Everything you need to know about using Camera Hub.
Camera Hub is a centralized platform for monitoring and managing security camera systems across multiple sites. It gives you real-time visibility into camera status, device health, and site activity from a single dashboard.
Navigate to the login page and enter your username and password. If your organization uses email verification, you must verify your email address before you can log in.
After logging in, you'll land on the Explorer — your main workspace. The interface is organized into:
The dashboard updates automatically in real time using server-sent events (SSE). When camera data changes, the UI refreshes instantly without any manual action.
Updates automatically pause when your browser goes offline and resume when connectivity is restored.
Each site in the sidebar displays a color-coded status dot that summarizes its overall health at a glance:
All devices connected and all cameras online.
One or more cameras are offline, but all devices are still reachable.
One or more devices are disconnected and cannot be reached.
A site represents a physical location where cameras and network devices are installed — such as an office building, warehouse, retail store, or data center. Sites are the primary organizational unit in Camera Hub.
Users with the manage_sites permission can add new sites. To add a site:
Tip: Your plan tier determines how many sites you can create. Check the Plans & Billing tab for your current limits.
Open a site's Settings tab to update its name, address, or configuration. Deleting a site is a destructive action that permanently removes:
This action cannot be undone. You will be asked to confirm before proceeding.
Each site can display a map in the Overview tab. Two map modes are supported:
Configure maps from the site's Settings tab under General settings. Requires the manage_sites permission.
Each site can have one or more contacts — people responsible for on-site operations. Contacts include a name, email, and phone number. Users with the manage_site_contacts permission can add, edit, or remove contacts.
Contacts can be configured with the following roles:
Each site has a configurable alert interval that controls how often Camera Hub checks for and sends alert emails. The default is 60 minutes. You can adjust this from the site's Settings tab to balance between timely alerts and notification fatigue.
Attach notes to a site for internal documentation — such as access instructions, network diagrams, or maintenance schedules. You can also add external links to relevant resources. These require the manage_site_notes and manage_site_links permissions respectively.
A device is a network video recorder (NVR), digital video recorder (DVR), server, or gateway that manages cameras at a site. Devices connect to the camera platform and provide the interface for camera monitoring. Each device belongs to a single site.
Camera Hub supports five camera management platforms:
Enterprise VMS with clustering support. Configure up to 5 server IPs per device for high-availability setups. Monitors individual server node health.
Video management system with session-based authentication. Supports camera discovery and status monitoring.
Wide range of NVRs, DVRs, and IP cameras. Supports both IP and coaxial (analog) cameras with automatic channel detection.
Network video recorders with REST API integration. Tracks camera serial numbers, MAC addresses, and display IDs.
NVRs and DVRs with HTTP API. Supports channel enumeration with automatic camera name and status discovery.
Users with the manage_devices permission can add, edit, and delete devices. When adding a device:
Device credentials are encrypted at rest using AES-256-CBC encryption and are never visible in the interface after saving.
Camera Hub periodically connects to each device to scan camera status. The scan interval is configurable per device (from 5 minutes to 24 hours). You can see the last scan time and next scheduled scan on the device card.
If a device becomes unreachable, its status changes to disconnected and the site status escalates to CRITICAL. An alert email is sent automatically and a recovery email follows when the device comes back online.
Camera Hub monitors the clock on each device and alerts you if it drifts more than 60 seconds from the server time. Time drift can cause issues with video recording timestamps and evidence integrity. Drift alerts appear in the site logs.
Cameras are automatically discovered when Camera Hub scans a device. Each camera shows its current status (online or offline), name, IP address, and the server it's connected to. Cameras are grouped by site and device.
You can switch between grid view (thumbnail cards) and list view (compact table) using the toggle at the top of the camera panel. Your preference is saved automatically.
Click any camera thumbnail or name to open the camera detail view. This provides a full set of tools for that camera:
Available actions depend on your permissions and the camera's platform.
Camera statuses are checked at each scan interval. The dashboard uses color-coded indicators:
When a camera goes offline, a log entry is created automatically. When it comes back online, a recovery log is added. The dashboard updates in real time to keep status indicators current.
