The new polygon selection tool for motion-based retention areas increases control that admins have when selecting an area of interest. Users can to select the precise area of a doorway, hallway, or even an entire staircase. This precise selection allows organizations the a better ability to exclude adjacent areas that do not contain motion of interest, potentially extending the storage duration for important video.      The new polygon tool can be found by going to "Settings" for the desired camera, then selecting "Quality and retention" and scrolling down "Motion-based retention." When motion-based retention is enabled, you can click and drag on the video tile to select the area of interest. Multiple polygons can be added to create more complex shapes, or select multiple parts of the frame.  To learn more about the new polygon tool, check out the post in the Smart Cameras Forum, or refer to the Meraki documentation.  ... View more

Motionless video is boring to watch, consumes precious time when investigating incidents, and requires a significant amount of storage to retain. To combat these issues, Meraki MV smart cameras offer motion-based retention. With motion-based retention, the cameras retain continuous recording for the previous 72 hours, after which video containing no motion is discarded.    However, not all motion is important or relevant to the business. As a way to increase retention and avoid irrelevant motion, camera administrators can define custom areas of interest such that MV only records motion in a defined area.    In the past, these areas of interest were limited to rectangular shape. While this worked for many applications, like a door, it didn't work so well for others.   Introducing custom polygon-shaped areas of interest! To optimize the motion-based retention, we are excited to announce that all MV cameras now support custom-shaped areas of interest. Camera administrators can draw custom polygon shapes to define specific areas where they would like to record motion.   For example, polygon-shaped areas of interest can be used to capture a section of a doorway or select a specifc area where staff is.        For the adventurous types, polygon-shaped areas of interest can be used to capture the perfect video of wildlife in your backyard 🦌 (if it enters your perfectly shaped area of interest, of course!)   Customers that have already defined an area of interest with the rectangular tool for motion-based retention, the selection will be preserved. However, any changes or edits will need to be redrawn with the polygon tool.     Please note that the polgyon tool is only available for motion-based retention at this time, not other features that enable motion selection, like motion search and motion alerts.    For more information, please refer to the Meraki documentation. ... View more

Available now, Meraki Display is a new Apple TV app for live streaming video walls, now available on the Apple App Store. Meraki Display is a powerful, easy-to-use solution for dedicated video wall monitoring. Alongside the Vision portal and the Meraki mobile app, Meraki Display is another tool for organizations to help ensure safety and security. Meraki Display offers an effortless, plug-and-play installation that allows organizations to deploy video walls without a dedicated PC. The compact form factor of Apple TV and the cloud-first Meraki platform delivers a secure and scalable solution that can be used for a variety of applications, including: 24/7 surveillance from a security control room or back office Active monitoring at reception areas or front desks Deterring unlawful behavior by mounting in public places, like entrances and exit   To get started, simply download and install the Meraki Display app from the Apple TV app store, and log in to your Meraki account with your user name and password. You can navigate between organizations and networks, and select a video wall to start viewing. (Video walls must be created either in the Meraki dashboard or the Meraki Vision portal.)   Meraki Display offers a 30 day free trial when downloading the app, making it easy for organizations to try out. After the trial period, a Meraki Display license is required for each Apple TV installation.  To learn more about Meraki Display, check out the post in the Smart Camera forum, or visit the following articles: Introduction Licensing Hardware guide   ... View more

New updates to the Meraki Vision portal are now available. They are designed to improve navigation and make it easer to find cameras of interest. Changes include: Ability to change organizations within the Vision portal under the top-right user icon   Ability to hover over camera in camera list to show details, including associated tags and model number     Various performance and stability improvements to video playback on the video wall   If the new changes aren't visible to you in the Vision portal, you may need to update your version. Click on the "What's New" icon in the top right of the navigation to view your version, and update to the latest.    The Vision portal can be access directly by going to vision.meraki.com or through the dashboard by going to "Cameras", then selecting "Vision portal". For more information on the Vision portal, please refer to the "Using the Meraki Vision Portal" documentation article. ... View more

We've added new functionality to the Meraki Vision portal. Launched in November 2021, the Vision portal is an experience dedicated to camera viewing and investigations. You can navigate to it by visiting vision.meraki.com or by clicking on the Meraki Vision link under "Cameras" on the Meraki Dashboard.   With the latest updates, you can now zoom into an individual camera while viewing it on a video wall - making an end-to-end investigation much easier! The Vision portal video wall has other enhancements over video walls in the dashboard, including the ability to view full bitrate quality cameras, and export from multiple cameras at once.      Full list of changes are in the Meraki Vision Changelog on our documentation site. Read more about the Meraki Vision portal here as well. ... View more

