Genea Video gives you two ways to search recorded footage, both built for speed. Rather than scrubbing through hours of video, you define what you're looking for and get back a set of thumbnails you can jump straight into.
Which one to use
| Single camera search | Forensic Search |
Cameras | One at a time | Multiple cameras at once |
Where | Inside the video player | Its own section under Video Management |
Best for | Narrowing in on a specific zone within one camera's view, using Area of Interest | Tracking activity across multiple cameras following someone through a site, or checking several entrances at once |
đĄ Both search recorded footage, so you can search a camera that is currently offline as long as the footage is still within its retention window.
Part 1: Searching a single camera
Step 1: Open the search panel
From the video player, click Search in the top-right toolbar.
Video Management â Monitoring â select a camera â Search
Step 2: Set the time range
Enter a Start Date-Time and End Date-Time, or use one of the quick presets:
1 hour, 2 hours, 6 hours, 24 hours, Yesterday
Step 3: Define an Area of Interest (optional)
This is what makes single camera search powerful. Instead of searching the whole frame, you can restrict the search to a specific part of the camera's view, a doorway, a loading bay, one parking space.
A grid appears over a still from the camera. To define your area:
Drag across the grid to select a region
Click individual cells to fine-tune the selection one cell at a time
Drag or click again over selected cells to remove them from the area
Use Change AOI to reset and start over.
đĄ Tip: A tight Area of Interest is the fastest way to cut out noise. If a camera overlooks a busy road but you only care about your own entrance, select just the entrance cells and the traffic disappears from your results.
Step 4: Choose what to look for
Under Events, you can tick Person, Vehicle, or both.
Neither selected - results include motion events only
Person and/or Vehicle selected - results include those detections alongside motion
Step 5: Run the search
Click Run Search. Results appear in the side panel as thumbnails, each showing the camera name, date, time, and any detection tags.
Step 6: Jump to a result
Click any result and the player jumps straight to that moment in the timeline. From there you can review the footage normally, take a snapshot, or export a clip.
Use Edit Search to adjust your criteria and run it again, or Close to exit the results.
Part 2: Forensic Search across multiple cameras
Forensic Search is built for investigating across your site - searching several cameras simultaneously and reviewing everything in one grid.
Video Management â Forensic Search
Step 1: Select your cameras
Click Select Camera. In the picker you can:
Filter by Location, or leave it on All Locations
Search for a camera by name
See each camera's online or offline status and a preview thumbnail
Tick up to four cameras the counter at the bottom shows how many you've selected. Click Confirm.
To change your selection later, use Change Camera in the search panel.
Step 2: Set the time range
Same as single camera search - enter start and end times, or use the 1 hour, 2 hours, 6 hours, 24 hours, or Yesterday presets.
Step 3: Choose what to look for
Tick Person, Vehicle, or both. With neither selected, results return motion events only.
Step 4: Run the search
Click Run Search. Results come back as a grid of thumbnails, each labelled with the camera name, location, date, time, and any detection tags.
Use the S / M / L toggle to change thumbnail size - larger for detail, smaller to scan more results at once.
Step 5: Open a result
Click any thumbnail to open a pop-out video player positioned at that exact moment. From here you can:
Scrub the timeline and review footage around the event
Use Previous and Next to step through events
Take a Snapshot
Open Clips to export a clip of that moment
Open the full player for the complete set of playback controls
Starting over
Click New Search to begin a fresh search, or reopen the search panel to edit your existing criteria.
â ď¸ Searches are not saved. Once you run a new search or leave the page, the previous set of results is gone. If a result matters, export it as a clip before moving on - clips are saved permanently to the Clips page.
Understanding your results
Every result thumbnail carries a tag showing what was detected:
Person - a person was identified in the frame
Vehicle - a vehicle was identified
A result can carry both tags if both were detected at the same moment. Results with no tag are motion events without a classified object.
Troubleshooting
Issue | What to check |
No results returned | Widen the time range, or clear the Area of Interest to search the full frame |
Too many results to work through | Narrow the Area of Interest to the zone you care about, shorten the time range, or select only Person or only Vehicle |
Can't select a fifth camera in Forensic Search | Four cameras is the maximum per search. Deselect one, or run a second search for the others |
No Person or Vehicle results, only motion | Confirm the Person and Vehicle checkboxes are ticked. Object classification also requires correct camera settings, especially sensitivity. |
Results missing for an expected period | Confirm footage exists for that period. Check the camera's retention window and, on Motion Only cameras, that motion was actually recorded |
Lost a result you wanted | Searches aren't saved. Re-run the search with the same criteria, then export a clip |
If you have any questions regarding muster reports, reach out to Genea Support at any time at acsupport@getgenea.com.