User manual | Firmware User`s Manual

Firmware User’s Manual
A1D-500-V8.00.27-AC
2016/03/24
Firmware User’s Manual V8.00.27
Table of Contents
Recommended PC Specifications
4
Preparation
5
Connect the Equipment .............................................................................5
Configure the IP Addresses .......................................................................5
Access the Camera.....................................................................................9
Live View
12
Login ..........................................................................................................12
Live View ...................................................................................................13
Setup
16
Access the Setup Page ............................................................................16
Host............................................................................................................17
Date & Time ...............................................................................................18
Network .....................................................................................................20
IP Address Filtering ............................................................................... 20
Port Mapping......................................................................................... 22
HTTPS .................................................................................................. 24
IEEE 802.1X ......................................................................................... 25
SNMP Setting ....................................................................................... 27
RTP ....................................................................................................... 30
Network (ToS, UPnP, Bonjour) .............................................................. 31
IP Settings .................................................................................................33
Connection Type ................................................................................... 33
DNS ...................................................................................................... 35
Video & Audio ...........................................................................................36
Camera Options .................................................................................... 36
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Intelligent Video .................................................................................... 41
Compression ......................................................................................... 48
Camera Calibration ............................................................................... 51
Video ..................................................................................................... 52
Day/Night .............................................................................................. 53
Image .................................................................................................... 54
Exposure / White Balance ..................................................................... 55
Audio ..................................................................................................... 59
System .......................................................................................................60
User Account......................................................................................... 60
System Info ........................................................................................... 61
Factory Default...................................................................................... 62
Firmware Upload ................................................................................... 63
Save & Reboot ...................................................................................... 64
Logout .......................................................................................................65
Troubleshooting
66
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Recommended PC Specifications
In order to configure or test the cameras, a PC with following basic specifications is needed:
CPU
Core 2 Duo 2.13 GHz or above
Memory
2 GB or above
Operating System
Browser for Accessing
Firmware

Windows XP with SP2 or above.

Windows 2003

Windows Vista

Windows 2008

Windows 7

Windows 8

Internet Explorer 9.0 or newer (full functionality)

Safari with QuickTime installed (partial functionality)

