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Knowledge Base

View live video

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Live video from cameras and video devices can be viewed using the Alarm.com app and Alarm.com customer website.

View live video

Live video can be viewed using the Alarm.com app and Alarm.com customer website.

  1. Log into the Alarm.com app.
  2. Tap Video.
  3. Tap the desired video to start streaming.
  1. Log into the Alarm.com customer website.
  2. Click Video. The video starts streaming automatically.

Note: Live video from SkyBell Doorbell Cameras can only be viewed using the Alarm.com app.

Live video functionality

Mobile device compatibility

Streaming live video is available on the Alarm.com app. The Alarm.com app is available on iOS and Android.

Note: iPhones and iPads need to be streamed using the Alarm.com app to display live video. The mobile Safari browser is not able to view live video.

Web browser compatibility on computers

Alarm.com video features are available on the most recent versions of Edge, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome on both Windows and Macintosh computers.

Note: For SkyBell Doorbell Cameras, live video can only be streamed using the Alarm.com app. Saved clips can be viewed using both the Alarm.com customer website and Alarm.com app.

How video devices are listed

Cameras are listed alphabetically in the Alarm.com app and Alarm.com customer website. 

Live video stream time out

Live view times out a few minutes after the live stream starts. However, continuous live streaming video is available on the following devices/platforms:

  • SVR playback with an external monitor
  • Amazon Fire TV
  • Apple TV
  • Android TV

For more information about the Alarm.com TV apps, see Alarm.com video for TV.

Live video features

Digital zoom

You can digitally zoom in and out on a live video feed using the Alarm.com app and Alarm.com customer website.

You can pinch to digitally zoom in/out on a live video feed and pan around when zoomed in, but the camera's video quality and optical zoom level will remain the same.

Note: This feature requires Alarm.com iOS app versions 4.1+ or Android app versions 4.2+.

  1. Log into the Alarm.com app.
  2. Tap Video.
  3. Tap the desired video.
    • To zoom in, move two of your fingers apart while they are touching the live video feed.
    • To zoom out, move two of your fingers together while they are touching the live video feed.
    • For a quick reset to default zoom, double-tap the video.

You can use the video interface to digitally zoom in/out on a live video feed and pan around when zoomed in, but the camera's video quality and optical zoom level will remain the same.

Note: Some video devices have integrated digital or physical pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) features and use a similar interface that allows you to save and apply preset orientations. For more information about presets and which cameras support them, see Change a pan/tilt camera's position presets.

  1. Log into the Alarm.com customer website.
  2. Click Video.
  3. Mouse over the desired video, then click Pan tilt video . 
    • To zoom in, click Add.
    • To zoom out, click Minus.
    • To pan, click Details, Down, Collapse, or Up.
    • To reset to default, click icn-target.svg.
    • Alternatively, use the scroll wheel to zoom and click and drag to pan while mousing over the video. 
Simultaneous viewers

The number of simultaneous viewers of a video device is determined by the series of the video device.

Note: To determine the series of the video device, read the last two numbers on the camera model (i.e., 723, 523X, 622).

Viewer definition

A viewer is anything that requests streaming video from a video device. A viewer can be a local or remote streaming request. All of the following count as individual viewers:

  • A user streaming live or locally recorded footage from the video device using the Customer Website or Customer app
  • An SVR or CSVR streaming live video from the video device to a local display
  • An SVR or CSVR recording footage from the video device

Simultaneous viewers based on video device series

Camera series Number of viewers
SkyBell Doorbell Camera  2
'10 Series  5
'20 Series  10
'21 Series 10
'22 Series 10
'23 Series 5
Pro Series 5
Video recording

For information about recording video clips, see Take a video recording.

Camera groups

Create and edit camera groups from the Manage Camera Groups page, which includes a preview of each camera. For more information about camera groups, see Create/edit a camera group.

Camera groups allow you to customize the position in which the cameras appear on the Video page.

Toggle high definition

Click icn-video-layout-hd.svg to toggle between high definition and non-HD. High definition offers the best quality resolution, but non-HD allows the user to reduce the quality if bandwidth is a concern.

Search for cameras

Type a name into the camera search bar to find individual cameras. This is ideal for accounts with many cameras.

Note: The search bar only appears when the selected camera group has more than four cameras.

Expand / Full screen

Using the Alarm.com app, view live video in full screen by tapping Video full screen (app).png.

Using the Alarm.com customer website, view live video in full screen by clicking icn-screen-full.svg, view in theater mode by clicking icn-screen-theater.svg, or view expanded live video by clicking icn-video-fullscreen.svg.

Layout options

Note: The live video streams will automatically resize to fit the screen. 

Using the Alarm.com customer website, you can view up to 25 live video streams at a time.

  • Auto.svg is the default live video stream layout. Click Minus or Add to decrease or increase the amount of cameras displayed up to a 5+5 layout. 
  • To arrange live video streams with a preset layout, click Down and select the desired layout.
    • Click view-3+1.svg to arrange streams in a 1+3 layout.
    • Click view-1+5.svg to arrange streams in a 1+5 layout.
    • Click view-1+7.svg to arrange streams in a 1+7 layout.
    • Click view-2+8.svg to arrange streams in a 2+8 layout.
    • Click view-4+2+4.svg to arrange streams in a 4+2+4 layout. 
       
      Note: Live video stream layouts will not display if you do not have enough cameras to fill it. 
  • If you have more than 25 cameras, click Collapse or Detailsto view additional stream pages.

Using the Alarm.com app, the live video streams are arranged in a grid based on screen size.

  • Flick up or down to scroll between streams.
Swipe between live video feeds

Users can swipe between different cameras on the mobile app dashboard and when viewing feeds in landscape.

Note: This feature requires Alarm.com iOS app versions 4.5+ or Android app versions 4.5.1+.

  1. Log into the Alarm.com app.
  2. On the Video card, swipe left/right between cameras.
  3. Tap Play to play live video.

    Live video card
Two-Way Audio user features

Two-Way Audio is designed so that only one channel (i.e., incoming audio from the camera to the mobile device or outgoing audio from the mobile device to the camera) is used at a time, similar to a two-way radio/walkie-talkie.

This feature is available for accounts with Two-Way Audio and a compatible camera.

  1. Log into the Alarm.com app.
  2. Swipe to select the desired video device.
  3. Tap Play .
  4. Press and hold Microphone to speak through the video device.
  5. Release Microphone to listen.
  1. Log into the Alarm.com app.
  2. Tap Video.
  3. Tap Play  on the desired video device.
  4. Tap Fullscreen.
  5. Press and hold Microphone to speak through the video device. 
  6. Release Microphone to listen.
  1. Log into the Alarm.com customer website.
  2. Click Video.
  3. Click Live View.
  4. Click and hold Microphone, or press and hold the spacebar. 
  5. Release Microphone to listen.
     
    Note: Two-way Audio is available through the Alarm.com customer website in both Single Camera and Multi-Camera view.

 

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