Adding an IP camera to the Home Center!

IP based cameras are widely available and becoming ever more popular around the home or in a business environment.

Whether the cameras are being used for security, entertainment, demonstration or just for fun; the Fibaro Home Center can integrate with many IP cameras.

First thing to do before buying an IP camera is check that it will be compatible with the Fibaro Home Center, the easiest way to do this is check the specification of the camera before purchasing.

The Home Center Lite and Home Center 2 both accept MJPEG streams over HTTP.

There are two ways of integrating cameras with Fibaro, one way is too add all the details in manually and the other is to download the relevant plugin via the Home Center and fill out the remaining details.

Adding a camera using a Plugin

The Home Center 2 has over 125 available plugins for different cameras. For this example we will be using an Axis IP Dome camera.

On the Home Center, click on the Plugins tab at the top and then Available on the left hand bar. From here we can either use the search bar on the right or we could click on Cameras and scroll through looking for the Plugin we want.

Once we have located a plugin that should be suitable for our camera, we click Install which takes us into the details of the Plugin.

Here we are able to see what devices are compatible with the Plugin and a description of it.

Once we are happy with the Plugin, we click Free to download and install the plugin.

After we have selected the Plugin, downloaded and installed it. An Add button will appear underneath the description.
After we click Add, click on the Advanced tab and fill in all the relevant details.

Name the camera, give it a room, click search to get the IP address of the camera on the network and type in the username and password (which should be available from the cameras documentation).

Click the blue save button on the right hand side and the camera will now be added to the system.

Adding a camera manually

If the Home Center does not have an available plugin then we can add cameras to the system manually.

 

 

To add an IP camera manually, click on the Devices tab and then Add or remove device on the left hand side.

The middle section of Add Device will be an add button for cameras, clicking on this will give us a page with General Settings to input.

As all the general settings are also available on the Advanced tab, click Advanced now.

First name and assign a room for the camera.

Second, using the drop down box for Camera Model we will check to see if ours is there, if it is; clicking on it will automatically fill in some paths in the fields below.

Enter the username and password associated with the camera (normally found using the software included with the camera).

Last we fill out the Camera Configuration, this will be the IP address and stream feeds. Depending on what type of camera is being added, some may have panning feeds but all this information should be within the cameras documentation. If the camera’s type has been selected above, these fields may have been automatically populated.

If the camera’s documentation does not contain the path information for the fields, it maybe worth trying the manufacture’s website, or alternatively by contacting their technical support.