Motion Detection on
ONVIF Cameras
Software-based motion detection that works with any ONVIF camera, including cameras that have no built-in motion detection of their own. Configure sensitivity, noise filtering, and event frequency from a single interface, regardless of camera brand.
Software-based detection and why it matters
Some cameras have built-in motion detection, but coverage and consistency vary by brand and model. Banalytics provides software-based motion detection that runs on your server, so it works regardless of whether your camera supports it natively and gives you a single unified interface across all your cameras.
Cameras without motion detection
Apply motion detection to any ONVIF camera that lacks the feature entirely.
Mixed camera brands
Manage cameras from different manufacturers under one consistent detection system.
Event-triggered capture
Record only what matters, such as a delivery arriving at your front door.
Fine-grained control
Tune sensitivity, noise filtering, and event frequency independently for each camera.
Prerequisites
ONVIF camera added to Banalytics
The camera must be connected as an ONVIF Camera component. See Add & Configure an ONVIF Camera if you have not done this yet.
Capture video task already running
Motion detection works on top of an existing Capture Video task. Make sure the capture video task for your camera is configured and running before adding motion detection. See Capture & Record Video with an ONVIF Camera.
Adding the motion detection task
Open the camera task section
In the Banalytics interface, navigate to your ONVIF camera and open its task section.
Find and add Motion Detection
The Motion Detection option is located in the bottom-right corner of the task panel. Click it to add the task to your camera.
Configure the settings
The task opens with configurable parameters. Work through the sections below to tune detection for your environment.
General settings
| Parameter | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
Restart on failure | Controls how the task behaves when it encounters an error. Options include Stop on failure, Immediately, 10 sec, 30 sec, and 1 min. | 10 sec |
Debug mode | Displays raw footage with visual overlays to help you understand exactly what the algorithm is seeing. Enable it while tuning sensitivity settings and turn it off once configuration is complete. | Off |
Sensitivity and noise reduction
These settings control how the system distinguishes genuine motion events from irrelevant changes in the image, such as camera noise, lighting flicker, distant traffic, or leaves blowing.
| Parameter | Description | Effect of increasing |
|---|---|---|
Background sensitivity | Controls how sensitive the camera is to movement in the scene. Set too high, it may detect passing cars or swaying branches. Set too low, it may miss real events. | Detects smaller changes |
Blur size | Applies a blur before analysis. A larger blur smooths out minor pixel-level differences and helps ignore sensor noise or compression artifacts. | Ignores more fine-grained noise |
Dilate size | Expands detected motion regions to merge nearby small movements into a larger detection event. | Merges small movements and reduces fragmented detections |
Advanced motion detection parameters
| Parameter | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
Motion area threshold | Minimum size of a detected movement area required to trigger an event. Raise it to ignore small objects such as insects, small animals, or lens noise. | varies |
Detection timeout | Interval between consecutive analysis frames. A shorter timeout improves responsiveness but increases CPU usage. | varies |
Stun events | Minimum interval between successive motion event notifications. Use it to prevent continuous motion from flooding Telegram or event logs. | varies |
Font scale | Adjusts the size of text annotations displayed in debug mode. | varies |
Enable flags | Toggles visual overlay indicators in debug mode. When enabled, motion regions and noise areas are drawn on the video feed. | Off |
Understanding the debug overlay
When debug mode is active and Enable Flags is on, the live feed shows colored overlays. Understanding each color makes it easier to tune settings correctly.
After enabling motion detection
Motion detection flags movement. To record video clips when motion is detected, or to send a Telegram notification, add the corresponding tasks and actions to your camera setup.