Surveillance Station Technical Specifications

General

Features

Versatile monitoring platforms: Surveillance Station web-based interface, the desktop utility Synology Surveillance Station Client, the PC-less surveillance solution VisualStation, the network video recorder (NVR) application Local Display, and the mobile app DS cam
Comprehensive integration with 8,600 IP cameras from 170 renowned brands, along with ONVIF support and Synology LiveCam
Extensive compatibility with I/O modules, door controllers, IP speakers and SIP speakers, joysticks, and POS systems (Learn more)
Event detection with powerful video analytics and instant notifications
Centralized management for 10,000 cameras on 1,000 multi-site Synology servers
Recording backup and archiving to remote servers with customized setting

Specifications

System requirements:
- Surveillance Station Client desktop utility
  - Operating system: Windows 10/macOS 10.15 or above
- Browser: Google Chrome
- CPU: Core i5 and above (Learn more)
Supported formats:
- Video formats: MJPEG, H.264, H.264+, H.265, H.265+, MPEG4, MxPEG
- Streaming tunnel formats:
  - RTSP over TCP, UDP, HTTP
  - SRTP over UDP
  - RTMP over TCP
- Camera audio codecs: PCM, AMR, G.711, G.726, 16-bit PCM-LE
- Map formats: BMP, JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG, SVG
Supported languages: Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese Brazil, Portuguese European, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish

Limitations

The supported video formats may vary according to the specifications of each client device (Learn more)
The supported audio codecs may vary according to the specifications of each camera

Application component

Live Monitoring

Specifications

Available on web browsers, Synology Surveillance Station Client, Local Display, VisualStation, and DS cam (Learn more)
Supports Monitor Center as the centralized interface for viewing live video from multiple cameras
Monitor Center layouts:
- Supports customizable layouts with up to 100 channels
- Sequential layout: Rotates layouts in a set order periodically
- Alert layout: Automatically jumps to the layout when an event is triggered
- Camera group layout: Displays all cameras in the group
Supports dynamic stream adjustment by display size or event detection
Supports instant display of people and vehicle detection, intrusion detection, motion detection, advanced events, digital input, tampering detection, audio detection, Face Recognition, and Deep Video Analytics events
Supports an I/O widget channel to display device statuses and manually trigger events
Supports interactive maps that provide quick access to devices and alerts, and allows integration with OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, and custom tile servers
Supports an alert panel for camera, DVA series devices, I/O module, door controller, and transaction device event recordings
Supports on-screen display (OSD) buttons to control drag and zoom, manual recording, camera information display, and audio/digital output for external devices
Supports snapshots with instant blur, mask, and download features
Supports camera operation buttons to control zoom, focus, iris adjustment, auto-pan, show/hide PT control cursor, and auto object tracking
Supports Privacy Masking that covers sensitive areas in camera views
Supports overlaying text watermarks on live camera feeds to prevent data leakage
Supports GPU acceleration that can reduce the CPU loading to provide a smoother display
Supports Smart Search features for motion detection, missing object, foreign object, camera occlusion, focus lost, and no-idle zone events
Supports Fisheye Dewarping to display fisheye footage in a rectilinear or panoramic view
Supports Joystick control for an alternative operation method
Supports Live Broadcast to send live camera streams to YouTube

Limitations

Monitor Center cannot display footage if the total camera resolution exceeds the capacity of the graphics card of the client computer
The support of Joystick, Fisheye Dewarping, Smart Search, and different video codecs may vary according to the specifications of each client device (Learn more)
Drag-and-drop map uploading is only supported on Google Chrome
A Google Maps API key is required to use Google Maps in Surveillance Station (Learn more)
Recordings with removable privacy masking can only be downloaded from Synology Surveillance Station Client. Note that only Synology Camera can be configured with unremovable privacy masking
GPU acceleration:
- Only supports H.264 and H.265 formats (Depending on the graphics card of the client device)
Audio output is only available over HTTPS connection
Live Broadcast only supports streaming in H.264 format

