Configuring and Connecting Cameras for the First Time

After you have successfully installed your FortiRecorder, the next step will be to configure and then connect your cameras.

Configuring and connecting your cameras will involve the following steps:

Configure the video profile.
Create a camera profile.
Connect your cameras.
Configure camera settings.

If you require information on how to physically connect your cameras to the FortiRecorder, see the camera's QuickStart Guide.

Configure the video profile

A video profile defines the video quality captured by the camera.

Video profiles are used in camera profiles, which we will explain further in the next section.

To configure a video profile

Go to Camera > Configuration > Video Profile.
Select New.
Enter a name that reflects the configuration itself, like "high-resolution".
Select your desired codec from the drop-down menu.
Select the amount of detail of the captured image. Lower resolutions feature less detail but are faster to transmit, while higher resolution produces a clearer image but require more bandwidth.
Select the number of frames per second (FPS). Most videos are 24 FPS. More FPS uses more CPU resources but may be useful if the objects you're attempting to capture on video move quickly.
Select the group of pictures in seconds.
Select the bit rate. A variable rate lowers the bit rate dynamically when little to no motion is detected. A fixed bit rate maintains a constant bit rate.
Select the degree of compression and enable or disable the audio.
SelectOK.

Create a camera profile.

A camera profile defines the video profiles to use, the video storage options, and the recording schedules.

To configure camera profiles

Go to Camera > Configuration > Camera Profile.
Select New.
Enter a descriptive name.
Select both the recording and viewing stream profile used to determine the video quality. This could be the profile we created from the previous section.
Select the recording type that instructs the camera when to begin filming. In the example image, we've selected motion detection, which tells the camera to only record video when it detects motion, thus saving on bandwidth and storage.
Enable whether video is recorded to the SD card continuously or only at moments of detection.
Select the storage options of both continuous and detection recordings.
Select whether or not FortiRecorder compresses continuous recordings. If you enable compression, make sure to configure the maximum amount of time to keep files uncompressed. Files whose start time is older than the specified time will be compressed. Selecting compression also saves storage space.

Connect your cameras

We can now prepare FortiRecorder to discover your connected cameras.

If you physically connect the camera to the switch before you have configured and enabled the DHCP server on FortiRecorder, the camera will use its default IP address, which might not be working on your network. Therefore, you must reboot the camera to get an IP address from the FortiRecorder DHCP server by unplugging the camera from the switch and plugging it back.

We will be using a direct connection method. This connection type is for when your camera is located directly on your local network.

Change your PC’s IP address to be on the same subnet as the FortiRecorder port1’s default IP address 192.168.1.99. For example, set your PC’s IP to 192.168.1.98.
Connect your PC and FortiRecorder’s port1to a PoE switch as show in the diagram. Do not connect the camera to the switch at this stage.
On your PC, open a web browser and connect to https://192.168.1.99. Log in to the admin administrator account with Name: admin and Password: (none).
On the FortiRecorder web UI, go toSystem > Network > DHCP, and selectNewto create a new DHCP server on port1.
Enable DHCP server and select port1 from the Interface drop-down menu.
Go toSystem > Network > Interfaceand select port1 and thenEdit.
Enable Discover cameras on this port.
Connect the camera to the PoE switch.
Go toCamera > Configuration > Cameraand selectDiscover. Newly discovered cameras are highlighted in yellow.

We will configure the individual cameras in the next section.

Configure camera settings

Once the cameras are physically connected to the FortiRecorder, you can configure the discovered cameras.

To configure a camera

Go toCamera > Configuration > Camera.
Select a newly discovered camera and then selectConfigure.
Enable the FortiRecorder to communicate with the IP address. Communication is required to trigger scheduled recordings and other camera commands.
Enter a name and the physical location of the camera for organizational purposes.
Select the address mode from the drop-down menu.
Select the Transport type, which is the tunnel between the camera and the NVR. RTSP is used for video streaming, which is UDP. If you want to use TCP, use HTTP tunneling. If you want the communication to be secure/encrypted use HTTPS tunneling.
Select the camera profile we created earlier.
Select the Preview button to retrieve a single still image from the camera and then select Use As Icon to use the captured image as the display picture for the camera in your camera list.
Expand the various settings tabs and adjust accordingly. The availability of the settings tabs are dependent upon your camera model. If you require more details for specific settings, consult the Administrator guide.
SelectOK.
If you kept the Enabled check box marked, at this time, FortiRecorder connects to the camera’s discovered IP address. FortiRecorder configures the camera with:
- the camera’s new Address and other network settings (if Address mode is set to Static)
- NTP settings (if you configured them for FortiRecorder during “Setting the system time”
In order to control the camera according to your selected schedules, FortiRecorder will periodically connect to the camera’s configured IP address. It will also keep video recordings sent by that camera from its new IP address.