Other Browsers with Basic VLC Media Player
(partial functionality)
Video Resolution
1024x768 or higher
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Preparation
Connect the Equipment
To be able to connect to the camera firmware from your PC, both the camera and the PC have to
be connected to each other via Ethernet cable. At the same time, the camera has to have its own
power supply. In case of PoE cameras, you can use a PoE Injector or a PoE Switch between the
camera and the PC. The cameras that have the DC power connectors may be powered on by
using a power adaptor.
The Ethernet port LED or Power LED of the camera will indicate that the power supply for the
camera works normally.
Configure the IP Addresses
In order to be able to communicate with the camera from your PC, both the camera and the PC
have to be within the same network segment. In most cases, it means that they both should have
very similar IP addresses, where only the last number of the IP address is different from each
other. There are 2 different approaches to IP Address management in Local Area Networks – by
DHCP Server or Manually.
Using DHCP server to assign IP addresses:
If you have connected the computer and the camera into the network that has a DHCP server
running, then you do not need to configure the IP addresses at all – both the camera and the PC
would request a unique IP address from DHCP server automatically. In such case, the camera
will immediately be ready for the access from the PC. The user, however, might not know the IP
address of the camera yet. It is necessary to know the IP address of the camera in other to be
able to access it by using a Web browser.
The quickest way to discover the cameras in the network is to use the simplest network
search, built in the Windows system – just by pressing the “Network” icon, all the cameras of the
local area network will be discovered by Windows thanks to the UPnP function support of our
cameras.
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In the example below, the camera model that had just been connected to the network is
displayed.
Double-click the left mouse button on the camera model to automatically launch the default
browser of the PC with the IP address of the target camera filled in the address bar of the browser
already.
If you work with our cameras regularly, then there is even a better way to discover the
cameras in the network – by using IP Utility. The IP Utility is a light software tool that can not
only discover the cameras, but also list lots of valuable information, such as IP and MAC
addresses, serial numbers, firmware versions, etc, and allows quick configuration of multiple
devices at the same time.
Search and download the latest IP Utility from http://www.acti.com/IP_Utility
Upon launching the IP Utility, there will be an instant report as follows:
You can quickly notice the camera model in the list. Click on the IP address to automatically
launch the default browser of the PC with the IP address of the target camera filled in the address
bar of the browser already.
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Use the default IP address of a camera:
If there is no DHCP server in the given network, the user may have to assign the IP addresses to
both PC and camera manually to make sure they are in the same network segment.
When the camera is plugged into network and it does not detect any DHCP services, it will
automatically assign itself a default IP:
192.168.0.100
Whereas the default port number would be 80. In order to access that camera, the IP address of
the PC has to be configured to match the network segment of the camera.
Manually adjust the IP address of the PC:
In the following example, based on Windows 7, we will configure the IP address to 192.168.0.99
and set Subnet Mask to 255.255.255.0 by using the steps below:
1
3
2
4
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Manually adjust the IP addresses of multiple cameras:
If there are more than 1 camera to be used in the same local area network and there is no DHCP
server to assign unique IP addresses to each of them, all of the cameras would then have the
initial IP address of 192.168.0.100, which is not a proper situation for network devices – all the IP
addresses have to be different from each other. The easiest way to assign cameras the IP
addresses is by using IP Utility:
With the procedure shown above, all the cameras will have unique IP addresses, starting from
192.168.0.101. In case there are 20 cameras selected, the last one of the cameras would have
the IP 192.168.0.120.
Later, by pressing the “Refresh” button of the IP Utility, you will be able to see the list of cameras
with their new IP addresses.
Please note that it is also possible to change the IP addresses manually by using the Web
browser. In such case, please plug in only one camera at a time, and change its IP address by
using the Web browser before plugging in the next one. This way, the Web browser will not be
confused about two devices having the same IP address at the same time.
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Access the Camera
Now that the camera and the PC are both having their unique IP addresses and are under the
same network segment, it is possible to use the Web browser of the PC to access the camera.
You can use any of the browsers to access the camera, however, the full functionality is
provided only for Microsoft Internet Explorer.
The browser functionality comparison:
Functionality
Internet Explorer
Other browsers
Live Video
Yes
Yes*
Live Video Area Resizable
Yes
No
PTZ Control
Yes
Yes
Capture the snapshot
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Video overlay based configuration (Motion
Detection regions, Privacy Mask regions)
All the other configurations
* When using non-Internet Explorer browsers, free third-party software plug-ins must be installed
to the PC first to be able to get the live video feed from the camera:
Browser
Safari
Any Other Browser
Required Plug-In
QuickTime (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/)
Basic VLC Media Player (http://www.videolan.org)
Disclaimer Notice: The camera manufacturer does not guarantee the compatibility of its cameras
with QuickTime and VLC – since they are third party softwares; the third party has the right to
modify their utility any time which might affect the compatibility. In such cases, please use
Internet Explorer browser instead.
When using Internet Explorer browser, the ActiveX control for video stream management will be
downloaded from the camera directly – the user just has to accept the use of such control when
prompted so. No other third party utilities are required to be installed in such case.
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The following examples in this manual are based on Internet Explorer browser in order to
cover all functions of the camera.
Assuming that the camera’s IP address is 192.168.0.100, you can access it by opening the Web
browser and typing the following address into Web browser’s address bar:
http://192.168.0.100
Upon successful connection to the camera, the user interface called Web Configurator would
appear together with the login page. The HTTP port number was not added behind the IP
address since the default HTTP port of the camera is 80, which can be omitted from the address
for convenience.
Before logging in, you need to know the factory default Account and Password of the camera.
Account: Admin
Password: 123456
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Using IPv6 to Access the Camera
The camera is IPv6-ready and has been assigned its unique static IPv6 address. The IPv6
address can be found under the System > Sytem Info menu (see System Info on page 61 for
more information).
To access the camera with the IPv6 address, type the IPv6 address enclosed in square brackets
on the web browser address bar. For example:
http://[fe80:0000:0000:0000:020f:7cff:fe0d:690c]
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Live View
This section describes how to configure the IP camera. The administrator has unlimited access to
all settings, while the normal user can only view live video.
Login
Initially there exists only administrator’s account in
the camera (Account: Admin, Password: 123456)
– you have to use that account to log in. You can
later create normal user accounts with limited
access rights if necessary.
Feel free to choose your local language from the list
of languages or keep it as English. After pressing
“Login”, you will be able to access the user interface
of Web Configurator.
Upon successful login, you will be able to see the Live View page. In case of
Internet Explorer browser, you may be prompted to allow the installation of
ActiveX control from the camera. Press “Install” then. The live video will
appear shortly after that.
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Live View
The live view will appear automatically with the default video resolution.
While being on the Live View page, the Live View icon appears as being pressed:
If you leave the Live View page, you can later return by pressing that button.
The buttons shown on the Live View page vary depending on the functions supported by the
camera.
If the resolution of the PC’s monitor is bigger than the resolution of the live video, you will be able
to see the whole size of the video immediately. If not, you will only see part of the video at first
and you would have to use the scroll bars to see the rest of the video area. In order to see the
whole video on your display, you can temporarily re-scale the video to better fit your screen by
pressing the digital zoom buttons:
- Enlarge the video size digitally
- Reduce the video size digitally
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Notice: These digital zoom adjustments do not influence the actual video resolution of the camera.
Regardless of how large or small the video appears on the display after pressing the digital zoom
buttons, the actual video stream size of the camera is the same as before.
You can also digitally re-scale the video to fully match the size of your display with just 1 click:
- Full screen Mode
You may use ESC key from the keyboard to exit the full screen mode.
The cameras have triple stream capability – the Stream 1 is usually the high resolution stream
with the purpose of being recorded by NVR while Stream 2 and Stream 3 have lighter video
configuration for NVR live view purposes, to reduce the computing power of the NVR PC. The
streams can be configured under Web Configurator’s Setup page. To see how each of the stream
looks like, click the Stream (number) button and select the stream you want to view.
- Show the Stream 1 video
- Show the Stream 2 video
- Show the Stream 3 video
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To capture the snapshots of the current live view, press the snapshot button. The snapshots are
saved in Pictures folder.
- Take a Snapshot
Cameras with audio function have the audio controls on Live View page.
- Speak to Camera
To speak to the camera, press the
button. If the camera is connected to a network video
recorder, the audio will be recorded with the video stream.
To adjust the volume level of the speakers connected to the PC that runs the Web Configurator in
order to hear the audio from the camera’s microphone or line-in device, use the audio controls as
below:
Audio Muted:
Audio level adjusted to the maximum:
This volume control appears on the user interface only when the Audio-in function of the camera
has been “Enabled” under Setup page.
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Setup
The following chapters guide you through the Setup functions of the camera.
Access the Setup Page
To configure any of the camera settings, go to the Setup menu by pressing the following button
on Live View page:
- Go to Setup
The left side of the Setup page contains the list of Setup items.
Notice: The exact content of the menu list varies for each camera,
depending on the actual capabilities of each camera. This manual,