Camera Hub automatically captures thumbnail images from each camera during scans. Thumbnails are displayed on camera cards in grid view, giving you a visual preview of each camera's feed.
When a camera goes offline, its last known image is preserved so you always have a recent reference.
Camera Hub archives camera snapshots monthly so you can review how a camera's view has changed over time. To access snapshot history:
Snapshot history is retained for up to 12 months. This is useful for verifying camera placement, detecting tampering, or reviewing how environmental conditions affect camera views.
Sometimes a camera is intentionally taken offline for maintenance or relocation. Use the Manual Disconnect feature to mark a camera as intentionally disconnected. Manually disconnected cameras:
This feature is available for Dahua, Uniview, and TVT cameras.
Organize cameras within a site by creating groups. Groups help you categorize cameras by their physical location or infrastructure dependency. Two group types are available:
Camera groups require the manage_camera_groups permission. A single camera can belong to both a location group and a power source group.
Mark cameras as critical to highlight them for priority attention. Critical cameras are visually distinguished in the dashboard and are called out separately in alert emails so your team can focus on the most important feeds first. Requires the update_cam_criticality permission.
Add notes to individual cameras to track maintenance, known issues, or configuration details. Camera notes maintain a full history — when you add a new note, previous notes are preserved as a timeline. Each note records who wrote it and when. Requires the manage_cam_notes permission.
Reports are different from notes — they are formal incident submissions used to flag a camera problem requiring attention. When you submit a report:
Use notes for informal annotations (reminders, config details). Use reports for formal incident documentation. Requires the submit_cam_reports permission.
Use the search bar to filter cameras by name, IP address, or status. You can also filter to show only online or offline cameras. The search works across all camera platforms.
Use the ping feature to test connectivity to a specific camera's IP address on demand. This helps diagnose network issues without waiting for the next scan cycle. Requires the ping_cameras permission.
Camera Hub supports two types of CSV exports for each site:
Both exports require the export_data permission. Each export action is recorded in the audit log.
Camera Hub proactively monitors your camera infrastructure and notifies you when issues arise. Alerts are delivered through multiple channels to ensure you never miss a critical event.
When cameras go offline or devices become unreachable, Camera Hub sends alert emails to the site's configured contacts. Alert emails include:
Critical cameras are highlighted separately in alert emails so your team can prioritize accordingly.
Tip: Alert frequency is controlled by each site's alert interval (default: 60 minutes). Adjust this in the site's Settings tab to avoid notification fatigue.
The notification bell in the header provides real-time updates without waiting for email. Notifications stream live to your browser and appear instantly when:
Each notification shows a severity badge (Critical, Warning, or Info) and a type badge (Camera, Device, or System) so you can quickly assess what happened. Unread notifications are indicated by a count badge on the bell icon. Click the bell to view the last 24 hours of notifications and mark them as read.
Enable desktop (browser) notifications to receive pop-up alerts even when the Camera Hub tab isn't in focus. To enable:
Desktop notifications show the camera or device name, the event type, and the site name. You can disable them at any time from the same notification panel.
Camera Hub can send automated daily camera health reports that summarize the past 24 hours of activity for each site. Reports include:
To receive daily reports, a site contact must be opted in via the Daily Report toggle in the site's contact settings. Reports are sent once per day during the configured report hour.
Alert settings are managed at the site level. To configure who receives alerts:
Requires the manage_site_contacts permission.
Organization admins can manage users from the Admin panel. You can add new users by sending email invitations, assign them to specific sites, and set their role.
Here's how the user invitation process works from start to finish:
Camera Hub uses a role-based access control system with six built-in roles:
| Role | Description | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Superadmin | Full system access across all organizations | Global |
| Org Admin | Manage users, sites, and settings within the organization | Organization |
| Admin | Manage sites and devices across assigned locations | Assigned Sites |
| IT Tech | Technical operations, camera testing, and reporting | Assigned Sites |
| Tech | View cameras and submit reports | Assigned Sites |
| Customer | Read-only access to view assigned sites | Assigned Sites |
Organizations on Professional and Enterprise plans can create custom roles with granular permissions. Custom roles let you tailor access levels to your team's specific needs. Create and manage custom roles from the Roles & Permissions tab in the Admin panel.
