Add cameras

Cameras are added in Configure > Devices. Select Add camera and follow four steps: Connect, Discover, Configure, and Finish. You need the camera's address and a user account on the camera.

Find cameras on the network

On the first step, select Discover cameras. The Site Node sends an ONVIF WS-Discovery probe on its local network interfaces and lists every Possible ONVIF camera that answers. Select Use this camera address to copy an address into the form.

If a camera is missing, open Scan one interface and enter the IPv4 address of the Site Node interface on the camera network. Discovery uses multicast, which does not normally cross routers, so add cameras on other subnets by address.

Connect

1. Camera address: the camera's IP address or host name. Kalytera VMS tries HTTPS first. Type https:// or http:// only to require one of them, and add a port only if the camera does not use the default.
2. Connection method: ONVIF is selected. Open the section to select Axis camera (VAPIX), Hikvision HTTP (ISAPI), or Dahua HTTP for cameras of those brands. Kalytera VMS uses only the method you select and never falls back to another one.
3. In the same section, check the RTSP port (554 by default) and, for ONVIF, the ONVIF device service path (/onvif/device_service by default).
4. User name and Password: an account on the camera. For ONVIF, use the camera's ONVIF account.
5. Camera server: with several Site Nodes, select the one that will record this camera.
6. Select Find device.

Discover and configure

Kalytera VMS connects to the camera and reads what it reports: video channels and their qualities, audio, alarm inputs, and relay outputs. Discovery never changes anything on the camera.

Under Check what was found:

• Enter the Camera name. The model name is suggested.
• In Configure video, tick the channels to add. NVRs and encoders can add up to 64 channels.
• For each channel, choose the Default live quality and the Recording quality. Live view switches between all the available qualities as needed; recording always uses the quality you choose here.

Select Add camera. The camera shows Finishing setup and then Configured once its Site Node confirms it.

Manage cameras

Select a camera in the list to open it. Its tabs include Overview, Video, PTZ, Recording, and Analytics. The header offers:

• Rename, to change the camera name.
• Update connection, for a new address or new credentials. The current connection stays in use until the new one is confirmed.
• More > Replace camera, for new hardware at the saved address. The camera keeps its recordings, history, and relationships, and you map each existing video channel to a channel of the new device. PTZ, analytics, and input and output settings are not carried over.
• More > Turn off, to stop the camera until you turn it on again.
• More > Remove camera, to stop live video and future recording. Existing video history and audit records are kept.

Removed cameras stay out of the list unless you tick Show removed cameras.

Change video channels

To add or remove video channels of a camera you already added, open its Video tab and select Change channels. Kalytera VMS reads the camera again with its saved account and lists every channel it reports. Nothing changes until the Site Node confirms it, and you never need to add the camera again.

• An added channel starts with recording off. Turn it on in the camera's Recording tab.
• Before you remove a channel, Kalytera VMS shows the rules, maps, views, and relationships that use it. A removed channel stops live video and new recording, and its recordings stay until normal retention unless you choose to delete them.
• Removed channels on the same tab lists what was removed and the state of any deletion.

HTTPS cameras

For cameras reached over HTTPS, Overview > Advanced connection shows the transport trust mode and the SHA-256 fingerprint of the certificate the camera presented.

Camera analytics

The Analytics tab sets up detection rules that run on the camera itself. Kalytera VMS creates, configures, turns on and off, and removes each rule through the camera's own interface and reads it back, so nobody signs in to the camera's web page. Every rule it offers is one it creates and owns; rules already set up on the camera are not taken over. An analytic that Kalytera VMS cannot fully configure on a camera is not offered for it.

• Axis: AXIS Video Motion Detection, and AXIS Object Analytics line crossing and intrusion zones.
• Hikvision: motion detection, line crossing, zone intrusion, tamper, and video loss.
• Dahua: motion detection, tampering, video loss, and IVS line crossing and zone intrusion.

New rules start as drafts. Select Apply to camera to write a rule to the camera, and Read back to check what the camera stored.

Tamper and video loss reported by the camera are also triggers for rules. When a camera cannot confirm whether its lens is covered or its video is lost, for example after a reconnect, Kalytera VMS shows that condition as Unknown until the camera reports it again, instead of showing the last state as current.

Other devices

Alarm inputs and relay outputs are added with the camera that reports them. Under Devices, Shelly LAN adds Shelly relays and inputs by IPv4 address.