Cameras and ONVIF
Cameras and ONVIF: motion, last frame and journal inside the system
Security in your LAN, not in a subscription for cloud recording.
What the screen shows today, what ONVIF is, and what is missing before we can talk about video surveillance.
In short
HoumeOS treats a camera as a device, not as a stream: the model knows whether there is motion, what the last frame is and when motion last happened, and the server accumulates the appearances of motion in the journal. ONVIF is described in the catalog as a transport with guides and a TCP check. Discovery, RTSP ingestion and NVR recording are still to come.
What the screen shows today
A camera has a state with motion and the address of the last frame. On the security screen two demonstration snapshots are visible, and the model also knows when motion last happened. The server accumulates the appearances of motion in the journal, which is why the system can go back in time instead of relying on the memory of a browser.
- Motion, last frame and the time of the last motion
- A server journal of the appearances of motion
- The Security screen with the alarm mode, doors, garage and gate
What ONVIF is and where it stands
ONVIF is the standard that describes how a network finds a camera, how it asks the camera for profiles and how it learns the address of the video stream. In the catalog it is listed together with RTSP as a transport. The panel gives guides: address, port, a real TCP check whether anything answers at all, and the pairing steps. A camera whose driver does not exist yet waits for it — and that is shown honestly in the status.
What is missing for real video surveillance
Three things are missing, and they are exactly the ones that make "video surveillance" rather than "a device card": discovering cameras, ingesting the RTSP stream and recording to an NVR. Real events from real cameras are missing as well — today the motion comes from the model and the simulation. We do not present video surveillance as a finished feature.
How a camera connects to the rest
The point of a camera inside the system is not to stand alone. The alarm has modes off, home and away; during an alarm the doors, the garage and the gate are involved, and the emergency scenarios go through the rules on the server. Motion from a camera can become part of a scene once the stream and the event really arrive — with the same rights, journal and history as everything else.
Privacy and practice
Cameras are the most sensitive part of a smart home, so the rules are simple: nothing leaves the local network, the frames are kept with you rather than in a subscription. During a deployment we look at the real limits — how often motion appears, local disk, bandwidth and who has the right to see frames. Real access is solved with roles, not by sharing a cloud account with the whole house.
What works today and what is coming
We do not present upcoming work as available. This list matches the roadmap.
Works today
- The camera model: motion, last frame, the time of the last motion
- A server journal of motion appearances and a Security screen with modes
- ONVIF and RTSP are described in the catalog as transports
- Guides with address, port and a real TCP check of the answer
Coming soon
- ONVIF discovery and a driver that ingests the RTSP stream
- Real events from the camera instead of simulated motion
Later
- Recording to an NVR and HLS/RTSP playback on screen
- HTTPS remote access to the system
Frequently asked questions
Do I watch the video live?
Not today. The screen shows a last frame and motion, not a live stream. Ingesting and showing an RTSP stream is part of the upcoming work, so we do not describe it as an available feature. If all you need is "who is at the door", the frame and the journal already answer part of that.
What works today for ONVIF?
ONVIF is described in the integration catalog as a transport, and the panel gives guides with a real TCP check of the address. The driver that discovers the camera, asks it for profiles and ingests the stream is still to come. We do not present an upcoming integration as ready — the status is visible on this page.
Does HoumeOS record the cameras?
No. Recording needs an NVR or a local disk with a deletion policy and is a separate part of the roadmap. Today the system keeps the events: motion, time, journal, executed rules. That is different from a video archive, and we say it as it is.
How do cameras take part in the alarm?
The alarm has the modes off, home and away, and the doors, the garage and the gate pass a confirmation for critical actions and leave a trace in the journal. The sensor fields include cameras. When real events from a camera arrive, they enter the same rules and scenes, without a new interface per brand.
Where is the picture kept?
With you. Frames and events are not sent to a cloud service, and access is solved with user roles and a PIN that is verified on the server. If a camera manufacturer insists on a cloud account, that is a reason to look for a local path rather than to work around it with an account handed to the whole house.
We show the system on a live screen
The demo starts from your question: which devices, which protocols, which scenarios.