Technical Notes. Smarter Surveillance for a Safer World

Technical Notes Smarter Surveillance for a Safer World

The purpose of this document is to provide technical details for various new features in the Ocularis 5.6 release. Topics in this Document Device Finder Tool Multiple Selections... 2 Pre-fetch Available on Long-Term Storage Systems... 3 Configure Pre-Fetch for Each Zone... 3 Two Camera Streams Created by Default... 4 Creation of Two Streams... 4 Importing Camera Presets... 5 To Import Camera Presets... 5 Master Core Failover Support... 6 Shared, Group and Private Views... 7 Private Views in Ocularis Client... 8 Dual Authorization for Ocularis Client Login... 9 Control Access to Ocularis Web / Mobile... 10 Displaying Cameras Within A View in Ocularis Client... 11 Creating Views On-The-Fly with Ocularis Client... 12 To Create A View On-The-Fly... 12 Creating & Editing Views in Ocularis Client... 13 Populating View Panes... 15 Populating a View Pane with a Camera... 16 Populating a View Pane with a Non-Camera Element... 16 Saving Changes and Open the View... 16 Exiting the View Editor... 16 Editing View Panes... 16 Manually Assign a Slave Core to a User Group... 17 View Live Video with Ocularis 5 Mobile... 19 To View Live Video... 19 To Focus on a Single Camera from a View... 24 On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 1

Device Finder Tool Multiple Selections Using the Device Finder Tool, you can save time and clicks by easily assigning one Device Manager, one username and password or activating record on motion for multiple selected devices. Figure 1 System Status Tab 1. Select the cameras to be added by selecting the checkboxes in the first column. 2. If required, change the settings for Manufacturer, Type and camera Name. 3. To apply common settings across all selected cameras, select a Device Manager (DM) (1), Username (2), Password (3), and/or Record on Motion checkbox (4) from the column heading section. Once modified, all selected cameras should update to reflect the item shown in the column heading. 4. Optionally, select the Validate setting before device creation checkbox to validate the settings for these cameras. 5. Click Add (5). On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 2

Pre-fetch Available on Long-Term Storage Systems When viewing video stored on long term storage systems (e.g. tape), you can now enable a setting to pre-fetch or fetch in advance video for a specific time period. The setting is configured in the MDS.conf file for each zone of the DM. This significantly improves the performance of playing video backwards or forwards or for exporting video on systems such as Quantum. Video stored locally on a hard drive can be played back with little to no delay. The challenge arises with video stored on tape or other long-term storage systems. Video files or.bix files stored on these devices can take a longer time to load and this delay increases when attempting to simultaneously play video from multiple sources in a single view. Pre-fetching improves performance on such systems. This new setting will fetch the next or previous.bix file(s) based on the configuration. Pre-fetching works with Ocularis Client, Ocularis Web and Ocularis Mobile. This feature kicks in only during constant playing (forward or backward) of video or when performing a video export or bookmark. Using the Kinetic Timeline to jump ahead or behind will not trigger pre-fetch. The default value (if not manually configured) is 300 seconds (5 minutes). The flag is set per zone. Therefore, it is possible to have this enhanced mode on one zone but not another. The setting should likely be the same for all zones. CONFIGURE PRE-FETCH FOR EACH ZONE In the mds.conf xml file, add the following (in bold): <Zones> </Zones> <Zone> </Zone> <Path>../data</Path> <MaxSize>-1</MaxSize> <Type>standard</Type> <Prefetch> </Prefetch> <enabled>true</enabled> <time>10</time> The <time> tag represents the amount of seconds that should be prefetched in both directions from the current point in time. Files that should be prefetched are based upon this value and will be queued for prefetching until the delta is met or the last/first.bix file is reached. Contact OnSSI Technical Support for questions on how to best configure your system. On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 3

