Alarming Night Noise -- Fastest Way to Record All Cams?

[DroMike]

I have five BI-monitored cameras inside and outside my home. However, I only have one set to trigger on motion to record 24/7; the other four I only set when I'm away.

When I DO go away (on vacation or even leaving the house for several hours), I'll then individually check the "motion sensor" box in the trigger tab, one by one. It's a bit tedious but not a big deal if I take my time.

BTW, I normally access Blue Iris on my Windows-based PC, but I also have the app on my iPhone and iPad, the latter two of which I might monitor in bed.

While in bed last night I heard a noise last night, which turned out to be nothing as usual. But it got me to thinking. What if there was a situation where I heard, say, window-glass breaking and I didn't have the time to turn all my cameras on one by one, or was just too rattled to do so...?

In my current BI Version 4 (or even in Version 5 if different), Is there some way to quickly and easily turn on the remainder of my multiple cameras without digging into the settings for each one -- a single "panic" or "record-all-cams" button or even an Alexa voice command, anything that would get recording rolling faster than I do now? Thanks.

 

[SouthernYankee]

I record all cameras continuous 24/7/365. What are you trying to do with your method of operation. You will miss the critical event. If you are home and someone steal the amazon package off the porch, will your cameras going to identify the bad guy, or verify that the package was delivered then stolen ?

 

[DsineR]

It is possible to trigger all cams, a couple ways (there may be more):
1. a trigger on one cam can be set to trigger all cams
2. setup a DIO device (serial, IP, USB or contacts) which can trigger all cams

 

[fenderman]

you can easily do this using profiles.

 

[DroMike]

SoYank: I guess with my i7 computer with 32GB of RAM and a dedicated 5TB USB drive I COULD record all cams continuously, but - ha - even though I recently retired that's WAY too much 5-camera footage I'm willing to devote my time in pouring over when the motion trigger/pre-buffer capabilities are already adequate for my purposes.

DsR: I've done some research and believe you were talking about a function called "Trigger Camera Groups" which does look interesting and which I might separately employ, but it isn't precisely what I was asking about, that is, the ability to press a single magic button (or utter a single Alexa command) to start recording all cameras at will. Obviously that's a feature that doesn't exist per se. No big deal -- I'm all set then!

Thanks folks!

 

[DognamedTank]

The feature is built in so you can "press a single magic button". All you need to do, as fenderman mentioned, is to setup the profiles. One profile how you currently have it, and one to record all of the cameras continuously. Change profiles and you are in business. Also, you can setup Alexa to change the profile with one magic phrase.

 

[DroMike]

D-Tank: Hmm, 'I SEE' said the blind man. Yes, I can now understand that theory. I'll see if I can't edumacate myself enough to try that. Thank you for that extra dollop of information.

 

[looney2ns]

Be sure to go through this as well. Optimizing Blue Iris's CPU Usage | IP Cam Talk

 

[DroMike]

Thank you looney -- I have elsewhere heard strong suggestions about at least that direct-to-disk optimization. Since the proprietary software for my cam already imprints a time/date stamp, I guess I can afford to lose BI's stamp for more efficient processing and lower CPU use (but admit, I kind of like having two date stamps for some reason... haha).

 

[guykuo]

Hard drives are now big enough to do continual 24/7 recording of all camera PLUS motion triggered, event recordings. You get the advantage of easily reviewed motion recordings and never miss a critical moment that might not have been detected. 16 TB gives me about three weeks of recording buffer with 16 cameras.