MV 4.16 beta is now available for MV smart cameras. The new firmware includes updates to: MQTT: renamed desk occupancy MQTT timestamp field to "ts" to align with other message types Object detection: improved accuracy of object detection and performance within zones Motion Recap: improved performance of Motion Recap image generation General stability and performance improvements   You can see your current firmware version by going to Organization > Firmware. To configure your network to try beta firmware, go to Network > Configure > General > Firmware upgrades. To learn more about firmware upgrades, please see documentation.    ... View more

We have another new update to share today -- occupancy analytics is now available on MV32 cameras with MV Sense. Occupancy analytics includes desk and person detection, with detection coordinates and data updated by the minute to provide a real-time view of office occupancy, historical occupancy data, and desk and meeting room level data.   This new functionality helps address customer challenges to managing office space occupancy safely. It can be used to provide real-time visibility into desk and meeting room availability, as well as answer long-term planning questions, like:  How much office space do we need? How many desks and meeting rooms do we need? What will occupancy be during a “normal” work week? How does it work? Occupancy analytics uses a machine learning model trained to detect desks and people within the camera's field of view. The camera identifies desks, and can determine if there is a person sitting or standing at the desk. The anonymous data is sent over MQTT.      Occupancy analytics can be enabled on MV32 cameras in the “Sense” settings by selecting the  “Desk Occupancy” option from the Object Detection Model dropdown. If MV sense is not already in use on the camera, then you will also need to enable the Sense API and configure the MQTT broker to send occupancy data to. You can learn more about occupancy analytics, including planning requirements, camera coverage, and best practices in our documentation.    ... View more

MV32 now supports occupancy analytics with MV Sense. Occupancy analytics includes desk and person detection, with detection coordinates and data updated by the minute, providing organizations with a real-time view of office occupancy and historical occupancy data, down to the desk and meeting room level.      Occupancy analytics can be enabled on MV32 cameras in the “Sense” settings by selecting the  “Desk Occupancy” option from the Object Detection Model dropdown. If MV sense is not already in use on the camera, then you will also need to enable the Sense API and configure the MQTT broker to send occupancy data to. You can learn more about occupancy analytics, including planning requirements, camera coverage, and best practices in our documentation.    ... View more

Meraki Vision portal general availability, dedicated login and feature updates   The Meraki Vision portal, the dedicated camera-viewing interface, is now out of beta with a dedicated log in screen, and new features.  User can navigate to vision.meraki.com to log in directly to the Vision portal.     New capabilities include:  Camera field of view on floorplan to improve navigation between cameras New motion search functionality to more quickly find and review activity Expanded export capabilities, including video wall exports, a global exports page, and a “combine exports” feature to aid in sharing video.    For more information about the Vision portal, please refer to the Using the Meraki Vision Portal documentation article. ... View more

The frame rate for the 20 fps setting is being increased to 24 fps. This affects the “high” video quality setting option available with 1080P video, and the change in frame rate will not affect the bitrate. MV cameras configured with profiles using the 20 fps option will be updated automatically, but may see a brief disruption in recording as the fps is updated.    For MV cameras configured with 24 fps without a profile, a manual toggle of the video quality setting will be required in order for the 24 fps setting to take effect.    For more information on video quality settings, please see MV documentation. ... View more

The Meraki Vision portal version 0.1.3 is now available. New updates and changes include: Adds searchability to the camera list Adds audio with audio on button for video footage from cameras with audio enabled Adds tag visibility (pictured below) Camera tags are now visible in the Vision portal   The Vision portal can be accessed by navigating to Cameras> Monitor> Meraki Vision portal. Please refer to the documentation for more information. ... View more

This update to the role-based permissions in the dashboard allows for SAML users to have multiple camera roles applied, as well as a single Network or Organization Admin role. For information on configuration camera roles, please see the Restricting Access to Cameras article in documentation. ... View more

The Meraki Vision portal version 0.1.1 is now available. New updates and changes include: Motion Search preset ranges (pictured below) Video wall list can now be scrolled Resolves an issue where video tile name locations do not match where the video is located Stability and performance improvements during video playback Motion Search preset ranges   The Vision portal can be accessed by navigating to Cameras> Monitor> Meraki Vision portal. Please refer to the documentation for more information. ... View more