The bottom line: Without video, you have a work order. With video, you have evidence. ProAlert's event-triggered capture means every failure is documented automatically the moment it happens... giving your reliability engineers the footage they need for Root Cause Analysis (RCA) months after the event, without requiring anyone to remember to start a recording.

Why Video Evidence Is Missing from Most Failure Analysis

NVR footage is overwritten before anyone looks.

Network Video Recorder (NVR) systems retain footage on a rolling 7- to 30-day buffer. By the time a recurring failure pattern is identified, the video evidence from the first event is long gone.
Manually retrieving video clips is a project.

Finding the right camera, the right timestamp, and exporting a clip from an NVR typically requires IT involvement and takes hours. By the time the clip is reviewed, the context of the failure has faded.
Video and event data live in separate systems.

Even when video is available, connecting a specific clip to a specific downtime event, work order, or scrap entry requires manual cross-referencing of timestamps across two separate systems.
No other OEE or CMMS system does this natively.

Standalone VMS (Video Management System) products like Milestone XProtect or Genetec have no integration with maintenance systems. ProAlert is the only platform that combines OEE, CMMS, and event-triggered VMS in one product.

How Event-Triggered Capture Works

When a Downtime (DT) call is initiated, ProAlert triggers the recording sequence automatically. No operator action required.

Step	What Happens
1. Call Initiated	Operator or EdgeSense IoT (Internet of Things) device places a DT call. The call creation event triggers the recording service immediately.
2. Pre-Event Buffer Retrieved	The recording service retrieves the lead-up from that camera's rolling buffer, whose length is configured per camera in minutes. The clip covers the window before the trigger, so the cause is in the frame rather than only the consequence.
3. Post-Event Capture	Recording continues for a configurable number of seconds after the trigger timestamp, to capture the machine's immediate response to the failure event and what the operator did next.
4. Clip Processed and Linked	The clip is processed by the background VideoClipProcessingService, a thumbnail is generated, and the clip is linked to the specific DT call record in the database. The push notification "Video Ready" is delivered via SignalR.
5. Accessible from Work Order	Technicians reviewing the resulting Work Order see a "Video Evidence" section with the linked clip. One click plays the footage. No NVR access required.

ProAlert video player showing footage of a hydraulic die press captured automatically for a Machine Down call, with the event details across the top, the press stopped part way through its stroke, and a frame counter reading 253 of 300 — **Sixty seconds of the press, kept because a call was raised on it.** The strip across the top is the event the footage belongs to: what failed, on which machine, when it was raised, how long it was down, and the window the recorder took... 45 seconds before the call and 15 after, with nobody pressing record. The press strokes normally for the first 45 seconds. It stops part way down at the moment of the call and never moves again, which is the seal losing pressure, on camera. Frame 253 of 300, stepped to one frame at a time.

Any RTSP Camera Works

ProAlert does not require proprietary hardware. Any IP camera that outputs a standard RTSP stream integrates without additional licensing or hardware.

Any RTSP IP Camera

Direct RTSP recording from Reolink, Hikvision, Dahua, Axis, and any standard IP camera that exposes an RTSP stream. No proprietary VMS license required for basic recording.

Rolling Buffer, Set in Minutes

Database-backed frame storage with automatic cleanup. The buffer length is set per camera in minutes on the camera edit screen, so a plant keeps as much lead-up as its retention policy and its storage allow rather than accepting one fixed window across the floor.

A Clip Never Claims to Be Ready When It Is Not

An export that produced no footage does not show as Ready, and the failure is broadcast to the people who can act on it. The alternative, an empty player opened three weeks later during an investigation, is worse than knowing at the time.

Deleting a Camera Keeps Its Footage

Removing a camera takes it off the list. The clips already exported against it stay in the archive, because the evidence belongs to the event it documents, not to the hardware that happened to record it.

Recorders That Notice They Have Stalled

A stalled recorder detects itself and recovers rather than reporting a stale status, camera status has a single writer so two components cannot disagree about it, and health survives a service restart.

Multi-Camera per Asset

Assign multiple cameras to a single asset for full coverage of complex equipment. Mobile users can switch between camera views on the video player page.

Recording Server Management

Track and manage recording servers with heartbeat monitoring and health dashboards. Know which recording servers are online before an event requires them.

Storage requirements (typical): H.264 at 2 Mbps for 1080p resolution. Average DT call clip (5 minutes): approximately 75 MB. Annual storage for a typical facility with 1,200 downtime calls: approximately 90 GB. Standard NAS or server storage is sufficient for most deployments.

Playback and Review Tools

ProAlert's video player is purpose-built for failure analysis, not general surveillance viewing.

Frame-by-Frame Playback

Play, pause, seek, and step one frame at a time with keyboard shortcuts. Step forward and back through critical moments for precise component-level inspection.

Variable Speed Control

Playback speed from 0.2x to 3x. Slow down the moment of failure for detailed inspection; fast-forward through idle time before the event.

Digital Zoom

Zoom into specific regions of the video frame for component-level inspection without requiring a separate high-resolution NVR system.

Multi-Camera Selection

Switch between all cameras assigned to the asset on the same player page. Compare angles on a complex failure event without switching applications.

Work Order Task Lightbox

Per-task reference videos expand in a lightbox directly on the Work Order Detail page. Technicians review procedure reference videos without navigating away from the task.

Video Ready Notification

Push notification delivered via SignalR when a clip finishes processing and is ready to view. No polling or manual refresh required.

ProAlert vs. Standalone VMS

Standalone VMS (Milestone, Genetec, Generic NVR)

Video only... no connection to maintenance or production systems
$50–$500 per camera licensing (Milestone XProtect)
Clip retrieval requires IT access to the NVR server
No link to DT calls, work orders, or OEE data
Manual review of hours of footage to find relevant events
Integration with CMMS costs $50,000+ in custom development

ProAlert Video Integration

Video evidence linked automatically to every DT call
Any RTSP camera... no per-camera license fees for basic recording
Clips accessible from the Work Order with one click
Pre-event buffer captured before the alert even fires
Mobile playback with zoom, frame-step, and speed control
Integration cost: $0... same database as OEE and CMMS

For IT and Physical Security Teams

Component	Technology	Notes
Camera Protocol	RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) direct recording via FFmpeg	Direct RTSP connection to cameras without a VMS intermediary. Compatible with any camera that exposes an RTSP endpoint. Milestone XProtect SDK integration also available for existing VMS deployments.
Rolling Buffer	Database-backed frame storage (SQL Server)	Configurable buffer duration per camera. Automatic cleanup job removes frames older than the retention window. No separate video server required for standard deployments.
Clip Processing	VideoClipProcessingService (background worker)	Polls for pending clip requests every 10 seconds. Exports clip, generates thumbnail, updates clip status, and broadcasts SignalR "Video Ready" notification. Runs on the same server as the web application.
Storage	Local filesystem or NAS (recommended)	Storage abstraction layer supports local disk and network-attached storage on your plant network. Cloud object storage is supported on request for facilities with specific requirements.
Network Requirements	RTSP access from the recording server to cameras	The ProAlert server (or a dedicated recording server) needs RTSP access to cameras. Standard IP camera network segment access. No inbound camera firewall rules required.

See a failure event captured on video automatically.

Book a 30-minute demo... we'll walk through a live DT call, show the auto-captured clip, and demonstrate frame-by-frame playback for root cause analysis.

Schedule a Demo