a destination for the recording and allow the recording to be exported to the file destination.

Blue Iris is extremely powerful and customizable. It will let you capture motion recordings, snapshots, and you can even send Deepstack Blue Iris images to Telegram to keep a history of all objected-detected events in place.

This is a very thorough guide, but I’m going to break it down in a step-by-step for beginners. Even if you’ve never use Blue Iris, Deepstack, or any other local NVR security camera software, you can get this up and running quickly and easily.

Let’s get started!

Prerequisites:

Before you get started, you will need the following items:

• A Windows 10 or Server 2019 computer, preferably an Intel Core i7 with QuickSync (I’m using an AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 2700)
• A couple security cameras setup on your network (I’m using an indoor Amcrest IPM2 and an outdoor Amcrest IP5M turret)
• A copy of the Blue Iris software (lifetime $69.00 cost)

Once you have those 3 items setup and ready to go, you can begin the Blue Iris installation process below.

Step 1: Download and Install Blue Iris

The first step is to purchase a copy of Blue Iris. Once purchased, you can download the full version.

Double-click the blueiris.exe to start the installation.

It will prompt to install any missing prerequisites. Click Next.

Agree to the ToS to install the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable.

Once complete, it’ll bring you back to the Welcome screen. Click Next again and accept the Blue Iris terms and conditions.

Install Blue Iris in the default folder. Then click Install.

Installation only takes a few seconds. Check the Launch Blue Iris 5 box and then click Finish.

A product activation box will popup. If you are using the 15-day free trial, you can just click Demo. Otherwise, enter a product activation code you received after purchasing by clicking Next.

Note: If you don’t want to setup Deepstack for object detection (which is free and open source), you can skip Step 2 and go directly to Step 3. If you do want to install Deepstack, follow Step 2.

Step 2: Install Deepstack

Navigate to this URL: https://docs.deepstack.cc/windows/

Click the Download CPU Link for Windows. There is also a Download link for Nvidea GPU’s, if you’d like to offload the AI detection on your graphics card instead.

Once downloaded, double-click the .exe to run it.

Install Deepstack with all defaults. Click Finish once complete. To launch Deepstack, open Powershell from the Window Start menu.

deepstack --VISION-DETECTION True --PORT 80

Step 3: Launch Blue Iris

Search your computer or server for Blue Iris from the Windows Start button. You can launch either Blue Iris Admin or Blue Iris.

On the top left corner, click the gear to enter the Global settings screen.

For the rest of step 3, I’m going to refer to each section as “tabs”.

About Tab

In the About tab, give your system a name (i.e. – Blue Iris)

In the Software Support and Updates section, it should default to “no automatic updates” by default. If not, you’ll want to turn automatic updates off.

Clips and Archiving tab

For this section, we’ll need to create a few Windows folders where we want the Blue Iris clips and recording footage to be stored. Ideally you’ll want to choose a harddrive with a decent amount of storage.

I’m using my S:\ drive as the target, which is a 690gb SSD array.

Create a new parent folder on your target drive called “BlueIris” (i.e. S:\BlueIris).

Click into your BlueIris folder and create 4 new folders:

• db
• New
• Stored
• Alerts

Next, we need to map the 4 new folders to the “Folders” section in Blue Iris.

“New” Folder

Click the New folder in Blue Iris. Change the path to the path of your “New” Windows folder. Set a limit, uncheck limit clip age, and set to delete. This is basically going to continually record and store footage until your 300gb is reached and then delete the oldest clips. If you have a large NAS or external drive, you could also click the Move to Folder option and archive them there instead of deleting.

Note: The more cameras you have and the higher resolution they are, the more storage space you’ll need.

“Stored” Folder

Since I have my clips set to delete once it hits the 300gb limit, I’m not really going to be using the Stored folder, so I’m setting it to 20gb, unchecking Limit Clip Age, and setting it to Delete. Down the road I may use this folder for exported clips.

“Alerts” Folder

The “Alerts” folder is where all pictures will be stored (including the Deepstack analyzed snapshots).

I set the limit size to 1gb, checked the box to limit the age to 7 days, and set it to Delete.

“db” folder

You will also need to set the path for the Blue Iris database(db).

IMPORTANT: Your “New” and “db” folders should be on a fast, local storage drive (like an internal SSD), but the Stored folder can be on anything you want. The warning in the above screenshot reminds you of that as well.

Users tab

The Blue Iris users tab is is where you can create and limit access. For example, you can non-admin users, limit access to camera groups, set access times, restrict logins on your local network or configure login schedules.