Camera Hub supports 20 granular permissions that can be assigned to custom roles:
| Permission | Description |
|---|---|
| Cameras | |
| view_cameras | View camera lists and status |
| manage_cam_notes | Add, edit, and delete camera notes |
| update_cam_criticality | Mark cameras as critical or non-critical |
| ping_cameras | Ping camera IP addresses on demand |
| submit_cam_reports | Submit formal camera issue reports |
| view_camera_logs | View camera and device event logs |
| manage_camera_groups | Create and manage camera groups (location and power source) |
| Sites | |
| view_sites | View site lists and details |
| manage_sites | Create, edit, and delete sites |
| manage_site_notes | Add, edit, and delete site notes |
| manage_site_contacts | Manage site contact information and alert settings |
| manage_site_links | Add and remove site reference links |
| Devices | |
| view_devices | View device lists and configurations |
| manage_devices | Add, edit, and delete devices |
| Users | |
| view_users | View user lists in your organization |
| manage_users | Invite, edit, and remove users |
| Administration | |
| access_admin_panel | Access the admin management panel |
| view_audit_logs | View system audit logs |
| export_data | Export data to CSV files |
Camera Hub maintains a comprehensive audit trail of all user actions. Every login, data change, export, and administrative action is recorded with the user, timestamp, IP address, and details.
Users with the view_audit_logs permission can browse the audit trail from the Admin panel. Logs can be filtered by:
Audit logs can be exported to CSV format for compliance, archival, or external analysis. Exporting requires the export_data permission. Each export is itself audit-logged.
Separate from audit logs, Camera Hub tracks device and camera events — when a camera goes offline, when it comes back online, server node issues, and time drift warnings. These logs are stored per-site and can be viewed from the Explorer's Logs tab. Requires the view_camera_logs permission.
Each log entry has a severity level that indicates the nature and urgency of the event:
Routine events: cameras coming online, scans completing, or configuration changes.
Non-critical issues: time drift detected, degraded performance, or partial connectivity.
Serious problems: cameras going offline, devices unreachable, or server nodes down.
Recovery events: a previously reported issue has been resolved (camera back online, device reconnected).
Use the severity filter dropdown in the Logs tab to focus on specific event types.
The Logs tab provides several tools for finding specific events:
Logs can also be exported to CSV using the Export button. Requires the export_data permission.
Log retention periods vary by plan tier:
| Plan | Device/Camera Log Retention |
|---|---|
| Free Trial | 7 days |
| Professional | 30 days |
| Enterprise | 365 days |
Logs beyond the retention period are automatically archived. System audit logs are retained for 365 days across all plans.
Camera Hub offers three plan tiers to fit organizations of every size:
$0 / 30 days
$10 / 16 cameras / mo
Custom pricing
Professional plan customers receive automatic volume discounts as they scale:
| Camera Count | Discount |
|---|---|
| 1 – 128 cameras | Standard pricing |
| 129 – 256 cameras | 5% off |
| 257+ cameras | 10% off |
Tip: Discounts apply once you exceed the threshold. For example, at 129 cameras the 5% discount kicks in on your total.
New organizations start with a 30-day free trial. When your trial expires:
To upgrade from a Free Trial, contact your organization administrator or use the upgrade options on the trial expiry page. Organization admins with superadmin access can change plans from the Admin panel.
Access your profile settings from the dropdown menu in the top-right corner of any page. From your profile you can:
All passwords must meet the following requirements:
Passwords are securely hashed and never stored in plain text.
New accounts require email verification before full access is granted. A verification link is sent to your registered email address. If you don't receive the email, you can request a new verification link from the login page.
If you've forgotten your password, you can reset it without contacting an administrator:
Reset links are single-use and expire after a limited time for security. If the link has expired, request a new one.
For security, your session will automatically expire after 24 hours of inactivity. When your session expires, you'll be redirected to the login page. Use the "Remember me" option during login to extend your session for up to 30 days.
To sign out, click your profile icon in the top-right corner and select "Sign Out." This immediately ends your session and clears any stored session data. You'll be redirected to the login page.
manage_cam_notes permission; reports require submit_cam_reports.