Webcam Surveillance

Affordable Webcam Surveillance Using Surveillance Station on QNAP NAS

Contents

• Affordable webcam surveillance
• Webcam surveillance requirements
• Configure Surveillance Station for webcam recording
• Configure scheduled recording on QNAP NAS
• Play back recordings

Affordable webcam surveillance

Video surveillance systems can be too expensive and difficult to maintain for general home users. QNAP NAS, by supporting webcam monitoring and recording, offers an affordable and easy-to-use option for home and office security. The Surveillance Station of the NAS monitors your home and office 24/7, captures still images, and saves them into compressed MJPEG video clips on the NAS storage. You can view the live video stream and the recorded files remotely via the web interface of the NAS anytime, anywhere.

Webcam surveillance requirements

To get started, you need to get a webcam with built-in UVC (USB Video Class) driver. You may refer to the following lists for the UVC-compliant webcams:

1. Logitech UVC Webcam List 
   http://logitech-en-emea.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/6471/related/1
2. Linux UVC Webcam List 
   http://www.ideasonboard.org/uvc/

Note:

1. The third-party sources can only be used as a reference and QNAP cannot guarantee the full compatibility.
2. The supported resolution and frames per second (FPS) are automatically detected based on the webcam hardware. The maximum resolution will always be used.

• ARM-based NAS: 640×480, 320×240, or 160×120 at 2FPS
• X86-based NAS: 960×720, 640×480, 320×240, or 160×120 at 5FPS

3. Maximum one webcam is supported by the NAS.

Configure Surveillance Station for webcam recording

1. Connect a USB webcam

Connect a USB webcam to a USB port of the QNAP NAS. If the webcam is supported, it will be listed as a log showing generic UVC camera in “System Administration” > “System Logs” on the NAS.

2. Install the QUSBCam QPKG add-on

The QUSBCam QPKG add-on can be downloaded from the QNAP website QPKG

Install the QPKG add-on from “Application Servers” > “QPKG Plugins” > “Installation” of the NAS. If the USB webcam is detected, the QUSBCam QPKG add-on will be automatically enabled. Otherwise, it will be disabled after installation.

3. Configure Surveillance Station

Note: The Surveillance Station is only supported on Internet Explorer 7.0 or above.

a. Go to “Application Servers” > “Surveillance Station” and tick both checkboxes “Enable Surveillance Station” and “Show service link on the login page” then click “Apply” to save the settings. Now you should see that the Surveillance Station icon on the top of the page is no longer grayed out. Simply click the icon to go to its page.

b. Configure the Surveillance Station with the following required settings:

Camera Model: Generic JPEG 
HTTP URL: /video.cgi 
IP Address: localhost 
Port: 8168 
User Name: root (or any text) 
Password: —- (or any text)

Note: Before applying the settings, you may click “Test” on the right to ensure the connection to the webcam is successful.

After you have added the webcam to the NAS, go to the “Live View” page. The first time you connect to this page by an IE browser, install the ActiveX control in order to view the image of the webcam. You can start to use the monitoring and recording functions of the Surveillance Station!

Configure scheduled recording on QNAP NAS

The Surveillance Station supports scheduled recording. To use this function, go to “Settings” > “Schedule Settings”.

Select the camera and specify the recording period. In the table, 0-23 represents the time range in hour. For example, 0 means 00:00-01:00, 1 means 01:00-02:00.

You may set the schedule by one of the following ways:

• Select “Continuous Recording” (blue blocks), then click the blocks on the time table to mark the recording schedule.
• Check the boxes for weekdays (Sunday to Saturday), then select “All day” or specify the time period. Click “Add” and the schedule will be applied to the time table.

After configuring the schedule, click “Apply” to save the settings.

Play back recordings

To search for the recordings on the NAS, go to the “Playback” page of the Surveillance Station.

Select the camera from the “Video Channel” list. Specify the date and time and click . All the video data that match the search criteria will be shown on the playlist. You may play the video on the IE browser or download the video to your computer.

VN:F [1.9.22_1171]

VN:F [1.9.22_1171]