Configuring your camera's motion detection in Stratocast™ - Stratocast™

Stratocast™ Integrator Guide
Applies to
Stratocast™
Last updated
2023-08-03
Content type
Guides > Integration guides
Language
English
Product
Stratocast

To control how your camera detects motion and avoid false motion detections, you can configure your camera's motion detection by adjusting the default levels of three basic settings.

Before you begin

Do the following:
  • (Axis cameras only) If you are using the camera to record at night or in environments that are poorly illuminated, make sure that the camera supports the day and night functionality. With this functionality, the camera automatically switches to night mode when the ambient light goes below a certain level. Refer to the Axis website for more information.
    CAUTION:
    When recording at night or in environments that are poorly illuminated, Axis cameras that do not support the day and night functionality might produce video with poor image quality.

What you should know

  • Your camera's motion detection is controlled by a sensitivity setting and two motion alert settings. The Motion alert on and Motion alert off settings specify when motion is considered to be detected, whereas the Sensitivity setting determines how easily your camera detects motion. Also, you can only modify the motion detection settings for cameras whose State is Enrolled.
    IMPORTANT: The motion detection settings that you set in Stratocast™ overrides similar settings that you might set on your camera manufacturer's web page.
  • Any camera running the Axis VMD application will default to that and will not use any of the configuration settings in the portal except for enabled/disabled.

Procedure

  1. Click Clients and then, from the Number of devices column, click the client account that the camera is added to.
  2. On the client's Devices page, click the camera and then set the following, as required:
    Motion detection
    Enables or disables motion detection. If using the Cloud on motion recording type, you must enable motion detection. The default setting is Disabled.
    Sensitivity
    Controls how responsive the camera is in detecting motion. Set to the maximum (100%), the slightest variation between two consecutive frames is detected as motion. However, at the maximum setting, you might get inaccurate results depending on the subject that you are recording and the level of noise that is generated. Conversely, lowering the sensitivity below the default value reduces your chances of detecting slight movements. As a result, it is recommended to lower the sensitivity below the default value only if your equipment is prone to generate noise.
    Tip: A plain image, such as viewing an empty wall, is more prone to generate noise than an image containing a lot of detail.
    Motion alert on
    Indicates the beginning of motion. This setting allows you to specify the minimum amount of motion (as a percentage of the entire video image) that must be detected for motion to be considered on. Once this minimum is reached, a motion detection notification is sent by email only if it has been more than five minutes between motion detected notifications. The default setting is 12% of the video image.
    Motion alert off
    In the same way that the Motion alert on setting indicates the beginning of motion, this setting indicates the end of motion. Motion is considered off when the amount of motion (as a percentage of the entire video image) drops below the Motion alert off setting. The default setting is 5% of the video image.
  3. Click Save, or navigate back to exit the page and cancel your changes.

Example

As shown in the following figure, when 12% of the video image contains motion, motion is considered as being detected and you are notified by email. When 5% and less of the video image contains motion, motion is considered off. For subsequent motion detection notifications to be sent, motion must first be considered off (5% and lower) before it can be considered on again (12% and higher). As a result, increasing the gap between these two settings reduces the frequency of notification emails that you receive.

Diagram illustrating how motion detection alerts are triggered and when motion detection notifications are sent.

Watch this video to learn more. Click the Captions icon (CC) to turn on video captions in one of the available languages.

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