Recording

Specifications

Supports recording timeline features in Monitor Center
Supports recording playback, label, and bookmark features
Supports manual, continuous, motion detection, I/O alarm, customized, and action rule triggered recording
Supports pre/post-recording time settings that include footage of the 5 to 300 seconds before or after events into event recordings
Supports recording truncating that saves 1 to 240-minute clips
Supports Dual Recording that saves an extra set of camera recordings with different resolution, FPS, schedule, and retention settings
Supports Edge Recording that ensures uninterrupted recording on microSD-card-supported cameras when they are disconnected
Supports Smart Time Lapse that condenses long recordings into 60-second clips
Recording Player:
- Supports buttons to control play/pause, next/previous frame, forward/reverse, fast forward/rewind 10 seconds, next/previous event, fast forward/slow motion
- Supports image enhancement options to adjust the brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpness
Download:
- Supported download formats: MP4 and AVI
- Supports merging and downloading separate recordings into one file
- Supports overlaying text and image watermarks when downloading recordings
- Supports password protection to lock downloaded recordings
Supports recording encryption to secure recording access in Surveillance Station and the file system. Encrypted recordings cannot be accessed via SMB or File Station
Backup:
- Supports using Hyper Backup to back up Surveillance Station system configurations and recordings to local/remote Synology NAS devices, remote rsync server, WebDav, and OpenStack servers, and public clouds (e.g., Amazon S3 and Microsoft Azure)
- Supports using Archive Vault to archive recordings to remote servers with customized time range, camera, and event-mode settings
- Supports using C2 Backup for Surveillance (formerly C2 Surveillance) to upload recordings to Synology C2 cloud storage
Storage:
- Supports customizing the recording storage with encrypted shared folder options for each camera
- Supports recording rotation triggered by retention time or storage size
- Supports recording indexing that synchronizes the recordings listed in Surveillance Station with the actual files in File Station
Supports share links that allow non-Surveillance Station users to view and download recordings

Limitations

Encrypted shared folders cannot be accessed via NFS
Videos cannot be locked during the recording process
Pre/post-recording times:
- Settings over 10 seconds may affect the system performance due to increased memory consumption
- 300-second settings are only available on Synology models with a memory capacity of 4 GB and above
Watermark:
- Watermarks are only available on Synology Surveillance Station Client
- Recordings with watermarks cannot be authenticated by Synology Evidence Integrity Authenticator
- Watermarks cannot be overlaid if the recordings selected to merge and download are in different resolutions
Encrypted recordings cannot be shared via links

Notification

Specifications

Provides instant notifications via SMS, email, mobile devices, and webhooks
Supports Action Rule triggered notifications
Allows customization of the notification contents of each event
Supports notifications of IP cameras, I/O modules, Surveillance Station Client, VisualStation, CMS recording servers, and external devices
Provides notification combination options to reduce excessive messages
Provides notification muting options to prevent interruption
Supported email providers include Gmail, Outlook, QQ, and customized SMTP servers
Allows 10 email notification recipients
Event snapshots can be attached to notification emails
Supports push service on DS cam

Limitations

Only administrators can modify notification settings
Event snapshots cannot be attached when the notification combination function is enabled

CMS

Specifications

Supports using a host server as the centralized platform to manage Surveillance Station features on paired recording servers
Supports up to 1,000 recording servers and 10,000 IP cameras in one system (Learn more)
Supports cross-domain deployment (Learn more)
Supports QuickConnect ID, IP address, and FQDN connection
Supports batch updating servers on-line and off-line
Supports migrating IP cameras and their recordings between servers
Grants host servers full management over the device licenses of recording servers
Failover:
- Supports automatic failover protection from recording servers to multiple failover servers (Learn more)
- Supports migrating device licenses to failover servers during failovers
- Supports restoring recordings, snapshots, and archived recordings from failover servers back to recording servers

