Alarm.com Video Analytics Rules That Do Something: Lights On for a Person, an Alert for a Car, and the Line We Hold
Most Alarm.com cameras are set up to do one thing: record when something moves. That is why the clip library fills with headlights and wind. Video Analytics rules are the fix, and they do more than filter: a rule that knows the difference between a person and a deer can turn the driveway lights on for the one and ignore the other, sound a warning from the camera before anyone reaches the door, and send you a thumbnail instead of a vague “motion detected.” Here is how the rules work, the ones we set on every house, and the one thing we deliberately do not let a camera do.
- Two shapes of rule. A ground zone catches anything that stays in an area; a tripwire catches anything that crosses a line. Up to three rules per camera, and they can overlap.
- Three kinds of thing. Each rule watches for people, vehicles, animals or any mix. The rule, not the motion, decides what gets recorded and what triggers an action.
- Rules can act. A person in a zone can turn on Z-Wave lights, fire Perimeter Guard on a spotlight camera, and send an alert with a picture of what it saw.
- Doorbells are simpler. One ground-zone rule, people only. Still worth setting.
- We never let detection unlock a door. Lights, sirens and alerts, yes. Locks respond to people, not to cameras.
What a Video Analytics rule actually is
Every compatible Alarm.com camera classifies the objects in its view as a person, a vehicle or an animal, and a rule tells it which of those, in which part of the picture, should do something. A ground zone is a shape you draw on the ground, literally where feet and tires are, with a duration: record and act when a person has been inside it for more than a few seconds. A tripwire is a line with a direction: act when a vehicle crosses it coming in, but not going out. You can stack three rules on one camera, so the driveway camera watches the approach with a tripwire, the porch with a ground zone, and the side yard with a second zone that only cares about people.
If a camera already has an old Video Motion Detection rule on it, that has to come off first. The two systems do not run together, and the whole point is to stop recording motion.
Setting one up
- Open Video, then Recording Rules, then Add Rule. Pick the camera. On a Video Analytics 2.0 camera there is no calibration step; older models ask you to set a minimum object size or calibrate the scene once.
- Choose Ground Zone or Tripwire. Draw the zone on the ground, not on the wall behind it. Keep it off the street so passing traffic never qualifies.
- Pick the object types. Person for the porch and the back yard. Vehicle for the driveway. Leave animals off unless the rule is for the chicken coop.
- Set the duration and the schedule. A three-second dwell cuts the false positives from someone walking past. A schedule of sunset to sunrise keeps the lights from flashing at the mail carrier.
- Attach the actions. Enhanced alert with a thumbnail, the lights you want on, and Perimeter Guard if the camera supports it. Save, then walk the zone yourself and watch the clip it makes.
The rules we set on every house
Driveway tripwire, vehicles, inbound only. You get a clip and a thumbnail of every car that pulls in, and nothing when you leave. On a spotlight camera we add the light. Porch ground zone, people, five seconds. A delivery is a clip; a person lingering gets the lights and, after dark, Perimeter Guard. Back yard ground zone, people, after dark. This is the one that earns its keep: lights on, camera warning, alert with a picture, and the monitored alarm is already armed on its own schedule. Pool ground zone, people and animals, when the family is away. Alert only. Nobody wants a siren for the neighbor’s dog, but everyone wants to know.
What makes these worth more than a motion alert is the action layer. A person in the back yard zone can switch on the Z-Wave landscape lights through the smart gateway, and on the V730P spotlight camera or the V729 floodlight, Perimeter Guard sounds a warning and flashes the status LED before anyone touches a door. We covered that feature on its own in the V730P post.
Which cameras do this
| Camera | Analytics | Can also |
| V730P and V730 spotlight | 2.0, no calibration | Lights, Perimeter Guard |
| V729 floodlight | 2.0 | Floodlight on rule, Perimeter Guard |
| V530 indoor | 2.0 | Alerts; privacy shutter when you are home |
| Prism Series PoE domes and bullets | 2.0 | Wired, 8 MP, commercial-grade clips |
| V731B and VDB780B battery | Battery analytics | People; slower wake, fine for a side gate |
| Video doorbells | One ground zone, people only | Call Screen Actions to lights and locks when you answer |
The line we hold
Alarm.com will let a doorbell call unlock the door, because you are looking at the visitor when you tap it. It does not, and we would not, unlock a door because a camera decided a person had arrived. Detection is good enough to run a light, a siren and a notification, which are cheap to get wrong. A lock is not. If you want hands-free entry, the answer is a code, a key fob or a recognized credential at the door, not a camera rule. The same goes for disarming: the alarm stays on its own schedule and its own people.
Frequently asked
Do the rules cost extra? Video Analytics is part of the video plan on our monitored accounts. No per-camera fee, no add-on.
Will the lights flash every time the dog goes out? Not if the rule is set to people only, which is how we leave it. Animals can be their own rule with alert only.
How do I know a rule is working? Walk it. Step into the zone, wait the duration, and check that the clip arrives tagged as a person with a thumbnail. We do this on every camera before we leave.
Can one camera watch the driveway and the porch? Yes, with two rules on one camera. Three is the limit per camera, and overlapping zones are fine.
What about the clips I want to find later? Rules tag what they catch, which is what makes AI Video Event Search fast. Type “white truck last Tuesday” and the tagged clips come up.
Does this work with my old cameras? Most Alarm.com cameras from the last several years support Video Analytics 1.0 with a calibration step. We check the model and set it up during a service visit.
Cameras that only record motion? A service visit from Salt Lake to Park City gets every camera on a proper rule set, with the lights and the alerts wired in. Existing Alarm.com customers from any dealer are welcome.
Shield Low Voltage is an Alarm.com dealer and licensed Utah alarm company serving the Wasatch Front and Back. Rule details from Alarm.com’s Video Analytics documentation. Images and video courtesy of Alarm.com.
