Uniview Zone Settings Not Working? UNV Configuration Guide
Setting up detection zones is one of the most critical steps in optimising a Uniview (UNV) security system. Whether you're using basic motion detection or advanced Smart Intrusion Prevention (SIP), correctly defined zones ensure you capture relevant events while minimising false alarms. If your zones aren't working as expected, your system can quickly become ineffective.
This guide will help you troubleshoot and fix common issues with Uniview's motion and smart event zone settings.
Understanding Why Uniview Zones Might Fail
The Uniview interface is powerful but has distinct areas for different types of event detection. Problems usually arise when settings are configured in the wrong place or when basic and smart event settings conflict.
Common reasons for zone failure include:
- Configuring the Wrong Event Type: Drawing a zone in the 'Smart Event' (VCA) section but only enabling 'Basic Event' (standard motion detection) for alerts, or vice versa.
- Incorrect Rule Linkage: The detection zone is active, but it hasn't been linked to an action, such as triggering an alarm output, sending a push notification via EZView, or starting a recording.
- Sensitivity and Threshold Misconfiguration: The parameters for the zone are not tuned correctly for the environment.
- Area Not Saved Correctly: The drawn zone was not properly saved or applied after configuration.
How to Fix Uniview (UNV) Zone Settings
To resolve these issues, you will need to access your NVR or camera's configuration menu, either through its web interface or the local console interface.
Step 1: Differentiate Between Basic and Smart Events
This is the most important concept to understand.
- Basic Event (Motion Detection): This is traditional, pixel-based motion detection. It detects any change in pixels. You can draw zones and set a sensitivity level from 1-100. This is prone to false alarms from rain, shadows, and animals.
- Smart Event (VCA): This includes advanced analytics like Intrusion Detection, Cross Line Detection, and Region Entrance/Exiting. These features, especially on cameras with SIP, are designed to detect specific object types (like humans and vehicles) and reduce false alarms. They use their own, separately drawn zones.
The Fix: Decide which type of detection you want to use for a given camera. If you have a modern UNV camera with SIP, you should be using Smart Events. Go to Event -> Smart Event and configure your zones there. Then, ensure you disable the corresponding Basic Motion Detection to avoid conflicting alerts.
Step 2: Correctly Configure a Smart Event Zone
Let's use 'Intrusion Detection' as the primary example.
-
Navigate to Event -> Smart Event -> Intrusion Detection.
-
Select the correct camera from the dropdown list.
-
Check the 'Enable' box for Intrusion Detection.
-
Draw Your Zone: Click 'Draw Area' and create a precise polygon around the area you want to protect (e.g., your driveway, a garden). Right-click to finish drawing.
-
Set Parameters:
- Threshold: This defines how long an object must be inside the zone before an alarm is triggered (in seconds). This is useful for preventing triggers from people quickly passing by.
- Sensitivity: Adjusts how sensitive the detection is. Start with the default and adjust if you miss events.
- Filtering: If your camera has SIP, you will see options to filter by 'Motor Vehicle', 'Non-motor Vehicle', and 'Pedestrian'. This is extremely powerful. If you only want to know when a person enters your garden, untick the vehicle boxes.
-
SAVE YOUR SETTINGS. You must click 'Save' or 'Apply'.
Step 3: Link the Event to an Action
A working zone is useless if it doesn't do anything. After configuring your zone, you must set up the 'Triggering Actions' or 'Linkage Actions'.
- In the same event configuration screen, look for a tab or button labelled Triggering Actions or similar.
- Here, you will see a list of actions. Check the boxes for what you want to happen when the event is triggered:
- Buzzer: The NVR will beep.
- Send Email: Sends an email alert.
- Push Notification to App: Sends a mobile alert to the EZView app. This is the most common one to enable.
- Trigger Recording: Tells specific channels to start recording.
- Trigger Alarm Output: Activates a physical alarm like a siren or strobe light.
- SAVE these linkage settings.
By ensuring you are using the more advanced 'Smart Event' features and correctly linking those zones to a trigger action, you can resolve most issues and harness the full power of your Uniview security system.