Bookmark video clips

Last modified: Thursday March 28, 2024.

As an Operator of a Alta video security systems, you might notice something from one or more cameras that you want to bring to the attention of others, for example, your supervisor, or a colleague on the next shift.

By creating a bookmark of the relevant video clips, you can easily highlight this information.

Bookmarked video has a different retention policy to the retention applied to each camera. You define how long the bookmarked content is kept, either by specifying a date for the bookmarked content to be deleted, or marking it as requiring manual deletion.

Large numbers of saved video clips can impact the retention period of the camera. Alta Video shows a warning for any Alta camera using more than half its storage capacity for bookmarked video footage.

For more information on camera recording retention policies, see Alta camera bandwidth usage, video quality, and video storage.

Prerequisites

Locate the video clip of interest from Video view Playback, Search, or from Alarms.

Task - Bookmark a video clip

  1. Log in to Alta Video and navigate to the tool or Pop-up alert of interest.
  2. To enable the Bookmark features:
    • Video view — make sure you are in Playback mode.
    • Search — define all your search parameters and then Play button open or Add devices button select the video clips to be bookmarked.
    • Devices — select a camera and maximize the video thumbnail to display the Share and save button Share or save button.
    • Alarms — maximize the video thumbnail to display the Share or save button Share or save button.
  3. Using your selected tool, locate the video clips of interest.
  4. Click the Share or save button Share or save button and choose Bookmark button.
  5. If multiple cameras are shown, hover over the thumbnails, and click Close button to deselect any camera views that are not of interest.
  6. To bookmark video from additional cameras, add them by clicking Add devices button Add devices.
  7. Select the required timeframe by entering the Start and End times. Alternatively, hover and drag the Clip start time handle and Clip end time handle handles to adjust the clip to include the portion of video you want.
    1. Alta Video shows a warning for cameras with no footage for the selected timeframe. For example, the footage has been deleted due to the camera recording retention policy.
    2. You cannot create bookmarks if all of the selected cameras have no recorded footage for the selected timeframe.
  8. Click the Play button play button to preview the clip.
    1. Adjust the clip boundaries as needed.
    2. If you are exporting video from multiple cameras, select Sync export timeframe to use the same Start and End times.
    3. The minimum clip length that can be bookmarked is 10 seconds.
  9. Enter a name for the bookmark.
  10. Optionally, enter a description for the bookmark.
  11. From Available until, select either Specific date or Manually deleted.
    For Specific date, enter the date to delete the bookmark.

    Because the Available until setting overrides the Delete recordings after (days) setting in the camera configuration profile, the recording might be stored longer than expected. Check your corporate policies on video data retention before creating bookmarked clips or shared links.

  12. Optionally, choose the users or user groups that can access this bookmarked video or enable access for All users. Users with administrative permissions have access to all bookmarks.
  13. Click Save.