Two Camera Streams Created by Default When a new camera is added to an Ocularis 5 recorder, two streams will be created by default. This can save a huge amount of configuration time for the administrator. Having multiple streams is essential in Ocularis 5 since: Clients can automatically select the best stream for the display, improving performance and saving network bandwidth Operators can manually switch between streams, depending on the situation, saving CPU and RAM utilization Server-side motion detection can be configured to use an optimal stream Ocularis Web users will save time by having a second lower resolution H.264 stream created automatically This functionality is enabled by default. Administrators have the option to disable it. CREATION OF TWO STREAMS For new cameras using a Smart Driver Cameras on upgraded systems will not be affected. However, the new feature will be enabled by default so any new cameras will be created with two streams. Feature applies for cameras created manually, with the device finder or via.csv import Automatic Stream Creation The first stream created is set to H.264 using the device s maximum resolution. The stream is automatically assigned the Video Classification of HD quality or whatever label that classification was renamed to. All other default values remain the same as before and may be edited manually. The second stream is set to H.264 with a resolution as close to (but not exceeding) 800 x 600. It will be assigned the Video Classification Standard quality (or whatever label it was replaced with). Modify other fields manually. If using Onvif check to see that the correct streams are chosen and if not, configure them as desired. To Enable / Disable Creation of Two Streams 1. In the Ocularis Recorder Manager, select System. 2. Select Video classification. 3. The checkbox Configure the second stream by default is checked. Uncheck to disable the feature. 4. Click Apply or Save. Figure 2 Control Automatic Creation of Second Stream On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 4

Importing Camera Presets Preset positions that are already configured on the camera can be imported into the recorder configuration. Note: this option is only available when the user has rights to create presets and camera position must be enabled in the General Camera Configuration screen. TO IMPORT CAMERA PRESETS 1. In Ocularis Recorder Manager, select the PTZ camera for which you wish to import presets. 2. Select Camera Positions on the left panel. 3. Click the Import Camera Positions button under the PTZ controls. A pop-up warning appears. Figure 3 Import Camera Presets Button Figure 4 Preset Override Warning 4. When importing preset positions from a camera, all presets already configured in Ocularis Recorder Manager will be overwritten! 5. Click OK to import the presets. On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 5

Master Core Failover Support When an Ocularis 5 recorder is added to Ocularis Base using Ocularis Administrator, the component being added is actually the Master Core component. Until version 5.6, Ocularis Base was unaware of any Slave Cores that that might have been configured. This could cause issues where, if the Master Core was unavailable, when an operator logged in with Ocularis Client, video would be unavailable. Now, with Ocularis ENT or Ocularis ULT, if a Slave Core is preset at the company or root level, Ocularis Base will know about it and anytime someone tries to login during a Master Core failure will still be able to do so successfully via the Slave Core. How Does This Work? When a Master Core is added in the Server / Events tab of Ocularis Administrator, the software will check to see if there is also a Slave Core available. This Slave Core must be at the top level of the hierarchy. If found, the specifics of the Slave Core will be stored in the VSEvents database. When a Ocularis Client, Ocularis Web or Ocularis Mobile login attempt is made, the software will first try to connect via the Master Core. If that is unavailable, the client will then try to login via the corresponding Slave Core. In the event that any changes are made to this primary Slave Core, the server must be refreshed manually. Simply right-click it in the Servers / Events tab of Ocularis Administrator and click Refresh. Also, if you are upgrading to Ocularis v5.6, you must manually refresh the server in order for the system to assign the corresponding Slave Core. On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 6

Shared, Group and Private Views There are now three levels of views in Ocularis: Private, Group and Shared Views. Private views are intended for a single user in most cases. They may be created using Ocularis Administrator by an administrator user (i.e. member of the Administrators group) or Group Administrator for members of their own group. Private views may also be created by the individual user from within Ocularis Client. These views may be edited from within Ocularis Client by the user (owner), an Administrator or Group Administrator. They may also be edited from within Ocularis Administrator by an Administrator or Group Administrator. View creation or editing from within Ocularis Client is a privilege. By default, the privilege is denied to non-administrators. An administrator user can enable the privilege for a short time to allow the end user to create their own views in Ocularis Client and then later disable the feature so that the end user does not endlessly add views to the system. For every user group, a Private view group/folder is created in the Views tab and within that, a folder for each user account. Group views are those available to a specific user group. They are unique ( private ) to that group in that once created, they may not be shared with other groups or users outside of the user group. These views may be created or edited by administrator users or Group Administrators from within either Ocularis Administrator or Ocularis Client. Shared views may only be created by administrator users from within Ocularis Administrator. Shared views are used when more than one user group needs access to the view. These views are stored under the Shared folder or group. Other than administrator users, no one can access Shared views unless an administrator user explicitly shares the view with a user group or user. Prviate Views Shared View Group Views Shared Views Figure 5 Shared, Group & Private Views Notice in Figure 5, Shared items (folders and views) are shown in the color orange. Private or Group views are shown in blue and are private to either the user or group to which they are associated. On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 7