however, is designed to explain all the possible functions.
Several items in the Setup page are divided into groups, such as Network, IP Settings, etc. You
can expand the groups to see the sub-items by pressing the [+] button.
The following chapters of this manual explain each Setup item separately. The chapters are listed
in the same order as the list of Setup menu items.
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Host
The section “Host” allows the administrator to define the name of the
camera and preferred user interface language.
There are two kinds of names – Host Name and Camera Name.
Host Name is used to identify the camera by a DHCP server. In some networks with very strict
security policy, it is required that all the network devices should have their host name, and when
the devices attempt to access the network by requesting an IP address from a DHCP server, the
DHCP server would check if the host name is among the allowed devices. On this page, it is
possible to edit the Host Name. To actually include the Host Name in DHCP discovery packet
sent from a camera, please go to IP Settings and make sure the device is in Dynamic IP
Address mode and “Use host name” is checked.
Camera Name is used to identify the device by Video Management System or by Software
Tools. Usually, upon installation of the camera, the actual installation location is used as an
easy-to-remember Camera Name, such as “Front Gate” or “Elevator 1”. In many cases the VMS
is able to modify the Camera Name directly via its own user interface without needing to access
Web Configurator.
Language selection under Host has the same purpose as the one on the login page of Web
Configurator.
After changing any of the items above, press Apply to save the changes. The Reset button
undoes the changes that had just been made but not Applied yet.
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Date & Time
Each video frame contains a time stamp. The accuracy of the time stamp is very important for
incident investigators. Therefore the clock of the camera has to be adjusted to most accurate time
possible.
The section Date & Time provides the options for adjusting the date
and time of the camera.
There are two ways to adjust the date and time – automatically by getting date and time
regularly from any of the NTP servers worldwide, or manually by selecting proper time zone,
date and time. The automatic way can be used only if the camera has an access to NTP servers.
If you are using an isolated Local Area Network without Internet access, you can only use Manual
date and time adjustment mode.
When choosing SNTP/NTP Server for automatic date and time updating, you can key in the IP
address of the NTP server and the time interval for automatic time synchronization. If you want to
key in the domain name of NTP server instead, please make sure the DNS server IP address has
been set under IP Settings; otherwise the camera will not be able to resolve the domain name of
the NTP server.
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If all the cameras are getting the date and time from the same NTP Server, you can be most sure
that the video clips from different cameras can be well synchronized later for comparison
purposes.
To choose the most suitable NTP Server to synchronize date and time with, please refer to the
worldwide pool of NTP Servers: http://www.pool.ntp.org/en/
When choosing Set Manually mode, you can adjust the date and time by the select boxes.
Choose the appropriate Time Zone from the select box, too. If your location is not listed there,
then pick any of the listed zones which GMT is identical with your location.
For the countries with daylight saving policy, there is Day Light Saving function with two different
types:
Type 1 – define the starting or ending time of daylight saving period by the number of the week
in the month (First, Second, Third or Last week).
Type 2 – define the starting or ending time of daylight saving period by the exact date in the
month (1-31).
Whether to choose Type 1 or Type 2, please refer to the daylight saving policy of given country.
After changing any of the items above, press Apply to save the changes. The Reset button
undoes the changes that had just been made but not Applied yet.
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Network
The section Network provides the list of network related functions
and services. The [+] mark before Network indicates that the list can be expanded by clicking on
it. Once expanded, the list can later be collapsed again by clicking on the [-] mark.
IP Address Filtering
By “IP Address Filtering” function it is possible to define which
devices (their IP addresses) are allowed to connect to this camera, and which devices are
forbidden to connect to this camera.
Check the box “Enabled” to activate the IP address filtering function and press Apply.
Below you can select either “Allowed” or “Blocked” list to add items there and Enable them with
the checkbox behind each row.
“Allowed” mode will refuse access to all IP addresses except the ones listed below.
“Blocked” mode will accept all incoming access except the IP addresses listed below.
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Using Netmask (Subnet Mask) allows you to set filtering for a whole range of IP address at once,
without the need to enter all of them individually. If you are not sure about the function of Netmask,
then you should use 255.255.255.255, and it will affect only a single IP address per line of entry,
or use 255.255.255.0 to use the same setting for all IP addresses starting with the same three
numbers. .
After changing any of the items above, press Apply to save the changes. The Reset button
undoes the changes that had just been made but not Applied yet.
Warning! Do not accidentally block your own IP address that you are connecting from; otherwise
you will not be able to access the camera any more to undo the changes. If this happens by
mistake, you can do the hardware reset – it will clear all the filtering rules.
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Port Mapping
The section Port Mapping provides the list of services and protocols
that require their own port number for communication. By default, the camera already has all the
ports defined. On this page, the user can modify the port numbers in case there is a specific need
for that. Most often, the HTTP port is changed to something other than 80 in order to match with
easy-to-remember port forwarding rules of the router that acts as a bridge between local area
network and Internet.
NOTE: Some items appear only if the camera model supports the function.
Parameters
Description
HTTP port
Select the port assigned for HTTP protocol access.
HTTPS Port
Select the port assigned for HTTPS protocol access.
Search Server Port1
Select the first port used by server search applications to detect this IP
device (e.g. IP Utility).
Search Server Port2
Select the second port used by server search applications to detect this IP
device (e.g. IP Utility).
Control Server Port
Select the port used to support video control function by application
programs (e.g. NVR).
Streaming Server Port
Select the port used by this IP device for Video Streaming (TCP).
RTSP Server Port
Select the port assigned for RTSP protocol access.
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Multicast Setting allows users to configure the IP addresses and ports for multicast video and
audio (supported models only) streams. Multicast is a protocol where a data stream is sent only
once and shared to requesting devices. This in turn saves network bandwidth. However, to use
this feature, network devices, such as routers and switches, should support IP multicast.
Parameters
Description
Stream 1
Refers to the video stream 1.
Stream 2
Refers to the video stream 2.
Stream 3
Refers to the video stream 3.
Audio
Refers to the audio stream.
NOTE: Appears only if the camera model supports audio input/output.
By Requests
When checked, the video or audio stream will be streamed only to a
particular receiver when that receiver sends a request or in the case of the
Network Video Recorder (NVR), selects to view or record the stream. If
unchecked, the video or audio stream will constantly be streamed to the
network whether there are devices viewing the video or not.
To save on network bandwidth, it is recommended to check this function.
Multicast IP
Set the multicast IP of the corresponding stream.
Network Port
Enter the assigned port for the corresponding stream.
Multicast TTL
Enter the multicast TTL (time-to-live) of the corresponding stream. This
value determines the time span (in seconds) when the packet is retained
in the network. When the time expires and no request is received, the
packet is then discarded.
After changing any of the items above, press Apply to save the changes. The Reset button
undoes the changes that had just been made but not Applied yet. New port settings will only take
effect after pressing System -> Save & Reboot.
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HTTPS
HTTPS protocol allows creating a secure channel over an insecure
network in order to protect the data sent between the camera and its counterpart. Two things are
required to have a secure communication – encrypted data, and verified counterpart of the
communication. To make sure that the messages are being sent and received from true
counterpart, the certificate is needed.
There are two methods to create certificates – Certificate Signing Request (CSR) and
Self-Signed Certificate.
Certificate Signing Request (CSR) Management: User uses a signed certificate issued by
trusted Certification Authority (CA).
Certificate Management: User wants to use the certificate created and issued by the user
himself.
Press Create Self-Signed Certificate button and configure settings in the pop-up screen to
install the certificate.
Note that the new setting will only take effect after Save & Reboot.
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IEEE 802.1X
IEEE 802.1X is an IEEE standard for port-based Network Access
Control. 802.1X authentication involves three parties: a supplicant, an authenticator, and an
authentication server.
The supplicant is a client device (such as an IP camera) that wishes to attach to the LAN/WLAN.
The authenticator is a network device, such as an Ethernet switch or wireless access point; and
the authentication server is typically a host running software supporting the RADIUS and EAP
protocols.
The authenticator acts like a security guard to a protected network. The supplicant (i.e., client
device) is not allowed access through the authenticator to the protected side of the network until
the supplicant’s identity has been validated and authorized. An analogy to this is providing a valid
passport at an airport before being allowed to pass through security to the terminal. With 802.1X
port-based authentication, the supplicant provides credentials, such as user name / password or
digital certificate, to the authenticator, and the authenticator forwards the credentials to the
authentication server for verification. If the authentication server determines the credentials are
valid, the supplicant (client device) is allowed to access resources located on the protected side
of the network.
Please enable IEEE 802.1x and configure settings on the screen below. Note that the new
setting will only take effect after “Save & Reboot”.
EAPOL Version V1 and V2 are the 802.1X communication types. User name and User
password area created by user and set in RADIUS server. Certificates and Private Key are
provided by RADIUS Server.
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If certificates or private key exist already, there will be a Remove button behind these items, in
order to remove these items when necessary.
After changing any of the items above, press Apply to save the changes. The Reset button
undoes the changes that had just been made but not Applied yet.
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SNMP Setting
