Adding Devices & Automatic Configuration

This page covers adding individual cameras through the Add a device modal on the Home Dashboard. It walks through the alarm method GC Surge configures automatically, the generated credentials, and validating the setup. Covers: How to Add a Device, Part 1 — Alarm Method (Configured Automatically), Part 2 — Copy the Connection Details.

When to use this vs Add Sites: Use Add a Device to quickly add a single camera and assign it to a site that already exists — if the site does not exist yet, GC Surge creates it automatically. To onboard new sites in a structured way, or to add many cameras at once, use Add Sites in Configuration (see Setting Up Sites).

How to Add a Device

From the Home Dashboard, click Add a camera in the top right corner. The Add a device modal opens — a plug-and-play setup with three guided steps.

From your Home Dashboard, click Add a camera.
Step 1 — How should alarms be sent to GC Surge? Enter a Device name (see Camera Naming Standards below), choose the site from Select site (if the site doesn’t exist yet, GC Surge creates it automatically), then pick the method your device supports: REST API, Email (SMTP), or FTP.
Step 2 — Connection details. GC Surge generates the connection credentials for the method you chose — copy them into your camera’s alarm-forwarding settings (details per method below).
Step 3 — Forward Alarms (Optional). Optionally add a forward rule with + Add Forward Alarm, or skip it.
Click Add Device, then Done. The device is registered regardless of whether a forward rule is set.

Camera Connection Fields (Add Sites flow)

There is a second way to onboard a camera: Add Sites in Configuration, where GC Surge connects to the camera directly and (for supported brands) configures alarm forwarding for you. That flow asks for the connection fields below — see Setting Up Sites for the full procedure. (The quick Add a device flow above instead has the camera send alarms to GC Surge, so it doesn’t ask for these.)

Camera IP — the network address GC Surge uses to reach the camera. It accepts a static IP or any routable hostname that resolves consistently. Dynamic DNS is fine for trial sites; for production, a static public IP or a stable hostname on a managed DNS provider is recommended — if the address changes mid-session the camera goes Inactive in the Sites dashboard until the new endpoint is reachable.
Camera brand — the manufacturer, used to decide whether GC Surge can push the alarm-forwarding configuration automatically. For supported brands it auto-configures; for any other brand GC Surge can still ingest alarms — you configure SMTP or FTP directly on the camera using the manufacturer's interface. The full list of supported brands is in Prerequisites & Customer Categories.
Protocol — how GC Surge connects to the camera's web interface: HTTPS (encrypted, typically port 443) or HTTP (unencrypted, typically port 80). It must match what the camera actually uses — opening the camera in a browser shows https:// with a lock icon when it's HTTPS. Choose HTTPS where both are available. A mismatched protocol is the most common reason auto-configuration silently fails.
HTTP/S port — the TCP port GC Surge connects to. Factory defaults: Hikvision 80 (HTTP) and 443 (HTTPS), with 8000 reserved for an SDK port GC Surge doesn't need; Dahua and Axis both use 80 and 443. If an admin changed them, the number after the colon in the camera's web-interface URL is the port. The wrong port is the single biggest cause of discovery timing out.
Use case — the deployment mode, which determines how alarms reach GC Surge. Public IP is for cameras a browser can reach from outside the customer network — the cloud auto-configures them and it's the fastest path. Private/VPN is for ONVIF cameras behind a firewall or VPN — the Local Agent runs once on-site to discover and configure them. Edge is for cameras behind NAT that can't be reached on the local network and where there is no on-site PC for the Local Agent — they are set up from the GDA mobile app using the site's QR code.
Username — the camera's admin username (the one used to log into its web interface). Common factory defaults: Hikvision ‘admin’ (password set at first install), Dahua ‘admin’ / ‘admin’, Axis ‘root’ with no factory password (set at first login). If it's forgotten, the only recovery is a factory reset on the device. GC Surge does not display this credential in plain text after the camera is verified.
Password — the camera's admin password, used to authenticate the configuration push at onboarding and any later automatic reconfiguration if the device's settings drift. It's stored encrypted at rest, never returned in API responses, and never shown in plain text. If you rotate the password on the device, update it here too, or the Sites dashboard will show the camera as Inactive.
I am the owner — controls who receives the Site Key (the secret a field technician uses to activate the site). Checked, the key goes to your own account email; unchecked, it goes to whatever address is in Contact email / phone. The unchecked path is for integrators setting up sites for clients: enter the client's email, leave the box unchecked, and the Site Key lands in their inbox.

Step 1 — Choose the Alarm Method

In the Add a device modal you choose the alarm-delivery method your device or system supports. The three methods are:

REST API — the device sends alarms via HTTP POST with structured JSON metadata and inline snapshots, giving sub-second latency. It's the best transport when the device supports it; if the device can't do HTTP POST out of the box, fall back to Email (SMTP), which works everywhere but with higher latency.

Email (SMTP) — the device emails an alarm (with snapshot attached) to a dedicated GC Surge inbox, which parses the subject, body and attachment into an alarm event. Since almost every IP camera can email motion alerts, it's the universal fallback. End-to-end latency is typically 2–10 seconds.

FTP — the device uploads an image to an FTP server GC Surge provides, common on older or budget DVRs. FTP carries only the image file and filename — no structured metadata — so GC Surge infers the timestamp from the filename and treats each upload as an alarm. It's the lowest-fidelity transport; use it as a last resort and switch to REST or SMTP when you replace the device.