Private Views in Ocularis Client The average user (i.e. non-administrator) has access to their user group s views as well as views private to themselves. These Private views may be created by: Themselves using Ocularis Client Group Administrators or Administrators using either Ocularis Client or Ocularis Administrator Private views are visible to the user for which they are created, group administrators and administrators. Individual users may not see views of other individual users. Kirby s Private Views Figure 6 Private vs. Group Views Kirby s group views On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 8

Dual Authorization for Ocularis Client Login In certain cases, system administrators may not want certain users to be able to have unfettered access to Ocularis video with Ocularis Client. They may, however, want to allow access on a case-by-case basis. In this instance, the system administrator can set the user s account to Deny the privilege of Login to Ocularis Client from the Users / Privileges Tab (see Figure 8). When the user needs to access video, their login attempt will yield: Figure 7 Login Approval Needed Another user with the privilege Login to Ocularis Client set to Allow must enter their own account credentials in order for the original user to gain access. This is called the Four Eyes Principle. Record of the approval login will be registered in the Audit Log. The approving user must either be an administrator (i.e. a member of the Administrators group) or a member of the same user group as the original person logging in. Someone who is not an administrator or not from the same user group may not approve the login for a member of a different user group. Figure 8 Login Privileges On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 9

Control Access to Ocularis Web / Mobile By default, users of all groups will be granted access to log in with Ocularis Web and Ocularis Mobile. However, in some cases, system administrators may want their users to access video while at the office using Ocularis Client but deny them the access while outside the office. The privilege Login to Ocularis Web/Mobile (see Figure 8) can be set to Deny and the user will not be able to login with either Ocularis Web or Ocularis Mobile. They will receive the message User is not allowed to login to Ocularis Web/Mobile if attempting do to so. Note: if the privilege Login to Ocularis Client is set to Deny and the privilege Login to Ocularis Web/Mobile is set to Allow, the user will have direct access to Ocularis Web or Mobile (no approval login needed). On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 10

Displaying Cameras Within A View in Ocularis Client As you expand view folders from within the Views menu, you can see a list of cameras contained within that view. Lab View (1+3) cameras Figure 9 Cameras in a View are listed In the sample in Figure 9, you can see that there are four cameras in the Lab View (1+3) view. To select a camera from the list, click on the camera name. A 1 x 1 view will open with the selected camera displayed. It will use the best stream available for the size of the pane. On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 11

Creating Views On-The-Fly with Ocularis Client Sometimes users may want to see a subset of cameras in a view completely in a view by itself. Or, you may want to see a view of cameras that are located in separate views. You can create a view on-the-fly for only cameras that you select. TO CREATE A VIEW ON-THE-FLY 1. From the Views menu, expand the view with the cameras you wish to select. 2. Select a camera by clicking the + symbol (not the camera name) on the left of the camera name. When you do this, the view symbol turns blue. Click blue view symbol to create the view Figure 10 Creating a Temporary View Click + to include the camera 3. Continue to select cameras by clicking its corresponding +. 4. Once you ve completed your camera selection, click on any blue view symbol. The view shown will be a symmetrical view equal to or greater than the number of cameras selected. For instance, if three cameras are selected, a 2 x 2 view is drawn with three of the four panes populated. If nine cameras are selected, a 3 x 3 view is drawn showing the nine cameras. The system will automatically display the best stream available for the camera (i.e. use [Auto] mode). The view generated is temporary. It will remain in system memory so that you can use the Previous and Next button to gain access once another view is displayed. Once you ve logged off, however, the view is no longer available. You may also select cameras from separate views to be included in the new on-the-fly view. On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 12