The SNMP Setting item displays the SNMP configuration page.
SNMP provides an easy way to manage network devices. The main features are:
1. Monitoring device uptime
2. System detail description. (Ex: model name, model description and firmware version.)
3. Collect interface information. (Ex: MAC address, interface speed, local port.)
4. Measuring network interface throughput.
To use SNMP, just enable SNMP function in the camera (SNMP agents) and run SNMP
management software in server (NMS: Network Management Station) to connect to the devices.
The SNMP agent supports versions V1, V2 and V3. SNMP V1 is the initial implementation of
SNMP. SNMP V2 is proposed to enhance the performance of management, such as the
communication of server and devices, the confirmation of information delivery and receipt.
Primary additions in SNMP V3 concern security and remote configuration enhancements.
SNMP V1/V2 uses “Community” name as password to authenticate identity. “Read Community”
is the password for server to get information from devices. “Write Community” is the password for
server to edit values on devices. The default is “public” for Read Community and “write” for Write
Community. Of course, you can set any other password as your read/write community.
You can enable V1, V2 or both. Click “Apply” after you’ve completed setup.
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The security method of SNMP V3 uses account/password for authentication. “Security Name” is
the account name to be used with your “Password”. The default security name is “public” and the
password must be at least 8 characters long. You also can set any other security name or
password. Click “Apply” after you’ve completed setup.
SNMP function is now enabled. You may now install and run the SNMP management software on
computer server.
SNMP Trap Usage:
SNMP traps enable notifications from devices. Devices may send message to the management
server whenever significant events occur such as cold start, warm start and authentication failure.
The manager will get the information immediately and take action if necessary.
Cold start means device reboot by power disconnection. Warm start means device reboot by
firmware without power disconnection. If there other parties attempt to connect to the device with
wrong security password under SNMP V1, V2 or V3 setting, the device will send an
authentication failure message to the management server.
To enable SNMP Trap function in the camera, type the IP address of the computer running the
SNMP management software and type trap community as password to allow server to get trap
message from device (Default is public). Select available traps and click “Apply”.
Camera’s SNMP offers following information:
Group
System
Interface
Address
Translation
IP
Description
Provide general information about the managed device.
Ex: system description, system name.
Provide general information from the physical interfaces.
Ex: interface speed, MAC address.
Provide information about the mapping between network addresses and physical
addresses for each physical interface
Ex: The IP/MAC addresses to connect to the managed device.
Provide the status and operation of Network Layer (Layer 3).
Ex: the information and traffic flow of received/delivered package.
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ICMP
TCP
UDP
SNMP
Provide the status and statistics of ICMP.
Ex: amount of receive/error message of ICMP.
Provide the status and operation of Transport Layer (Layer 4) using TCP protocol.
Ex: TCP Local Port, incoming/outgoing TCP segments.
Provide the status and operation of Transport Layer (Layer 4) using UDP protocol.
Ex: UDP Local Port, in/out datagram.
Provide the related statistics through SNMP
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RTP
The RTP section allows user to configure RTP Settings.
If the RTSP Authentication is “Enabled”, then the RTP streaming will require account name and
password authentication.
If the RTP B2 Frame is “Enabled” then the B2 frame is added to every video frame, containing
additional information, such as motion detection status on each frame, digital input and
digital output levels, passive infrared status, other video intelligence data, frame counter,
frame-rate mode and the frame-rate, bitrate, resolution, timestamp and much more. The
user side can operate with video data easily, including event management, storage consumption
estimation, image resizing for preview, etc.
After changing any of the items above, press Apply to save the changes. The Reset button
undoes the changes that had just been made but not Applied yet.
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Network (ToS, UPnP, Bonjour)
The section Network contains the controls for following functions:
Type of Service
UPnP
Bonjour
Type of Service
The “Type of Service” provides 4 options to
define the priorities of how the data from the
camera should be handled by the routers that
support ToS concept. By the default, the ToS
priority is set as “Normal Service”.
For special priority arrangement, there are 3 more options:
Minimize Delay
Maximize Throughput
Maximize Reliability
After changing any of the items above, press Apply to save the changes. The Reset button
undoes the changes that had just been made but not Applied yet.
UPnP
TM
The section UPnP
TM
provides the option to enable
or disable the Universal Plug and Play capability
TM
of the camera. Having the UPnP
enabled allows
the other network devices to seamlessly discover
it on the network for convenient identification and
access.
The Friendly Name is a human-readable name for the device that will be displayed when the
camera is found. By default, the serial number of the camera is used as a friendly name; however,
the user can modify the name according to the project needs.
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After changing any of the items above, press Apply to save the changes. The Reset button
undoes the changes that had just been made but not Applied yet.
Most of the Windows-based computers have the capability to discover the devices that support
TM
UPnP . Below is the example of Windows 7: by clicking on the Network icon of Windows 7, the
PC will discover the cameras instantly.
Bonjour
The section Bonjour provides the option to enable or
disable the ability of the camera to be discovered by
the other network devices using Bonjour protocol,
developed by Apple Inc. Both Bonjour and UPnP
serve the similar purpose – to discover devices
conveniently.
Similarly to UPnP, the human readable Friendly Name can be defined by the user. That name
will be displayed when the camera is found in the network. By default, the Friendly Name is the
serial number of the camera; however, the user can modify the name according to the project
needs.
After changing any of the items above, press Apply to save the changes. The Reset button
undoes the changes that had just been made but not Applied yet.
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IP Settings
The section IP Settings provides the options to define how the
camera would obtain its IP address; and to which DNS server should the camera connect to, in
order to resolve domain names.
Connection Type
The sub-section Connection Type allows defining the method of
obtaining the IP address of the camera. By default, the camera is in Dynamic IP Address mode
and attempts to get the IP address from a DHCP server. If such attempt fails after several
seconds (for example the DHCP server does not exist), the camera will automatically assign itself
an IP address, listed under Static IP Address.
Host Name is used to identify the camera by a DHCP server. In some networks with very strict
security policy, it is required that all the network devices should have their host name, and when
the devices attempt to access the network by requesting an IP address from a DHCP server, the
DHCP server would check if the host name is among the allowed devices. On this page, it is
possible to edit the Host Name and enable or disable the use of host name.
Most installation projects include clear network topology and static IP addresses for each camera.
In such cases, you can change the camera to Static IP Address mode and modify the IP
Address, Subnet Mask and Gateway accordingly.
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In some rare cases, the camera may be connected to the control center over Internet. Usually,
the most cost efficient way is to use ADSL connection with PPPoE. To avoid the unexpected
changes of IP addresses by Internet Service Provider upon the restart of the camera, it is
recommended to activate a DDNS service for such scenario, and let the control center connect to
the camera by the domain name instead. Please refer to the DDNS section for more details.
To set the camera in PPPoE mode, set the radio button to PPPoE and key in the User Name and
Password, provided by Internet Service Provider.
After changing any of the items above, press Apply to save the changes. The Reset button
undoes the changes that had just been made but not Applied yet.
New IP address settings will only take effect after pressing System -> Save & Reboot.
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DNS
The section DNS allows setting up the Domain Name Service for
the camera. The camera will connect to the DNS server when there is a need to resolve a domain
name for sending data to.
The most common usage is the ftp or e-mail server in the Event Handler section is defined by
using domain names. Without having DNS service configured, the camera would not know how
to resolve the domain names of FTP or e-mail servers.
It is possible to configure both Primary and Secondary DNS servers. The Secondary DNS
Server will be used when the connection to the Primary DNS Server fails.
After changing any of the items above, press Apply to save the changes. The Reset button
undoes the changes that had just been made but not Applied yet.
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Video & Audio
The section Video & Audio provides the options to adjust the video
quality, configure the streaming details of the camera, and audio settings (for Audio supported
cameras only), which will be described in the succeeding pages.
The default settings of the camera are sufficient for most environments and the video
adjustments are not necessary. The following sections explain the ways to configure the video
quality or streaming details in case it is required to do so.
The [+] mark before Video indicates that the list can be expanded by clicking on it. Once
expanded, the list can later be collapsed again by clicking on the [-] mark.
Camera Options
In general, the Camera Options submenu allows users to set the
Line Frequency, Mounting Type, and Video Application Mode properties of the camera.
Depending on the camera type, the parameters on the Camera Options screen may vary.
Line Frequency is the function that adjusts the shutter speed options to match with the
frequence of artificial light source of given country. For example, in Europe the light frequency
(due to power supply frequency of lights) is 50Hz, that is 50 flashes per second. By setting line
frequency to 50Hz in such case, the shutter speed options will be proportional with light source
frequency, such as 1/25s, 1/50s, 1/100s, etc.
It is necessary to have the camera’s Line Frequency adjusted according to the power
frequency of the light source to avoid flickering effect.
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The natural light source (sun light) is a seamless flow of light – the Line Frequency setting does
not matter for the cameras that are only exposed to natural light.
Mounting Type defines how the camera is mounted to display the appropriate view. Options are:
Wall and Ceiling.
Video Application Mode defines how you want the image to be displayed on Live View. This
parameter also defines the range of available frame rate and resolution settings of the
hemispheric camera. Options are the following:

