Camera settings

Having added and arranged your cameras, you might want to change some of their settings in Watcher. All the available parameters are described below.

Camera management

Camera properties > General settings

Title. The camera name, which you see in the list of cameras. Use only Latin characters and numbers, as the name will be used in URLs.
Stream URL. The camera URL. For example: rtsp://mycam.local/stream0. If you know the camera URL, you can import the camera from the Flussonic server or use auto-search to add the camera.
Substream URL. Additional address(es). For example: rtsp://mycam.local/stream1; rtsp://mycam.local/stream2. The substream parameters are usually different from the main stream, for example, they may have different resolutions or fps. This allows a multi-bitrate stream from the streamer to a client application, i.e. dynamic adaptation of the video stream to the network bandwidth.
Screenshot of the camera stream (periodically updated). One click starts live video right in the preview box, double click opens the full-screen live player. You can also click Go to player to open the DVR player. This is useful if you want to see how new settings applied.

Camera properties > Administration

Streamer. A Flussonic Media Server that is used as a streamer for this camera.

Note

If the camera was connected to one streamer for some time and then you change the streamer, the archive already recorded by the camera remains on the old streamer. The new archive is recorded to the new streamer. However, the user (subscriber) will be able to access both new and old DVR seamlessly without having to think about where the archive is actually stored. This feature is called "seamless archive" or "seamless DVR".
Organization. The Organization to which the camera will be added. A camera can belong to only one Organization. If you do not select Organization, the default Organization is used.
Folder. A hierarchical node of the camera tree within the Organization. Tha camera will be added to this node called folder. If you do not select a folder, the root folder in the selected Organization is used.
Preset. Select a previously created preset with DVR settings that will be applied to this camera.
The following settings are unavailable and/or overwritten when you select a non-adjustable preset:
- DVR depth. The archive depth. In other words, it’s the number of days after recording during which the video archive is available (then it is purged but motion detection records may be left in place according to the setting described in the next item).
  
  Note
  
  If you see a message saying that archive recording is not supported on the server when trying to change this parameter, configure the DVR path in the Streamer(s) settings.
- DVR days limit for records with detected motion. The number of days during which it is necessary to keep records of motion events. This limit is set in addition to the archive depth. If you select not set, then all motion events are stored.
- DVR space. The maximum storage space for camera's archive, in Gigabytes.
  
  Note
  
  This parameter may depend on DVR Limit set for the Organization to which the camera is added. See this page for details.
- Precise event thumbnails is a number of days for which the precise screenshots of face recognition anr/or LPR events are available. These screenshots are displayed on the Events page. The object that triggered the detector is guaranteed to be present on the precise screenshot. If disabled or the precise screenshot storage time expires but there is an archive for the period, then the first frame of the five-second video segment in which the event occurred is displayed on the Events page. In this case, the object that triggered the detector may be present at any place in the video fragment, so you will have to search for it manually.
  
  Caution
  
  The precise screenshots are stored in Flussonic Watcher database. Make sure your system complies with the requirements before selecting a long storage period.
- Enable recognition. Turning on or off license plate detection and recognition (LPR) OR face recognition. When the box is checked, you can select the recognition type in the drop-down list under it as well as click the button to set the detection zone.

Camera properties > Additional settings

Enabled. Turning the camera on and off. It means whether video from this camera will be transmitted or not to Watcher.
Capture only video. When the box is checked, audio stream from camera is not captured on streamers nor recorded to DVR or played at live video. When unchecked, i.e. by default, the streamer captures both video and audio streams (if available).
Note. The text that describes camera positioning or gives any other information.
Hidden settings to be used with caution:
- On-demand. Turn this check box on to make the camera transmit video only on request, turn off to make the camera work constantly. This mode of camera operation allows to reduce the load on streamers, but it has a number of significant limitations. Please note that when this box is checked, the video does not come from the camera to the streamer until some action is taken that is considered a video request: this can be viewing the video in Watcher app or web UI, using a direct link to watch video from the camera or just opening the Cameras page. If you have turned on the On-demand mode and configured motion events, analytics (face recognition or LPR) and/or DVR, these functions will only work when the video is received by the streamer. In other words, if no one requests a stream from the camera, then no functions associated with it work. Hence, it is recommended to check this box with caution, only in cases that do not require any functions other than viewing live video from the camera (e.g. for intercom, security desk camera, etc.).
  
  The timeout for disconnecting the camera after disconnecting the last client is 60 seconds.
- Thumbnails. This flag enables creating and saving JPG thumbnails (screenshots) from the camera. This is a resource-intensive operation.
  
  Danger
  
  It is strongly recommended not to use this checkbox since it may lead to excessive CPU load that might have negative effect on the whole service including partial loss of DVR or inability to watch live video. We are planning to deprecate and remove this option in future versions of Watcher.
  
  Use MP4 video screenshots instead of JPG screenshots as described in Taking video screenshots from the Watcher camera.
  
  When the flag is set, the Thumbnails URL (optional) field appears. If the camera supports sending thumbnails separately from the video and you want to reduce the load on the server, in this field you can enter the URL address where Flussonic can obtain screenshots from the camera. Look it up in your camera's manual.

Camera properties > Location

Coordinates. The coordinates of the camera location. Define the camera placement on the map. You can change its placement. We recommend that you place all cameras to their actual locations on the map to help users find them.
Address. The postal address of the camera.

Saving camera settings

After you have edited the camera settings, click Save. The camera will appear on the management page in the list of cameras: