Add an IP camera to Surveillance Station

Overview

Surveillance Station is a security monitoring application on Synology NAS that allows you to manage IP cameras to safeguard your home and office environments. To link your IP camera to Surveillance Station, you first need to make some simple settings.

1. Launch IP Camera

To launch IP Camera, do either of the following:

• Launch Surveillance Station and click IP Camera.
  
• Launch Surveillance Station and go to Main Menu > IP camera.
  

2. Add Camera

To add a camera to Surveillance Station, choose one of the following options:

• If there are no already connected cameras, click the Add in the dialogue box to activate Add Camera Wizard.
• In the top left corner, click Add > Add Camera to activate Add Camera Wizard.
  

3. Set up your IP Camera

1. In Add Camera Wizard, choose between Complete Setup or Quick Setup. While Complete Setup allows you to configure device information, video settings, recording settings, and schedule settings, when you select Quick Setup you only need to set necessary device information. You can edit advanced settings in Advanced later.
   
2. Selct a server.
   
　　

3.1 Set up camera information

1. Under Information, click the search icon to the right of IP address to open the Camera search result window. Surveillance Station will automatically search for connectable devices in the domain.
   
2. First select the camera you wish to access then click the OK button. The device Name, IP address, Port, Brand, Camera model, and default Username and Password¹ and other settings will be loaded automatically. You can also enter your device information and let Surveillance Station help you with the default user name, password and other settings.
   
3. Some cameras also support Firmware, TV standard, Mount Type, Video channel and UPnP functions. To use such functions, make sure to enable them on your camera first.
   
　
4. Finish the Information setting, then click Test Connection to make sure Surveillance Station is connected to your device². If you are now connected to your device, a green check will appear and you can see the live feed in the box to the right³.
   
　　
5. If you chose Complete Setup, more video settings will be shown in the next page. If you chose Quick Setup, Surveillance Station will complete the action with default settings.

3.2 Set up video settings

Adjust Video format, Audio format, Streaming profile, Resolution, Frame rate, Bitrate control, and Image quality⁴ to your liking.

Depending on the camera, up to three streams can be set up simultaneously.

3.3 Set up recording settings

Adjust the Pre-recorded time and Post-recording time to your liking. Active Keep the files within (days) and Limit the archive folder up to (GB) to manage your recordings, then set up your Customize archive folder names, Customize file name prefix, and Recording storage.

3.4 Set up a schedule

1. Determine what time you want to start continuous recording and what time you wish to enable event detection⁵.
   
2. Click on the boxes above the timetable to choose a function, then drag your mouse across the timetable to apply the settings.
   
3. Click the Finish button to complete the setting. Surveillance Station will try to set up the camera accordingly.
   

4. Make sure your camera is set up correctly

• Cameras with their settings completed will appear in the list with their Status displayed behind the device name.
  
• It may take up to minutes for Surveillance Station to set up and connect to the device. Meanwhile, the Status will be displayed as Activating.
  
• If Surveillance Station fails to connect to your camera or obtain video stream, the Status will read Disconnected and prompt possible reasons.
  
• If the camera is later connected, the prompt will be hidden while the video stream thumbnail appears. Click the thumbnail to access your camera and play the footage.

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¹ Always load the default username and password. If the username or password is changed, Surveillance Station may not be able to find your camera.
² Even if the test connection is successful, some cameras may not function properly. See Why is the camera status displayed as Disconnected even when Test Connection was successful?
³ Some cameras do not provide snapshots, so snapshots may not be displayed properly.
⁴ If Bitrate control is set as Variable, you can choose the Image quality you want. If Bitrate control is set as Constant, you can adjust the bit rate.
⁵ After setting up your IP Camera, you can find Event detection and I/O Port in the left panel and edit settings.
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• Next in this topic: Set up Event Detection and view recordings