I recommend leaving these as default for now. You can always come back and adjust these later. For now, just create a new user with a secure password, grant it Administrator access, and restrict access to LAN only (since I’m only ever going to access my cameras on my local network or across my WireGuard VPN). If you do plan on accessing your cameras from a remote network, you’ll need to open a firewall port and uncheck the LAN Only box.

After your new admin user has been created, disable the local_console user.

Web Server tab

To access Blue Iris, you can either open it from the desktop app or from a web browser. I primarily use the Blue Iris Admin desktop app to manage or adjust Blue Iris settings and the web server to view my cameras.

Blue Iris will autofill your server’s network information, including IP address and port. This will allow you to log into Blue Iris from an IP address like 192.168.68.137:81 from any browser on your network. Super handy for accessing from your phone. (I recommend going to this URL on your phone, then click your browser settings > Send to Home Screen. This will give you a shortcut on your phone for quick access)

You can leave everything as default here and just delete the remote access URL and uncheck “refresh external IP. Remote Access can configured later on and would be used for sending snapshots as phone push notifications, but I won’t be going over that in this guide.

Startup tab

The only thing you need to change in this tab is checking the box for “Run As A Windows Service”. This will allow Blue Iris to automatically start up after your computer starts and should reduce system resources.

After checking the box, a popup will prompt you for your username and password:

Cameras tab

Ideally, a 6th generation Intel processor or better is recommend. This allows you to use the QuickSync feature to decode footage more efficiently than raw processing. My AMD CPU is more than powerful enough for my two cameras but I still set this option anyways.

For most users, you’ll want to choose Intel + VPP.

AI tab

Check the Use Deepstack server on IP/port option. If you installed Deepstack, then make sure to check the box Auto start/stop with Blue Iris also.

If you didn’t start Deepstack earlier with the Powershell command, click Start Now (Mine shows Stop Now because it’s already running).

I leave everything else with their default settings.

Other Tabs

You’ll probably notice a bunch of other tabs in Blue Iris as well. Those are a little more advanced than I want to go over in this basic installation guide, but in future I will be setting up the Digital IO and IoT tab to configure with my MQTT broker in Home Assistant. That will be a separate guide and I’ll edit this post once I have that setup.

Adding Cameras to Blue Iris

Now comes the fun part: Adding your cameras to Blue Iris local NVR!

As I said earlier, I’m using two Amcrest cameras.

Launch the Blue Iris Admin desktop app if it’s not already open. Right-click the large black box to add a new camera. I’m using the name “drivewaycam” for both the full name and short name.

For the type, choose Network IP.

For the Options, choose Enable Motion Detector and Direct to disc recording. If you’d like your footage to capture audio, you can check the Enable Audio box if you’d like.

After clicking OK, you’ll be brought to a camera configuration screen. This setup will vary slightly depending on your camera manufacturer.

The easiest way to setup the initial configuration is by entering your cameras’ IP address, user, and password in the http:// field.

Then click Find/Inspect. This will autofill the stream profiles for you. (Note: For Reolink and Hikvision cameras, you have to log into the camera and enable the ONVIF option. See The Hook Up’s video for more info on it.)

Under the Advanced section, the only thing I changed is checking the box for Decoder Compatibility Mode.

If you are using an Amcrest like I am, then Amcrest has also put together a handy wiki page I referenced here. Once you click OK, you’ll be brought to the camera customization page, where you can configure things like triggers and alerts.

Video Tab

Here are my settings for the Video tab.

Set your framerate equal to the FPS in your camera (You can view the current FPS logging into your camera using it’s IP address in a web browser).

Then, uncheck Display overlays live and set your Hardware Decode to default.

Audio Tab

If you enabled Audio in the previous step, just make sure to check the box in this tab to enable it. If not, disable it.

Trigger tab

On the main page of the Trigger tab, set yours to match mine.

Click Configure next to Motion Sensor checkbox. Set your options just I like did. Since we are using Deepstack for object detection, you can uncheck object detection on this screen.

Under the When Triggered section, click Artificial Intelligence. For this part, I’m just telling Deepstack to look for “person” with a confidence level of 60%. Deepstack will be analyzing 3 images to determine whether or not it’s a person. There’s a ton of objects you could detect, such as car, truck, boat, bicycle, dog, etc. A full list of detectable objects can be found here. If detecting multiple objects, separate them with a comma and no spaces.

Make sure the Fire “On Alert” box is checked as well as the “Auto-flag confirmed alerts“. I also turned off Burn Label.

