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Scroll Back

Some cameras keep their own recordings: on a memory card inside the camera, or on a recorder (DVR/NVR) they are wired into. Scroll back lets you watch those recordings in CleverAlert. Your hub asks the camera for the footage over the local network, copies the clip you chose into CleverCam's storage, and the app plays it with a normal seek bar.

Nothing is recorded by CleverCam continuously. Only the clips you ask for are copied, one at a time, at most 60 seconds each, and they are kept for 7 days.

Who has it

Scroll back is switched on per control room by CleverCam. When it is on for the control room that monitors your site, everyone on the site sees it: the site's own app users, the security company's staff and its responders. If you do not see a Scroll back tile, the control room does not have it yet, or the camera keeps no recordings.

Which cameras can scroll back​

Scroll back only appears on a camera that actually keeps recordings. The first time you open a camera's live view on a site that has the module, the hub checks the camera's storage in the background (a few seconds) and the tile appears once the camera has been confirmed. A camera without a memory card or recorder never gets the tile.

Today the hub can read recordings from Dahua cameras and recorders (and brands built on Dahua, such as Honeywell and IMOU) and from Hikvision cameras and recorders. On a recorder, each channel is checked on its own, so a channel that is not being recorded says so.

For every other brand the hub asks the device over ONVIF whether it keeps recordings. A device that does shows "This camera keeps recordings, but fetching them over ONVIF is not supported yet"; one that does not shows "This camera does not offer recordings over ONVIF."

Most cameras record motion clips of about 20 seconds rather than continuous video, so Scroll back shows a list of clips for each day, not a solid timeline.

Opening Scroll back from a camera​

  1. Open the Devices tab and tap the camera. Its camera sheet opens.
  2. Tap Scroll back in the action bar (next to Watch, Snooze and Settings). If the live stream was playing it stops, and the Scroll back screen opens.
  3. Pick a day from the chips at the top. Today is selected first. There is a chip for each day the camera still holds; older days have already been overwritten on the card.
  4. The day's clips are listed newest first, each with its start time, length and what set it off (for example Motion). Under the list header you can see how many clips the day holds and how many minutes of video that is.
  5. Tap a clip. The hub fetches it from the camera. The row shows the progress ("Fetching from the camera… 6.4 MB", then "Almost there…"), and the clip starts playing in the player at the top as soon as it is ready — usually within a few seconds.
  6. Use the player's seek bar to move within the clip, or the full-screen button to watch it larger. A clip you have already fetched plays again instantly.
  7. Tap Jump to live at the bottom to go back to the camera's live view.

All times shown are in your own time zone, even when the camera's own clock is set to a different zone. The time stamp burnt into the picture by the camera may still show the camera's zone.

What the screen tells you​

  • "Nothing recorded on …" — the camera holds no clips for that day. The camera only records when it sees motion.
  • "This camera has no memory card, so there is nothing to scroll back." — the hub checked and found no storage. Ask your installer about a memory card or a recorder. This message is only shown on sites that have the module.
  • "The hub is offline, so its cameras cannot be reached." — the hub is not connected, so nothing can be fetched right now.
  • "Nothing recorded between … (camera time)" — the clip you asked for is no longer on the card.
  • "The hub did not answer in time." — the hub took too long. Tap the clip again to retry.

Fetching the recording around an event​

An event page shows the still image the hub captured. When the camera that raised the event keeps its own recordings, the event page also offers the video around that moment.

  1. Open the event from the Events tab.
  2. Below the alarm media, find the Recording on the camera card.
  3. Tap Fetch 60 s from the camera. The hub fetches the 30 seconds before and the 30 seconds after the event from the camera's memory card. Progress is shown on the card.
  4. When it is ready, the clip plays on the card. It is also attached to the event, so your control room sees the same footage on the event, and the next time you open the event it plays in the alarm media at the top.
  5. Tap Open scroll back to see the rest of that day's clips on the same camera.

If the camera keeps no recordings, the card says so instead of offering a fetch.

Good to know​

  • A fetched clip is stored by CleverCam for 7 days, then removed. The recording on the camera itself is unaffected.
  • Each fetch copies at most 60 seconds. A clip on the camera longer than that is fetched from its start.
  • Fetching uses the site's internet connection once, for the clip's size (a 20-second clip is typically 5 to 8 MB). Watching it again, or someone else watching it, does not use the site's connection.
  • The hub fetches one clip at a time. If two people fetch at once, the second waits for the first.