Overview of Video

The Video application is a fully integrated component of the management platform. It displays multiple, live and recorded video images inside the panes of the System Manager window. These video images can be used for security monitoring and surveillance, or to visually confirm and provide evidence of alarms that occur on the building-control site.

This section summarizes the main features and components of the video application.

Video View

Video images display in a grid-like arrangement called the video view. The video view can be different for each client station in the management platform. Operators can quickly switch between different preset layouts (3x3, 4x4, 8+2, widescreen, and so on) for the video view of their station. For details see Video View Reference.

Monitors

The individual images in the video view are called monitors. Each monitor can be associated to a video source. An operator can quickly change which video source displays on a monitor, for example, by dragging and dropping a camera object onto a monitor.

The monitors that make up a station’s video view (managed monitors) are defined by the monitor group assigned to that station. These monitors remember their connected video sources, so that any changes made persist across sessions. For details see Monitors and Monitor Groups Reference.

Camera Controls

In the Extended Operation tab, operators can check and control the video source connected to each monitor in the station’s video view. From here, they can also change the pan-zoom-tilt settings of PTZ cameras.

Camera Groups

Cameras can be organized into camera groups, which make it possible to operate on multiple cameras with a single action. For example, if a group of cameras is set up for each floor of a building, an operator can then view the cameras of an entire floor by simply selecting the camera group, or dragging and dropping it onto your video view.

Camera Sequences

The system can be configured to display dynamic, time-based sequences that cycle through multiple cameras on one or more monitors. Sequences can be used to create video guard tours or to support video surveillance from a large number of cameras.

Camera-Object Associations

Cameras can be assigned to system objects so that selecting an object causes its associated cameras to be listed in Related Items. Clicking a camera in Related Items will then display its images in the Secondary pane. For details see Cameras Associated to System Objects.

Video Recording

The system can record video images in a networked video archive. Video recording can be programmed to be permanently active on certain cameras, or it can be triggered by automatic mechanisms such as events, reactions, macros, and schedules.

Operators can also use manual commands to start and stop recordings. A built-in bookmarking feature lets them tag specific points in recordings, and annotate them with comments. For details see Recording Video.

Video Playback

Operators can use a graphical timeline or parameter-based queries to find past video recordings, and then replay them on a monitor with a simple drag-and-drop action. The timeline makes it possible to quickly skim through the recordings and tags. For details see Playing Back Recordings from a Camera Timeline and Finding Recordings in the Video Archive.

Operators can also export an entire video recording or part of it to a video file. See Exporting a Video Recording to MKV Format.

Video for Handling Alarms

From Event List, operators can quickly view the live video images associated with an event by dragging and dropping the event Source onto a monitor of the video view. They can also access live or recorded video pertaining to alarms during Assisted or Investigative Treatment. See Handling Alarms with Video.