Adding Cameras

ONVIF auto-discovery (preferred)

If the camera and SkyView are on the same LAN and the camera has ONVIF enabled (on by default from the factory):

1. 1

   Scan

   Web admin → Cameras → Add → choose "ONVIF auto-discovery"; after a few seconds all ONVIF devices on the LAN are listed

2. 2

   Pick the target

   Find the IP / MAC / vendor matching your camera and select it

3. 3

   Enter credentials

   The ONVIF username and password (not necessarily the same as the RTSP password! Hikvision/Dahua factory defaults are often admin/12345 or similar)

4. 4

   Save

   SkyView automatically negotiates the main/sub stream addresses and probes the PTZ / two-way audio ports, storing them all together

Manual RTSP

Use the manual method when ONVIF isn't supported or returns a wrong address. You need to find the RTSP URL from the vendor manual or the IPC app; common formats:

Tapo / Xiaomi / Wyze and other proprietary protocols → go2rtc bridge

Consumer cameras like the TP-Link Tapo C100/C200/C220, Xiaomi Mi Home, and Wyze don't enable standard RTSP, but the community project go2rtc can bridge them to RTSP for SkyView to connect to.

1. 1

   Start a go2rtc container

   On the same machine as SkyView is fine; port 1984 is go2rtc's web UI and 8554 is the RTSP it exposes.

   bash复制

   docker run -d --name go2rtc \
     --restart=always \
     --network host \
     -v $(pwd)/go2rtc.yaml:/config/go2rtc.yaml \
     alexxit/go2rtc

2. 2

   Configure cameras in go2rtc.yaml

   Tapo example: the Tapo app's guest account is enough.

   yaml复制

   streams:
     livingroom: tapo://guest_password@cameraIP:554/stream1
     kitchen: tapo://guest_password@anotherIP:554/stream1

3. 3

   Add the camera in SkyView

   Use the manual RTSP method, set the URL to rtsp://<go2rtc host IP>:8554/livingroom, and leave credentials blank.

Why substreams matter

ONVIF / mainstream IPCs provide two streams: a main stream (HD, for Live viewing) and a substream (low-res, for AI detection). SkyView automatically obtains the substream address via ONVIF. With manual RTSP, we recommend filling the substream URL in the second field, which lets detection save 70%+ on bandwidth and CPU.

Video codec: prefer H.264, avoid H.265

At the same quality, H.265 (HEVC) has a 40~50% lower bitrate than H.264, which looks economical, but browser playback support is poor — most users get a black screen / spinner when viewing Live or playback in the web admin. Before enabling a camera, change its codec to H.264.

PTZ control (pan/tilt/zoom)

For ONVIF-connected cameras that support PTZ, direction / zoom buttons appear automatically at the bottom-right of the Live page. Manually-added RTSP cameras don't enable it automatically; you need to fill in the ONVIF port (usually 80 / 8000) and PTZ credentials in the camera details.

Two-way audio (Talkback)

Cameras supporting the ONVIF backchannel allow two-way audio (hold the microphone button in the app to talk and the other side hears you). The web admin doesn't support initiating talkback yet; only the mobile apps (iOS / Android) have the hold-to-talk button.

Notes on editing / deleting cameras

• After changing the RTSP URL, detection may not restart automatically: because there's a "detection failed" status record for that camera, you need to click "Clear detection error" in the camera details for it to run again
• Deleting a camera also removes the database record and the streaming path, but the recording files are not deleted — to avoid accidentally destroying evidence. Delete them manually under data/recordings/<id>/
• Renaming / regrouping affects neither recordings nor event history

Hikvision / Dahua / TP-Link Vigi (professional IPC)

These three are mainstream commercial IPC brands, all with standard ONVIF + RTSP across their lineups and the best SkyView compatibility. Factory default credentials:

GB28181 (Chinese national standard — Hikvision / Dahua / Uniview NVR·IPC·DVR)

GB/T 28181 devices register themselves into SkyView — no need to enter an RTSP URL per camera, and every channel under one NVR can be batch-imported. Most national-standard IPCs, NVRs and DVRs from Hikvision / Dahua / Uniview ship with an "upstream platform (GB28181)" option. Requires SkyView 0.9.13 or later.

Step 1 — Enable GB28181 in SkyView

1. 1

   Turn it on

   Web Admin → Settings → GB28181 → toggle Enable.

2. 2

   Set a registration password

   The page shows the platform parameters to enter into your devices and lets you set a registration password (shared by all devices). The default platform parameters usually work as-is.

3. 3

   Set extern_host for remote access

   If the device and SkyView are on different networks, put the address your device can reach you back on (public IP or a router-mapped address) into extern_host; leave it blank for same-subnet direct connections.

4. 4

   Save

   After saving, the GB28181 service starts listening on 25060 and waits for devices to register.

Step 2 — Configure the "upstream platform" on the device / NVR

In the device's web UI, find "Platform Access / GB28181 / Upstream Platform" (wording varies by vendor) and fill in the table below. After saving, the device registers itself — an NVR reports all of its channels at once:

Step 3 — Import channels and use them like any camera

Back in Web Admin → GB28181 page → "Devices / channels to import": successfully registered devices and NVR channels appear here. Tick the channels you want and click Import (multi-select; import all of an NVR's channels at once). Once imported, these channels behave like ordinary cameras — live view, recording, AI detection, snapshots, online status, PTZ + presets, two-way talk and on-device playback all work, identical in the UI to RTSP / ONVIF cameras.