Camera Overview
Aegis works with cameras you already own. No proprietary hardware required.
Supported Camera Types
| Type | Examples | How to Connect | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud | Blink, Ring | Link your account with email + password | 2 minutes |
| LAN (ONVIF) | DaHua, HikVision, Lorex, Reolink | Auto-discovered on your network | 1 minute |
| LAN (RTSP) | Any IP camera | Paste the RTSP URL | 1 minute |
| Webcam | Built-in laptop cam, USB cameras | Detected automatically | 30 seconds |
| Mobile | iPhone, iPad, Android | Use an IP Camera app | 5 minutes |
How to Access Camera Settings
- Click the ⚙️ gear icon at the bottom of the sidebar
- Expand the Cameras section
- Choose:
- Security Cameras → for Blink, Ring, and LAN cameras
- Webcam (Builtin & USB) → for local devices and desktop capture
Which Should I Use?
Already have Blink or Ring cameras? → Blink setup or Ring setup. Easiest path — just enter your account credentials.
Have IP cameras on your network? → LAN Camera Discovery. Aegis auto-scans your network and finds them via ONVIF or the network scanner.
Just want to try it out? → Use your webcam. Zero setup — select your device and go.
Have a spare phone? → Use it as a camera. Install an IP camera app and point it anywhere.
How Cameras Feed the AI
Once a camera is added, here's what happens:
- Frames are captured — at the rate configured in Video Analysis settings
- The VLM analyzes them — the active Vision Model describes what it sees in each frame
- Clips are recorded — stored to your configured storage path with AI descriptions attached
- Alerts fire — if an event handler matches the description, notifications are sent
- The agent knows — the Aegis agent has full context of what every camera sees and can answer your questions
All cameras feed into the same pipeline. You can mix and match types — for example, two Blink cameras, one HikVision RTSP camera, and a USB webcam all running simultaneously.
Camera Limits
There's no hard limit on the number of cameras. Performance depends on your hardware:
| Setup | Recommended Cameras |
|---|---|
| CPU only, ≤8 GB RAM | 1–4 cameras |
| GPU (NVIDIA RTX), 16+ GB RAM | 4–12 cameras |
| Apple Silicon (M1–M4), 16+ GB | 4–12 cameras |
| Cloud VLM (OpenAI/Anthropic) | Limited by API rate, not hardware |
More cameras means more frames for the VLM to analyze. If inference falls behind, frames are automatically skipped to keep the system responsive.