Limitations

All servers under CMS must run the same minor version of Surveillance Station, with the host server having the highest version among them. For example, if all servers run version 9.2.x, the host server should use the highest version available within the group (The same DSM version is not required)
CPU performance may be affected if more than one-third of the recommended number of supported cameras are installed on the host server (Learn more)
Failover downtime is determined by the number of cameras to be transferred and the CPU computing power of the failover server
Camera migration can only function via SMB services
The default licenses of Synology products running as failover servers cannot be used

Management

Specifications

Supports high performance/high quality video scaling options in Monitor Center
Supports automatically signing out inactive accounts to ensure security
User:
- Supports customizing user permissions to servers, IP cameras, I/O modules, and applications (Monitor Center, Maps, Recording, Log, Snapshot, and Home Mode)
- Manager privileges grant users full control over all functions
- Spectator privileges only allow users to view and operate authorized functions
- Supports customizing account activation schedules for each user
Log:
- Supports system logs that record all Surveillance Station system operations
- Supports event logs that record camera, I/O module, Face Recognition, Deep Video Analytics events and corresponding recordings
- Supported download formats: HTML and XLSX
- Supports rotation by day, size, or log number
- Supports sending logs to syslog servers
Supports Action Rule that links multiple surveillance devices and automates actions by trigger or schedule
Supports Dual Authorization with up to 20 supervisors (Learn more)
Supports using the built-in NTP server to synchronize the time across devices
Supports domain and LDAP services
Supports muting the beep sound temporarily on NVR Local Display

Limitations

Only administrators can manage privilege profile settings
Users can only be added to groups from DSM Control Panel
Synology NVR servers do not support domain/LDAP service

License

Specifications

Each Synology server comes with two or more default device licenses (Please refer to the datasheet of your model for the exact number)
Allows scalable surveillance deployment with extra licenses
Device License Packs are sold separately with 1, 4, or 8 licenses (Learn more)
Grants CMS hosts servers full management over the licenses of recording servers
Supports offline license management via Surveillance Station Client and DS cam
Supports license migration between different Synology servers

Limitations

Default licenses cannot be deleted or migrated
Certain surveillance devices may require more than one license (Learn more)
The default licenses of Synology products running as failover servers cannot be used

Home Mode

Specifications

Allows users to set recording, notification, stream, and action rule settings that activate according to their Home location
Supports Geofence triggering via DS cam device locations with a GPS radius of 100-500 meters
Allows manual and scheduled (one-time/recurring) activation
Supports GPS and Wi-Fi assistance for higher positioning accuracy
Supports trigger-delay to prevent unnecessary activations when users enter and leave the Home radius repeatedly within a short time

Limitations

Home Mode is not supported on servers in a CMS structure
Geofence can only be set up via DS cam
The power consumption of mobile devices may increase if GPS and Wi-Fi assistance are enabled

Comprehensive Camera Support

Specifications

Complete support for ONVIF Profile S, with additional integration of H.265 video compression and edge storage
Compatible with over 8,600 IP cameras from 170 brands (Support List)
Supports up to 650 IP cameras on a single Synology server (NVR selector)
Supports HTTPS and SRTP connection
Supports RTMP for integration with devices without fixed IPs such as drones and body cameras
Supports batch adding cameras on-line and off-line by importing pre-filled .xlsx lists and configuration files, or by scanning an IP range
Supports multi-streaming with individual resolution, frame rate, bitrate, and image quality settings
Supports versatile event detection types, including motion detection, tampering, and PIR
Supports PTZ controls on compatible cameras
Supports automatic camera patrol triggered by schedule, detected events, or I/O alarms
Supports customizing information display settings, including timestamp, format, and camera position
Supports exposure mode settings that reduce image noise caused by light exposure or day-night mode switching
Supports Field of View (FOV) settings for cameras to capture images with wider angles
Integrated AXIS ACAP VMD and ACAP applications (Perimeter Defender, Cross Line Detection, Digital Autotracking, Tailgating Detector, and Object Analytics), Hikvision Smart Events, and DAHUA IVS (Intelligent Video System) (Learn more)
Supports camera groups for easy management of large numbers of cameras

