Trigger recordings on other cameras if one is triggered

[moskovskiy82]

With the new review section would be great to have the ability to record group of cameras at the same time. That would give different angles even if others don't trigger (overview cams)

[DrSpaldo]

I am sure this had previously been asked and wasn't implemented for some reason. But, with the new features being implemented, it may be a good time to revisit the idea

[Shred99]

I would have thought that most people who use Frigate for anything other than the most trivial setups would be using MQTT + (something like) Node-Red. It shouldn't be hard to create a flow in node-red to take a trigger from one camera and use it to kick off recording on other, related cameras.

[raintonr]

It shouldn't be hard to ... take a trigger from one camera and use it to kick off recording on other, related cameras.

That's right... it shouldn't be hard. Which is why the OP is asking for a Frigate feature rather than having to DIY something 😉

FWIW, currently it seems one has to use the API to trigger event creation as described here:

https://deploy-preview-6262--frigate-docs.netlify.app/integrations/api/#post-apieventscamera_namelabelcreate

I find this somewhat inconsistent. Ie. you use MQTT to detect an event, but cannot then use MQTT to trigger another camera, but instead have to create an API request. MQTT can be used for various control/input functions into Frigate so wouldn't it be more consistent to also use it to trigger events?

Another note on this topic: imagine one has a zone that is visible from more than one camera, and that zone is configured on those multiple cameras. IMHO it would be a super nice feature if, in this situation, when one camera detects something in that zone, it could (optionally) automatically trigger an event in all cameras that have that same zone configured. This is what the OP is asking for but would be a nice way to achieve it without much (any) extra config effort.

[NickM-27]

It doesn't make sense for event creation to be done via MQTT, there are too many inputs, response (with event id) that is required to end the indefinite events, etc.

There's already a home assistant service to do this, and we've already implemented a way to do it from the UI as well for 0.16.

I'm not sure if creating a review item on matching zones really makes sense because realistically if two cameras are looking at the same area they'll see the same object so no manual review item is necessary. This also has the potential to get very conditional, which imo is what makes it a good candidate for automation where users can configure exactly what circumstances trigger this behavior including factors outside of Frigate itself

[raintonr]

...there are too many inputs...

I note MQTT topics are already arranged in a tree with a branch for each camera, so... "Trigger an event on this camera"

Is it me, or is that one input?

But it's OK, if you don't like the idea no worries.