MV 72 a high-end "security" camera?

[Banfield75]

I like the idea of Meraki products. Everything is accessible through the same GUI.

But I must say I´m disappointed when it comes to basic features for security camera. (and firmware for networks)

Recording

Why isn’t it possible to highlight areas of interest through diagonal or free handwriting?

I have problem with a diagonal fence and road with traffic. I have changed the focused the to minimize the area, still there is a problem. The only solution is to create multiply areas of, but then you are faced with problem with sensitivity settings.

Motion Search

Why can´t there just be a calendar view when I search through motion start and stop? A annoying thing is that the date/time is presented in US format even if I choose local country settings in “Network-Wide/settings”?

Wind

I have notice motion recording when strong wind makes the camera shake. It records even if it’s a tiny movement. The analytic should be good enough to disable record if the entire camera frame shakes and a recording area is highlighted.  

Focus

We are recording motions with 1080 p and high video quality. When I cheek a recording and try to zoom in to identify a number plate it isn’t possible. I can see the plate number if I manually do an Optical Zoom. I know it´s a big difference when using Optical compared to digital zoom. The problem with using only Optical zoom is that the area is narrowed down too much.

To solve this the cameras objective should be equipped with the ability to do an Optical focus and maintain the width angle of a full visibility. Another solution would be that Optical focus changes when there is a movement, but the hardware focus/zoom is far too slow for that.

It´s interesting that Meraki promote MV72 as their high-end (expensive) security camera when you get these basic functionality’s and even movement with zoom from other quality security camera vendors for a lower price?!

[PhilipDAth]

>Recording

This would be handy, especially on an MV32.

>Motion Search

Can't you just go to the middle of the date range and then zoom out on the range selector to include the time/date period?

>Wind

Never had that problem with any of my clients.  It sounds like something is not quite right with the mounting.

>Focus

I've done a bit of work with ANPR and the MV72.  You ideally want the camera zoomed in straight on so that it gets as much of the number plate as possible.

If you want a wider field of view as well you'll probably want to add a second camera to catch that different view point.

[MerakiDave]

@Banfield75  Agree with @PhilipDAth and wanted to add regarding capturing license plate information (or facial features for example) generally requires 40 pixels per foot or better, just a rule of thumb.  There is a pretty good discussion on PPF here https://documentation.meraki.com/MV/Viewing_Video/Understanding_Image_Quality_on_the_MV32 

That is an MV32-specific KB article but PPF applies to all the cameras.  Consider using a camera placement calculator like the Meraki specific one here https://meraki.cisco.com/products/security-cameras/site-survey or a 3rd party tool like https://calculator.ipvm.com/ to give an idea of distance, FoV width and PPF to have a reasonable plan for camera placement to meet your requirements.  

On the motion search and timeline, I'd respectfully say that's just something we get used to.  Any new system will likely be awkward at first.  With simplicity being the true goal, I'm sure the developers designed it to be as simple as possible but also with the highest functionality.  And those two things tend to be mutually exclusive sometimes.  Note that you can simply click on the calendar tool and immediately select a day, or a time, or also just type into the text box, which can process natural language processing, such as "yesterday lunchtime" or "3 days ago" or "last friday at 7am" for example.  

On the wind question, I do get some false positives on my MV72 on occasion during heavy rainstorms, but never on the very windy days.  If it might be pole mounted, I'd imagine there could be some sway that's triggering motion events?  Note that there is a "sensitivity"setting you can adjust on a per-camera basis, hopefully that would help.  In addition, perhaps you could alert on people events only, so any swaying motion won't trigger motion alerts unless there also happens to be human motion detected as well.

Also, on the diagonal (or freehand) areas to record (or not) I understand your point, and things like Sensor Crop and Privacy Windows won't really get you there.  It's probably a difficult engineering challenge actually, allowing a freeform or diagonal detection area, given the way a camera's field of view is broken down into X/Y coarse cells and 16x16 macroblocks and the way the motion detection algorithm works.  Still, please do make wishes in Dashboard, and bring this up to your local Meraki team so they can create (or append to) a feature request for this functionality.

[PhilipDAth]

If only the Meraki camera site survey tool had been updated to support the MV72 and MV32 ...

[MerakiDave]

Agreed, I just asked that question last week I think why it still only has the MV12 (and original 21/71)... Stay tuned!