Vivotek, D-Link and Level One

Vivotek were formed in 2000 and are a Taiwanese company that manufacture a wide range of IP Cameras. They have over 170 distributors in more than 70 countries and until recently their cameras were sold under other brand names such as D-Link and Level One.

We purchased a Level One 1150 which overheated and broke within a few weeks, so our testing is now limited to using one of Vivoteks own branded cameras - the IP7173. We found the SDK to be inaccurate and had to give up on supporting live view embedded into our web platform, however, the snapshot feature works as expected and the uploading of video clips via FTP works very well.

To set your Vivotek or branded Vivotek camera to upload video clips to the YourAlarm.com server, log into the web interface of the camera and click on the Configuration Link to enter the Configuration Menu. Setup and enable Motion Detection and then click on the Application link.

Under Applications, click on Video Clip and place a tick in the "Enable Video Clip" box. If you only want to record at certain times, setup a weekly schedule and chose the times of the day, otherwise select the "Always" radio button.

Enter the "Video File Name Prefix" provided by YourAlarm.com and then set the maximum video clip size somewhere between 200 - 500 KB. Set the Trigger settings to Motion Detection and then "Send Video Clip By" FTP. Place a tick in the "FTP put Video clips with date and time suffix" box.

You are now ready to setup the FTP server and this is done by clicking on the Email & FTP link on the Configuration Menu. Enter the credentilas provided by YourAlarm.com and click on the Save button. You can now test your camera to make sure that it behaves as expected and uploads a video clip to the server whenever movement is detected within the defined motion detection window.

Remember that Vivotek cameras are inconsistent and the menu names and locations will almost certainly differ for your model of camera.