Creating & Editing Views in Ocularis Client In addition to Ocularis Administrator, views may now also be created using Ocularis Client: While connected to Ocularis Base if the user has privileges to do so When operating Ocularis Client directly with the recorder (not logged in to Ocularis Base) in what is called Limited Mode. The Setup Utility is the feature used to create views. 1. From the main Ocularis Client menu, click the Setup Utility icon, located on the right-hand side of the menu bar. The icon will appear when hovering over it. Note: If you do not see this icon, you do not have privileges to create or edit views. Contact your System Administrator for access. The View Setup/Editing utility is displayed. View List Filter box Close the Setup Utility View Controls View Panes Camera List Figure 11 Setup Utility Views are organized within folders or View Groups. If using Ocularis Client in Limited Mode, the top level folder is the name of the Company as defined in the Ocularis 5 recorder. Otherwise, the top level folder is the user group. The Filter box enables easy access to views or cameras. Any character (number or letter; not case sensitive) or combination of characters will filter the list to only the items containing the character or string of characters entered, highlighting those characters within the list names. 2. Administrator users or Group Administrators may create subfolders with a user group. To do so, highlight a folder, and click the Create New View Group icon, located on the bottom left of the Edit Views pane. On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 13

Highlight a folder Create New View Group Figure 12 Create New View Group 3. To create a view within a folder, click on the Create View icon [ ]. This will open a submenu of view layout templates. Highlight a folder Create New View Figure 13 Create New View On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 14

Available view types include: Figure 14 View Layouts 4. Select a view layout. The screen to the right is drawn using that layout 5. At any point during the View creation process, you can: Rename [ ], and Delete [ ] Views 6. Save changes, without closing the editor by clicking the Save icon [ ] POPULATING VIEW PANES View panes may be populated with cameras, hotspots, carousels, web-pages and push video panes. To populate a pane, simply drag and drop the desired element from the Cameras panel into the pane. If the pane is already populated, the dragged view element will replace the previous element. On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 15

POPULATING A VIEW PANE WITH A CAMERA In the Cameras panel in the setup utility, click on the [+] sign next to Cameras to expand the list of cameras available. The Cameras filter box enables easy access to cameras by name. Any character (number or letter; not case sensitive) or combination of characters will filter the cameras list to only the cameras containing the character or string of characters entered, highlighting those characters within the cameras names. 1. Drag the desired camera into one of the view panes. An image from the camera view, as well as the camera name, will appear in the pane. 2. To display a different camera or view element, simply drag another camera or view element into the pane. When a camera s view pane is selected, you will notice the Properties panel appear with two items: Aspect and Streams. You can modify the pane s aspect (Fit to Window or Keep Original) as well as the default stream selection for the camera.. The system will automatically display the best stream available for the camera (i.e. use [Auto] mode) unless you manually select a specific stream. POPULATING A VIEW PANE WITH A NON-CAMERA ELEMENT If you want to populate a view pane with a Hotspot, Web page, Push Video pane or Blank Screen pane, you may do so by dragging the desired element from the Cameras panel to the desired view pane. SAVING CHANGES AND OPEN THE VIEW 1. Once you ve completed populating all of the view panes, it is important to save the changes made, by clicking the Save [ ] icon. 2. To use the view, exit (close) the Setup utility [ ]. 3. Select the newly created view from the 'Views' menu. EXITING THE VIEW EDITOR 1. To exit and return to standard viewing of Ocularis Client video, click the close Setup utility [ ] icon. EDITING VIEW PANES Views may be edited from within Ocularis Client by users (Private Views only), Group Administrators (their own Private or Group Views) or Administrators (any view). Group Administrators and Administrators may also modify views using the Ocularis Administrator application. The origin of the view does not matter as to where it can be edited or deleted. On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 16

