It is common to hear customers want to connect CCTV cameras to a mic. All you have to bear in mind is whether your country allows audio recording. Recording a conversation in secret is not a criminal offence in the UK and is not prohibited. And if it is for the personal use you don’t need to obtain consent or let the other person know. Things change if the matter is addressed with a claim for damages or if the recordings have been shared without the consent of the participants. Even worse, if the recording is sold to third parties or released in public without the consent of the participants then this could be considered a criminal offence in the UK.
Always shout for legal advice for embarking on such projects.
Step 1:
Prepare your tools.
- Make sure your camera supports audio input. You can check this by looking at the connectors of the camera.
- Have an external microphone, Hikvision sells its own making. DS-2FP2020 is a HI-FI microphone for Hikvision and other cameras.
- You should have the client software. (e.g. iVMS-4200 & iVMS-4500)
Step 2:
- HIKVISION cameras which have –S in their names support the audio function.
- Some cameras have internal microphone such as DS-2CD2412F-I (W), for these cameras, please skip next section (How to plug active microphone to IPC).
How to plug active microphone to IPC?
- There are two types in Hikvision audio interface.
a) 21XX Network Camera
b) 63XX Network Camera
In this picture below, the audio in interface is 9 and the audio out
interface is 10.
Take DS-2FP2020, for instance. Connect Red wire with Positive power supply; connect White wire with Audio in interface; and then connect Black wire with Negative power supply and Audio GND interface together.
HIKVISION also offer active microphone units such as DS-2FP2020 (see picture below), they come with three wires.
- Black – Negative or ground
- Red – Positive power
- White – Audio
Step 3:
Connect Red wire with Positive power supply; connect White wire with Audio in interface; and then connect Black wire with Negative power supply and Audio GND interface together.
Please note that the audio ground and power ground shared.
How to start audio live view & playback?
In the camera web interface, go to Configuration – Video/Audio and set the video type to Video&Audio, and then go to Audio tab to set audio input to LineIn. If needed, you may enable environmental noise filter.
Go to Live View tab, enable the audio output by clicking audio or speaker icon and adjust its volume.
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