Fire & Smoke Watch: an extra pair of eyes, not an alarm

What it does

Svid describes every frame of the footage it watches, and Fire & Smoke Watch is a paid check over those descriptions that looks for visible smoke, flame, or a fire-like glow or spreading haze. It's told to ignore steam from normal cooking equipment and fog outdoors. One hazy frame alone is ambiguous, so the check judges a window of recent frames together: smoke builds, and the sequence is what settles it. When it fires, the alert says where the smoke or flame appears and how developed it looks, with a link to the exact moment.

Why a camera can see it early

A point detector waits for smoke to physically reach it, which in a high-ceilinged warehouse or an open yard can take a while. A camera watches the whole scene: the bin in the corner, the socket behind the racking, the machine left running overnight. Smoke that's visible in frame can be flagged while it's still low and thin, often earlier than a point alarm reaches the same conclusion.

It's most useful in the awkward spaces: yards, loading bays, bin stores, plant rooms, rooms full of stock. The places a camera already points and a person rarely looks.

What an alert looks like

Alerts go out as frames are judged: on screen, by email, and by JSON webhook at the same time, so the same event can reach a phone, a group inbox and whatever system your site already runs. One event fires one alert; a re-fire within two minutes is recorded as the same event continuing rather than a fresh alarm.

Where it runs

It's enabled per camera, on RTSP feeds from your existing recorder, uploaded files, or a live phone camera. Recorded footage goes through the same pipeline as live, which is the sensible way to trial it: run it over a month of old footage and see what it would have said. A folder of cameras can have the check applied in one action, and for sites where footage can't leave the network there's a fully on-prem appliance mode.

What it costs

The Store shows Fire & Smoke Watch with a live monthly figure computed from your own cameras, hours and watch level, as ‘+$X/mo at your usage’, before you buy. The subscription underneath is priced from your own usage with a $9 a month floor, and the full derivation is on screen at signup. The pricing section shows the arithmetic.

Does it replace smoke detectors or the fire alarm?

No, and it isn't meant to. Certified detection and alarm systems stay exactly as they are. The check adds a camera's view of the same rooms and gets a plain description to a human quickly. Treat it as an extra pair of eyes, never as part of the life-safety system.

What about steam and fog?

The check is told to ignore steam from normal cooking equipment and fog outdoors, and borderline frames are judged together with the frames around them, because one hazy frame alone is ambiguous. The odd false flag still happens; the clip attached to each alert settles it in a glance.

Who finds out, and how fast?

Whoever you choose. Alerts go out as frames are judged, on screen, by email and by JSON webhook simultaneously, so the webhook can feed a security desk or any process you already run.