Using IP surveillance Software. D-Link DCS-5300G, SECURICAM Network DCS-5300G

Using IP surveillance Software

Installing the IP surveillance Software

Before you begin installing this application software, the hardware system requirements must be checked first. The minimum system requirements recommended for this application are as follows:

Browser: Internet Explorer 5.x or above

CPU: Intel Pentium III 800MHz or above

(Pentium 4, 2GHz plus processor with 512MB memory and a 32MB video card is required for multiple camera viewing and recording in IP Surveillance)

SDRAM: 128MB SDRAM

Hard Disk: 40GB

Video Card: nVidia, TNT, TNT2, GeForce series with 32MB video memory / ATI

Radeon series with 32MB video memory

Put the installation disk into your CD-ROM, and it will run automatically. If it does not, open “My Computer” and double click on the CD-ROM icon. Next the installation menu will appear. Click “Install Software”. The following window will appear.

Click

IP surveillance

68

Using IP surveillance Software (continued)

Installing the IP surveillance software (continued)

Click

Next

The “License Agreement” window below will appear. Please read the following license agreement carefully. Click “Yes” to accept this agreement and proceed with the installation.

Click

Yes

69



Next, the “User information” window below will appear. This window will prompt you to enter the user name and company name. Enter your user name and company name and then click “Next” to continue.

Click

Next

You must setup the administrator’s password in order to proceed. Input and confirm your password in the window shown in below. Click “Next” to continue.

Click

Next

70



Select the installation directory for this application software and click “Next”, which is shown in the figure below. You can change the installation directory by clicking “Browse…”

Click

Next

Select a program folder to install the application software and then click “Next”, which is shown in the figure below.

Click

Next

71



After checking all the setup information in the window shown below, click “Next” to start the installation of the application software.

Click

Next

Click “Finish”, in the window shown below, to finish installation. The program is now installed on your computer.

Click

Finish

72


Launcher

Launcher is a controller program that allows users to invoke Monitor or Playback quickly.

System Tray Icon

The Launcher icon reflects current state of IP surveillance. The icon in the system tray signifies that the IP surveillance Software is currently active on the system.

Security for Launcher

When Launcher starts, there is no need to undergo a username/password check. But when users want to click on the icon of Launcher on system tray,

Launcher will popup a username/password dialog the first time for menu popup or when Launcher is locked. If a user fails to pass the authentication check, no menu will show up. If a user fails 3 consecutive tries he/she will be locked out for a period of 60 seconds.

After passing authentication, users will be able to use all functions. If users want to leave the computer, it is possible to lock the Launcher for security reasons. When Launcher is locked, the user will need to pass the authentication again to see the popup menu.

Below is the login window:

73


Launcher (continued)

When Launcher is locked, the unlock window will appear, prompting for the user password in order to unlock.

The input area of the dialog will be grayed (disabled) for 60 seconds after 3 consecutive failures.

User Interface

Below is the user interface for Launcher:

The main user interface for Launcher is an icon on system tray, and the popup menu appears when the user clicks on the icon. The menu items are listed below:

Lock Launcher

When this item is selected, Launcher will enter lock mode. In lock mode, whenever users want to invoke the menu, a dialog asking for ID and password will appear. The interface for this dialog is covered in the previous section.

74


Launcher (continued)

Tools

Contains many utilities. Currently only change password is implemented. The change password dialog looks like this:

Autorun at Startup

Users can select whether or not to autorun Launcher when

Window boots up.

Monitor

Starts up the Monitor program. If the Monitor program is already running, clicking this button will re-open the Monitor window.

Playback

Starts up the Playback program. If the Playback program is already running, clicking this button will re-open the Playback window.

Logout

Logs out user from IP surveillance. After logging out, if the user wants to return to the menu, and clicks the Launcher icon, the authentication box will appear prompting for username and password again.

Exit

Exits Launcher. If users choose this option, Launcher will show a message box prompting to confirm if users really want to exit, and warn users that exiting Launcher will also close Monitor and

Playback.

75


Monitor Program

Features of the Monitor Program

Traditional Surveillance Features:

Real-time monitoring

Pan and Tilt control

Recording

Special Features:

The digital surveillance system supports not only the features listed above, but also the following features, which make the system more powerful and convenient.

Simultaneous real-time monitoring and recording audio and video

High quality video up to full screen display

High compression ratio

Maximum of 16 cameras with different monitor layouts

Auto alarm in multiple modes

Account-password protection

Multiple recording modes: Event-driven, Scheduled, and manual recording for each camera.

Just-in-time snapshot

Motion detection with 3 alert windows for each camera

76


Monitor Program (continued)

Application Layout and Functionalities

This section demonstrates a global view of the monitor program, shown below.

The components of the monitor tool will be introduced in detail in the following sections.

Misc. Functions

Video Area

Channel Area

Layout Area

Hard Disk Status

Common Controls

DI/DO and Alert

Message

Display Frame

There are several parts in the monitor tool:

Misc. functions:

These include application exit, minimization, full screen monitoring, lock, stop alert, and configuration menu for camera configurations, global settings, scheduler settings and the user information of this application software. Tips for these operations are provided when you move the mouse cursor over each icon.

Channel area

This area displays the status of each video channel. The information indicates the status of connection, recording, selection, and alert-event trigger.

Video area

In this area, you can see the video of the selected channel in the display frame. The number of the display frames in the video area depends on the layout chosen by the user. You can also use convenient controls to alter the video display.

77



Layout area

You can change the monitoring layout in this area. There are six kinds of layouts: 1, 4, 6, 9, 13, or 16 video display windows in the video area.

Hard disk status

In this area, you can get the status of the hard disk in which the video database resides. The status reminds you to arrange the available storage size of the recorded video database.

Common control area

This area includes volume control, manual recording, video printing, snapshot, and trash can to remove video from display windows.

P/T control

This tool allows you to pan, tilt, auto patrol, and move the camera to a preset position.

DI/DO control

This tool receives the digital input signal and sends digital output signal to the remote Video Server/ Network Camera series product associated with the dedicated video channel.

Alert Message

This tool will display the latest alert messages received by the remote Video Server / Network Camera series product associated with the selected video channel.

Logging In

You need to login the first time when you start the Launcher. The authentication window is shown below. If you do not have an account, the monitor tool will not execute. You must log in as admin (administrator) to use this application. Enter the password for the administrator.

78



The Admin Privilege

In the monitor program, the admin has the right to access the DCS-5300G

Network Camera through this application software and change the local settings as well. But the admin password for the software is not the same as the admin password for the Internet camera. You can change the settings of each selected

Internet camera from the monitor program only if you have the admin password for the Internet camera.

If you have the admin privilege, you have the right to do the following tasks:

Run the configuration tool

Change the recording schedule

Change the local settings

Again, if you need to change the settings of the DCS-5300G, you must have the administrator’s password for the camera itself.

Camera Configurations

When you log in for the first time, you should configure this application software to connect the DCS-5300G in “Configuration Menu > Camera Configurations”, shown in the figure below. You will need the admin (administrator) password of the camera in order to run the configuration.

Once you click “Configuration Menu > Camera Configurations” for setting each camera, all recording processes will be stopped, indicated by a warning window popped up in advance to keep you informed.

79



The Layout of the Configuration

This section discusses the local settings for the connection and the functional configuration of each camera. If you are interested in the remote settings for each camera, you can refer to “Using the DCS-5300G with an Internet Browser,” which starts on page 34.

Remote Camera

Webpage Settings

Local

Settings

Setup Page

Camera

Selections

The Layout of the Configuration

In the local settings, shown below, three main functionalities are provided:

Insert new camera to the list

History of all cameras in the list

Delete camera from the list

80



Insert – To insert a remote network camera to the camera list. Click the “Insert” button, an “Insert New Channel” dialog will popup, as shown below. Specify the

IP address, port, and admin password of the network camera, click the “Ok” button to close the dialog. Then the system will try to connect to the selected camera. If the connection succeeds, the camera will be inserted to the camera selection list.

Specify the IP address, port, and admin password of the camera.

Click

Ok

Once added, you will see the IP address of the camera and also the port that is opened on the camera (port 80 in this example).

81

The selected camera has been added to the selection list.



Delete – The deletion of a device is a much easier operation than “insertion”. It removes the selected network camera from the camera list. Highlight the camera that you want to delete from the list and click on the “Delete” button.

The selected camera will be deleted.

History – Clicking the “History” button will popup a historical camera list, which lists the latest 16 cameras you inserted into the camera list. 16 is the default number; you can change the number of the latest installed cameras you want to keep in the registry. Clicking on one camera in the history list will insert the camera into the camera list. The historical camera list is shown below.

Historical camera list

Alert and Recording Settings

Alert Settings

Recording

Settings

82



Alert Settings:

Specific alert actions can be performed by setting the options in this window.

Enable motion detect

This will trigger an alert sound that has been specified in the section titled “Global Settings \ Alert Sound.” Check this option to enable audio alert for the camera selected.

Enable digital input

This function is similar to “Enable Motion Detect” mentioned above. Once this option has been checked, a digital input device will be able to trigger an alert sound and recording.

Digital input alert

This application software provides options for you to define the triggering criteria for the digital input of the DCS-5300G. The alert of the digital input can be defined as high-level triggered or lowlevel triggered.

Recording Settings:

Record # secs. before event

Once the automatic video recording has been activated, you can change this setting to regulate the recording of triggered events.

Recording will start from the specified number of seconds before the alert event has been invoked.

Record # secs. after event

Recording will last for the specified number of seconds after the alert event has been invoked.

Media Type

You can specify which media type you want to record: Video,

Audio, or both.

