A night's investigation produces hours of video and audio from several rooms, and almost all of it is an empty room doing nothing. Going through it afterwards is the slow part, and it is easy to miss the three seconds that mattered.

Agent DVR records all your cameras and microphones at once and marks the moments something changed: movement in the picture, or a sound it recognizes. Afterwards an AI assistant such as Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini looks at the recordings and tells you what it found in each one, including the ordinary explanations, so you can go straight to the clips that are worth your time.

It tells you what it heard

Agent DVR's audio recognition listens to any microphone or camera audio stream and names what it hears, from a list of more than 500 sounds. Choose the ones you care about and it marks the recording, raises an alert or triggers a rule the moment one is recognized, with the sound and a confidence score shown on the live audio display. Sounds an investigator might listen for include:

speech whispering crying screaming wailing or moaning whimpering breathing sighing groaning laughter humming footsteps knocking a door creaking a bang tapping scratching

Stream the investigation live

Agent DVR can broadcast a camera, or a view of several cameras at once, to YouTube, Twitch or any other RTMP service, so an audience can watch every room while you investigate. Stream to more than one service at the same time, and start and stop the broadcast from the menu or on a schedule. The stream can carry the sound from one camera, or mix the sound from every camera and microphone in the view, so viewers hear all the rooms at once. Live streaming needs an Agent DVR license or a subscription, and an internet connection on site. How to set up live streaming

YouTube Twitch any RTMP service your own streaming server

What it looks like

Go through last night's recordings from the upstairs landing.

Nine recordings on the landing camera between 23:00 and 05:00. Looking at the frames and at what the microphone recognized:

  • 23:40 - you and one other person leaving the landing. Speech recognized.
  • 00:52 - a door recognized on the microphone. On camera the bedroom door at the end has moved a little between frames. Nobody in view.
  • 02:15 - footsteps recognized for six seconds. Nothing visible on camera.
  • 03:31 - movement by the window: a car's headlights crossing the wall.

The other five were small insects near the lens. The 00:52 and 02:15 clips are the ones I can't explain from the picture. Want links to both?

Things to ask

  • Did anything happen in the cellar overnight?
  • What sounds did the microphones recognize last night, and when?
  • Show me the hallway across the night.
  • Was anyone in view when the door moved at 00:52?
  • Send me a link to the 02:15 clip.

Rules to set up by asking

  • Tell me if you hear whispering in the cellar tonight.
  • If the landing microphone hears footsteps tonight, record the hallway camera too.
  • Tell me whenever anything moves in the nursery between midnight and 4am.
  • Take a photo of the staircase every 10 minutes until sunrise.

Rules run on your own server with no assistant connected. They need Agent DVR 8.0.7 or later, and questions about what is in the picture need an AI provider set up in Server Settings - AI Settings. More rule examples

Why build it this way

Every camera and microphone on one recorder

Any IP, ONVIF, RTSP or USB camera and any microphone, recorded together on your own laptop or mini PC. There is no limit on the number of cameras, and it records with no internet connection.

Evidence you can check

Recordings are kept on your own disk with the time of every movement and every recognized sound. Go back to any moment, and export the clips you want to keep or share.

A sceptic on the team

The assistant describes what is actually in the frames, and says so when the movement was a moth, dust near the lens or headlights through a window. That leaves you with the clips nobody can explain.

Leave it running

For a location you are watching over weeks, a subscription puts the cameras and alerts on your phone, so a knock at 3am reaches you wherever you are.

What you need

1

A camera

Almost any IP, ONVIF, RTSP or USB camera works, including a spare webcam. You do not need a special bird, pet or doorbell camera. Look yours up in the camera database.

2

Agent DVR on a computer

Install it on Windows, macOS, Linux, Docker or a Raspberry Pi. It records to your own disk and is free for private use on your own network. Download.

3

An AI assistant

Connect Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini CLI or any other MCP client and start asking. Free on your own network. From your phone or the cloud it is part of an iSpyConnect subscription from $7.95 a month. How it works.

Good to know: Audio recognition names sounds it has learned from everyday recordings, so a hit means the audio resembled that sound, not that someone was there: wind, pipes and distant traffic can all be heard as speech or footsteps. Treat a hit as a place to start listening. It does not transcribe words. Night-vision pictures are black and white, and dust and insects close to the lens are the most common cause of movement. To use a sound in a rule, add it to the microphone's Listen For list first.

Frequently asked questions

Can Agent DVR recognize voices or whispering on a recording?

It can recognize that a sound is speech, whispering, crying or screaming, among more than 500 others, and mark the moment it happened. It does not transcribe the words or identify who is speaking. Turn it on for a microphone or a camera's audio stream and choose the sounds to listen for. See Audio Recognition in the user guide.

What cameras do I need for ghost hunting?

Any camera Agent DVR supports: most IP cameras, anything with ONVIF or RTSP, and USB webcams. For dark rooms choose cameras with infrared night vision, and add a microphone or use cameras with built-in audio so that sounds are recorded and recognized too. Look yours up in the camera database.

Does it need an internet connection on location?

No. Agent DVR records, detects movement and recognizes sounds on your own computer with no internet connection. The AI assistant and alerts on your phone do need one, so review with the assistant when you are back online, or connect through a phone hotspot.

Will the AI tell me if something is a ghost?

No, and it will not pretend to. The assistant describes what is visible in the frames and reports which sounds were recognized and when. Most of the time it gives you the ordinary explanation. Its job is to cut hours of footage down to the few moments worth a closer look. What you make of those is up to you.

Is it free?

Recording, motion detection and viewing on your own network are free for private use. Audio recognition needs an Agent DVR license or a subscription. Both it and phone access, alerts on your phone and the cloud assistant are included in an iSpyConnect subscription from $7.95 a month.

Download Agent DVR How the AI assistant works

More things your cameras can do

AI bird feeder camera

Point any camera at the feeder and ask which birds visited, when the feeder is busiest and whether the squirrel is back.

AI pet camera

Ask what the dog did while you were out, look in live from your phone, and get told when the cat is on the kitchen counter.

Package delivery alerts

Find out when a package is delivered, who came to the door while you were out, and whether the package is still on the step.

Barn and foaling camera

Watch the foaling box, calving pen or chicken coop from your phone, ask what happened overnight, and get an alert when something needs a look.

See all solutions