Cameras on a map

The Apple apps have maps for the device registry and Live. Places belong to your Watchpost registry. Saving a point or a viewing direction does not change the camera’s settings or move a PTZ camera.

Give a device a place

On Mac, open Devices, select a device and choose Place… in its menu. A site’s menu has the same command for its shared location. On iPhone and iPad, use the device or site menu in Devices.

Choose a point in the form:

• Search for an address or place, then select a result.
• Click or tap the map.
• Enter latitude and longitude, or paste a supported map link into Coordinates.
• Use Where I Am if you are standing by the device. This requires system location permission; check the reported accuracy before saving.

On iPhone, Full Screen Map lets you position the map under a crosshair. You can also enter coordinates without loading the map or using location services. Invalid coordinates prevent saving.

A site can have an address as well as a point. Find on Map looks up that address. Review the result before saving: an address alone does not place each camera at its exact installation spot.

Devices and recorder channels

A device without its own point uses its site’s point, if one exists. Same as Site clears the device’s own coordinates and returns it to that shared point.

Recorder channels can have separate places. In the Mac Live sidebar, open the channel’s context menu and choose Place…, or use that command in its map card. Give each camera its own point to show where it is installed. Without one, the channel uses its recorder’s location; Same as Recorder restores that inheritance.

When Watchpost identifies a directly added camera as the source of a recorder channel, their places can supply each other. If a marker seems to use a point you did not set on that entry, check the linked camera or recorder channel too.

Set the viewing direction

For a camera or channel, enter Azimuth from 0 to 360 degrees clockwise from north: 0 is north, 90 is east. Field of view accepts 1–360 degrees and controls the sector’s width. Leave an unknown value empty.

These values describe the installation on the map. Use camera controls to move the camera itself.

Registry map

On Mac, switch Devices to Map. It uses the current registry filter and search. Select a marker to see its device card. Devices sharing a point appear together; devices without a place have a separate list.

To place or move a device from this view, use On the Map in its card, choose the point and confirm Move. Cancel leaves the saved point unchanged. On iPhone and iPad, open Map from Devices; the move form uses a crosshair and a separate confirmation.

The registry map’s availability indicator concerns the device’s address. It does not prove that a video stream is playing.

Live map

On Mac, switch Live to Map. The switch needs at least one device or recorder channel in the current view with a known place; a point on a site plan also counts.

Select a marker to open its card. Depending on the channel and license, the card offers live video, a snapshot, sound, a stream choice and archive access. Hidden channels offer Turn On. On Mac, you can put up to four camera pictures in the panel beside the map; closing a picture stops its panel stream.

Live Only limits the map to devices in Live. All also shows placed registry devices outside Live as outlines. Opening an outline does not connect to that device or start events. Use Add to Live in its card when you want to start viewing; for a recorder, review the selected channels first. A saved camera set also limits which Live cameras appear.

Site floors and territories are available through Plans. See Site plans for creating a plan and placing cameras on it.

On iPhone and iPad, choose Map in the Cameras view menu. The mobile Live map shows devices already in Cameras; it does not offer the Mac switch for adding outlines of other registry devices or the panel beside the map.

This article covers Apple maps. The Android device list does not currently offer the same map and plan interface.