Allowing access only to certain cameras?

[oil]

I am interested in purchasing the 8mp color Vu for a warehouse and I was wondering if the below were possible?

1) On Hik-Connect, is it possible to give access to somebody for only some cameras? These warehouses have been targeted in the past at night (usually when we will be asleep) so we won't be awake to see the notifications, I was thinking of asking a few friends who live in a different time zone so that they can get the Hik-Connect notifications while we will be asleep.

That way, they can call me and notify me of somebody trying to break in before they actually break in and set off the alarms, and they can deter the thieves using the mic. However, they wouldn't need access to the cameras inside.

2) I'm struggling to find out about how cloud storage would work here. Does anybody know the monthly cost? I'd like cloud storage as a backup as I've seen situations where the hard drive was stolen, it would be good to have things saved on cloud as a backup for this.

 

[codlord]

1) I asked this ages ago and the answer unfortunately seems to be no, it's all-or-nothing. Like you I wanted a "view only" user for a few cameras only, e.g. a site neighbour whose land some of our cameras look onto. But there does not seem to be any facility to restrict a users access - they have access to all cameras and even all facilities/options - e.g. even an "operator" user could if they wanted "fiddle" with settings etc.

2) I don't know but I too would be interested in something like this too - e.g. rotating cloud storage of the last 24 hours of all cameras or something like that but I don't know if it would be possible technically (for reasons of internet bandwidth etc)

 

[JB1970]

1 - It might be that it wasn't possible previously but yes you can if you're using the Hik-Connect service and are sharing to another Hik-Connect user (you'll need to in order to get the notifications to them):

• In the app next to your site, click the three dot menu then 'Share'
• 'Share with user'
• Decide whether to specify users account e mail/phone or use the QR code then click 'Next'
• Deselect any cameras you don't want to share then click 'Next'
• On the next screen select the first camera and in the resulting screen deselect any option you want to remove access to (Remote Playback, Alarm, 2 Way Audio, PTZ) and click the save icon to return to the camera list
• Repeat for the remaining cameras and click OK when complete
• If selected the QR code will be generated (otherwise the recipient will receive the offer to share access via a service notification within the app)

2 - Hikvision cloud storage option is unavailable in the UK (regardless of whether the option is on the NVR GUI). What you can do is install a micro SD card in each camera and select the ANR option. If the camera loses its network connection, recording continues to the SD. Reconnection to the NVR would dump the footage from the SD card back to the hard drive. Of course that would only be of use if you're using a non PoE NVR (as if a PoE NVR gets nicked the camera is powered down)

 

[oil]

Thanks, I just tried the part about my 1st question and it worked
As for my 2nd question, if I had an SD card in the camera then is there any way we could make the footage get saved to the NVR and the SD card? That way, even if the NVR gets stolen then the camera would still have the SD card with the footage inside?

 

[JB1970]

As for my 2nd question, if I had an SD card in the camera then is there any way we could make the footage get saved to the NVR and the SD card?

I think this question has come up previously but I can't remember the outcome. I can't see why you couldn't pop an SD card in the camera, login to it and enable the record schedule. I've not tried it myself but in the absence of someone confirming it works/doesn't work I can grab a spare out of the garage and test

 

[oil]

Thank you! We'll see if anybody is able to confirm this and if not, I would be very grateful if you could do this as the backup is quite important. I have heard quite a few stories locally where the hard drives have been stolen so the SD option sounds ideal since cloud is unavailable.

 

[JB1970]

Thank you! We'll see if anybody is able to confirm this and if not, I would be very grateful if you could do this as the backup is quite important. I have heard quite a few stories locally where the hard drives have been stolen so the SD option sounds ideal since cloud is unavailable.

Where the cameras are powered from switches (not the NVR) the ANR option is good as I mentioned. However if someone steals the NVR that has the footage, although the cameras would record to their card; you'd be relying on them capturing someone on the way out (not ideal). I also noticed that when the camera reconnects to the recorder and the footage is copied back, it slows up the NVR interface for a time.

 

[oil]

Ah wouldn’t the SD card and the NVR both be recording at the same time? Because even if the NVR gets stolen, then the SD card will have recorded the thieves breaking in before it was powered off right?

 

[JB1970]

Ah wouldn’t the SD card and the NVR both be recording at the same time? Because even if the NVR gets stolen, then the SD card will have recorded the thieves breaking in before it was powered off right?

That would be the case if the recording schedule is set up manually on the camera to record to SD (if that works when an NVR is in use).

It's different with ANR; the camera records only to the NVR until the connection is lost, at which point it starts recording to SD. When the connection between the camera and NVR is restored, the NVR copies all of the data from the SD back to the hard disk. I tried it and it was seamless, with not even a frame dropped (I could see myself unplugging the network to the camera in the video). I'm guessing when ANR is switched on, the camera is continually writing a small amount of video to memory or the SD so that nothing is lost on disconnection.