Device Discovery

Scan your network, identify supported camera adapters, and add devices to Kalytera.

Generated 2026-09-12 01:38 UTC

Overview

Kalytera can scan an address range for reachable devices and identify a supported adapter when the device exposes enough information. You can also add a device manually when you know its address and credentials.

Navigate to Configure → Devices to access the device management page.

Network Scan

The network scanner checks the selected address range and attempts supported discovery and adapter probes:

  1. Click Add Device → Scan Network.
  2. Enter the IP range to scan (e.g., 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.254).
  3. If needed, provide credentials that are authorized for device discovery.
  4. Click Start Scan and wait for the selected address range to complete.

Discovered devices appear in the results list with their detected brand and protocol. Select the cameras you want to add and click Add Selected Devices.

ONVIF multicast discovery may not cross routers or VLAN boundaries. If a device is not found, verify routing, firewall rules, enabled camera services, and credentials, then add it manually if necessary.

Manual Device Add

Click Add Device → Manual Add and fill in:

FieldDescription
NameFriendly name displayed in the UI (e.g., Front Entrance)
AdapterAuto-detect, a supported native adapter, ONVIF, or Generic RTSP
IP AddressCamera's IPv4 address
PortHTTP management port (default: 80 for most cameras)
Username / PasswordCamera's web interface credentials
RTSP URL (optional)Override the auto-detected RTSP stream URL

Click Add Device. Kalytera connects to the camera, retrieves its capabilities (resolution, codec, available streams), and adds it to the device list.

Device Status Indicators

Each device in the list shows a live status indicator:

Editing and Removing Devices

Click the Edit button (pencil icon) on any device row to update its name, credentials, stream URLs, or recording mode. Click the Delete button (trash icon) to remove a device — this stops any active recording and removes the device from all views and alarm rules.

Removing a device does not delete its existing recordings. Recordings remain on disk and can still be browsed in Playback by time range.

Substreams and Stream Selection

Most IP cameras provide two streams: a high-resolution main stream and a lower-resolution substream. Kalytera uses the main stream for recording and can switch to the substream for live viewing to reduce bandwidth — especially useful when many cameras are displayed simultaneously in a grid.

Stream selection is available per-cell in the live view (right-click a camera cell → Switch Stream) and as a global default in Configure → Devices → Edit → Video.