83



Changing the Camera Order in the List

You can “drag and drop” in the grid area of the camera list to change the sequence of the connected Network Cameras, which is shown below. This will allow you to rearrange the cameras in an order of your choice. Once the camera is moved to a specified location, the proceeding cameras will then move 1 position up or 1 position down depending on which direction the selected camera was moved.

Step 1: Step 2:

Press the left mouse button at the gray index field.

Move the mouse to your new selected location and release the mouse button. Then Video

1 will be moved (to the 12th row in this example).

Once you click the “Save” button in the left-bottom corner of this window, the changes for all camera configurations will be saved and will be applied immediately to the IP surveillance.

84



Global Settings

After completing the connection to each remote Network Camera, we need to configure some global settings for all the cameras. These include the video database directory, the usage of the Hard disk, and options for video display.

You can activate the global settings window from “Configuration Menu > Global

Settings...” shown above.

All recording processes will be stopped when activating the global settings window, indicated by a warning window popped up in advance to keep you informed.

85



Directory Settings:

Snapshot directory

The directory for storing snapshots in *.bmp format from video channels of the monitor and playback programs, which is shown on page 85.

Recording directory

The directory for storing the recorded video data from video channels.

Scheduler directory

The directory for storing the default and user-customized schedules for the scheduled recording of each channel.

Record Diskspace Usage Settings:

Cycle Recording

When you turn this setting on, the video database system of this application software will overwrite the oldest data if the specified path has become full. That means it will record video data in a loop. If this setting is unchecked, a warning message will pop up when it is approaching the storage space limit. All recording will stop when the limit of the hard disk usage is reached.

Reserved space

Indicate the size of the hard disk that will be reserved for other

Windows applications (at least 15%). The remainder of the hard disk space will be available for recording. The more space you have reserved, the less there will be available for your camera(s) to record to. As you move the bar to the right, more space will be available for your camera(s) and conversely, less space will be available for your other applications. If the recording data exceeds this limitation, the new video data will replace the oldest data (on a First In First Out (FIFO) basis) when “Cycle Recording” has been checked.

Alert Sound

You can load a custom *.wav file for the sound of alert triggering.

You can also select from the sound files in Windows.

86



Modulation Mode

You must select the input signal format (NTSC or PAL) for displaying the original resolution of video stream from

DCS-5300G.

NOTE: You need to select the input signal format according to the camera type or CCD module type that is connected to the DCS-5300G. Due to the nature of CMOS sensors (for the DCS-2000 and DCS-2100+), the input signal format needs to be set to PAL regardless whether the power line frequency connected is 50 or 60Hz.

Display Options:

In the video displaying frame of each channel, there are two status bars. The upper bar contains “Camera location” and “time of the remote site.” The lower bar contains “Connection time” and “Recording time.” All of them, shown in the figure below, can be enabled or disabled here individually for the status indication.

Apply to full screen mode can also be turned on here. Once it has been checked, the status bar in each channel showing date, location, connection, and recording time will be shown in both display frame mode and full screen mode.

Location (channel number + Text on Video)

Remote Time

Connection Time (Day:Hour:Min)

87

0 day 00:01

Recording Time (Day:Hour:Min)



Backup Settings:

Using Backup Settings in the global settings window, you can backup recorded data from selected cameras to a specified location.

Directory

This is the directory where backup data will be saved. You can select the location by clicking on the folder icon.

Size

You can set the size limit of the data that will be backed up. The default size limit is 10MB. The maximum value for this setting depends on the amount of Free Space available on your hard drive. This value can be found under the “Record Disk space

Usage Settings” section of the global settings window.

Backup Location Select

Select the locations to backup by clicking the checkbox next to the location/camera name. To delete a location, select the location and click the “Delete” button to the right of the Backup Location

Select window.

After you have set your backup settings in the global settings window, you can backup recorded data by clicking “Backup” in the Configuration Menu, as seen below:

88



Using the Monitor Program

This section depicts, in detail, how to manipulate the monitor tool.

Connection of the DCS-5300G

Channel:

Once you have the privilege to connect to the DCS-5300G, the cameras will automatically appear in the video area in the order they are connected. Once you have set up the camera in the video channel, the color of the channel number will turn blue, indicating that the camera has been added to IP surveillance. If you do not set up the camera for the video channel, the color of the channel number will be gray.

There is a unique light signal associated with each channel number. It indicates the status of the dedicated video channel, which is depicted as follows:

Off

The video channel is not connected with any DCS-5300G yet.

Green

The green light means the DCS-5300G associated with this channel number is connected, and the video is monitored in the video area.

Red

The red light indicates the video from this channel is recording into the video database. In this mode, you don’t have to drag and drop the channel to the video area. This means that this application software supports real-time recording with and without real-time monitoring for the dedicated video channel.

Blink

With the motion detection mechanism set in the DCS-5300G, the light of the corresponding channel will blink once the motion event is triggered.

