How to time synchronize MOBOTIX cameras

Cameras should be time-synchronized to make sure that the footage recorded is having the correct timestamp. This is important in case the footage needs to be handed to the police or if you want to see what happened on other cameras at that time the footage was recorded.

Different installation situations can happen here:

1. Cameras are able to connect to the internet
If all cameras can connect to the internet, you need to enter the NTP timeserver the cameras should sync to on every camera. To do this, go to Admin Menu - Time & Date and change “Time Servers” from None to NTP.
Now, you can enter up to three NTP timeservers. Please make sure that you confirm the settings clicking the “Set” button and store the settings permanently by using the “Close” button and confirming the following dialog.


When configuring a network with several cameras to use NTP, you should activate the “Use Camera as Time Server” checkbox on one camera and enter this camera’s IP address in the other cameras as a NTP server. This camera can now work as an (additional) time server for the other cameras. This always ensures that these cameras have the same system time, independent of the proper functioning of the external time server.

2. Cameras do not have any connection to the internet, but a local time source is available
If the cameras are limited to a local network, but a time source is available, you need to enter the local NTP timeserver the cameras should sync to on every camera. To do this, go to Admin Menu - Time & Date and change “Time Servers” from None to NTP.
Now, you can enter up to three local NTP timeservers. Please make sure that you confirm the settings clicking the “Set” button and store the settings permanently by using the “Close” button and confirming the following dialog.

3. Cameras do not have any connection to the internet and no time source is available
In case that no time source is available at all, it is possible to turn on or more cameras into time servers. This does not mean that the time will be as accurate as it will be with an external time source, but at least it is possible to have all cameras time-synchronized. To do this, check the box “Use Camera as Time Server” in Admin Menu - Time & Date. Once this is done, you can enter the IP of this camera in the other cameras available in the network.

4. Cameras do not have any connection to the internet, but free view to the sky is possible for at least one camera
If at least one camera has free view to the sky, you can attach the MX-GPS-Box to this camera and use the GPS system’s time as a reference time. If a MX-GPS-Box is attached to a camera, this camera will automatically sync with the GPS system’s time. This camera can then act as local time server as described in 3.

In general, using one time server for the cameras is sufficient. If you would like to provide better redundancy, you can set three − or even better − four time servers. If you are using only two time servers and one of them is sending wrong time information, the camera may choose to ignore both time servers, since it cannot properly determine the correct source of time information.