How to add AI alerts to a Hikvision, Dahua or CP Plus DVR

There are two steps and you can stop after the first. Step one is to switch on the smart alerts your recorder or cameras already have. Step two is to add software if you want more than the recorder gives.

• Step one, free: turn on human and vehicle alerts, or intrusion rules, on the recorder, and enable notifications in the brand's phone app.
• Step two, software: a program on a Windows PC at your site reads the same cameras and sends a photo for people, smoke and fire, and a covered camera.
• You keep: your DVR or NVR, your cameras and your wiring. The recorder keeps recording as usual.
• Check first: your exact model, because the features and the menu names differ by model and firmware.

Look up your recorder's model number in the maker's manual or datasheet, and look for words like human, vehicle, intrusion, line crossing, smart motion or perimeter. If the manual does not mention them, your model probably only detects movement.

Analog cameras on a DVR work too. They give a lower-quality picture than modern IP cameras, which limits what any AI can pick out.

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Hikvision calls its people and vehicle filtering AcuSense. It classifies objects as human, vehicle or other, on supported models. If you have a Prama recorder, check your own model's manual for the same features.

To turn on an intrusion alert on a recorder, open its web page and look for Smart Analysis, Smart Event Settings, Perimeter Protection, Intrusion. Tick Enable Intrusion Detection, draw the area, set Detection Target to Human or Vehicle to discard alarms that are not caused by a person or vehicle, then set the arming schedule and linkage actions. To get the alert on your phone, open the device in the Hik-Connect app, tap Settings, then Alarm Notification, and switch it on. You can set a notification schedule so alerts reach you only at certain hours.

For the app, see the Hik-Connect guide.

Dahua calls its people and vehicle recognition WizSense. It says it can recognise human and vehicle in an image. Not every Dahua camera or recorder has it.

In the DMSS app, tap the three dots next to the recorder, then Device Details, then Multi-channel Alarm Subscription. Switch it on, use Period Settings to choose the hours, tick the cameras and tap Save. Dahua's own guide lists motion detection and intrusion alarm as examples. If notifications do not arrive, check the phone's notification permission.

For the app, see the DMSS guide.

Some CP Plus recorders have Smart Motion Detection, or SMD Plus. CP Plus describes it as an AI-based filter that differentiates human and vehicular shapes and sends alarms only when a person or vehicle is detected. The datasheets list it on specific models, and some list a limit on the number of channels.

In the gCMOB app, which is called iCMOB on iPhone, push notifications cover four events: motion detection, video loss, tampering and network disconnect. CP Plus says each push message carries only the device, the camera name and the event type. There is no photo in it.

For the app, see the gCMOB guide and how to connect your CCTV to your mobile.

• They depend on the model. An older recorder may only detect movement, and movement alerts include headlights, insects and shadows.
• The alert is often text. A line saying which camera and which event is easy to ignore at night, and it does not show you what happened.
• Every brand has its own app. A site with two brands of recorder needs two apps.
• Smoke, fire and a covered camera are not part of people and vehicle filtering. Hikvision describes AcuSense as sorting objects into human, vehicle and other. Check the manual for anything more.
• The recorder cannot make a second check. What it detects is what it sends.

Our software installs on a Windows computer at your site in 60 seconds. It finds the cameras on your DVR or NVR and reads each camera's low-bandwidth sub-stream. The recorder keeps recording. You do not change the wiring, the cameras or the recorder.

Our own AI models, trained in-house, watch every camera on site. A second, larger model double-checks each event before it reaches you. The alert is a photo with the camera and the time, on WhatsApp, Telegram or the Foreman app, while it is still happening.

• Standard on every site: smoke and fire, people after hours in zones you mark, a covered camera, and a warning when a camera goes offline.
• Set up with our team: helmet and vest checks, number plates at the gate (Indian plates today), forklift near-miss and idle machines.
• Works with Hikvision and Prama, Dahua, CP Plus, TVT, Uniview, Axis, Hanwha, and any camera, DVR or NVR with RTSP or ONVIF.
• Free 7-day trial on up to 32 cameras, no card. In India it is ₹400 per camera per month plus GST, four cameras minimum.

Yes. Keep the recorder's own alerts if they help, and let the software cover what they miss. Many sites do. Turn off any recorder alert that only produces noise, so the alerts you do get are ones you act on.