89



Not configured channel

Selected Channel

Recording

Connected and monitoring

5

9

13

Configured but not connected (no video)

Trashcan

If you do not want to monitor one video, you can drag and drop the video (in the video area) to the trashcan in the common control area of the monitor program.

The following section will demonstrate the procedures for “drag and drop” stepby-step.

Show the video of a specified channel

This section depicts the method of how to show the video of a specific channel in a display window.

Step 1:

Move the mouse cursor to the display window shown below

.

Mouse cursor

Location hint

Video 1

Display window

90



Step 2:

Press and hold the left mouse button, and then move the cursor to a display window in the video area, which is shown below. Note that the cursor will change according to the area in order to indicate whether the area is droppable or not.

Not droppable area

Video 1

Window A

Droppable area

Window B

Step 3:

Release the left mouse button while on top of a display window. In each display layout, only one window can be assigned to a camera. Also, each camera must have its own separate window when displayed. Once the video is in a display window, it can be dragged and dropped to other windows. If you drag one camera’s video to a window that already has its own camera’s video, the two cameras will trade display windows. Dragging and Dropping is a very convenient way to manipulate the video channels in the IP surveillance Software.

91



Video shown

Empty video box

Removing video from a display window

Step 1:

Move the mouse cursor to the display window that contains the video channel you wish to remove.

Step 2:

Note that the cursor will change to the hand-shape when it has been moved onto the displaying frame. After that, press the left mouse button and hold it.

Step 3:

Move the cursor, while still holding the left mouse button, to the trashcan in the common area of the monitor program.

Step 4:

When the cursor shape changes to an arrow-shape over the trashcan, release the left mouse button. The video in the corresponding display window will disappear. All operations above are shown in the figure on the following page.

92



Press and hold the left mouse button here.

Move the mouse cursor here, and then release the left mouse button.

The Layout

There are six different layouts available, as shown below, for the display windows in the monitor program. You can select one of them by clicking on a layout icon. In each layout, you can drag and drop the “channel number” to any display window in the video area. Following the procedures described in the section titled “Show the video of a specified channel”, you can add the video channels to display windows within the selected layout one by one. You can also exchange the video between different display windows by dragging and dropping.

4 camera layout

1 camera layout

9 camera layout

6 camera layout

16 camera layout

13 camera layout

93



Double click a display window to switch to a single channel layout.

When you choose the one-channel layout or four-channel layout, the “Page up” and “Page down” buttons will be shown in the left-bottom corner of the video area. You can use these two buttons to switch the pages, as shown in the figure below.

Use to switch between cameras.

94



To view an individual camera from the multi-camera layout, double-click on the desired display window. You will see that the size of the display window is the same as the one-channel layout. Clicking the “Back” button in the upper-left corner of the video area will switch to the previous selected multi-camera layout.

The position that each video channel is in for every layout will be saved for the next time the layout is selected.

Back

Back to previous layout.

Input/Output Control Tools

Pan/Tilt control

Digital Input /

Digital Output

95

Alert Message



IP surveillance includes pan/tilt control, DI/DO (Digital Input / Digital Output) control, and an alert message receiver. Each of these are described in detail below.

P/T Control

Refer to the following figure to use the pan and tilt controls.

Return to home position.

Tilt/navigate camera using arrows.

Pan –

Pans the camera one full cycle.

Stop –

Stops movement of the camera during pan.

Patrol –

Enables the Auto Patrol feature.

Pull down menu –

Select a preset position to move the camera to.

DI/DO Control

Clicking on the “DI/DO” button shown below, you can switch to the DI/DO controls. The color of the channel number indicates the status of the camera’s

DI (Digital Input). You can click the “Switch button” to change the HI/LOW state of the DO (Digital Output). With these features, you can monitor the remote sensor input from DI and also trigger the camera by DO switch

.

Set digital output to LOW

Set digital output to HIGH

No connection

When the color of a DI/DO number is gray, that means the video has not yet been connected to a camera.

96



Alert Message

If you have checked the box for “Enable Motion Detect” or “Enable Digital Input” on “Camera Configurations > Alert Settings“ screen, the alert message will show in the window shown above. Once the alert, caused by motion detection or a digital input level changer, is triggered, the alert message will be shown in this window. If there are more events than this window can display, a scroll bar will appear.

The message format is described as follows:

“time”=>”alert type” #”channel number”(“win1”,”win2",”win3")

For example, the message “PM 02:41:00=>MO #1(0,1,1)” means that this is a motion detection alert occurring at 02:41:00 PM in Motion Window 2 and Motion

Window 3, for camera #1. If the message “PM 02:41:56=>DI #1” is listed, that means there is an alert triggered by the DI, for camera #1, at 02:41:56 PM .

97



About

By choosing “About”, located in the configuration menu shown below, a dialog box will appear and display the information about the installed version of IP surveillance. The information includes the software name, version, user name, and company.

