Auto-Follow
Auto-Follow turns an alert into live tracking. Instead of you finding the cameras, eConnect brings them up and keeps switching to whichever camera has just seen the subject.
What it does
When an alert fires and Auto-Follow is on, eConnect opens the camera that raised it. As fresh detections of the same subject arrive elsewhere, the view moves with them — so a person walking through your property is followed from camera to camera without anybody choosing the next one.
That is the difference between watching someone move and reconstructing where they went afterwards.
Turning it on
Auto-Follow is a per-user preference — see Alert Preferences. It is a reasonable default for an operator watching a live floor, and the wrong one for someone doing analysis, where views changing themselves is a distraction.
Following from a single alert
You do not need it on permanently. Instant review / follow on an alert card starts following that subject there and then, which suits an operator who works quietly most of the time and wants to follow one particular alert.
That action acknowledges the alert as it follows, recorded distinctly so a review can tell a deliberate follow from an ordinary acknowledgement.
This action is recorded in the audit trail.
Cameras opened this way are recorded
Following opens cameras, and opening a camera is audited like any other viewing.
This action is recorded in the audit trail.
Closing records how long it was watched, which is what makes a later review able to say a detection was actually looked at rather than merely opened.
This action is recorded in the audit trail.
Requirements
Auto-Follow shows live video, so it needs the desktop client. In a browser, cameras appear as refreshing stills — you will still be taken to the right camera, but you will not get live playback. See Using eConnect in a Browser.
It also depends on the subject continuing to be detected. Someone who leaves camera coverage stops generating detections, and the view stays where it last saw them.
When it gets in the way
On a busy floor with several tagged subjects, Auto-Follow can pull the view around faster than anybody can watch. Two options:
- Mute for a period, which suppresses auto-follow along with popups — see Muting Alerts
- Turn Auto-Follow off and follow individual alerts deliberately with Instant review / follow
The second is the better long-term setting for anyone who is not exclusively watching alerts.
Alongside the Workspace
Cameras you are taken to are captured in your Workspace as you go, so the path a subject took through your property is recorded as a tree you can return to and share.
Audit record
What eConnect writes to the audit trail for the actions on this page.
ALERT AUTO FOLLOWED
CAMERA '{camera name}' LIVE
CAMERA '{camera name}' REVIEWED FOR {elapsed}