Preview Mode

Surveillance Mode

ePTZ Mode (for Wall Mounting Type only)

MultiView Mode
Both the Preview Mode and Surveillance Mode allow you to view the image as either dewarped
panorama or fisheye (see Stream Mode on Compression on page 48 to switch stream modes).
The only difference is the resolution range that each mode supports. With Preview Mode you
can select high resolution options (see camera spec for resolution details), while Surveillance
Mode only allows up to 1920x1080. The higher the resolution, objects appear bigger and closer.
See comparison below:
Preview Mode with Fisheye Stream
Surveillance Mode with Fisheye Stream
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Preview Mode with Panorama Stream on Ceiling
Surveillance Mode with Panorama Stream on Ceiling
For a camera with Mounting Type set as Wall, the edges are dewarped to display one image
with a flat surface. While a camera with Mounting Type set as Ceiling shows a double
panorama.
Mounting Type > Wall
Mounting Type > Ceiling
Refer to the reference fisheye image below; the yellow dotted line defines where the area is cut
when viewing on Preview or Surveillance mode. The upper-right half of the fisheye view
appears on the upper hemisphere and the lower-left appears on the lower hemisphere. The lower
half is automatically displayed with an inverted orientation.
This side appears
on the upper hemisphere.
This side appears
on the lower hemisphere.
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ePTZ Mode works similarly as the optical PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) function wherein you can change
the viewing direction by moving the mouse over the Live View screen and clicking towards the
direction you wish to view.
To use the ePTZ function, go to the Live View screen. Instead of 3 video streams, the camera will
have up to 5 video streams. The dewarped PTZ stream is applied from Stream 2 to Stream 5.
This will allow users to zoom and focus to up to 4 different viewing areas. The ePTZ button will
appear on the Live View screen only after selecting streams 2 to 5.
ePTZ Button
Select stream here
Click the ePTZ button to enable the function and display the PTZ Control Panel.
In this mode, the mouse cursor will turn into zoom
in/out or directional icons (e.g.
/
/
/
/ etc.). Click or drag the mouse to zoom in /out
or pan / tilt the camera view.
You can also use the Pan & Tilt controls on the
panel to zoom and move the camera view. To set the
current view as the Home position, click the Apply
button. To directly go to the Home position, click the
middle button of the Pan & Tilt controls.
The Zoom Control and Pan/Tilt Speed allow you to
configure the speed for zooming, panning, tilting and
the step size.
You can configure up to 32 zoom presets points. On
a preset, click Edit
, enter the name and move to
the desired camera position, then click Edit
again. You can instantly ask the camera to go to
that zoom and focus position by clicking on the Go To
Click Delete
button.
to remove this zoom preset point from camera memory.
NOTE: ePTZ mode is available only if Mounting Type is set to Wall.
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MultiView Mode shows up to four different camera views containing a fisheye, double panorama,
and center view. This mode is useful if you want a complete overview of the scene, as well as see
details on the image. With the example below, the yellow line on the fisheye shows the separation
of the double panorama image, while the white circle shows the focused area of the center.
Shows the upper-right hemisphere
i
Shows the lower-left hemisphere
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Intelligent Video
The Intelligent Video section allows users to configure the built-in
analytics of the camera. Features may vary depending on the camera model.
Motion Detection
The Motion Detection sub-section allows users to configure the video motion detection system
of the camera. Up to 10 different regions covering the whole camera view can be configured for
motion detection based on Stream 1.
Sensitivity is the parameter that helps us distinguish actual moving targets (people, vehicles)
from the slightly moving background, such as leaves of the trees waving in the wind. In order to
avoid false alarms, we might want the camera be able to ignore small motion. The higher is the
sensitivity level of the camera, the smaller shift of the object is needed to trigger the alarm. For
example, if the object within motion detection region has moved for about 1-3 pixels during two
video frames, then such small motion will be discarded by camera if the sensitivity is low, and will
still trigger an alarm if the sensitivity is high. In other words, you can think of sensitivity level as a
reversed speed limit – the smaller is the sensitivity, the faster are the objects allowed to move
without being detected.
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The biggest challenge of motion detection configuration is to find the settings that do not produce
false alarms and at the same time do not miss any actual intrusions. The rule of thumb is: the
sensitivity should be as high as possible while not producing false alarms. The default
sensitivity level of the cameras is 70 (on a scale of 0-100) and it is a good setting for most
standard cases.
To configure or modify an existing configuration, click on “Setup” to define and adjust the motion
detection region or its parameters. Microsoft Internet Explorer browser is required to configure
the motion detection regions.
There are up to 10 independently configurable motion detection regions. Each motion detection
region has 5 configuration parameters:
Enabled or disabled
Size and shape of the region
Minimum size of the object to be detected
Location of the region
Trigger threshold
Trigger interval
Enabled or disabled
Each region can be enabled and disabled individually. By default, Region 1
is enabled while the other regions are disabled. Only the enabled region
appears on the video display.
Note that the number of the motion detection region is written within of the
region.
The motion detection area of Region 10 is automatically set as the whole area outside any of the
motion detection regions of 1 to 9.
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Size and shape of the region
The size and shape of the motion detection region can be any shape defined by the users.
Regions may even be overlapping.
To configure a region, click once on a point where you want to set the region and continue to click
to draw the desired region.
For example, to configure Region 2, click “Setup” and “Enabled” of Region 2.
Click a starting point of the motion detection region on the screen. The yellow dot indicates the
starting point of the region. Continue clicking on the screen to mark the desired shape of the
region.
After completing the marked region, the region number and the detection size box appear.
Region Number
Detection Size
Motion Detection Region
The detection size box indicates the minimum size of the object to be identified as an “object”.
This feature is useful to avoid false alarms. For example, if the detection size is set to be the size
of a human or vehicle, motion detection will not be triggered even when a cat passes the motion
detection area.
It is recommended to keep the detection size as small as possible while not causing false alarms
by moving objects that are not humans or vehicles.
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To resize the detection size, click on the box and drag its corners.
Alternatively, to resize or reshape the motion detection area, click on the motion detection area
and drag the corner points until the desired size or shape is achieved.
Location of the region
To move the location of the region, click on the motion detection region. With the corner points
showing, click the mouse within the region and drag the region to a desired location. The motion
detection regions may be overlapping.
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Trigger threshold
Look at the moving object entering the area of motion detection: although moving quite slowly, it
caused motion activity – several pixel regions reported a motion that was faster than allowed
“speed limit” of sensitivity (70).
A 10% trigger threshold means, 10% of this motion detection area were filled with moving pixels
at that moment. By visual observation you can also see that the object standing inside the motion
detection region indeed covers about 10% of its size.
What if the object is really small but moves rather fast (gets triggered by the current sensitivity
level)? For example, we want to detect people but not the cat walking in the room. Although both
people and cat may move with the speed that will trigger motion, they have different size of
triggered pixels. For example, a human passing by the motion detection region will trigger 25% of
pixels in that region while the cat would trigger only 2%. Since we want to have a real alarm in
case of human or vehicle passing by while ignoring birds, cats, butterflies, mice, etc, we need a
filter that can define how many percent of triggered pixels will be considered as a real alarm. This
parameter is called trigger threshold. The default value of trigger threshold is 10%. It means,
only the objects that are bigger than 10% of the motion detection region size and move faster
than allowed by sensitivity level (70) will produce actual alarm.
