This article provides clarity to the user interface based on tickets.
Link to Mobile Devices - Setup article (if needed).
If you are facing video issues like Live view is choppy or you are getting a black screen when trying to playback an alert then you are having video streaming issues. The Camera Stream Gotchas article deals with all things streaming including streaming to mobile endpoints.
Located in the cameras tab, the recent alerts column displays the last alert that was generated by each camera.
- recent alert.png (101.88 KiB) Viewed 17814 times
If you happen to delete the recent alert or the clip containing the recent alert, the space will be blank until the next alert is created by the camera.
- recent alert blank.png (118.89 KiB) Viewed 17814 times
PTZ Controls are greyed out.
- There is no such thing as PTZ controls when viewing a group of cameras, i.e. group view.
- Camera settings -> PTZ tab. Enable Pan/Tilt/Zoom etc. checkbox has to be selected.
- Global settings -> Users tab. The user using the app has to have PTZ privileges. PTZ/Control has to be checked.
- mobile ui_group ptz.png (95.28 KiB) Viewed 17812 times
Motion overlays are not visible
Go to the playback window for an alert.
Click the 3 dots button in the top right.
Video overlays are usually the BI timestamp but could have customizations based on the user.
Motion rectangles obviously show the motion overlays.
- mobile article motion overlays.PNG (101.59 KiB) Viewed 20203 times
Also, keep in mind, if you have Re-encode instead of D2D as your Record setting, Motion overlays are not recorded unless you have them turned on during Live view. Camera settings -> Trigger tab -> Motion sensor.
- mobile article motion settings.png (4.21 KiB) Viewed 20200 times
Gotcha 1: Camera streams no longer appear.
If none of the cameras appear, see mobile apps troubleshooting framework.
Gotcha 2: Some cameras do not show live video
- mobile no camera.png (107.76 KiB) Viewed 20411 times
Fix1:
Highly unusual. The most common reason is if the camera has no signal or lost signal. See No Signal article to troubleshoot.
Outside of the camera not connecting from the Console, the only other way this is possible is if webcasting for that camera was disabled.
- webcast disabled.png (19.71 KiB) Viewed 20411 times
Fix2:
The video pipeline: Camera feed -> Decode -> Encode ->Mobile device live view.
Decode: Turn Decode on/off to see if video improves
Camera settings -> Video tab. Hardware decode = Default (On) / No (Off)
Camera feed: See Camera settings article on optimal encoding settings on a camera.
Gotcha 3: Cameras do not show up on the phone
If cameras are visible on the console but do not show up on the mobile apps, there must be a permissions issue.
In the console, did you make the camera hidden?
FYI, we're trying to move away from hidden cameras because it often leads to confusion.
See 5.5 Release notes for details.
Otherwise the user account used to login to the phone app does not have permission to access the camera.
Double check your user settings. Global settings -> User tab.
- mobile_camera groups.png (8.21 KiB) Viewed 19002 times
Gotcha 1: Missing alerts
The Alerts tab in the mobile app should have the identical listing as the Alerts list in the Console.
If you notice differences (rare occasions)
Confirmed alerts
The mobile apps ONLY show Confirmed alerts. Know the difference between Confirmed alerts and Cancelled alerts. Confirmed alerts meet all the restrictions beyond the Trigger tab. This includes Artificial Intelligence, if enabled, the Trigger sources and zones restrictions in the Alerts tab and any other conditions specified in the Alerts tab.
- database_confirmed alerts.png (66.18 KiB) Viewed 17775 times
For example, a user can unselect Hide cancelled alerts on timeline and 'all alerts'. Camera settings -> AI dialog. If a user does so, cancelled alerts due to AI will appear in the Alerts list in the console. However, the mobile app will NOT show cancelled alerts. This is one example where the Alerts list on the console may differ from the Alerts list on the mobile app.
User permissions
First confirm the username for login at the console is the same as the username used on the mobile device. For example, if you access the console via local_console and the mobile app with a user login, the user privileges may very well be different.
Does the user that logged into the mobile device have access to the camera?
In the cameras tab, is the camera listed? Can you see the live view?
If not, check user settings. Global settings -> Users tab.
- alert map_camera groups.png (8.2 KiB) Viewed 17775 times
Hidden cameras
Hidden cameras are not visible on remote devices in general. They are only visible to admin accounts on remote devices. Similar to user permissions issue (above), a non-admin user will not see alerts associated with hidden cameras. However, if an admin account is used to access the console, the alerts from the hidden cameras will still be listed.
One of the motivations for the 5.5 release of Dynamic Group Layout was to do away with the confusion associated with hidden cameras.