Optimising Verkada Activity Zones for Accurate Detection
Activity zones are a cornerstone of intelligent video security, and Verkada's platform provides powerful tools to define exactly where your cameras should look for motion. When configured correctly, activity zones allow you to eliminate irrelevant alerts, focus on critical areas, and quickly search for events in specific locations. However, if your zones are ineffective, you might either miss important events or be overwhelmed by false alarms.
This guide will help you troubleshoot common problems with Verkada activity zones, ensuring they perform with the precision you need.
Common Symptoms of Ineffective Activity Zones
You may have an issue with your activity zone configuration if:
- Motion is not being detected: People or cars move through a defined zone, but no event is created and no notification is sent.
- Too many false alerts: You receive constant notifications from motion outside your defined zones, or from irrelevant motion (like trees) within them.
- Search results are inaccurate: When you filter your search by an activity zone, the results are either empty or include events from other areas.
- Inability to draw a precise zone: You're struggling to create a zone that accurately covers an unusual shape, like a winding path.
- Zones are not triggering specific analytic events, such as person or vehicle detection.
Step-by-Step Guide to Troubleshooting Verkada Activity Zones
Follow these steps in the Verkada Command platform to fine-tune your zones for optimal performance.
1. Review and Refine Zone Placement
The most common issue is a poorly drawn zone. A small gap or miscalculation can lead to missed events.
- Log in to Verkada Command: Navigate to the camera you wish to configure.
- Go to Settings > Motion.
- Examine Your Zones: Verkada uses a polygonal drawing tool, allowing you to create multi-point shapes. Zoom in on the camera's view and ensure your zone's boundary precisely covers the target area. For a doorway, make sure the zone extends slightly outside the frame to catch movement early. For a pathway, ensure the entire width is covered.
- Be Specific: It is better to have multiple, smaller, specific zones than one large, generic zone. For example, create one zone for the door, another for the window, and a third for the driveway.
2. Adjust Motion Detection Sensitivity
Each camera has a master sensitivity setting that works in conjunction with your activity zones. If this sensitivity is too low, motion within a zone may not be strong enough to trigger an event.
- Find the Sensitivity Slider: In the same Settings > Motion menu, you will find a sensitivity slider.
- Increase Sensitivity: If you are missing events, try increasing the sensitivity in small increments. The scale typically runs from 1 to 100. An increase of 5-10 points can make a noticeable difference.
- Beware of High Sensitivity: Setting it too high can lead to false positives from minor events like rain, shadows, or insects.
3. Exclude Sources of False Positives
The power of activity zones lies not just in what you include, but also in what you exclude.
- Identify Constant Motion: Look at the camera's live view. Are there trees, bushes, or flags that move with the wind? Is there a busy road or pavement in the background?
- Draw Zones Tightly: Make sure your activity zones are drawn tightly around the areas of interest, actively excluding these sources of constant motion. For example, draw the zone around your garden path but specifically cut around the large bush next to it.
- Use "Masking" if Available: Some systems refer to exclusion zones as motion masks. The principle is the same: tell the camera to ignore motion in these specific areas.
4. Link Zones to Specific Alerts and Analytics
Ensure your zones are properly configured to trigger the right kind of alerts.
- Configure Alerts: In your camera's alert settings, you can create new rules. When setting up an alert, you can specify that it should only be triggered by motion within a specific activity zone.
- Tie to Analytics: For even greater accuracy, combine activity zones with Verkada's analytics. For example, you can set an alert to only trigger when a person is detected inside your "Restricted Area" zone. This eliminates alerts from animals or other objects. Ensure that People Detection and Vehicle Detection are enabled on the camera's Analytics tab.
5. Test and Iterate
Fine-tuning activity zones is not always a one-time setup.
- Walk-Test Your Zones: After making adjustments, have someone walk through the configured zones. Watch the live feed and the event log in Command to see if the events are triggered as expected.
- Monitor and Adjust: Observe the performance over a day or two. If you are still getting false alerts or missing events, go back and make further small adjustments to the zone shape or sensitivity.
By taking a methodical approach to drawing, configuring, and testing your activity zones, you can transform your Verkada camera from a simple recording device into a highly accurate and intelligent security tool.