How to choose the most optimal trigger threshold level? The rule of thumb, keep the trigger
threshold as small as possible while not causing false alarms by the moving objects that
are not humans or vehicles.
You can have different sensitivity level and trigger threshold level for each motion detection
region.
In order to understand all of the above even better, please refer to the table below containing four
possible combinations of settings using sensitivity level and trigger threshold percentage.
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The objects listed in each cell will trigger an alarm under given settings:
Low threshold (0-5%)
Low sensitivity
(0-65)
Big and fast
High threshold (5-100%)
Big and fast
Small and fast
Big and fast
High sensitivity
(65-100)
Big and fast
Big and slow
Small and fast
Big and slow
Small and slow
The camera’s default sensitivity is 70 and threshold is 10%. By these default values, only
the rabbit and the turtle would trigger an alarm while the butterfly and the snail would be
ignored by the motion detection system.
Important: Please remember that changing the size of the motion detection region has an impact
on the threshold – the bigger is the size of the motion detection region the smaller should be the
threshold value if you want the same object size to trigger motion. For example, if you increase
the motion detection region to twice the previous size, please remember to reduce the threshold
to half its original value (from 10% to 5%). On the other hand, changing the location of the motion
detection region has no impact on threshold.
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Trigger interval
Trigger interval is the time period from the beginning of the triggered event during which all
motion activities are ignored by the camera. This is designed to avoid needless repetitive
reporting of the same intrusion. Trigger interval 20 seconds would mean that when the even
happens, camera will take certain one-time actions and ignore the continuing activity in the
motion detection region for 20 seconds. When 20 seconds are over, the camera will produce a
new alarm if there are still action in the motion detection region, and take actions again.
There is one more item on the Motion Detection
configuration page which was not explained above –
the Profile of Motion Detection. Think of them as
Profile 1 (Runtime MD Profile) and Profile 2 (Event
MD Profile). It means that you can configure two independent groups of Motion Detection regions
with at most 10 regions in each group. Normally, the Profile 1 (Runtime MD Profile) is used as an
active profile of the camera. However, in some cases it is possible to let the camera switch to
Profile 2 by using the Event Handler system of the camera.
For example, you might want to have different motion detection parameters for day and night time.
Then the two profiles become really handy. In such case, remember to configure the motion
detection parameters for both profiles before moving on to configure the event response system.
After changing any of the items above, press Apply to save the changes. The Reset button
undoes the changes that had just been made but not Applied yet.
NOTE: For PTZ / Speed dome cameras, it is recommended to turn off motion detection when
scan and tour modes are enabled to avoid false motion alarm.
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Compression
The Compression section allows the user to define the compression settings of the video
streams individually. The purpose of compression is to reduce the bandwidth and VMS storage
consumption.
Usually the stream 1 is configured to be the best quality stream for NVR recording purposes while
the stream 2 and 3 are configured to be with the basic quality for the live view of NVR or mobile
device, to minimize the computing power of NVR used for video decoding.
Parameters
Encoder Type
Stream Mode
Description
There are two encoder types available: H.264 (High Profile) and
MJPEG.
This item defines how the video is streamed. The options available
vary depending on the selected Video Application Mode (see
Camera Options on page 36). Stream 3 usually follows the stream
mode setting of Stream 1. Possible options are:
 Panorama View: Edges of image is dewarped to display flat
image on screen.
 Fisheye View: Image looks as if the scene is viewed from a
fish’s eye.
 ePTZ: This stream allows you to do digital pan-tilt-zoom or
change the viewing direction of the target view. This option is
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H.264 Profile
Resolution
Frame Rate
Video Bit Rate Mode
(only for H.264)
only available from Stream 2 to 5 and if Video Application
Mode is set to ePTZ.
 MultiView Mode: If the Video Application Mode is set to
MultiView, the Stream Mode setting will automatically be set
to MultiView Mode as well.
This item is available only if the Encoder Type is H.264.
The H.264 Profile defines the video compression scheme: High
Profile, Main Profile, and Baseline. These schemes vary from least
compressed, Baseline, to most compressed, High Profile. By
default, the H.264 Profile is High Profile, which provides the most
compression with the best video quality, but more computing power.
Some third-party video management system has longer latency or
takes more time to decode High Profile compression scheme, in this
case, you can select Main Profile or Baseline. In order to get the
same video quality, you can select a higher bit rate with lower
compression; this is the same as having a lower bit rate with a High
Profile. For example, a video on High Profile with 2M bit rate will have
the same video quality as a video with Baseline Profile at 3.5M bit
rate.
Depending on the camera model, the number of available resolutions
may be different. The default resolution setting of the camera may not
necessarily be the maximum resolution of the camera. If the user
wants to use the maximum resolution, it is possible to do it here. The
maximum possible resolution of the stream 2 will be smaller than
stream 1 and so on.
Defines the amount of frames per second.
Under “Constant Bit Rate” mode (CBR), the camera keeps the stable
bitrate regardless of the complexity of the scene. Under this mode,
the video quality may vary if the bit rate value is set too low. It is easier
to do storage and network bandwidth consumption estimations under
this mode compared to Variable Bit Rate mode.
Under “Variable Bit Rate” mode (VBR), the camera will keep the video
quality stable while the bit rate may occasionally go up or down,
depending on the complexity of the scene.
Defines the upper limit of the bitrate (only available under CBR
mode). The bitrate will be floating slightly under that limit. For
example, if the limit is set as 2M, the bitrate will be floating around
1.6~2.0 Mbps.
Video Max Bit Rate
(only for H.264)
Video Bit Rate
(only for H.264)
If the Video Max Bit Rate is chosen as
“Unlimited”, then the “Video Bit Rate”
selection box will appear that defines
the bit rate level.
Under CBR mode, when Video Max Bit Rate is chosen “Unlimited”,
the user can define the AVERAGE bit rate. For example, if the Video
Bit Rate is chosen 2M, then occasionally, the actual bit rate may go
below or beyond 2M, but in the long run, the average bit rate will be
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very close to 2M. This mode allows the most accurate storage
estimations, however, while planning the bandwidth, please consider
the occasional peaks of bit rate.
H.264 Compression:
Quality
Under VBR mode, the bit rate will be
floating while the video quality will
be stable and follows the quality
standard set by the user. The user
can choose either “High”, “Medium” or “Low” quality. The higher is the
quality level, the more bit rate the camera will use to achieve the
target quality.
MJPEG Compression:
The user can define the quality with the numeric scale from 1 to 100.
The default MJPEG quality is 60. The higher is the quality level, the
more bit rate the camera will use to achieve the target quality.
GOP 1 I-frame
(only for H.264)
Under VBR mode it is possible to adjust the GOP length - that is the
occurrence rate of I-frames. By default, there is one I-frame per
second. For example, in case of 30fps, there will be 1 I-frame and 29
P-frames every second by default. When the GOP is changed to “1
I-frame per 5 seconds”, then there will be one I-frame, followed by 149
P-frames. In case of the static scenes, long GOP can further minimize
the bandwidth and storage consumption.
After changing any of the items above, scroll down the screen and press Apply to save the
changes. The Reset button undoes the changes that had just been made but not Applied yet.
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Camera Calibration
Camera Calibration allows users to manually calibrate and find the
center image of the camera. Since the camera has already been calibrated before shipment,
calibrating the camera is not usually needed. However, if the image will be flipped through Video
Flipping / Video Mirroring function (see Image on page 54), then the camera must be
recalibrated. With this function, you can also adjust the center of the image.
Before using this function, Video Application Mode must be set to Preview Mode (see Camera
Options on page 36), if the current camera does not meet the required settings for calibration, a
message similar below will appear. Required settings vary depending on model.
