Search finds what already happened at your site. If a gate was damaged overnight, you can list the white vans a gate camera detected, play each event, and save the one that matters.
For the steps, see Search camera activity and play recordings and Find door activity and access-denied events.
Where to start
Start from what you already know.
| What you know | Use | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Roughly who, what, where, or when | Camera Activity | Search → Camera Activity |
| A photo of the person's face | Search by Photo | Search → Camera Activity → Search by Photo |
| The door or credential, or you want to see who used a door | Door Activity | Search → Door Activity |
| The exact camera and time | History | Devices → Cameras → select the camera → History |
Type your search
On Search → Camera Activity, you can skip the Filter panel. Type what you want in the box at the top of the page, which shows "Show me blue cars last week," and press Enter. This box is the Natural Language Filter. For example:
- show me yellow cars this week
- show me people with red shirts this week
- videos with animals
Anavio turns your words into filters and shows them above the results. Check that they match what you meant, then change them in the Filter panel if needed. For more examples, see What you can type in the Search cheat sheet.
Two example searches
Set each Search item in the Filter panel. Select an event's image to play it, and use its menu for the other actions. For Profile View, see Search by event or by person.
Find a vehicle from a description
The gate was damaged overnight, and a neighbor saw a white van. Searching only the gate camera, for only those hours, leaves a short list to review.
Search:
- Date & Time
- Closing to opening
- Location & Device
- Gate camera
- Object Type
- Vehicle
- Vehicle Type
- Van
- Vehicle Color
- White
Then:
- Play the events.
- Open Camera History and choose a time before and after.
- Select Archive Event.
Tip: If nothing comes back, remove Vehicle Color first. Lighting can change how a color reads. If you still find nothing, open History for the gate camera and check the footage directly.
Follow a person across your site
Staff saw someone they didn't recognize, in a red jacket, near the stockroom around 2 PM. Search the whole site to find the person, then see where else they went.
Search:
- Date & Time
- 1 PM to 3 PM
- Location & Device
- Whole site
- Object Type
- Person
- Clothing Color
- Upper: Red
Then:
- Switch to Profile View. If the person has a profile, select View Activity.
- Check Door Activity for nearby doors at the same time.
- If the event has a person profile and they may return, select Add Person of Interest.
Tip: Person Type relies on face detection, so it can miss people seen from behind or at a distance. Add it only to shorten a long list.
To be told if the person comes back, see A specific person showing up.
What you can search for
Select Filter, choose your options, then select Apply. You can use several filters together, with one Object Type per search. Start broad and add filters until the list is short enough to review. Options marked Beta may not classify every event correctly. The Search cheat sheet lists every choice under each filter.
When and where
Every search can use a time range and a location. Choose a whole site, a zone, or individual cameras or doors.
People
Under Object, set Object Type to Person.
Filters:
- Person Type
- Tag
- People
- Clothing Color
- Appearance & Accessories (Beta)
- Behaviour & Activity (Beta)
- Age Group (Beta)
- Gender (Beta)
Vehicles and animals
Under Object, set Object Type to Vehicle or Animal. Animals have no further filters.
Filters:
- Vehicle Type
- Vehicle Color
Doors
Door Activity uses its own filter, for the access record rather than what a camera saw.
Filters:
- Users/Visitors
- Credential
- Face, Card, Mobile
- Result
- Granted or a denied result
Search by event or by person
Camera Activity gives you two ways to run the same search. Switch with the two icons at the top right of the results. Your filters stay in place.
- Activity View searches events. It lists every event that matches, for a person, vehicle, or animal. Use it when you know what happened or what something looked like.
- Profile View searches people. Each person with a profile appears once, and appearance filters still apply. Use it when you want to know who was there. View Activity opens that person's events.
What you can do with a result
In Door Activity, select a row to open the event, then use Play Event for its video. In Camera Activity, select an event's image to play it.
Note: Event images can look blurry, and that's normal. See Why event images can look blurry.
The event's menu offers more, depending on the event and your role:
| Action | Use it to |
|---|---|
| Camera History | Open the same camera's History, then choose a time to see what it recorded before and after. |
| Archive Event | Save the footage for an incident. See Export, share, and verify video. |
| Share Event | Send someone a link that expires. |
| Download Image | Save the event's close-up image. |
| Add to Named People | Give an unknown person a name, so you can find them by name later. |
| Add Person of Interest, Tag as Person of Interest | Flag someone so you can filter on them. A workflow can also alert you when a camera sees them, which needs a Premium license on the NEXT camera. |
| Not This Person | Remove or correct the identity assigned to the event. |
Not every person event has a profile, for example when the camera didn't capture a face. Those events don't offer the last three actions above.
What Search doesn't do
- Search doesn't alert anyone. It looks back at events. To be told when something happens, see What you can do with workflows.
- No match doesn't mean nothing happened. Search lists what the cameras detected, so use History to check a known time.
- A match doesn't guarantee the video is still there. See Manage recording, storage, and cloud backup.
- Search doesn't prove who someone is. Names, photo matches, and attributes are clues, so check the video before you rely on them.
- Camera and door results stay in separate lists. To compare them, search both with the same time and location.
What you need
- Role: Limited Access or higher, with access to the site. Archiving and sharing need Supervisor or higher. See Permissions for user roles.
- License: Search filters don't need a Premium license.
- Detection: The detection type you want must be on for the account and the camera. Searching by name, person type, or photo also relies on Face Detection/Recognition (Beta). A Supervisor or higher can change this. See Set up analytics and detection areas.