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ONVIF Event Polling

Subscribe to camera-generated pull-point notifications with topic filtering, configurable polling intervals, and message limits. Each matched notification is emitted as an ONVIF Event for use in Event Manager rules and automation workflows.

React to events from the camera itself

ONVIF Event Polling connects to the camera's ONVIF Events service and polls for notifications at a configurable interval. The camera can report motion alarms, digital input changes, tamper detection, video analytics events, storage state changes, and other built-in notifications without needing a separate detection task in Banalytics.

Each notification is converted to an ONVIF Event and delivered to the Event Manager, which can route it to actions, recordings, alerts, or any other configured automation. Topic filtering lets you subscribe only to the events that matter, reducing noise in downstream rules.

Prerequisite: The camera must support the ONVIF Events service. Configure and start the ONVIF Camera component first, then add this task and reference it by Device.

Add ONVIF Event Polling for a camera

01

Confirm camera supports ONVIF Events

The task requires the ONVIF Events service. Most modern ONVIF cameras support it, but verify this in the camera's documentation or web interface before configuring.

02

Start the ONVIF Camera component

The referenced camera component must be running and reachable. Ensure the ONVIF Camera is in the RUN state before starting this task.

03

Create ONVIF Event Polling

Click + next to ONVIF Event Polling under the Tasks sub-menu. The configuration panel opens for the new task instance.

04

Select device and topics

Choose the Device to subscribe to. Leave Topics empty to receive all events, or select specific topics once the camera's available topics are loaded.

05

Enable log during discovery

Set Log raw ONVIF content to true temporarily to inspect raw event payloads and discover available topics and metadata fields. Disable logging after configuration is complete.

06

Wire to Event Manager rules

Once events are flowing, open the Event Manager and create rules that match on ONVIF Event type, filter by topic or metadata fields, and invoke the appropriate actions.

Configuration parameters

ParameterRequiredDescriptionDefault
Restart on failure
Yes Restart behavior after an error:
  • Stop on failure — not restarted until triggered manually.
  • Immediately — restarts right after an error.
  • 10 sec — restarts after a 10-second delay.
  • 30 sec — restarts after a 30-second delay.
  • 1 min — restarts after a 1-minute delay.
10 sec
Device
Yes The ONVIF camera whose event service should be polled. Keep one ONVIF Event Polling task per device — it is a singleton subscriber for the selected camera. The referenced ONVIF Camera must be running before this task can start. —
Topics
Optional Event topics to subscribe to. Leave empty to receive all events from the device. Select specific topics when only a subset is needed — for example motion, digital input, tamper, or analytics events. Topic names are loaded from the camera's event service. Filtering reduces event noise and simplifies downstream rules. All topics
Polling interval (sec)
Yes How often the task polls the camera's pull-point subscription in seconds. Lower values (1–3) give faster automation response but increase network and device load. The default 5 is a safe general-purpose interval. Higher values (10–30) reduce ONVIF requests at the cost of delayed event delivery. 5
Message limit
Yes Maximum number of notifications returned by one pull request. Increase when the camera can generate bursts of events between polls. Keep it moderate when events are rare or downstream processing should not receive large batches at once. 10
Log raw ONVIF content
Optional Writes raw ONVIF notification payloads to the agent log. Keep disabled in production — raw ONVIF messages are verbose and can fill logs quickly. Enable only while discovering device-specific topics and payload fields, or while troubleshooting camera integration. false

What the ONVIF Event carries

Each matched notification is emitted as an ONVIF Event to the Event Manager. The event always includes:

DEV

Device UUID

Identifies which camera produced the event. Use it in Event Manager rules to filter events per camera when multiple cameras are polled.

TOP

Topic

The ONVIF notification topic string. Topic names come from the camera's event service and differ between vendors and firmware versions.

SRC

Source attributes

Parsed /Source/<Name> fields: input token, channel, profile, or analytics source identifier. Available when the camera provides them.

DAT

Data attributes

Parsed /Data/<Name> fields: boolean alarm state, counter value, event value, or vendor-specific details.

Tip: Enable Log raw ONVIF content during initial setup to inspect real topics and metadata fields. Once you know the exact topic strings and attribute names, disable logging and configure precise Event Manager filters.

Recommended profiles

01

Quick automation reaction

Select only required Topics, set Polling interval (sec) to 1–3, keep Message limit at 10–30, and leave Log raw ONVIF content disabled after validation.

02

General event monitoring

Leave all topics selected during early setup, use Polling interval (sec) of 5, Message limit of 10. Enable logging temporarily while exploring available event types.

03

High-volume analytics camera

Filter Topics narrowly, use Polling interval (sec) of 3–5, increase Message limit to handle event bursts. Verify downstream Event Manager rules can handle repeated events.

04

Low-load status monitoring

Select only device health or state topics, use Polling interval (sec) of 10–30, keep Message limit modest. Disable logging entirely.

05

Topic discovery

Leave Topics empty, set Polling interval (sec) to 5, enable Log raw ONVIF content. Watch emitted topics and metadata in the agent log, then disable logging and select only the needed topics for production.