You may need to go to the Camera Options and Compression menu to modify the configuration
according to the required settings for calibration (see Camera Calibration on page 51).
Click the Camera Calibration button to enable this function. The red circle with appear on the
screen.
Center of image
Drag any of the tabs
to resize the circle.
Move the mouse cursor within the red circle and drag towards the target area you want to cover.
The radius of the circle may also be resized by dragging one of the square tabs.
Press Apply to save the changes.
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Video
The section is also named Video. The Video section is divided into
tabs. The functionality of each tab is explained separately below.
Upon opening the section named Video, the live view of the Stream 1 of the camera will appear.
Usually, Stream-1 is configured to be high quality video with maximum resolution and frame rate
for recording purposes while Stream-2 is usually a moderate quality stream for live view purposes
of the VMS, to reduce VMS computing power during video decoding of multiple channels.
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Day/Night
The section Day/Night allows user to control the switching between day mode and
night mode. This section will be displayed only for day/night models.
Parameters
Day/Night mode
IR LED Control
Description
There are three modes:
Auto: The camera will automatically switch between day mode (color)
and night mode (black/white) under certain exposure level, defined by
user at “Switch from Day mode to Night mode”.
Day: The camera always stays in day mode (color) regardless of
exposure level.
Night: The camera always stays in night mode (black/white)
regardless of exposure level.
This feature is visible only in cameras with built-in IR LED.
There are two modes:
Auto: The built-in IR LED will be turned on automatically upon day to
night switch and turned off upon night to day switch.
Disabled: The IR LED will be off regardless of day and night mode.
Zoom cameras have adaptive IR profile, which means that when IR
LED Control is set to “Auto” (default setting), the IR LED
automatically adapts to the required IR LED power as the camera is
zoomed in or out.
IR LED Strength Level
This feature is visible only in fixed and vari-focal lens cameras with
adaptive IR profile and when IR LED Control is set to “Auto”.
The scale of 1~10 allows the user to manually define the power level
of the IR LED. The higher the value, the brighter the IR LED is. Set
the IR LED Strength Level according to the installation environment
requirement, or set it to “OFF” to turn off the IR LED.
Switch from Day mode
to Night mode
The scale of 0~100 allows user define the exposure level at which the
day to night switch should happen. The higher is the value, the darker
the environment has to be to trigger the day to night switch.
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Image
The section Image allows user to control certain parameters of a video frame.
Parameters
Video Flipping / Video
Mirroring
Brightness
Contrast
Saturation
Digital Noise
Reduction
3D Noise Reduction
Edge Enhancement
WDR
Description
Check this box to flip the video up-down and left-right to achieve the
180-degree rotation effect. When this setting is modified, the camera
must be recalibrated (see Camera Calibration on page 51).
Select the Brightness value (0~100). The higher the value, the
brighter the image.
Select the Contrast value (0~100). The higher the value, the
difference between light and dark areas becomes more prominent.
Dark color becomes darker while light color becomes brighter.
Select the Saturation value (0~100). Saturation makes colors appear
more vivid.
Select the Digital Noise Reduction option (OFF, 1~4). Digital noise
reduction value reduces noise on the video (especially in low light)
which makes the image look smoother and clearer.
Enable this feature for smooth and clear image. Disable this feature if
the scene contains extreme details that may be smoothed over with
3DNR.
Select the Edge Enhancement value. The higher the value, the
sharper the image.
Choose the WDR level from following options: Disabled, low, medium,
high, highest.
NOTE: WDR is disabled and will not appear on screen if Exposure
Mode is set to “Manual”. See Exposure / White Balance on page 55.
This feature provides a clear image even when the camera is installed
Defogging
in a foggy environment. Select the Defogging level: Disabled, Low,
Medium, High, and Highest. Wherein “Low” is ideal for a slightly foggy
environment and “Highest” for the foggiest environment.
After changing any of the items above, press Apply to save the changes. The Reset button
undoes the changes that had just been made but not applied yet. The button “Restore image
settings to default” is a quick way of restoring factory default image settings without needing to
reset the whole camera to factory default.
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Exposure / White Balance
The section Exposure / White Balance allows the user to configure
Exposure (shutter, iris and gain control) and White Balance settings. In most cases, the default
settings are sufficient and no adjustment is needed. Some options will only appear under certain
Exposure / White balance modes. Each mode is described in detail below.
Exposure Mode - Auto
In Auto Exposure Mode, you control the image brightness by configuring the AE Reference
Target and Slowest Auto Shutter.
AE Reference Target (Auto Exposure reference target) can be considered as the “Target
Brightness on Sensor”. The camera will use several internal parameters to achieve best quality
with reference to this. The higher this value, the brighter the overall scene, however, there
may be more noise at night in such case. The range of AE Reference Target is 1~255.
The camera will automatically control shutter speed, auto iris (if available) and signal gain to
achieve the target level set by the user. If the auto iris does not exist or is already opened to a
maximum size, and the image is still darker than the user defined target, it will further slow down
the shutter speed within the allowed range (set by user under Slowest Auto Shutter Speed) and
increase the signal gain.
Slowest Auto Shutter Speed is the user defined threshold for slowest allowed speed of auto
shutter. For example, if by default the shutter speed would vary between 1/5s ~ 1/32000s
depending on the lighting conditions, then setting the Slowest Auto Shutter Speed to 1/30s would
narrow down the auto shutter range to work between 1/30s ~ 1/32000s. The purpose of allowing
user to define the threshold for slowest speed is to avoid motion blur caused by too slow shutter
at night.
It is also important to know that very high shutter speed is not recommended for indoor solutions
with artificial light that flashes with certain frequency, as it may produce flickering effect,
regardless of Exposure mode.
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In extreme low light conditions, the shutter speed is slown down to get more light into one image,
but not slower than the user defined threshold.
If the exposure time extends beyond the interval between frames (too slow shutter), (i.e. 1/30
second), then the frame rate will be automatically reduced. Longer time in this value gives
clearer images at night for slow moving objects, but more motion blur for fast moving
objects.
White balance refers to the capability of the camera to understand what “true white color is”.
When the camera knows the true white color, then the rest of the colors will be accurate, too.
While human eye can easily adapt to different lighting sources (even mixed sources, such as sun
light through the window and indoor lights turned on at the same time), the camera has to
understand what is the dominant light source in given scene and what is the “white color” of such
light source.
By default the camera is in auto white balance mode and attempts to recognize the light source
and its color spectrum automatically and adjusts the image accordingly. This function works
continuously in the background. It is re-evaluated for each frame, to make sure if there is any
change in dominant light source (e.g. the user closes the curtains to block the sun light and turns
on the indoor lights).
In most cases the auto white balance works perfectly and the user does not have to adjust
anything! In some rare installation cases, especially when there are no white color objects in the
field of view, and the light sources are mixed, the camera may have difficulty to identify the true
white color to fine tune the rest of the colors.
In such cases, the installer can “help” the camera to understand the true colors by placing a white
object (for example a piece of white paper) in front of the camera to cover the whole field of view
and wait a few seconds – the auto white balance system will adjust the colors until the white
paper will really look white on the display. At that moment, the user can freeze these white
balance settings by pressing the Hold button. After pressing that button, the White Balance will
switch from Auto mode to Manual mode, together with the color values captured at the moment of
Hold. The user can now remove the white object from the field of view, and the colors will stay
correct for given scene.
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For advanced users, there is also an option to switch from Auto mode to Manual mode of White