Prefer GC Surge to configure the camera for you? If you onboard supported brands (Hikvision, Dahua, Axis, NX Witness; for Hanwha and Spike Box select NxWitness) through Add Sites, GC Surge connects to the camera and pushes the alarm-forwarding settings automatically — no manual copying (see the Automatic Configuration section below). In the quick Add a device flow here, you copy the credentials from Step 2 into the camera yourself.

Step 2 — Copy the Connection Details

GC Surge generates all connection credentials automatically. Use the copy buttons next to each file — you do not create these credentials.

REST API: Device ID, Events URL, API token.
Email (SMTP): Device ID, SMTP host, SMTP port, Username, Password, Encryption type, To email, From email.
FTP: Device ID, FTP host, FTP port, Username, Password.

Paste these values exactly into the corresponding fields in your camera’s alarm forwarding configuration. One character error in any credential field will prevent alarms from reaching GC Surge.

The credentials shown are unique per device and can be regenerated if they leak. For REST API, GC Surge generates a callback (Events) URL to paste into the camera's HTTP notification settings; for Email (SMTP) the port is usually 587; for FTP, enter the displayed host, port, username and password into the camera's upload settings.

For Email (SMTP), the From address (alerts@nxgen.io) and SMTP host are shared across devices, but each device receives a unique To address — that address is how GC Surge identifies which device an alarm came from.

Step 3 — Forward Alarms (Optional)

Optionally configure where verified real alarms should be forwarded after processing — for example, to an external Central Monitoring Station (CMS) via email or webhook. Click Done when finished. This step is optional; the device is already registered and receiving alarms before you configure forwarding.

Forwarding doesn't change ingest — only what happens after NOVA99x classification: every alarm marked real (or confirmed by an operator) is forwarded over your chosen protocol. Options are DC09 for traditional alarm receivers, email for ad-hoc notifications, or webhook for arbitrary integrations. Most monitoring stations run their whole workflow inside ZenMode and don't forward at all; if you do, set it up once per device and the same rule applies to every alarm from that camera.

Automatic Configuration for Supported Brands

For Hikvision, Dahua, Axis, and NX Witness devices on public IP connections added through Add Sites, GC Surge pushes alarm forwarding credentials directly to the camera — no manual copying required. The platform handles everything after you submit the site. (Hanwha and Spike Box run on the NX Witness platform — select NxWitness as the brand.)

On a supported camera, GC Surge enables two things automatically: the SMTP/email server settings and the event-notification trigger that makes the camera send an email on each alarm. Both are applied with no manual step.

For Private/VPN and Edge connections, configuration is delivered through an on-site agent. See Setting Up Sites for connection type details and GDA App – Field Activation for the on-site activation procedure.

Connection Status After Adding

The Sites dashboard shows the configuration result for every device:

Done — the device is fully configured and sending alarm events to GC Surge. No action required.
Pending — the device has been added but the cloud has not yet finished pushing configuration or received a confirmation alarm. Resolves automatically; wait a few minutes before taking any action.
Error — GC Surge created the configuration but could not push it to the device, usually because the device was offline during setup or the credentials were wrong. Click Retry from the device Actions (…) menu — a Retry integration config modal opens where you can update the IP/Host, Protocol, port, username, and password inline before retrying. You do not need to remove and re-add the device.

Partial Pending and Partial Error appear only at the site level — when some, but not all, of a site’s cameras have finished configuring. A single device shows one of the three states above — or Manually configured if you set it up by hand (see Manual Fallback below).

Manual Fallback

If automated configuration doesn't succeed — for example a device stays in Error after a couple of Retry attempts, or the camera's brand or firmware doesn't accept the automatic push — you can configure it by hand instead:

Open the connection details from Step 2 (SMTP/FTP host, port, username, password).
Log in to the camera's own web interface and enter those values into its alarm-forwarding (email/FTP) settings manually.
Back in GC Surge, confirm you've done it — the device is then marked Manually configured instead of staying in Error.

A Manually configured device sends alarms exactly like an auto-configured one; the only difference is that you entered the settings on the camera yourself. (This is the same manual step used for unsupported brands — here it is just a fallback when the automatic push fails.)

Camera Naming Standards

Camera names appear in Video Search event cards, Analytics breakdowns, subscription camera rows, and Configuration device lists. Descriptive names make large deployments manageable; generic names create persistent operational problems at scale.

Use names that describe physical location: Front-Gate-Cam-1, Parking-Level-B2-Exit, Server-Room-Entrance.
Use a consistent format across all cameras: [Location]-[Zone]-[Number].
Avoid generic names like Camera 1, Camera 2, or Device A — these become indistinguishable in views showing 200+ cameras.
Do not duplicate a camera name that already exists on a different site — naming conflicts cause confusion in search and billing views.

Post-Registration Validation

After adding a camera, confirm the following before marking the device as operational:

Configuration check — confirm the camera appears under the correct site and the device count has incremented.
Video Search check — confirm events from the new camera appear in Video Search. This verifies the full alarm pipeline is working. Allow a few minutes after activation for the first events to arrive.
Home dashboard check — confirm alarm KPI metrics reflect activity from the new site and camera. This confirms the camera is contributing to operational dashboards.

Best Practices

Check the Sites dashboard after adding devices — do not assume all devices configured successfully until you see the status.
If a device shows Error, correct the credentials and click Retry before contacting support. Most failures are caused by wrong credentials or a temporarily offline device.
Name cameras before deployment begins — names are harder to change consistently after devices are live and appearing in dashboards.