Congrats, fName! Welcome to Watchman.

The Watchman Agent is a service that runs as a background task on your PC. The agent analyzes video streams from one or more IP cameras and finds the license plates and detailed vehicle variables for the vehicles that pass by the camera. We recommend a dedicated PC for the agent due to the amount of CPU used during processing; however, it can be installed on any machine.

Installation on Windows is often the simplest, but does not provide the same accuracy levels as Ubuntu Linux.

1. Download the OpenALPR Windows Installer
2. Right click the .exe file, run as administrator, and follow the install wizard
3. Start the “Configure OpenALPR” program after the install completes
4. Select Watchman Cloud for Data Destination and enter the email address and password you created during sign-up

You have now successfully connected the Watchman Agent with the OpenALPR web server. All configuration and management is performed centrally on the OpenALPR web server. You may now move to step 3 to configure the agent and add video streams to monitor.

Installation on Linux requires basic knowledge of using the terminal. If you do not already have Linux installed as an operating system, please complete these steps before continuing.

1. Download the Ubuntu 20.04 64-bit install image and copy it to a USB flash drive
2. Follow the Ubuntu desktop installation guide

Once Ubuntu is installed:

1. Open a new terminal
2. Ensure you have curl installed
3. Run the command below and choose “install_agent”
4. Select yes/no when prompted to connect the Agent to your cloud account

You have now successfully connected the Watchman Agent with the OpenALPR web server. All configuration and management is performed centrally on the OpenALPR web server. You may now move to step 3 to configure the agent and add video streams to monitor.

Installation on Linux requires basic knowledge of using the terminal. If you do not already have Linux installed as an operating system, please complete these steps before continuing.

1. Open a new terminal
2. Pull the latest OpenALPR Docker image

3. Enable the license for the agent

4. Configure it to point to a Watchman web server (default is https://cloud.openalpr.com)

5. Start the container

The Watchman agent is connected and you can move on to Step 3 to connect video streams. For more advanced use-cases, you can find the configuration and source Dockerfile on GitHub.

Install the Watchman Agent as an app on Axis cameras and send video to the cloud for processing. You will need the following:

• An Axis Commercial account
• A supported Axis camera
• An SD Card with at least 2GB storage space
• Internet Connectivity (minimum 2Mbps upload speed)
• Accurate date/time. We recommend configuring NTP (See Setup | Date & Time)
• DNS Configuration (See Setup | Advanced TCP/IP Settings)
• The latest Axis firmware (minimum is 5.60.1.1)

After checking the prerequisites, follow these steps for installation:

• Download the latest Watchman Axis camera Agent
• Login to your Axis Camera
• Click Setup in the top right corner
• Click Applications
• Click the Choose File button and select the OpenALPR_Cloud_latest_mipsisa32r2el.eap file (downloaded above), then click the Upload Package button
• Click OpenALPR Cloud and then Start (you will be prompted for your cloud.openalpr.com credentials)

As vehicles move past the camera, the video will be sent to OpenALPR for archiving and processing. You can view video recorded in the past 60 days using the “Video” link on the left. As license plates are detected, they will appear on your cloud account dashboard.

There are four approaches for connecting cameras to the Watchman Agent. Regardless of which method you use, it is a good idea to first play the video stream in an external media player like VLC (click Media > Open Network Stream). This ensures the URL is correctly formatted and there are no firewall/network issues. If your stream will not play in VLC, the Watchman Agent will not be able to connect to it either.

1. Launch the Configure OpenALPR program
2. Toggle the cameras tab on the left if it is not already active
3. Click Add > Discover Devices
4. Click the IP address matching your camera and you will be provided with a list of available substreams (different resolutions and/or frame rates)
5. Choose a substream, test, and save under a unique camera name

1. Determine the stream URL for your camera. The format varies by manufacturer, but typically has the form rtsp://username:password@ip_address:port_number/some/unique/extension (may also start with http:// instead). The username and password portion may not be required for all cameras but typically comes with a simple factory default such as root:1234 or admin:password. For RTSP streams, the default port number is 554 while HTTP uses 80. If you do not know the /some/unique/extension portion, please review our templates for different camera manufacturers in approach 2.5, browse your camera’s configuration interface if available, or contact the camera manufacturer directly.
2. Follow approach 1, except instead of selecting Discover Devices chose Stream URL Manual

1. Login to the Agent Configuration page on the OpenALPR Web Server
2. Click the blue Configure button for the Agent you want to add the camera to
3. Scroll to the Camera Stream Config section
4. Select your manufacturer from the drop down list or choose Generic URL
5. Fill out the remaining fields, test the stream, and save the camera with a unique name

1. Follow approach 3.1 to determine your camera’s stream URL
2. Open a blank text file in the Agent’s stream folder (located at /etc/openalpr/stream.d on Linux or C:\OpenALPR\Agent\etc\openalpr\stream.d on Windows)
3. Add a line to the file with the following format: stream = [Camera HTTP/RTSP stream URL]
4. Save with the file with a unique name and .conf extension (i.e. my_new_camera.conf)
5. Restart the Agent

• GUI: Services tab > Agent > Stop > Start
• Linux Terminal: sudo systemctl restart openalpr-daemon