Miscellaneous Functions

Full Screen

Quit

Minimize

Stop Alert Sound

Configuration Menu

This section will describe some other miscellaneous functions of the icons shown above. These functions are:

Quit

By clicking this button, IP surveillance will be closed with the latest settings saved.

Minimize

Minimize the Monitor program.

98



Full Screen

With this function, you can enlarge the selected video channel to a full-screen display. Press the “ESC” key on the keyboard or double-click the mouse on the screen to return to a regular display.

Stop Alert Sound

If an alert is triggered, the alert sound will start to play. After being informed of the situation, you can press this button to stop the alert sound. It will also switch the I\O Control to the Alert Message

Receiver, so that the alert messages can be reviewed.

Configuration Menu

The menu includes Camera Configuration, Global Settings,

Scheduler, and About options.

Common Control Functions

Stop Record

Volume

Record

Print

Trash can

Snapshot

This section will describe the common control functions, shown above, which are depicted by the small icons. These functions only apply to the currently selected channel. These functions are:

Volume Control

Click on this button to adjust your volume settings.

99



Record

By clicking on this button, you can manually record video from the selected channel.

Stop

After video recording has been activated, this button allows you to manually stop recording of the selected video channel.

Snapshot

This button will take a snapshot of the selected video channel and save the picture as a bitmap file to the hard disk. You can set the directory for storing these bitmap files at the “Configuration menu > Global Settings” screen. Please refer to the section titled

“Global Settings” for more details.

Printer

Click on the printer icon to print the current image to your default printer.

Status Bar

Trashcan

You can drag and drop the video channel to the Trashcan to close the video connection with the DCS-5300G.

Local time

Software name

Current login user

100

Login time

Software version


Scheduling

The scheduler allows the user to schedule recordings from the selected video channel of the DCS-5300G. Through both the graphic user interface and time period selection options, you will be able to easily regulate a schedule for each video channel.

The main features of the Scheduler are:

Friendly graphic user interface for schedule editing

Flexible schedule scheme suitable for all applications

Individual schedule for each video channel

Supports up to 9 preset schedule schemes for each video channel

Automatic period recording

Using the Scheduler

This section discusses the method of how to use the scheduler.

Start the Scheduler

Schedule Tool

101

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4


Scheduling (continued)

The scheduler will not be accessible until at least one camera has been added to the camera list. Go to the configuration menu and click on “Scheduler” to launch the Scheduler.

The Layout and Functionalities

Introduction

The layout of the scheduler and its components, shown below, will be described.

102



The layout of the Scheduler is roughly divided into 4 parts:

Part 1

The first part of the scheduler is the video channel selection area.

It provides the IP addresses and location information of the connected video channels for the user’s reference. You can select a video channel in this area and create a schedule for it.

Part 2

The second part is the Primary schedule settings. It consists of the day time-line, week time-line, begin time selector, end

time selector, and event mode settings.

Part 3

The third part is the Secondary schedule, which consists of event mode settings.

Part 4

The fourth part contains the operation buttons for the user to manipulate the edited schedule of the selected video channel.

The scheduler can be closed from here.

The Functionalities of Configuration Components

The four main parts of the scheduler have been briefly described in the section above. Parts 1-4 will be described in detail in the following section

.

Video channel

IP address

103

Location



In this area you will select the video channel that you want to set a schedule for.

Each video channel will display a name, IP address, and location. Please note that when you switch between video channels in this area, the changes in the schedule of the previous video channel will be saved automatically.

Primary Schedule

Schedule with Time Lines

There are two different time-lines: hour unit time-line and week unit time-line.

You can make your own schedule by plotting markers in all time-lines. These two time lines are associated with each other. That is, if you make changes in one time-line, the corresponding changes will be applied with scale to the other three time-lines in the same schedule. Before you begin, make sure that you select “Once” (page 102) if you want to choose the days to record on.

Week Time-Line

In the figure below, Week time-line is displayed. It includes the time-line, schedule information, and the selected day in the week.

Selected Day

Marking/Unmarking the Recording Time on the Week Time-Line

Click

Result in hour time-line

The corresponding changes for the markers on the week time-line will be automatically added to the hour time-lines, which is shown above. You can also mark and unmark the plotted bar by clicking and dragging with the left and the right mouse button.

104



Hour Time-Line

In the figure below, the Hour time-line is displayed.

Marking/Unmarking the Recording Time on the Hour Time-Line

You can apply the one-click function by clicking the left mouse button and dragging to mark the time on this time-line. The operating method for the hour time-line is the same as that of the week time-lines. Please refer to the previous section about marking/unmarking on the week time-line for more details

.

Schedule with Time Picker

Begin and End Time

Date picker Hour picker Minute picker

There are three controlling units in both “Begin Time” and “End Time” selectors shown above. The first unit of these two selectors is the date picker. You can select day with it to set the beginning time and the ending time for the recording interval.