Balance directly and input the R Gain and B Gain values manually.
After changing any of the items above, press Apply to save the changes. The Reset button
undoes the changes that had just been made but not Applied yet.
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Exposure Mode - Manual
When the lighting conditions are stable 24 hours a day, the advanced users may consider using
manual exposure mode, to further fine tune the image quality in order to fulfill the special project
requirements. Please note that in most cases, it is highly recommended to keep the camera in
Auto Exposure mode and let the intelligent system of the camera find the best possible exposure
settings instead.
In manual exposure mode, the user can directly manually adjust the signal Exposure Gain, and
Shutter Speed. The White Balance control has already been explained in the previous chapter.
NOTE: Day/Night mode and WDR function are disabled in manual exposure mode (see Image
on page 54).
After changing any of the items above, press Apply to save the changes. The Reset button
undoes the changes that had just been made but not Applied yet.
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Audio
The section Audio is available only for audio-supported models. The
user interface for audio control looks as below:
or
Parameters
Audio In
Audio In Level
Audio Out Volume
Audio Format
Description
The option “Enabled” would activate incoming audio (either line in or
built-in microphone). The option “Disabled” would turn off the incoming
audio. In such case, the video stream is captured without audio.
Use this function to adjust the sensitivity level of audio input.
The audio out volume level can be adjusted in the scale of 0-100. It will
influence the volume level of the speakers connected to the camera.
Choose the compression format of audio: PCM, G.711A (A-law) or
G.711U (µ-law).
To adjust the volume level of the speakers connected to the PC that runs the Web Configurator in
order to hear the audio from the camera’s microphone or line-in device, go to Live View page and
use the audio controls there:
Audio Muted:
Audio level adjusted to the maximum:
This volume control appears in user interface only when the Audio-in function of the camera has
been “Enabled”.
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System
The section System provides the list of functions that help manage the
camera. The [+] mark before System indicates that the list can be expanded by clicking on it.
Once expanded, the list can later be collapsed again by clicking on the [-] mark.
User Account
The section User Accounts allows doing following user management
tasks:
1. Change the account name or password of the Root account that has a full access to the
camera.
2. Create up to 10 common users that only have an access for live view and PTZ control.
3. Enable/disable the option of seeing the live view without needing user name and password
(anonymous login), which is especially convenient function for camera installers on the field.
For security reasons, account name and password is always required when entering Setup
page of Web Configurator or when trying to access camera or change settings by URL
commands.
After changing any of the items above, press Apply to save the changes. The Reset button
undoes the changes that had just been made but not Applied yet.
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System Info
The section System Info provides the full information about camera
status, settings and log. This information is very helpful while doing the camera configuration,
maintenance or troubleshooting.
The Server Report is a convenient way of exporting the full list of camera related information in a
text format, so that it can be sent to the technical support team for faster service.
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Factory Default
The section Factory Default allows the camera settings be reset to the
original factory settings.
If you want to keep network settings and restore other settings to factory default, please select
the first option. If you select the second one instead, all the settings would be removed during
factory default. You will have to use factory default IP setting to connect to this camera.
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Firmware Upload
The section Firmware Upload allows remote upgrade or downgrade of
camera firmware. The upgrade to newer version is usually done in order to gain new functions or
fix existing bugs or limitations while downgrade to older version is used mostly for integration
purposes where the newly purchased camera model comes with the newer firmware version than
supported by a third party video management system of a given project.
The firmware image file can be downloaded from the website. It has the file extension “.upg”.
After pressing Apply button, it is possible to browse for firmware image file that has already been
downloaded to the computer that has the Web Configurator running.
Click Browse to select the upload image file. Click the Apply button to start the upload.
Once the process is finished, you will get an “OK” message and system will reboot itself.
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Save & Reboot
The Save & Reboot section allows saving the settings and
rebooting the camera remotely. This is critical because some settings might not take effect before
save & reboot.
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Logout
Clicking this item allows you to log out of the IP device. Be sure to logout
this IP device once you have completed all the tasks via Web Configurator.
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Troubleshooting
Although the default settings of the camera are ideal for 90% of the cases, there may be some
rare cases when the settings need to be adjusted or the device has to be examined. The
following section provides easy troubleshooting solutions for most cases. In some occasions, the
unexpected symptoms may be the result of selecting the product that is not suitable for given
environment.
For more detailed explanations and instructions of each situation, please refer to the complete
Troubleshooting Guide at http://www.acti.com/kb/detail.asp?KB_ID=KB20130130001
Image Quality Troubleshooting
Problem
Solution
Motion blur
Increase shutter speed
Blurry image
Auto Focus: Refocus button; Manual focus: adjust manually
Too narrow DoF
Reduce aperture size, widen the viewing angle, install camera farther from objects
Vari-focal lens: widen the viewing angle; Zoom lens: press the zoom-out button; Fixed
Too narrow viewing
lens: replace it with wide angle fixed lens or choose another model with wide angle
angle
lens
Increase video resolution; zoom-in (zoom lens) or adjust lens to telephoto position
Objects too small
(vari-focal); Install the camera closer to target; Change to the lens with longer focal
length; Change the camera model with higher resolution or longer focal length
Use Auto Exposure Mode and increase AE Reference Target; set the Slowest Auto
Underexposed
Shutter Speed to slowest possible (1/5s); Add external light source to illuminate the
image
area the camera is shooting
Overexposed
Use Auto Exposure Mode and reduce AE Reference Target if necessary
image
Enable DNR; Enlarge the aperture; Lower AE Reference Target in Auto Exposure
Noise
mode; Lower the Exposure Gain in Manual Exposure mode; Lower video resolution;
Add extra visible or IR lights
Blocking & mosaic
Increase the bitrate
Wrong
Manually correct the colors by using white paper “Hold” button in Auto White Balance
colors
color rolling
or
mode; Adjust the camera’s position or viewing direction; Adjust the light source
Make sure there is sufficient light; Make sure the Day/Night Mode and IR LED Control
are both in Auto mode; Make sure that the “Switch from Day mode to Night mode” does
Black image
NOT have the most extreme value – 100; Manual iris: open the iris by rotating the ring
towards “O”; Remove the protective cap of the lens during installation
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Make sure the dome or bullet cover is tightly mounted; Reduce the AE reference target
IR light reflection
in Auto Exposure mode; Reduce the Exposure Gain in Manual Exposure mode
Streaming Quality Troubleshooting
In auto exposure mode, set the Slowest Auto Shutter Speed to be not slower than the
Frame Rate Too
interval of frames; In manual exposure mode, set the Shutter Speed to be not slower
Low at Night
than the interval of frames
Use dual stream (stream 1 for recording, stream 2 for live view); Lower the bitrate;
Lower the resolution (if acceptable for user); Check the cable quality; Make sure to use
Latency
industrial grade switches and routers; Check the NVR server & client PC requirements
from NVR manual
Jitter
Use the NVR that has the video smoothening algorithm for live view and playback
Use the Playback function of NVR – use frame-by-frame validation of jitter-looking
sections, to see if any frames are dropped; To troubleshoot the data switch/router and
Dropped Frames
VMS computer, you may also ask for assistance from technical support team of
camera manufacturer
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Copyright © 2016, ACTi Corporation All Rights Reserved
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TEL : +886-2-2656-2588
FAX : +886-2-2656-2599
Email: [email protected]

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