Meraki MV licence: camera licences, Cloud Archive and MV Sense

How Meraki MV cameras store video

Meraki MV cameras record to solid-state storage built into each camera, so there is no network video recorder (NVR) or storage server to buy, house or patch. The dashboard's retention settings let you balance video quality against how many days of footage each camera keeps, and motion-based retention stretches that further by keeping only footage with motion beyond a set period.

In normal operation Meraki says video is not stored in the cloud: footage stays on the camera, and when you view it from the same local network it streams directly over the LAN. When you view remotely, the dashboard proxies the stream through the Meraki cloud. Exported clips are kept in the Meraki cloud for a year, and thumbnail and motion-index metadata are stored in the cloud so you can search quickly. If you need video held off the camera, that is what Cloud Archive is for. For integration with another video system, Meraki offers external RTSP streaming.

Because footage of people is personal data under UK GDPR, set retention to match your CCTV policy rather than simply keeping as much as the camera can hold.

The camera licence every MV needs

All current Meraki products need a valid licence to operate, and cameras are no exception. How the licence is bought depends on your Meraki licensing model:

• Co-term licensing: each camera needs an MV licence. Meraki groups MV cameras into one licensing group, so the same MV licence covers different camera models, and every MV licence feeds into the organisation's shared co-term date. If you add more cameras than you have licences, the organisation enters Meraki's 30-day grace period.
• Subscription licensing: cameras sit in an MV product class. The main camera class covers most MV models, the larger multi-imager cameras have their own class, and add-ons such as Cloud Archive and MV Sense need the base camera licence first. See Meraki subscription licensing.

Meraki's subscription feature list for cameras includes video walls, video search and exports, motion alerts, zones, night mode, quality and retention settings and analytics; Cloud Archive and the MV Sense API are listed as needing additional licences.

Cloud Archive: off-site backup of camera footage

Cloud Archive adds continuous cloud backup to a camera, on top of the footage it keeps locally. Meraki's documentation sets out how it works:

• Durations: 7, 30, 90, 180 or 365 days of continuous recording backed up to the cloud.
• Per camera: licences are assigned to individual cameras and act as per-device licences. Only one Cloud Archive licence can be attached to a camera; they cannot be combined or stacked.
• Time-based retention: a 30-day licence keeps a rolling 30 days up to the present, not 30 days' worth of footage in total.
• Countdown starts on assignment: the term begins when you assign the licence to a camera, not when you claim it into the organisation, and it does not change your co-term date.
• Bandwidth: Meraki specifies upload bandwidth of up to 3 Mbps per archived camera and recommends Cloud Archive for critical cameras only.
• Outages: if the camera loses its internet connection it keeps recording to its own storage, but Meraki says it caches only the last 30 minutes of video for the archive, then uploads that backlog when it reconnects.
• Data region: the archive region follows the region chosen when the dashboard organisation was created; for European organisations Meraki lists Germany.
• Supported cameras: most current cameras are supported, but Meraki lists exceptions, so we check your models first.

When a Cloud Archive licence expires it becomes invalid and the camera stops backing up to the cloud; recording to the camera's own storage carries on as before. If you remove a licence, archiving carries on for 24 hours so that a change of duration does not lose stored video. To change duration, unassign the old licence and assign the new one; moving to a shorter term means only the shorter period is kept. You can see each camera's Cloud Archive expiry date as a column in the camera list.

MV Sense: camera analytics through APIs

MV Sense is a set of REST and MQTT APIs that expose the people-detection data generated by the camera's on-board machine learning. Meraki describes three types of insight:

1. Historical aggregate: how many people were in an area at a given time.
2. Current snapshot: how many people are there now.
3. Real-time feed: a sub-second feed of people and their positions.

Typical uses include occupancy counts and triggering actions in other systems. MV Sense does not pass video to other applications; it shares detection data only. It needs a second-generation or later camera on supported firmware. Licensing is per camera and does not co-terminate, and Meraki says every organisation with second-generation cameras already has ten MV Sense licences that do not expire, which is enough to try it before buying more.

Viewing video: the dashboard and the Meraki Vision portal

Cameras are configured, monitored and troubleshot in the Meraki dashboard. For day-to-day viewing, Meraki provides the Meraki Vision portal, a camera-viewing interface for security staff. Users sign in at vision.meraki.com with their Meraki dashboard credentials, or follow links from the dashboard, and permissions are still managed in the dashboard.

The Vision portal adds organisation-wide search across cameras, video walls and exports, a map view for finding cameras, quick and advanced motion search, event search for people and vehicles, multi-network video walls and easier exports. Camera settings, configuration and analytics stay in the dashboard.

If you cannot sign in, the cause is usually your dashboard account or its authentication method, not the camera; our Meraki dashboard login guide covers the common problems.

Camera lifecycle and planning

Meraki publishes end-of-sale and end-of-support dates for its cameras. Its lifecycle list shows the second-generation MV cameras reaching end of sale on 31 December 2025, with support continuing to 31 December 2030. If your estate includes them, plan replacements and licence terms together so you are not renewing licences for cameras that are about to leave support; our Meraki end of life guide explains how to check your inventory.

When planning licences for a camera project, it helps to decide:

• How many days of local retention each camera needs at your chosen quality.
• Which cameras, if any, need Cloud Archive, and for how long.
• Whether your sites have the upload bandwidth for archived cameras.
• Whether any analytics use case justifies MV Sense beyond the included licences.
• Whether your organisation is, or should be, on co-term or subscription licensing.

How Forever Systems helps

Forever Systems is a Cisco Partner. We can size camera licences, Cloud Archive and MV Sense for your sites, check camera and firmware support, and line licences up with your existing renewal date. For camera supply, design and installation, see our Meraki cameras service page.

Pricing depends on the number of cameras, the add-ons and the term, so ask us for a quote. Contact us to talk through your camera licensing.