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Adding an Existing 3rd Party NVR to the Spot Dashboard

  • Updated
 
This document is most helpful for IT staff and on-site installation personnel.

 

This article will guide you through how to pull video streams from an existing 3rd party NVR. This is for the scenario where cameras are connected to the 3rd party NVR rather than to the network directly. If you have cameras connected to the network directly that you need to add, check out this article.

 

Spot AI Dashboard

Step 1: Click on Configure at the top of the page.

Step 2: Go to Locations, find the location of interest and click Edit.

Step 3: Go to Cameras if you're not already there and the Spot AI dashboard will automatically search for your cameras and NVRs.

Step 4: Spot Genius will attempt to auto authenticate and find how many streams the NVR has, but if that fails, please enter the following:

  • Username and password:  This will be your 3rd party NVR's username and password. If you don't remember, please look at your NVR brand and model number and google the NVR's default username and password. 
  • Test Path: This is the link to provide the RTSP path for your camera brand and model. Use this link to find the RTSP path of your camera or just Google "RTSP path" for the camera brand and model. Please note: you just need to input what comes after the IP address and Port in the path URL i.e. for the example RTSP path:
    • RTSP URL: rtsp://username:password@192.168.1.5:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1
    • You only need to enter: /cam/realmonitor?channel=1
    • If the NVR isn't able to be activated with the RTSP path set to "1", sometimes the cameras aren't connected to the first port on the NVR, but rather one of the middle ports. Verify if this is the case by looking at the camera connections on the back of the NVR. If they start at port 8, change the channel in the RTSP path from "1" to "8".

Step 5: Once you have entered the information. Please click Authenticate. If all inputs were valid, you will see a still image populate from the cameras with a few streaming options. 

Note: For the best viewing experience, choose the streaming option which has a resolution closest to 5MP (i.e. 2560x1920p) and 15fps, this is the optimal resolution for low latency and seamless web viewing.  

Step 6: Click Activate on each stream. 

If you are stuck at any step, please reach out to Spot AI Support for assistance.

  

We hope this article was useful to you, please leave us a comment or feedback as it will help us improve our customer support center.

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