Limitations

IP addresses in IPv6 format are not supported
Certain event detection types, PTZ controls, day-night mode, and FOV adjustments are only available if the camera supports the features

Intelligent Video Analytics

Specifications

DVA Series Models
- Face Recognition:
  - Supports registering up to 10,000 user profiles with customized members, local DSM, domain, and LDAP users
  - Supports detecting covered/uncovered faces
  - Supports ignoring faces smaller than a set size
  - Supports recognition result playback, download, and locking
  - Available on CMS recording servers and failover servers
- Deep Video Analytics (DVA):
  - Supports four task types: People and Vehicle Detection, Intrusion Detection, People Counting, and Vehicle Counting
  - Supports detection result playback, download, and locking
  - Supports DVA task, detection result, and archive features on CMS recording servers
  - Supports Smart Tags that automatically mark object types and specific behaviors
- People and Vehicle Detection:
  - Supports License Plate Recognition that identifies global license plates that consist of alphanumeric characters (Enhanced the accuracy in specific regions)
  - Supports registering up to 10,000 customized license plates (4 to 12 characters)
  - Supports detecting vehicles traveling at a speed lower than 40 km/hr
  - Supported report download formats: HTML and XLSX
  - Supports loitering detection that triggers events when people or vehicles stay over a set time
  - Supports crowd detection that triggers events when the occupancy in detection zones exceeds the limit
- Intrusion Detection:
  - Supports detecting specific targets
- People Counting & Vehicle Counting:
  - Supports crowd detection that triggers events when the occupancy in detection zones exceeds the limit
  - Supports merging counting tasks to combine the numbers of multiple tasks
  - Supported report download formats: HTML and XLSX
Synology Camera
- People and Vehicle Detection:
  - Supports loitering detection that triggers events when people or vehicles stay over a set time
  - Supports crowd detection that triggers events when the occupancy in detection zones exceeds the limit
- Intrusion Detection:
  - Supports detecting specific targets

Limitations

The number of available intelligent video analytics tasks depends on the DVA Series model of your Synology server (Learn more)
The detection accuracy depends on the actual surroundings and task deployment

Affiliated Utility

Synology DS cam

Features

An intuitive mobile application on Android and iOS devices for viewing live streams, recordings, and snapshots from IP cameras connected with Surveillance Station
Provides real-time notifications for events triggered by surveillance devices

