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NovaVMS Manual

Add your first camera

By the end of this tutorial you will see live video from an ONVIF camera on the NovaVMS dashboard. This guide covers the ONVIF-via-gateway path — the fastest way onboard a camera that is on the same local network as a NovaVMS gateway.

What you will need

  • Admin or Operator access to a NovaVMS organisation.
  • An ONVIF-compatible IP camera, powered on and plugged into the same LAN as your gateway.
  • The camera’s username and password. Factory defaults are often printed on a sticker on the camera body.
  • A gateway showing a green dot on the Gateways page. If it does not, pair it first — the installer guide ships in Phase 2.

Step 1 — Open the Add Camera flow

  1. Click Cameras in the left nav.
  2. Click + Add Camera in the top-right.
  3. Choose Gateway ONVIF on the mode selector.

Cameras page with the Add Camera button in the top-right toolbar

Step 2 — Pick the gateway and discover

  1. Select your gateway from the dropdown.
  2. Click Discover.
  3. Wait 30–60 seconds while the gateway scans the LAN.

You will see a list of cameras with model name and IP address.

Step 3 — Enter the camera credentials

  1. Tick the camera you want to add.
  2. Enter the camera’s ONVIF username and password.
  3. Click Authenticate.

The gateway runs a clock check, fetches the camera profile, and fetches the stream URL. A green checkmark means authentication worked.

ONVIF credentials panel with username and password fields and Authenticate button

Step 4 — Bind the camera to a site

  1. Type a name for the camera. Something your team will recognise, like Front Door or Warehouse Bay 3.
  2. Pick the site this camera belongs to.
  3. Leave Recording preferences at the defaults for now. You can tune them later — see Configure camera streams.

Step 5 — Save and watch live

  1. Click Add Camera.
  2. NovaVMS creates the camera in Pending status while the gateway connects to the RTSP stream.
  3. Wait up to 30 seconds. The status badge turns green and shows Online.
  4. Click the camera row to open the detail page.
  5. The Live tab plays the stream.

You have finished

You can now see live video from your new camera. Next, you may want to:

If this didn’t work