Tag Archives: securityspy

Using an iPhone or iPad as a CCTV Camera

With the right app, an iPhone or iPad can make an effective security camera that provides standard RTSP video/audio feeds. This is especially useful for older iOS devices that would otherwise be unused, making for an easy and inexpensive way to add an extra camera to your video surveillance system built around our macOS NVR software SecuritySpy.

In order for an iOS device to be used for video surveillance, it should be powered all the time and set to never sleep. Such a device should never be used for a critical CCTV purpose, since things like power outages or app/devices crashes may require manual intervention to put right. This can be mitigated somewhat with Apple’s Guided Access or Single App features.

The following apps have been tested and confirmed to work well with SecuritySpy for H.264 RTSP streaming, delivering high-quality and efficient video/audio streams to SecuritySpy. Continue reading

Dahua IPC-HDW5831R-ZE IP Camera Review

Dahua Technology have such an extensive range of IP cameras that it can be difficult to choose between them, especially between models that are superficially similar. Generally, Dahua cameras work very well with our macOS CCTV software SecuritySpy, and this particular model, the IPC-HDW5831R-ZE, looks like it could be something special.

This is an “eyeball” type camera, which is a form factor with some significant advantages: they are generally compact in size, easy to swivel and rotate to the correct position, and, unlike dome cameras, there is no curved perspex dome in front of the lens to reduce quality.

IPC-HDW5831R-ZE IP Camera

Dahua Technology IPC-HDW5831R-ZE

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Customising SecuritySpy’s Web Interface

SecuritySpy has a built-in web server that allows remote viewing of live camera streams as well as access to previously-captured footage and settings. We sometimes get asked by customers how to customise the appearance of these web pages for various reasons, such as to change colours, add branding, modify text etc. The procedure is quite simple, though it does require some knowledge of HTML and CCS.

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Adding a Camera Unknown to SecuritySpy

We have an extensive list of cameras that are known to be compatible with SecuritySpy. All these cameras have profiles built into SecuritySpy, making for a quick and easy setup in most cases.

However, it’s a fast-changing market and new cameras are continuously being released. While we do our best to release frequent updates that support these new cameras, it’s a difficult task. You may find yourself intending to use a particular camera that is not yet on our list – this blog post will show you how.

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