Motion Alerts

Configuring Areas of Interest

Areas of Interest allow you to select specific portions of the frame for motion alerts. Only motion within these areas will trigger an alert. You can configure multiple Areas of Interest to monitor separate regions or cover a single expected motion path. This helps reduce false positives and captures relevant motion events.

Motion Sensitivity

Higher motion sensitivity allows smaller objects passing in front of the camera to trigger alerts. Lower sensitivity ensures only larger objects generate alerts.

For example, if motion sensitivity is set to 95%,

• 3% of Area of Interest with motion → no alerts   

• 5% or more of Area of Interest with motion → alerts! 

A small bird flying through the Area of Interest may cover only about 5% of the region. To trigger an alert for such a small event, set the Motion Sensitivity value to at least 95% (100% - 5%).

A larger car passing through may cover up to 50% of the region. In this case, set the Motion Sensitivity value to 50% (100% - 50%) or higher to trigger an alert.

The Motion sensitivity and Minimum event duration for trigger sliders can be used to minimize the alerts that are generated due to trivial motion. When these values are set, a rough estimate of the number of alerts that will be generated per day can be seen from the bar chart as shown below. For example, decreasing the Motion Sensitivity from 100% to 56% would reduce the number of alerts that would be generated per day from 168 alerts to 21 alerts. 

Alert Only on People Events

In addition to configuring motion sensitivity and duration, you can minimize alerts from a camera by triggering it when a moving person is detected by the camera anywhere in its field of view or within specific region of interest (if selected).

When 'Alert Only on People Events' is enabled, alerts are sent only if a person's motion is detected and matches the alert configuration, including areas of interest, sensitivity, and duration.

Configuring Email Recipients

Currently, motion alert notifications are only sent via email (although there is a way to send emails to an SMS phone number). To configure email recipients, navigate to Network-wide > Configure > Alerts. Default recipients always receive motion alert emails. To ensure specific users only receive motion alerts and no other Meraki alerts, configure Custom recipients for motion alerts and enter their email addresses.

All network alerts are sent from the same email address. To prevent alerts from being marked as spam, add alerts-noreply@meraki.com as a trusted email source.