Record tab

We are going to configure this tab to use Continuous Recording + Alerts, splitting video into 1 hour files. I am also using a Pre-trigger buffer to record 5 seconds prior to motion being detected. This means Blue Iris will continually record footage until the “New” folder reaches it’s limit (configured to 300gb in the “New” tab section above)

Alerts tab

The only thing you need to change in this tab (for now) is setting the Fire when: to This camera is triggered. You can leave everything else as default.

Remaining tabs

The Webcast, Schedule, PTZ/Control, Watchdog, and Post tabs can be left alone for now.

Your camera is now setup!

Click OK. You should now see the Live Feed of your first camera in Blue Iris.

Testing Object Detection

Now, it’s time to test your Blue Iris + Deepstack NVR. To test, simply walk in front of your camera for a few seconds.

On the left tab, click the dropdown for “Alerts”. I have 5 alerts displayed so far which correspond to the 5 times I walked in front of my camera and Deepstack has detected that I am a “person”.

Basic Blue Iris Usage

Like I said earlier, Blue Iris is now recording 24/7. Once your limit has been reached, it will start to overwrite the old footage. If you’d like to see all recorded footage, change the dropdown to New. Then, double-click a segment to view it. They will be broken up into 1-hour segments as specified in camera settings > Record tab.

At the bottom, you’ll see a flag at the point in time when “person” object was detected:

However, since we are using Deepstack, we’ve configured these events to go into the Alerts folder so we don’t have to manually search through hours of video. So, you can also just switch to the Alerts dropdown, double-click a recording, and view just that clip.

I think it’s also important to explain how Deepstack works in the Alerts folder. If you sit and watch the “Alerts” dropdown, you’ll see it occasionally add an image and then delete it. This is because Deepstack has determined that the image processed isn’t a person. You will still see all images in your S:\BlueIris\Alerts folder. If you want to view just the images Deepstack has detected as a person, you’ll have to view those from within Blue Iris, not your Windows “Alerts” folder.

Remember: We set a 1gb limit on the Alerts folder, so once it hits 1gb, it’ll start deleting the older images.

Motion Rectangles

If you would would like to see motion rectangles around your motion detections and jpeg’s, here’s what you’d change:

Right click a camera > Camera Settings > Trigger tab. Check motion sensor and click Configure. Under Advanced, check Object detection and make sure to highlight “Show object rectangles”.

To see live motion squares on playback, double-click a recorded clip. Right click > Overlays > Add Motion Overlays.

Troubleshooting Deepstack/Blue Iris Detections

During initial setup, Deepstack might not detect the object correctly.

You might get false positives (i.e. – snapshots taken of things other than person, or nothing at all), or it may not trigger person detection. I recommend editing your AI confidence level by clicking the gear on your camera > Trigger tab > Artificial Intelligence:

Then, edit your confidence level here:

Adding Additional Cameras to Blue Iris

At this point, you may be dreading adding extra cameras. However, this is actually super easy. You can basically “copy” the existing settings from your first camera and apply it to any new ones! Really the only things you’ll need to change is the IP address of the extra cameras.

Right-click the black space next to your existing camera. Then click Add New Camera.

Give it a name and choose Copy from Another Camera:

Backup and Export Blue Iris Configuration

Now that you’ve got things setup and working, I highly recommend exporting your Blue Iris configuration. Just on the offchance your computer crashes or you need to reinstall Blue Iris at some point, it would be very useful to not have to setup this up from scratch again.

I recommend backing up to a different drive than where you installed Blue Iris or your recordings, such as a flash drive up uploading to Google Drive.

Click the gear at the very top of Blue Iris Admin. On the General tab, click Export.

Wrapping Up

Hopefully this tutorial helps you setup Blue Iris 5 and Deepstack quickly and easily! I wanted to give a shoutout to The Hook Up’s Youtube video which is where I got a lot of my inspiration and insight on how to set this up properly, so definitely check out his video as well.

I was hoping to setup a local NVR solution using Frigate in Home Assistant, but unfortunately every time I add cameras to my Home Assistant configuration.yaml, my zwave and zigbee networks stop responding correctly. I’m still not sure why. I even setup a 2nd HA instance, connected it to a different switch port, and didn’t use a zwave/zigbee dongle on the 2nd instance.

I’m not even upset that Frigate didn’t end up working for me, as Blue Iris is extremely customizable and works perfectly in my environment.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below and I’d be happy to help you out if I can!

Note 1: This HiKam PC software is suitable for HiKam S6L, S6, HiKam Q8 and HiKam A7 2nd generation.

If you need the software for 1st Gen cameras (S5, Q7, A7 1st Gen), please follow this link: (For HiKam S5, Q7 and A7 1st Gen) HiKam PC Software

Note 2: HiKam PC software can’t display the live video of A7 Pro and Q8 3rd Gen yet, the required update will come as soon as possible.
However, we can provide you with a test version, please just send us a message. 

