Watcher Quick Start Guide

This quick start guide will teach you how to do the most common tasks in Flussonic Watcher. After looking through this guide you will be able to:

• Install Flussonic Watcher on one server (in Single mode).
• Add a virtual camera via the web UI or a real Wi-Fi camera via the mobile app.
• View the archive records.

You will need the following assets to follow the instructions below:

• A computer with Linux operating system and access to the Internet. See here for detailed system requirements.
• A license or trial key. You can request the key on this page.

• (Optional) Flussonic Home Wi-Fi camera with Iris firmware. You can buy or order for tests any Flussonic camera on our website. All our cameras are designed specifically for Watcher to provide an additional value of secured access through NAT.

  Note

  Watcher supports any IP cameras. In this quick guide, we suggest you to proceed with Flussonic Home as it is the easiest to use. If you have other IP camera, please refer to Adding cameras.

Installing Flussonic Watcher

Install Flussonic Watcher as follows:

1) On the server where you plan to run Watcher execute the commands:

wget -q -O /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/flussonic.gpg http://apt.flussonic.com/binary/gpg.key;
echo "deb http://apt.flussonic.com binary/" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/flussonic.list;
apt update;
apt install flussonic-watcher;

2) The installation wizard will prompt you to enter the necessary data: administrator's login and password, license key, and the path to the DVR where the archive will be stored.

Enter the requested information and wait for the installation to complete.

3) Open Watcher web UI at http://(Watcher server address). Use login and password you set at the installation.

The installation for single-server mode is now complete. Please refer to Installing Watcher Cluster or Single for full installation procedure.

Adding a virtual camera

A virtual camera is a software stream that you can add as a camera to Watcher using fake://fake URL. Such a camera can be used for test purposes to check the settings, video and sound without a real camera.

To add a virtual camera:

1. Go to Cameras and click Add camera.
2. In the form that opens, enter the camera name and URL fake://fake.
3. Select some value in the DVR Depth drop-down list to enable the archive recording.

4. Click Save.

   After saving the settings, a screenshot of the camera will be displayed on the right. If the screenshot does not appear, refresh the page.

   Here you can also view live video or open it in full page using the Go to player button.

   

Adding a virtual camera is completed. Please refer to Adding cameras for other ways of adding cameras.

Adding a real Wi-Fi camera

The below instruction refers to Flussonic Home Wi-Fi camera with our in-house developed Iris firmware. If you have other IP camera, please refer to Adding cameras.

To add a camera with Iris firmware using a mobile app:

1. Install Watcher mobile app from Apple Store or Google Play.

2. Log in to the mobile application using the same credentials you use to sign into the web UI. Your Operator ID is shown in the lower left corner in the web UI.

3. Select Add Camera - Wi-Fi Camera in the app menu.

   

4. Check the network name and enter the Wi-Fi password.

   

5. Fill in the camera information. The rest of the settings may be left default.

   

6. Click Next. The QR code will be displayed on the screen.

7. Present the QR-code to the camera. Please note that if the camera is ready to read the QR code, it will play the corresponding voice message from time to time. If you do not hear the voice message, check the power connection and try resetting the camera to factory settings.

8. The camera will inform you when it has successfully read the QR code and connected to the Wi-Fi network. After that, the camera will be available both in the app and in the web UI.

Adding a camera with Iris via the app is completed.

Viewing the archive

To view the archive, go to the Cameras page and click on the tile of the desired camera. The player will open in live view mode.

You will see green areas on the timeline if the camera has an archive. Click the desired point in the green area to start archive playback from the selected moment.

Learn more about the player and playback controls here.