Calipsa Camera Health

Standard connectivity checks only tell you if a camera is online. Effective camera health monitoring analytics go deeper by analyzing the actual video image. Calipsa detects:

• Scene change: If a camera has been knocked out of position or shifted.
• View obstruction: If the lens is covered by spray paint, dirt or spider webs.
• Image clarity: If the focus has drifted or the image is too blurry to be useful.
• Idleness: If a camera that normally detects motion suddenly stops sending alarms, it may indicate a potential recording failure.

Yes. Calipsa is hardware-agnostic. Because our analytics analyzes the video frames rather than querying the camera’s internal operating system, we can monitor the health of almost any device. This includes modern IP cameras from any manufacturer, as well as older analog cameras connected to a DVR. This allows you to manage the health of a mixed system from a single dashboard.

Yes. If you own eligible Pelco cameras that are currently under warranty, you can connect them to Calipsa and access our Camera Health features at no additional cost. This provides you with automated scene change and obstruction detection for the life of your warranty, adding significant value to your hardware without requiring a paid software subscription.

A VMS typically uses a ping to check if a camera is connected to the network. However, a camera can be online but provide completely useless footage. For example, if it is pointed at a wall, covered in mud or blinded by glare. Calipsa checks the quality of the view to ensure your online cameras are actually recording usable evidence.

Calipsa takes a reference image of what your camera view should look like. It then periodically compares new images against this baseline. If the new image deviates significantly (e.g., the view is rotated 45 degrees or the contrast drops to zero), the system flags it as a health issue and alerts your team.

The system runs automated health checks daily. Instead of paying a guard to cycle through hundreds of camera feeds manually to spot-check for issues, Calipsa automates the process and sends you a report. This ensures that you fix blind spots immediately, rather than discovering them weeks later when you try to retrieve evidence.

No. Camera Health checks are extremely bandwidth-efficient. The system only requires a few reference images per day to perform the analysis, meaning it will not strain your network or interfere with your continuous video recording streams.