How to Set Up and Use Video Analytics with Security Cameras

Video Analytics actively monitors your video stream to detect people, animals, and vehicles. When rules are properly configured, Video Analytics can focus on important activity and ignore irrelevant motion, such as trees swaying in the wind.

Camera Setup for Video Analytics

Video Analytics works by tracking a person’s feet or a vehicle’s wheels. To ensure accuracy, follow these placement guidelines:

Height: Mount the camera 8–16 feet above the ground.
Angle: Tilt the camera downward 30°–60°. Keep the horizon level to avoid misclassification.
Distance: Targets should be within 25 feet of the camera (15 feet at night).
Side tilt: Keep sideways tilt under 10° for best detection accuracy.

Tip: Recreate rules and recalibrate the camera if it is repositioned. Some cameras require calibration to work properly with Video Analytics.

Best Locations

Video Analytics works best in areas where people, vehicles, or packages are expected:

Driveways or parking lots
Front porches or package drop-off areas
Yards and perimeter zones
Indoor entryways, exit points, or hallways

Not Recommended: areas with constant motion (busy roads, trees in heavy wind) or pointing cameras out windows (due to reflections).

Lighting Considerations

Avoid headlights or bright lights shining directly into the camera.
Prevent IR light reflections from walls, overhangs, or other reflective surfaces.
Be mindful of floodlights that attract insects, which may trigger false alerts.

Video Analytics Rules

Ground Zone Rule

Use when monitoring objects that linger in a specific location. Draw the zone where feet or wheels will be.

Tripwire Rule

Use when monitoring objects crossing a line (e.g., people entering a walkway or vehicles crossing a driveway).

Tips for Accuracy

Avoid overlapping ground zones or intersecting tripwires with moving objects like trees.
Draw rules only where feet or wheels cross.
Do not enlarge zones unnecessarily — keep them targeted.
After testing, adjust the Minimum Object Detection Size slider to refine results.

Notifications and Recordings

Even if you deselect certain object types (person, animal, vehicle), the camera will still record them — it just won’t send notifications for those events.

Example:

If you only want notifications for people, animal-triggered recordings will still save to your account but won’t notify you.

Accessing Saved Clips

Clips categorized as Other are hidden by default but can be viewed:

Using the Customer Website:

Log into the Customer Website.
Click Video → Saved Video Clips.
Select the camera.
In Object Detection, choose Other.
Click Search.

Using the Customer App:

Log into the Customer App.
Tap Video → Saved.
Select the date and time range.
Under Object Detection, select Other.
Tap Apply.