Adding Cameras

Before we dive in, here are a few simple prerequisites to ensure your camera is ready to integrate with Arcules:

You can manage your devices by clicking the wrench icon on the left navigation bar.

From here, you can add, edit and remove gateways and cameras, and view all the devices attached to your organization. You also have the option to search by name, and filter by Site, location, type, and status.

If you want to know how to change a device's name, check out our Change Device Name Article.

Note: If your cameras are already connected to an existing VMS, please see our FAQ for further considerations.

Click the '+' button and select Add Camera from the dropdown menu. Select the Gateway that the camera should connect to. You will be redirected to the installation wizard to configure camera settings.

Section 1 - Discover Camera
This section will prompt a user to add the camera’s IP address, username, and password to connect. The wizard will auto-detect cameras within your same network. If a camera is not found, you have the option to manually add a camera by clicking the '+' button.

Note: Default camera usernames and passwords are not accepted. Ensure cameras you are attempting to connect are on the same network as the gateway.

Please refer to the FAQ if you run into issues adding a camera.

Step 1 - Motion Detection
Configure motion detection settings for each camera.

Step 2 - Recording Schedules
Allows you to configure recording schedules for each camera.

Step 3 - Storage
Allows you to set the storage retention time for each channel.

Note: If the DHCP settings change and a camera obtains a new IP-address, the camera needs to be re-added as a new device.

After adding a camera that has multiple channels, you can select and deselect additional channels by going to the Connected tab and clicking the arrow next to the camera in question. This will open a drawer, where you can enable, disable, and rename specific channels.

Once set up, you can view and manage your cameras in the Devices section. Here you can filter results, adjust settings, and even delve into analytics or storage options.

When you click on a device, a panel on the side will open, giving you various pieces of information and options. There are four different tabs, each with different purposes:

This tab will show you basic information about your device at a glance.

This tab enables you to view and change cloud storage preferences.

The Analytics tab gives you the power to add and configure various cloud video analytics like heat maps, as well as Device & Edge Analytics including Video Motion Detection.

This tab is a handy tool to debug issue with devices, including the possibility to ping a device.

On the devices list you have the option to download a CSV file of your available devices. Just click on the ellipsis on the top right and select Download as CSV.

Why is my camera not 'Auto Discovered' in the Installation Wizard' ?

There are various reason a camera may not be auto discovered;

HIKVISION camera is not available in Live - constantly writes "Establishing Connection"

There are two main issues when adding HikVision cameras and it really depends on the models. We are working on a camera 'wiki' and will be adding this to it.
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1. The ONVIF driver was not performing HTTP digest authentication correctly

2. The HikVision has two user management systems, one for regular users and another separate set for ONVIF users. The ONVIF user settings appear under Network -> Advanced Settings -> Integration Protocol on the camera and not in the regular user management section. By default there are no ONVIF users added to the camera.

We have set the following for the camera in-house, and your team will require to do the same two steps on your other 3 cameras.

Step 1: ONVIF user management page
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Step 2: Adding an ONVIF user
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Couple of things to note in general:
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1. HikVision cameras can lock out a user account for a period of time if credentials are entered incorrectly too many times in a row. It's possible to disable this security feature in the camera web interface if it causes trouble:

2. Time settings on the camera need to be correct.

VIVOTEK camera is not available in Live - constantly writes "Establishing Connection"

This is caused by certain settings being enabled such as smart codec and dynamic intraframe. You can find these settings in the configuration of the camera as shown below.