How to Stop the Flood of Uniview (UNV) False Alerts
A Uniview security system is a professional-grade tool for protecting your property, but if it's not configured correctly, it can feel like a constant source of noise. An endless stream of notifications on your EZView app for trivial events like moving shadows or rain not only becomes irritating but also desensitises you to real alerts. When every notification is treated as unimportant, the entire system loses its effectiveness.
This guide will walk you through the essential steps to take control of your Uniview system's notifications, filter out the false alarms, and ensure the alerts you receive are meaningful.
Understanding Why You're Getting Too Many Alerts
The core issue is usually a reliance on basic, pixel-based motion detection set to a high sensitivity. This method simply looks for changes between video frames and cannot differentiate between a person and a tree. Common triggers include:
- Environmental Movement: Trees, shrubs, or flags blowing in the wind.
- Weather: Raindrops on the lens or falling snow.
- Lighting: Shadows moving as the sun crosses the sky, or headlights from passing vehicles.
- Insects and Animals: Spiders building webs in front of the lens or cats wandering through the garden.
- Monitoring Unnecessary Areas: Including public roads or neighbouring properties in the detection zone.
Your Step-by-Step Guide to Reducing UNV False Alarms
To adjust these settings, you will need to log into your Uniview NVR or camera directly via its web interface on a computer.
1. Stop Using Basic Motion Detection - Use Smart Events Instead
This is the most critical change you can make. Uniview's smart events, or VCA (Video Content Analysis), are far more intelligent.
- Disable Basic Motion: Navigate to
Setup > Event > Motion Detection. If this is enabled for your camera, untick the box to disable it. - Enable Intrusion Detection: Go to
Setup > Event > Smart Event. Select the camera you want to configure. Choose Intrusion Detection.- Tick the Enable box.
- Click Draw Area and create a precise zone covering only the area you want to protect (e.g., your driveway, a porch, a specific entrance).
- Set the Threshold (time in seconds an object must be in the zone before an alert is triggered). A setting of 1-2 seconds is usually good.
- Set the Sensitivity to a medium level to start.
2. Configure Object Size Filters
Tell the system to ignore objects that are too small or too large to be a threat.
- Within the Intrusion Detection or other smart event settings, you should see an option for Max. Size and Min. Size.
- Enable this filtering. A small box and a large box will appear on the screen.
- Adjust the Min. Size box so that it is larger than small animals or other nuisance objects you want to ignore.
- Adjust the Max. Size box so that it is just larger than a person or vehicle. This helps filter out irrelevant large-scale changes like shadows.
3. Set Up a Notification Schedule
Control when you receive alerts.
- In your NVR settings, find the Linkage Action for your configured smart event. This is where you tell the system what to do when an event occurs (e.g., send push notification to EZView, record, etc.).
- You will see a scheduling grid. You can set the system to only send you notifications during specific times, for example, overnight or when you are away from home. Click and drag on the timetable to set the active hours for the linkage action.
4. Adjust Camera Image Settings
A clear image helps the analytics work more effectively.
- Go to
Setup > Camera > Image. - Ensure features like WDR (Wide Dynamic Range) are enabled if the scene has both very bright and very dark areas. This helps reduce false triggers from changing light conditions.
- Make sure the image is sharp and in focus.
By switching from basic motion detection to more intelligent VCA events like Intrusion Detection and carefully tuning the parameters, you will dramatically decrease the number of false alerts and build a more reliable and effective security system.