Manually Assign a Slave Core to a User Group For specific system layouts, it may be advantageous to assign a particular Slave Core to a specific user group. When an Ocularis user logs in, they initially connect to the recorder s Master Core. If there is a Slave Core configured (ENT & ULT only), the Master Core hands off the connection the Slave Core. By default, it will use the Slave Core at the root or company level. In cases where systems are geographically dispersed or very distributed, this can be problematic and impact bandwidth. You can manually assign a local Slave Core to a user group so that the system will use the most efficient core possible. The Master Core would be used if there was a problem with the assigned Slave Core. Only members of the Administrators group may configure branches. For this to work properly: Branches must be configured using Ocularis Recorder Manager Slave Cores must be installed within each branch The system must be Ocularis Enterprise or Ocularis Ultimate To Assign a Specific Slave Core to a User Group 1. From the Users / Privileges tab, select the user group you wish to configure. 2. Click the down arrow on the far right of the toolbar and select Configure Branches. Figure 15 Configure Branches On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 17

3. For each Master Core, you ll see its corresponding branches. Figure 16 Assign a Branch 4. Select the branch for which you would like the user group to use. You may only assign one branch per user group. 5. When done, click Update. 6. Repeat for all user groups you wish to assign to a branch. Note: If you do not see branches listed in the Assign Branch dialog, be sure to refresh the server(s) in the Servers/Events tab. On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 18

View Live Video with Ocularis 5 Mobile Ocularis 5 Mobile now allows you to view live video from a single camera as well as from multiple cameras in the same view. You can scroll through live views of up to 16 cameras and view multiple live streams simultaneously. There is a limit to the amount of live streams that can be viewed concurrently: For an iphone, you can see six live cameras at a time in portrait or three in landscape For an ipad, you can see nine cameras streaming at a time in portrait or eight in landscape For an Android device, you can see eight cameras live at a time in portrait or four in landscape Views with more than 16 cameras will not appear in the view list. Non-camera content (i.e. hotspots, web pages, blank screens, etc.) will not display when you select the view. Only the camera video will be visible. TO VIEW LIVE VIDEO 1. Open the Ocularis 5 Mobile app. 2. Tap the camera icon for video: or 3. If you have more than one OMS configured, tap the server you'd like to connect to. Otherwise, skip to the next step. 4. A list of folders appears. Figure 17 Select Server (ipad shown) On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 19

Figure 18 Folder List For standard users, you will see a folder called All Cameras and another folder for your Ocularis user group (in the above example, the group is called Training Group ). Administrator users will see all folders for all user groups. The All Cameras folder contains a list of all of your privileged cameras. Other view folders mimic the hierarchy that you would see in the Views menu within Ocularis Client. 5. Tap the folder with the camera(s) you wish to view. If you tap the user group s folder, you will see a Private folder and one or more additional folders based on your user group s view configuration. Drill down until you see the folder s view list. Figure 19 User Group Level On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 20

Figure 20 View List within a Folder 6. Tap the view containing the camera(s) you wish to view. The screen is populated with the cameras from the view. The layout will vary depending on the device and orientation (portrait or landscape). Here are some examples of a 4 x 4 view: Figure 21 ipad Landscape 4 x 4 On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 21

Figure 22 ipad Portrait 4 x 4 Figure 23 Android Landscape 4 x 4 On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 22

Figure 24 Android Portrait 4 x 4 7. If the camera you wish to view is off screen, use one finger to slide the view up or down in order to see the camera. Figure 25 Swipe up or down to shift the view On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 23

TO FOCUS ON A SINGLE CAMERA FROM A VIEW 1. Tap the camera from the view. ios: The image will zoom in. If you want to explore further, tap the image again. To return to the view from here, switch to portrait mode and tap the back button. If you want to return the zoomed image back to the view, tap the area outside of the image. Figure 26 Tap outside the zoom image to return to the view Android: The image is selected and live video is displayed as shown below. Return to the view using the device s back button. 000008152018-1706-5.6.0.337 On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. One Blue Hill Plaza, PO Box 1555, Pearl River NY 10965 T 845-732-7900 www.onssi.com page 24