Specifications

System requirements
- iOS: 15.0 or above
- Android: 8.0 or above

Multi View
- Multi-channel live views and synchronized playback with multiple layout choices (1×2, 1×3, 2×2, and 2×3)
- Allows users to choose display cameras and change the display order
- Flexible playback speed control (from 0.25x to 5x), with key frame playback at maximum speed available
- Shortcut panel with buttons for the following functions: playback controls, event switching, quick seek, snapshots, PTZ controls, optical zoom, timescale, two-way audio, manual access, and fixed aspect ratio
- Supports dragging the timeline bar to an earlier moment to view recordings at the time
- Supports pinching the timeline to adjust the scale or enabling Smart Timeline to automatically adjust the timescale according to your scroll speed
Single View
- Available in both Multi View and Cameras tabs
- Flexible playback speed control (from 0.25x to 5x), with key frame playback at maximum speed available
- Shortcut panel with buttons for the following functions: playback controls, event switching, quick seek, snapshots, PTZ controls, optical zoom, timescale, two-way audio, manual access, and fixed aspect ratio
- Supports dragging the timeline bar to an earlier moment to view recordings at the time
- Supports pinching the timeline to adjust the scale or enabling Smart Timeline to automatically adjust the timescale according to your scroll speed
- Mute/Unmute button to turn on or off sounds in the videos
- Manual recording and camera setting adjustments available in the single view mode, including stream quality, digital output, preset position, patrol, auto-pan, etc. (Available options vary by device)
- Supports PiP mode for Android devices
- Supports dragging a specific area and quickly locating specified events (People/Vehicle/Motion) on Synology Camera. Note that this feature is not compatible with third-party cameras
Cameras
- Allows users to manage all available cameras and view live streams, recordings, and event recordings from a single camera
- Supports switching the display mode between List-view and Thumbnail-view and changing the camera display order
- Provides camera basic information
- Cameras can be enabled and disabled
- Supports searching for cameras by keywords, sources, or statuses
- Floating player to continuously play recordings without having to stay on the page
Recordings
- Allows users to view all recordings stored on Synology NAS/NVR
- Flexible playback speed control (from 0.25x to 5x), with key frame playback at maximum speed available
- Mute/Unmute button to turn on or off sounds in the videos
- Supports searching for recordings by date, time, source, camera, lock status, and recording mode
- Delete, lock, unlock, and download actions of recordings
- Supports taking snapshots of the current video frame
- Supports the downloading of an video file by specifying a time duration, and allows you to preview the video clip
- Floating player to continuously play recordings without having to stay on the page
Snapshots
- Allows users to view all snapshots stored on Synology NAS/NVR
- Supports searching for snapshots by date and lock status
- Delete, lock, unlock and download actions of snapshots
Notifications
- Sends push notifications when predefined events are triggered, with available notifications including system, camera, I/O module, speaker, VisualStation, server, access control, external device, Deep Video Analytics, Archive Vault, and clients related events
- Notifications can be muted for a given period (20 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, 8 hours, or mute until today ends)
- Do Not Disturb mode mutes all notifications within a specified time frame
- Thumbnails for quick accesses to the single view page of cameras
- Supports searching for notifications by keywords and read status
Home Mode
- Supports the automatic activation of Home Mode on Surveillance Station based on the device's location or the connected Wi-Fi
- Supports the use of GPS for better Home Mode location detection accuracy
- Supports setting the Home location by using the current location, entering an address in the search bar, or dragging and dropping the location pin on the map
- Supports adjusting the Home location radius to reduce possible detection errors (Available options range from 100 meters to 500 meters)
- Supports pairing multiple mobile devices, activating and deactivating Home Mode when a paired device enters and leaves the set Home location (When there are multiple paired devices, Home Mode will be activated by the first device that enters the Home location and deactivated by the last device that leaves)
- Adjustable trigger delay time to reduce possible miscalculations if users enter or leave the Home location range within a short time (Available options include 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes)
- Supports manually entering/leaving Home Mode
Licenses
- View, add, and delete actions of licenses
- Offline license management for Surveillance Station without an Internet connection or within an isolated local network
Others
- Supports signing in with a QuickConnect ID over the Internet (Network latency may be higher than usual if the connection to Surveillance Station is made via the QuickConnect relay service)
- Supports login history for quick logins
- Hardware decoding for system performance optimization
- Passcode lock supporting fingerprint/Touch ID or Face ID unlock and passcode re-authentication settings for data security
- Screen Mirroring (AirPlay) with options to cast the entire screen or play videos only (Only available on iOS devices)
- Administrators can assign privilege profiles to users to allow only users with sufficient permissions to perform certain actions on DS cam or access certain devices (Privilege profiles must be configured on Surveillance Station)
- Supported video codecs: MJPEG, H.264, H.264+, H.265, H.265+, MPEG4, and MxPEG
- Supported audio formats: G711, G726, PCM, and AMR

Limitations

Timeline in the Multi View page only supports Sync-mode
Preset positions and patrol paths can only be created on Surveillance Station
Enabling GPS and Wi-Fi assistance may increase device power consumption
The mobile devices are required to be connected to the Internet for users to add or delete licenses
Maximum supported resolution may vary by device
DS cam does not support multi-window mode/Split View

Synology LiveCam

Features

Turns your Android or iOS mobile devices into an IP camera and pairs it with Surveillance Station
Records seamlessly even when disconnected from the Internet or paired Surveillance Station
Files can be downloaded and stored locally on the mobile devices

