CamUniversal 5.0

CamUniversal can let you manage practically every kind of video capturing device, including not only webcams but also netcams, IP-cams and TV tuners. In this regard, the program supports motion detection and recording as well as still image capturing. The application has a rather nice interface. However, in my opinion, some changes could be made to make the tool easier to use. That's the case of adding a new camera, an action which should have a corresponding button in the tool ribbon.

Probably, the best advantage of this tool is the capacity to handle an unlimited number of cams and related jobs without special hardware. Video-recording tasks can be scheduled to start at a given time or condition. In addition, motion detection can be set to trigger various types of actions, such as running an external program, playing a sound or sending an e-mail alert. Thus, the possibility of restricting motion detection to only relevant areas seems quite useful. Moreover, there’s also a built-in AVI creator, which allows creating video slideshows out of the clips and images captured. The video being captured can be uploaded to an FTP server, streamed over the local network or the Internet. Likewise, it can send separate snapshots or sequences of them to a given email address.

All in all, CamUniversal is a camera-surveillance tool that is useful for every type of users. However, in my opinion, corporate users are the ones who could profit the most from the possibility of monitoring an unrestricted number of locations using IP-cameras. Unfortunately, the tool’s interface needs some reconceptualization to make it more user-friendly.