IVS Wiki:Configuring a Privacy Switch

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Prepare all Cameras

On each camera in the room:

  1. Set the I/O Ports
  2. Set the PTZ Presets
  3. Set the Privacy Mask


Set the I/O Ports

The Input/Output (I/O) ports will be wired to the Privacy Switch. These are used to determine which mode the camera should be in and outputs power to the Privacy Switch to light up the LED.


  1. Go to System → Accessories.
  2. Ensure that Ports 1 & 3 are set as Input and 2 & 4 are set as Output.
    3. Port 1 Input Port 2 Output
    Port 3 Input Port 4 Output

✎Some cameras will only have ports 1 & 2.

Set the PTZ Presets

If there are any PTZ cameras in the room, you will need to set the preset positions on those cameras. These locations will help drive the camera to its Privacy Position and Home Position.


  1. Pan/Tilt/Zoom your camera to the desired angle.
  2. Go to PTZ → Preset PositionsPrivacy rules 12x 05.png🖼️.
  3. Select Preset Positions → Create preset position.
    1. Home Position
      • Set a typical angle that would capture the room normally.

        • ✎The Home preset may already exist. If this is the case, hit the Edit button on the existing Home preset instead of creating a new preset.

      • In the Name field enter Home.
    2. Privacy Position
      • Typically, this involves having the PTZ face the wall.

        • ✎The exact position does not matter for functionality, but having the camera visibly face the wall can help to ensure visual privacy even if the mask is off.

      • In the Name field enter Privacy.

Privacy rules 12x 03.png

Set the Privacy Mask

The Privacy Mask will be used to block the view


While your camera is in the Privacy Position:

  1. Video → Privacy Masks → Hit the plus (+) button to add a Mask.
  2. Have the mask cover the entire view.
  3. Name the mask Privacy.

    4. ⚠Make sure this is the first/only mask!

Add Recipients

Add Recipients

  1. Go to System → Events → Recipients.
  2. Select Add Recipient.
  3. In the Name field, enter the name of the camera.
    4. It is common to use "Self" for the main camera.
  4. In the Type field, select HTTP.
    5. The URL of the recipient will be in the form:
    http://CAMERA_IP/axis-cgi/param.cgi

⚠Repeat this process on all cameras in the room that the privacy switch would be activating.

Privacy rules 12x 04.png


Remote PTZ Recipient

For remote PTZ cameras, separate PTZ Control recipients need to be made alongside the standard recipient of the form: 

http://CAMERA_IP/axis-cgi/com/ptz.cgi
Image Example

Privacy rules 12x 00.png

  1. Enter in the corresponding Username and Password for the recipient camera.
  2. Hit the Test button.
  3. If the camera responds that everything is okay, hit the Save button to save your recipient.

    4. ⚠Repeat this process on all PTZ cameras in the room that the privacy switch would be activating.

Add Privacy Event Rules

Privacy Off

  1. Go to System → Events → Rules.
  2. Select Add a rule.
  3. Set Name to Privacy Off.
  4. Set Condition to Digital input is active or I/O → Digital input. (Firmware Dependent)
  5. In the Port section, select the port the privacy switch trigger is connected to (white wire).
  6. Set Action to Send notification through HTTP.
  7. Set the Recipient.
  8. The Query string suffix will be of the form name=value for each parameter name and value, with an ampersand (&) between each name/value pair.

The suffix should be composed of the following pairs:

Name Value
action update
Image.I0.Overlay.MaskWindows.M0.Enabled no
AudioSource.A0.InputGain 0
PTZ.Various.V1.PanEnabled true
PTZ.Various.V1.TiltEnabled true
PTZ.Various.V1.ZoomEnabled true
autofocus on
Image Example

Privacy rules 12x 01.png

The completed suffix should be (ignore word wrapping): 

action=update&Image.I0.Overlay.MaskWindows.M0.Enabled=no& AudioSource.A0.InputGain=0&PTZ.Various.V1.PanEnabled=true& PTZ.Various.V1.TiltEnabled=true&TZ.Various.V1.ZoomEnabled=true

⚠Set AudioSource.A0.InputGain to the amount of gain necessary for the room. For example, if you gain would normally be set to 15 dB, you want to use the name/value pair to be AudioSource.A0.InputGan=15.

Privacy On

  1. Go to System → Events → Rules.
  2. Select Add a rule.
  3. Set Name to Privacy On.
  4. Set Condition to Digital input is active or I/O → Digital input. (Firmware Dependent)
  5. In the Port section, select the port the privacy switch trigger is connected to (white wire).
  6. Set Action to Send notification through HTTP.
  7. Set the Recipient.
  8. The Query string suffix will be of the form name=value for each parameter name and value, with an ampersand (&) between each name/value pair.

The suffix should be composed of the following pairs:

Name Value
action update
Image.I0.Overlay.MaskWindows.M0.Enabled yes
AudioSource.A0.InputGain mute
PTZ.Various.V1.PanEnabled false
PTZ.Various.V1.TiltEnabled false
PTZ.Various.V1.ZoomEnabled false
Image Example

Privacy rules 12x 02.png

The completed suffix should be (ignore word wrapping): 

action=update&Image.I0.Overlay.MaskWindows.M0.Enabled=yes& AudioSource.A0.InputGain=mute&PTZ.Various.V1.PanEnabled=false& PTZ.Various.V1.TiltEnabled=false&PTZ.Various.V1.ZoomEnabled=false

LED Toggle

On the Host Camera:

  1. Go to System → Events → Rules.
  2. Select Add a rule.
  3. Set Name to LED Toggle.
  4. Set Condition to Digital input is active or I/O → Digital input. (Firmware Dependent)
  5. In the Port section, select the port the privacy switch trigger is connected to (white wire).
  6. Set Action to Toggle I/O while the rule is active.
  7. Set the Action Port to the port the privacy switch LED is connected to (black wire).
  8. Set the Action State to Active.

PTZ Rules

The following rules will be used to move the camera to a privacy location with privacy is enabled, and then move to a home location once the privacy is disabled.

PTZ Privacy

  1. Go to System → Events → Rules.
  2. Select Add a rule.
  3. Set Name to the camera name with PTZ Privacy Position.
  4. Set Condition to Digital input is active or I/O → Digital input. (Firmware Dependent)
  5. In the Port section, select the port the privacy switch trigger is connected to (white wire).
  6. Set Action to Send notification through HTTP.
  7. Set the Recipient to be the proper PTZ Controls Recipient.
  8. The Query string suffix should be: gotoserverpresetname=Privacy


PTZ Home

  1. Go to System → Events → Rules.
  2. Select Add a rule.
  3. Set Name to the camera name with PTZ Home Position.
  4. Set Condition to Digital input is active or I/O → Digital input. (Firmware Dependent)
  5. Check the box Invert this condition.
  6. In the Port section, select the port the privacy switch trigger is connected to (white wire).
  7. Set Action to Send notification through HTTP.
  8. Set the Recipient to be the proper PTZ Controls Recipient.
  9. The Query string suffix should be: gotoserverpresetname=Home

Quick Notes

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