The second and third units are the hour picker and the minute picker. You can change the hour and minute settings for the beginning and ending time with them.

NOTE: The time set in “Begin time” must be earlier than that in “End time”.

Otherwise the settings will not be applied.

105



Apply and Erase Buttons

After you have selected the time period with “Begin time” and “End time” picker, you can apply the period picker, shown in the figure below, to set the periodical types of the time interval set previously. After the settings in “Begin Time”, “End

Time” and “Period Picker” are all done, you should click the “Apply” button or

“Erase” button to add or clear this scheduling information to the editing schedule scheme. Note that only after you click on the “Apply” button, the scheduling information settings will be written back into the whole editing schedule scheme.

That means this edited scheduling time interval is valid only after you “Apply” the changes.

Period picker Apply Erase

Schedule in event mode

You can select to record in Event mode or Continuous mode by the Schedule mode selector as shown in the figure below. There are two types of event recording. Please refer to the following two sections for more information.

Motion Detection

As shown above, you can check the windows that you would like to record while the motion detection is triggered

.

106



Digital Input

In the figure above, there are four conditions for the digital input. Check the condition that you would like to record while the condition triggers.

high

Checking this will trigger recording while the digital input is high/

The technical name for this event is line trigger.

low

Checking this will trigger recording while the digital input is low.

The technical name for this event is line trigger.

rising

Checking this will trigger recording while the digital input is changing from low to high. The technical name for this event is edge trigger.

falling

Checking this will trigger recording while the digital input is changing from high to low. The technical name for this event is edge trigger.

Schedule in Continuous mode

If you select Continuous mode in the schedule mode selector, it will record continuously during the schedule that is set up by the user.

Secondary Schedule

Secondary schedule is the time that is outside the primary schedule.

Schedule modes

107



There are three modes in the secondary schedule: Disable, Event mode, and

Continuous mode. You can either disable the secondary schedule or choose the event or continuous mode. These two modes are the same as the primary schedule. Please refer to the previous section for more detail.

The Schedule Scheme operations

There are six related buttons. “Load…”, “Undo”, “Clear”, “Save”, “Save as…” and “Close” for handling the schedule schemes. These operations are shown in the figure below.

Load...

This button allows you to load pre-edited schedules from the scheduling directory for the selected video channel. Note that you should save the schedule you are currently working on before loading a new one. Otherwise, the current changes will be lost.

Clear

This button will clear all changes in the current schedule of the selected video channel.

Save

This button is used for saving changes to the current schedule.

Save As...

This button is used to save the current schedule as another file name instead of the default name.

Undo

Click on this button to undo all changes for the current schedule since the last save.

Close

Click on this button to close the scheduler.

108


Playback Program

The playback program is a very powerful, convenient, and easy way to browse the recorded video. It has one display mode (normal display mode) and two playback methods (full range and time period). There are several main functions including special features in the Playback program. These functions are depicted as follows.

Features of Playback

Powerful play control tool:

Play

Stop

Pause

Step forward

Fast play (from x1 to x16)

Slow play (from /1 to /16)

Convenient display adjustment tool:

Zoom in (from 1:1 to 2.25:1)

Zoom out (from 1:1 to 1:2)

Full screen

Flexible searching range adjustment tool:

User input (from full range to 1 second)

Zoom in (from full range to 10 seconds)

Zoom out (up to full range)

Full range

System control tool:

Window locker

System settings

109


Playback Program (continued)

Logging In

Before you start the playback program, it is necessary for you to log in to the application software. The figure below shows the login dialog. For security concerns, only the admin account can log in to this program. To change the password of the admin account, please refer to the section titled “Logging In.”

Layout

Area Selection Indicator

Display Area

Status Area

Histogram Area

110

Control Area

Pull Bar Area



When you successfully log in to the playback system, the main window will be shown on the top of the screen and the display resolution will be changed to

1024x768 automatically (see previous page). There are four main areas , i.e.

display area, histogram area, control area, and status area. There are also three visualized controls , i.e. area selection indicator, frame selection indicator, and pull bar. These features provide much more convenience while searching recorded video in the IP surveillance database.

Main Areas

Display Area

The display area is able to show the surveillance database of each camera by time. You can change the video size through the display adjustment tool and the playback method through the play control tool. Under the normal display mode as shown in the figure below, you can just double click on the frame area to change the frame size to 1:1 or 2.25:1.

Playback method

Display adjustment tool

111



Histogram Area

The histogram is an interactive control. Not only can you get the event’s location in time domain and its quantity of the motion percentage, but you can also select a group of events or a period from the event histogram area and show it on the display area.

Control Area

The control area contains almost all the control selectors and toolboxes you need to browse the database. These control tools include location selector, period selector, playback method selector, jog dial, display adjustment tool, searching range adjustment tool, exporting tool, and system control tool. These tools are discussed in more detail in the section titled “Using Tools.”

