Short answer: Monitor three things for every camera: is the stream online, is footage actually being written, and does the picture still show what it should. Have software check the first two constantly and alert you, and look at the picture on a routine. Most people discover a dead camera on the day they need its footage.
Why do cameras fail without anyone noticing?
A camera that stops recording doesn’t make a sound. Common causes:
- Power. A PoE switch out of power budget, a failed injector, a tripped circuit.
- Network. A damaged cable, a dead switch port, or the camera’s address changing so the recorder can’t find it.
- The camera itself. A crash after a firmware update, overheating in a sealed housing in summer.
- Storage. A full or failing disk, or retention set wrong so footage is deleted sooner than expected.
- The picture. A camera knocked or turned, a lens fogged or dirty, focus drifted, a spider web lit up by the infrared at night, a new shelf in the way.
- The clock. A camera whose time drifts produces footage with the wrong timestamps, which is a problem when it’s evidence.
What should be monitored?
| Check | What it catches | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Stream online | Power, network, crashed cameras | Every few seconds, automatically |
| Stream quality (frame rate, bitrate) | Degraded cameras, overloaded networks | Continuously |
| Footage written | Recording gaps, full disks | Daily, via the recording timeline |
| Days actually kept vs target | Disks too small, wrong retention | Weekly |
| Picture still useful | Moved, blocked or dirty cameras | Weekly glance, monthly at night |
| Time in sync | Wrong timestamps | Monthly |
A routine that works
- Daily: glance at the health view. Anything offline or degraded gets fixed today.
- Weekly: play back a minute from each camera, including some night footage. Check the oldest recording is as old as it should be.
- Monthly: clean domes and lenses where needed, check disk health, apply firmware updates one camera at a time.
How Supervision monitors health
Supervision checks every camera every 10 seconds and marks it online, degraded or offline, with the reason. It shows storage used per camera, and the playback calendar is shaded by how much was recorded each day, so a gap stands out before anyone needs that day. For sizing disks, see how much storage security cameras need.
Common questions
Why does my camera go offline at night?
Infrared lighting draws extra power after dark, which can push a PoE switch or a long cable over its limit. Check the switch’s power budget, and the cable length and quality.
How often should cameras be checked?
Automatically, every few seconds for connection; by a person, weekly for the picture. Software can tell you a camera is online; it takes a look to know it’s still pointing at the door.
What’s a “degraded” camera?
One that’s online but not delivering what it should: a frame rate well below its setting, a stream that keeps dropping, or a bitrate far from normal. It’s often the warning before a camera goes offline.
Supervision is self-hosted video management software for any camera brand. If this is the kind of problem you're solving, tell us about your cameras and we'll talk it through, or email hello@bipolarfactory.com.