Download HiKamPC

You can choose between a zip and an installation version:

Zip version:   HiKam PC V2.1.18 ZIP

To install: HiKam PC V2.1.18

Installation after download: 

Zip version: 

Move the downloaded zip file to the directory of your choice. Unzip them.

Here you will find HiKamPC.exe. You can start the software with a double click.

Installation Pack:

Start the downloaded exe file and follow the instructions of the installation wizard.

When the installation is complete, launch the software. A shortcut called “HiKamPC” will appear on the desktop:

Register:

The HiKam PC software starts with a login window:

Sign in with:

Username: admin

Password: admin

Annotation:

– Please change the login password later in the software.

Configuration Management > User Management:

– If you forgot the “admin” password, please delete and reinstall the HiKam software.

– If you have several network interfaces on your PC or a virtual machine is running on the PC, you may have to select which network interface the PC software should run on.

a. Click on this button  in the login window

b. Go to “Select network” and look for the desired sub-network here.

Quick guide to the PC software

Contents:

1. Add cameras in HiKamPC

2. Watch live video from the camera

3. Change settings like camera password, camera name

4. Take snapshots and save to PC

5. Record videos to PC

6. Play videos stored on the SD card in the camera

7. Play videos stored locally on the PC’s hard drive

8. Download video files from SD card in camera to PC

9. Change admin account password

10. Find out the version of the HiKam PC software

11. Uninstall HiKamPC

1. Add cameras in HiKamPC

1. After logging in, you will see the main window of the HiKam PC software

Click the “+” button at the bottom left

2. You will then see the “Added Cameras” window

All cameras that are in the same network as the PC software are displayed here.

Check the cameras you want to add, then click Add.

You will see a message that the camera(s) has been added successfully, click “Exit”.

Important:

If no cameras are displayed, please check whether the camera and PC are in the same network and try again as under 1.

Or add the cameras manually as described here below. However, this is only possible with the 2nd generation cameras, not with those of the 1st generation (S5, Q7, A7 1st generation).

3. Now you can see the camera in the camera list on the top left.

Double click the camera, the first time the software will ask for the camera password.

Enter the camera password and confirm. If the password is correct, the HiKam PC software will display the live video. 

Add camera manually:

1. After login, you will see the main window of HiKam PC software.

Click the “+” button at the bottom left

2. You will then see the “Added Cameras” window.

Click on the “Add manually” button

3. A new window will open, enter the camera ID (e.g. A000015), a camera name and the camera password.

Then click “Add”

4. If the camera password is correct, you will get a confirmation. Click OK.

Now you can close the add window with “Exit”.

5. The camera is now listed in the camera list.

2. Watch live video from the camera

When the cameras have been added to the software, you can start the live video by double-clicking on the camera in the camera list at the top left.

If the correct camera password has been stored in the software, it will display the live video.

Otherwise you will see the message that the password is incorrect and ask you to enter the correct password.

3. Change settings like camera password, camera name

Right-click the camera in the camera list, select “Settings”.

Under “Camera Editor” you can change the camera name and camera password to access the camera.

Under “Change Password” you can change the camera password that is saved in the camera.

Please note that you must also enter the changed password in the HiKam app and the software on the other PC, otherwise you will see the error message “Incorrect password” here.

4. Take snapshots and save to PC

When the live video is displayed, right click on the camera window.

Select “Snapshot” here.

5. Record videos to PC

To start recording:

• Right-click on the camera window and select “Record”.

If you want to end the recording again:

• Right-click the camera window again and click “Record” again.
• When the recording is finished, the red recording dot at the top right disappears.

6. Play videos stored on the SD card in the camera

In the main window, select the video recordings.

Select the camera in “Camera Name”, then in Source “Cameras”.

Under Time, select a start and end time and click Search.

When the correct password is entered in the software, the video files will be listed.

Double-click on the desired file to play it.

7. Play videos stored locally on the PC’s hard drive

Click the “Recordings” button.

In “Camera name” select the desired camera.

Under Source, select PC.

Enter the desired start and end time and click “Search”.

The existing files are displayed.

Double click on the desired video file to play it.

Important note : this only applies to the videos you have recorded via the HiKam PC software, not to files recorded to an SD card in the camera.

8. Download video files from SD card in camera to PC

Proceed as described under 6. to list the video files that are stored on the SD card in the camera.

Then you will see this window:

Click “Download”.

In the window that opens, you can select the files you want to download – or all of them by checking the top box.

Then click “Start”.

The downloaded files can be found in the directory selected in “Save in directory”.