Status Area

The status area is located at the bottom of the main window. It tells you the program status information including display mode, display size, display speed, exporting file format, and exporting file name.

Indicators

Area Selection Indicator

In the main playback window, the display area is surrounded by a blue rectangle.

This rectangle is the area selection indicator. This indicator can be set to either display area or histogram area, as long as you move your mouse cursor to the area you intend to select. When you select the display area, the display adjustment tool will appear in the control area. If you select the histogram area, the display adjustment tool will disappear and the searching range adjustment tool will be shown in the same place of the control area.

112



Pull Bar

The pull bar is a fast, flexible control for seeking data in the selected time period.

It represents the total length of time in that period. You can pull the indicator on the pull bar to the specific time-point you would like to view. The displaying video will halt and then restart, playing the video sequence from the point you selected. If the video sequence has been paused, the display area will show the point you selected without playing. Note that the pull bar will only function under the normal display mode.

Settings

After the main window is shown on the screen, you must modify the settings to make it to work properly. Click on the “Settings” button, shown below, in the system control tool, and the setting dialog will appear on the screen.

Lock Windows Exit

Settings Minimize

113



The items in the settings windows are:

Database location

The most important item in the settings dialog is the database location setting. You must set it to the directory that contains the surveillance database to make the program to work properly.

AVI file location

This sets the directory where exported AVI files will be stored.

Exported AVI files will be stored in the sub-directory (camera name) under the directory you set here.

Snapshot file location

This sets the directory where bitmap files will be stored when you use the snapshot to export them. Exporting bitmap files will be stored in the sub-directory (camera name) under the directory you set here.

Modulation Mode:

The modulation mode cannot be changed. This depends on how you recorded the video sequence in the monitor program. If you select the wrong mode, the video shown in the display area will become distorted. If you have chosen the wrong modulation mode, you may open the settings dialog again, change to the correct mode, and restart the playback program. The display will now be normal.

114



Normal (Single Frame) Mode

While in the normal (single frame) display mode, you can change the video currently displayed by:

(1) Changing the database path in the settings dialog of “System Control” tool.

(2) Changing the location selector to another location in control area.

(3) Changing the playback method selector to “Full Range.”

(4) Changing the playback method selector to “Time Period.”

Period Start Time Label

Period End Time Label

Histogram Area

Under the normal display (single frame) mode, you can use all the tools provided with the playback program, except the page control. In this mode, the two labels under the pull bar show the starting and the ending time of the interval individually

(as shown above).

115



Histogram Area

Inverted region

Dark Region

The histogram area in the normal display (single frame) mode only shows the events’ occurred time and the percentage of motion detection with red bars. If you want to access the histogram area, you must change the area selection indicator to the histogram area. You can mark one time interval you want to see with a color-inverted region by dragging your mouse with the left button pressed

(as shown above). When you release the left button, the color-inverted region will be enlarged to the whole histogram area. This color-inverted region will be the new period the program is going to display. If you change your mind and don’t want to see that period, you can cancel it by just pressing the right button of your mouse with the left button still pressed. If you click on the left button without dragging it, the action will be the same as clicking on the pull bar in the same x-axis position. That means the playback system will shift to the pointed time and show video on the displaying frame. Besides, the dark regions in the histogram area mean there is no existing video data in that interval. If you click on those regions, nothing will happen except a warning message will pop up.

Using Tools

In this section, the method of how to use the tools in the control panel (shown in the main playback window) will be discussed.

Selector Tools

The figure below shows the selector tools. They are location selector, period selector for the selection of the beginning time and the ending time, playback method selector, and alert area selector.

116



Location selector

Period selector

Playback method selector

Alert area selector

Location Selector

The location selector is a control that lets you select the camera you want to see (refer to the figure above). The location name is the same as the camera name (text on video) unless you have specified otherwise.

Period Selector

Period selector provides you a precise way to choose the start time and the end time of a new period. The end time must be later than the start time. After you provide the correct start and end time, clicking on the “Play” button will play the new period in the display area with changing the period start and end time label. Besides, the pull bar and histogram area will change, too. If the selected period is not present in the database, the data in the period selector will change to the previous correct start and end time, and a warning message will be displayed.

117



Playback Method Selector

Full Range

If you select this method, the database will be displayed from the beginning to the end of this location. Any change in the period selector will have no effect except when you change this selector to “Time Period.”

Time Period

If you change the playback method to “Time Period”, you can modify the start and end time in the period selector. When you click on the “Play” button in the jog dial, the period you selected will be displayed.

Since the program will record the previous start and end time in “Time Period” and “Events Preview” mode, whenever you want to change the period selector to see the other periods, you must change the playback method selector to the mode you want to use first. Otherwise, the period selector will revert back to the previous period set the last time you changed the playback method selector.