Specifications

System requirements
- iOS: 12.0 or above
- Android: 8.0 or above

Camera
- Supports video streaming and recording
- Controls LED flashlight of mobile devices for better illumination (LED flashlight can also be controlled from paired Surveillance Station and DS cam)
- Power-saving minimizes device display brightness
- Supports taking snapshots and stores the snapshots in Surveillance Station
- Two-way audio to receive/send audio from/to paired Surveillance Station
Recording
- Access to all Synology LiveCam recordings stored on paired Surveillance Station and mobile device
- Supports searching for recordings by date, time, lock status, and upload status
- Delete, lock, unlock, and download actions of recordings
- Supports taking snapshots and stores the snapshots in Surveillance Station
- When recording continuously without interruptions, the system automatically truncates recordings every 30 minutes; recordings in the seamless recording mode are truncated every 10 minutes
Snapshot
- Supports viewing all snapshots, including snapshots taken by Synology LiveCam, paired Surveillance Station, or DS cam
- Supports searching for snapshots by date, time, and lock status
- Delete, lock, unlock, and download actions of snapshots
Settings
- HTTPS-secured connection
- Supports selecting device front camera as the streaming source
- Supports recording without sound
- Adjustable resolution and FPS (The available options vary by your device)
- Adjustable video quality: low, medium, high
- Video Stabilization feature (Only available on supported devices)
- On-screen display information, including date, time, and custom texts, can be shown on the top or bottom of the video
- Auto screen lock: 1, 2, 5, 10 minutes, or never
- Motion Detection with adjustable sensitivity and threshold
- Recording rotation by day/size
- Recordings can be stored in any existing shared folders on paired Surveillance Station
- Records seamlessly when the Internet or paired Surveillance Station connection is lost and uploads the videos temporarily stored locally once the connection resumes
- Passcode lock that supports fingerprint/Touch ID or Face ID unlock and passcode re-authentication settings for data security

Limitations

Each mobile device running Synology LiveCam requires a Surveillance Device License to operate
Only user accounts belonging to the administrators group on DSM or with sufficient permissions can pair Synology LiveCam with Surveillance Station
Users cannot view live streaming without recording the videos
Video orientation cannot be changed once the recording starts
Video streaming consumes a certain amount of mobile device power
Video streaming may be interrupted by other system operations, such as launching another camera app or entering power saving mode, which block apps from running in the background
Video streaming is not available if your connection to Surveillance Station is made via QuickConnect relay service

Synology Transactions Simulator

Features

A desktop application that simulates a Point of Sale (POS) user interface, allowing users to test all features of Transactions in Surveillance Station

Specifications

System requirements
- Windows 7 or above
Simulates a transaction device connected through TCP
Supports processing transaction data by a list of predefined items
Supports deleting or canceling transactions
Supports checking-out transactions by the total amount or payment amount

Limitations

The predefined items of the transaction data list cannot be modified
Transaction data cannot be saved

Synology Transactions Compatibility Tool

Features

A desktop application that checks the compatibility between Surveillance Station and Point of Sale (POS) software

Specifications

System requirements
- Windows 7 or above
Checks the compatibility through TCP and COM connections
Displays transaction data
Allows users to set rules for starting and ending transactions
Allows users to add filters to ignore certain characters or replace characters with line breaks/other characters to mark the data

Synology Evidence Integrity Authenticator

Features

A desktop application that validates that recordings and screenshots produced by Surveillance Station have not been tampered with

Specifications

System requirements
- Windows 7 or above
- macOS 10.12 or above
Validates files uploaded individually or in batch
Shows the exact production time and the serial number of the Synology server that produced the images

Limitations

Recordings with watermarks, even ones added via Surveillance Station, cannot be authenticated

Synology Video Converter

Features

A desktop application that converts videos to a format compatible with Surveillance Station

Specifications

System requirements
- Windows 7 or above
Converts the formats of videos