All downloaded files are in .mp4 format and can be played with common players.

8.1. Read and convert files on SD card in PC

If you do not want or cannot download the files from the SD card in the camera, there is also the option to insert the SD card into the PC and save the files on the PC.

Since the files are in .avx format and cannot be played with standard players, it makes sense to convert them to .mp4.

To do this, you can use this tool:

https://hikam.de/dl/mp4Tool.zip

Unzip the files and start mp4Tool.exe with a double click.

Under 1, select the directory where the .avx files are currently located.

Under two, choose the directory where you want the converted .mp4 files to go.

Click Transform

9. Change admin account password

Click on “Configuration Management” in the top right > User Management. Enter the old password here and then the new one, which must be confirmed again.

Then click on “Confirm”.

10. Find out the version of the HiKam PC software

Click the “?” in the top right corner of the window.

In the window that then appears, you will see the version of the HiKam PC software.

11. Uninstall HiKamPC

You can easily uninstall the zip version by deleting the entire HiKamPC directory.

Please delete the installed version (.exe) by going to the Start button (Windows icon) > Control Panel > Software > Change or Remove Programs > Find HiKamPC > Uninstall.

1. The Google Home function is only available in the countries where Google Home is supported.
2. To use your Reolink cameras with Google Home, you need to have the following devices and apps set up: Reolink camera; A Chromecast device, a TV with Chromecast, or a media player with Chromecast; The Google Home and Google Assistance app on your mobile device.
3. If the current camera firmware is not compatible with Google Home, please go to Download Center upgrading to the latest firmware.
4. Make sure you’ve connected the Chromecast to the monitor via HDMI cable.

You can refer to the video below to add the camera with your google home.

Or refer to the steps below to add the camera with your google home.

Step 1. Launch the Reolink App and log in your cloud account, and then you will find the Smart Home option.

Step 2. Enable the device you want to add to Google Home in the Smart Home page.

Step 3. Launch the Google Home, sign in your account and then Get Started to create a home.

Step 4. Name your home and click Next to build a connection between the Chromecast and the Google Home.

Step 5. After the Chromecast found, please check the code shown on your TV and click Yes to continue.

Step 6. Connect the Wi-Fi network you would like to use with your Chromecast, then you can customize a room name, which will be added to your room list.

Step 7. Now click the   button to enter the account page, and then tap Settings > Assistant > Home Control.

Step 8. Click the   button, search Reolink in the search bar and assign the room for the camera you enabled in the cloud account via Reolink App.

Step 9. Done! Now you’ve added the Reolink camera to the Google Home successfully.

Step 10. To test your camera, please launch the Google Assistance and say “Hey Google, show [name of room where the camera is placed] on [name of Chromecast device].”

What Devices Do I Need in Order to Make the Camera Work with Google Home

To integrate your Reolink cameras with Google Home, you need to have the following devices and apps set up: Reolink camera, a Chromecast device (a TV with Chromecast or a media player with Chromecast), Reolink App, the Google Home app and Google Assistance app on your mobile device.     

Step 1. Launch the Reolink App and log in your Reolink account, and then you will find the Smart Home option.

Step 2. Enable the device you want to add to Amazon Alexa in the Smart Home page.

Step 3. Launch the Amazon Alexa APP, sign in your account and then tap on “Devices” in the bottom right corner.

Step 4. Select “Your Smart Home Skills” and tap “Enable Smart Home Skills“. Please click the “Search” icon at the top right corner and search Reolink Smart Home.

Step 5. Tap “Enable to Use“, type in your Reolink account, and then click “Log in“.

After logging in successfully, the App will remind that “Reolink Smart Home has been successfully linked“. Tap “Done” to go to the next step.

Step 6. Tap on “Discover Devices” or use voice command “Alexa, discover devices“. Alexa will scan and show the devices bound to your Reolink account.

Step 7. Tap on “Set up Device”, you can choose a Group for the camera or you can SKIP this step. Tap on “Continue” to finish the setup.

Step 8. Done! Now you’ve added the Reolink camera to Amazon Alexa successfully.

To test your camera, launch the Echo dot and Echo Show, say “Alexa, show [name of the camera]” to view the live stream and say “Alexa, stop [name of the camera]” to stop the live stream.

What Devices Do I Need in Order to Make the Cameras Work with Alexa

To integrate your Reolink cameras with Amazon Alexa, you need to have the following devices and apps set up: Reolink camera, an Amazon Echo Show or an Amazon Echo dot, the Reolink APP and Amazon Alexa APP on your mobile device. If the current camera firmware is not compatible with Alexa, please go to Download Center upgrading to the latest firmware.