How to set up the Surveillance Station of QNAP NAS?

Introduction

To satisfy the increasing demand for embedded network surveillance solutions on NAS, QNAP unveiled a value-added application ‘Surveillance Station’ on its All-in-One Turbo NAS Series. The Surveillance Station enables users to configure and connect many IP cameras at the same time and manage functions including live audio & video monitoring, recording, and playback. Installation and configuration can be easily carried out remotely in a web browser in a few steps. Various recording modes are provided: continuous recording, motion-detection recording, and scheduled recording. Users can flexibly define the recording settings according their security plans.
The Surveillance Station supports a large number of IP camera brands. You can find a list of supported cameras at: https://www.qnap.com/compatibility.

Contents

  • Plan your home/office network topology
  • Set up the IP Cameras
  • Configure the Surveillance Station on the QNAP NAS
  • Configure Alarm Recording on the QNAP NAS
  • Play Video Files from the Surveillance Station

Plan Your Home/Office Network Topology

Write down your plan of the home/office network before starting to set up the surveillance system. Consider the following when doing so:

  • The IP address of the NAS
  • The IP address of the cameras
  • The IP address of your router and the wireless SSID

Your computer, the NAS, and the IP cameras should be installed to the same router in LAN. Assign fixed IP addresses for the NAS and the IP cameras.
For example:

  • The LAN IP of the router: 192.168.1.100
  • Camera 1 IP: 192.168.1.10 (fixed IP)
  • Camera 2 IP: 192.168.1.20 (fixed IP)
  • NAS IP: 192.168.1.60 (fixed IP)

Set up the IP Cameras

Configure the IP address for both IP cameras using the following steps.
You can download a camera IP Finder from official website of your camera’s vendor.
The name of the IP finder may differ between vendors. IP Finder is a utility that helps you search for the IP address of the camera.
CONNECT the IP camera to your home/office network with a network cable and run the IP Finder. Set the IP address of the cameras so that they are on the same LAN as the computer. You will then be able to login to the configuration page of the camera with a web browser. Enter the IP address of the first camera as 192.168.1.10. The default gateway should be set as the LAN IP of the router (192.168.1.100 in our example).

Note: The default IP and ID of administrator may differ based on what camera model is used.

ENTER the web configuration page of the IP camera.
You will then be able to view the monitoring image.

GO to ‘Network/ Network’ and check the IP settings of the camera.

NEXT, if you are using a Wireless IP CAM, please go to “Network/Wireless” and configure the wireless setting of your camera. Please ensure the camera’s settings are completed.

Repeat the above steps to set up the second camera.
To summarize, so far you have finished the following settings:

  • Camera 1 IP: 192.168.1.10
  • Camera 2 IP: 192.168.1.20

Note:
If you forget the camera settings, please press the reset button at the back of the camera for 5-10 seconds. The camera will be restored to default settings. You can then set the IP address and login to the camera’s configuration page with using the default login name and password. The reset function may differ by the brand of the camera. Please refer to the camera’s user manual in advance.

Configure the Surveillance Station on the QNAP NAS

Go to “Control Panel” > “System Settings” >”Network” > “TCP/IP” and press the “Edit” button to specify a fixed IP to the NAS: 192.168.1.60. The default gateway should be the same as the LAN IP of your router, which is 192.168.1.100 in our example.

Install Surveillance Station

  • Auto installation: Go to “App Center” > “Surveillance” > “Surveillance Station” and click “Add to QTS” to start installation.
  • Manual installation: Download the Surveillance Station QPKG from the App Center on the QNAP website. Then you can install it by clicking the “Install Manually” button and by selecting the location of the Surveillance Station QPKG to start installing.

Please note: To ensure proper operations of Surveillance Station, we recommend rebooting the Turbo NAS after its installation is completed.

In the Surveillance Station, please go to “Settings” and select “Camera 1” then click “” to add the camera configuration, e.g. name, model, IP address, recording setting and recording schedule.

In our demonstration we will assign the following IPs to each camera:
Camera 1 IP: 192.168.1.10
Camera 2 IP: 192.168.1.20

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

You can enable or change the recording option of the camera in next page. Click “next” to move to the next page.

On this page, you will see the “Schedule Settings.” In the table, 0~23 represents the time period. For example, 0 means 00:00~01:00, 1 means 01:00~02:00. You can set a continuous recording in any period that you want.

Then you will see the “Confirm Settings” on the next page.

After you have added the network cameras to the NAS, go to the “Monitor” page. The first time you access this page by browser, you have to install the ActiveX control (QMon.cab) in order to view the images of Camera 1 and Camera 2.

Note:
You can use the Surveillance Station in Chrome, Firefox or IE. The browser will prompt you to install the “ActiveX control” (QMon.cab) before using Monitor or Playback functions. Please follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

Note:
When you click on the monitoring screen of a camera, the frame will become orange. You can use the s configuration page.
In Surveillance Station 5, there is a new feature called “Instant Playback”. You can click the floating button to play recording and find recent event.

Configure Alarm Recording on the QNAP NAS

The Surveillance Station supports alarm recording by schedule. To use this function, go to “Camera Settings” > “Alarm Settings” in the Surveillance Station. You could select ‘Traditional Mode’ to do basic configurations or ‘Advanced Mode’ to define advanced alarm events.

  • Traditional Mode :
    You may define criteria enabling alarm recording then click ‘Apply’ to save the changes.
  • Advanced Mode :
    You may select the event on the left side and add an action on the right side by clicking “Add”.

Then you may choose the action type you need for this event.

The event “Motion Detection” has a corresponding action “Recording”.

Play Video Files from the Surveillance Station

You have to click or to enter the playback page and follow the steps below to play the video files on the remote Surveillance Station.

1. Drag and drop camera(s) from the server/camera tree to the respective playback window(s) to select the channel(s) for playback.

2. Select playback date from.You can examine each channel to know the time range when the files were recorded for each IP camera. The blue cells indicate regular recording files and the red cells indicate alarm recording files. If it is blank, it means no files are recorded at that time.

3. Clickto start the playback. You can control the speed and playback direction by dragging the button to right or left on the shuttle bar.

4. Specify the time to play back the recording files at that moment. You can view the preview image on the timeline bar to search the moment you want to play.

5. Clickto control all the playback windows to play back the recording files. When this function is enabled, the playback options (play, pause, stop, previous/next frame, previous/next file, speed adjustment) will be applied to all the playback windows.

Source :
https://www.qnap.com/en/how-to/tutorial/article/how-to-set-up-the-surveillance-station-of-qnap-nas