Alert Area Selector

In the preview mode, the playback program can show the information of total events of only one alert window each time. If you want to see the events of the other two alert area windows, you must change the alert area selector to the other window numbers. In the normal display mode, the alert window that the alert area selector indicates will be highlighted with red rectangle if you checked that window in the settings dialog. The alert area selector will be changed to alert window 0 by default settings when you change the location selector to another window.

Play Control

For the play control, the jog dial, shown in the figure below, is used to provide the easiest method of controlling the video sequence display. All buttons can control the displaying frame in the normal display mode.

118



Speed Indicator

Pause

Play

Forward

Stop

Play

The supported “Play” button is an intelligent play user-interface.

The functionality of this button can vary to fit different circumstances. In the normal display mode, clicking on the “Play” button can restart the displaying video sequence.

Stop

When you want to stop the displaying video sequence, you can click on the “Stop” button. Note that once you press the “Stop” button, the start point will be reset to the start of the present period.

Pause/Resume

The “Pause” button provides you a way to pause the video sequence display. When the displaying video is paused, click on the “Pause” button again to resume the video display.

Forward

This button is only valid when the displaying video sequence is paused. It will display the next frame in that period when you click on the “Forward” button one time.

Fast Play and Slow Play

The camera supports a maximum of x16 fast forward play and minimum of /16 slow forward play. This function helps you browse the surveillance database with more flexibility. If you want to change the playing speed, you just need to move the speed indicator. To increase playing speed, move the indicator in the clockwise direction. And to decrease playing speed, move it in the counterclockwise direction. The current speed that is set will be shown in the second column of status area.

119



Display Adjustment Tool

When you move the mouse cursor to the displaying area, the display adjustment toolbox will appear. Using the display adjustment toolbox, you can change the displaying video sequence to the size you want to see in the normal display mode when you move the area selection indicator to the display area. The figure below shows the display adjustment toolbox and its own three elements, i.e. “Zoom In”, “Zoom Out”, and “Full Screen.”

Zoom In

When you click on the “Zoom In” button one time, the image size in the display area will be magnified 12.5 percent to the original size. Due to the limitation of the display area size, the maximum zoom in ratio supported is only 2.25:1 for

NTSC modulation mode and 1.875:1 for PAL modulation mode. If you want to see the image in more detail, you can use the full screen function that is supported in the same toolbox.

Zoom Out

When you click on the “Zoom Out” button one time, the image size in the display area will be minimized 12.5 percent to the original size. To show the location and time information completely, the minimum zoom out ratio is limited in 0.5:1.

120



Full Screen

When you click on the “Full Screen” button, the video sequence will be enlarged to the whole screen instantly. You can double click on any place or the “ESC” key to return back to the normal screen. When you switch to the full screen display, you can press the “Alt” and “Space” keys together to pop the jog dial to control the displaying video sequence. Press the same keys again to close the jog dial. You can also press the “Alt” and “Enter” keys together to switch between the normal display and full screen display at any time when the program is under the normal display mode.

Searching Range Adjustment Toolbox

When you move the mouse cursor to the alert histogram area, the display adjustment toolbox will change to a range adjustment toolbox. The range adjustment toolbox provides a faster way to change the range of the displayed time period. By using this toolbox, you can browse the database of one location from any 10-second interval of the entire range. The figure below shows the searching range adjustment toolbox composed of its own three elements, i.e.

“Zoom In”, “Zoom Out”, and “Full Range.”

Zoom In

Each time you click on the “Zoom In” button in the searching range adjustment toolbox, the displayed time period will be half in the center of the original time period until the period is equal to 10 seconds. You can see the new interval in more details. The scale of pull bar and alert histogram window change. The period start and end time change as well. The period selector will show the new start and end time. The display area will restart and display the new period from the newly defined start time.

121



Zoom Out

Each time you click on the “Zoom Out” button in the searching range adjustment toolbox, the displayed time period will be double in the center of the original time period unless the start time or end time exceeds the whole database timeboundary. The scale of the pull bar and alert histogram window change. The period start and end time change as well. The period selector will show the new start and end time. And the display area will restart and display the new period from the newly defined start time

.

Full Range

When you click on the “Full Range” button, you will get the same functionality as when you change the playback method selector to “Full Range.”

System Control Toolbox

The system control toolbox provides some basic operations for the playback program. The figure below shows the three elements of the system control toolbox, i.e. “Lock Window”, “Settings”, “Minimize”, and “Exit.”

Lock Window

If you are away from your computer, for security reasons, we recommend that you to close the playback program or you can just click on the “Lock Window” button to lock the main window. Once you click this button, the main window will be hidden and the login dialog will appear. To return to the main window, you need to re-enter the admin’s password again.

122



Settings

The settings dialog will pop up when you click the “Settings” button. For more information about setting this program, please refer to the section titled

"Settings.”

Minimize

Click this button in order to minimize the playback program window.

Exit

The playback program will be closed immediately when you click on the “Exit” button.

123

No results