Axis Communications AXIS Camera Recorder manual

AXIS Camera Recorder User’s Manual[...]

AXIS Camera Recorder User’s Manual 2 About This Document This manual is intended for administrators and oper ators of AXIS Camera Recorder and is applicable for software version 1.1. Later ve rsions of the document will be posted to the Axis Web site, as required. Previous experience of networking will be of use to the rea der when installing and[...]

AXIS Camera Recorder User’s Manual 3 Table Of Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Installation Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [...]

Introduction 4 Introduction AXIS Camera Recorder is a powerful and flexible surveillance solution that turns your TCP/IP-based Axis ne twork cameras and video servers into a sophisticated digital vi deo surveillance system - all fully controlled from your PC. AXIS Camera Recorder provides these main fe atures: • Record from and view camera s at u[...]

Installation Guid e 5 Installation Guide This installation guide will help you install AXIS Camera Recorder and configure it for your Axis Network Ca meras and Video Servers. The guide also provides a brief introduction to the functionality and usage of the surveillance software. Overview AXIS Camera Recorder consists of two distinct softwa re appl[...]

Installation Guide 6 System Requirements Before installing, you should be awar e of the various requirements that will apply for your application, and in particular for the desired frame rate. The values shown below ar e obtained from real-life tests. Minimum Processor Requirements for Frame Rate s Approximate Total Frame Rates for Various Configur[...]

Installation Guid e 7 Hard Disk Space The amount of disk space required can be roughly calculated from the table below. Always add a further 5- 10% disk space as a safety margin. Axis Network Camera and Video Server Requirements The Axis cameras and video servers used with AXIS Camer a Recorder must be installed with th e firmware release 2.34 or l[...]

Installation Guide 8 Installation Step 1 - Locate your License Code To install the full retail version of AX IS Camera Recorder a valid license code must be entered. Th is code can be found on the product label in the software retail box. The lic ense code starts with “ACR” and is followed by a combination of letters and numbers. A license code[...]

Installation Guid e 9 If a demo version of AXIS Camera Re corder was already installed, it will be necessary to remove the image da tabases. This can be done either by uninstalling the demo version or by cl earing each camera database from within the new version of the AXIS Camera Re corder software. See also Setting Image Qualit y an d Recording C[...]

Devices - Qui ck Setup 10 Devices - Quick Setup This short description will help you se t up your first device, without going into too much detail. It is assumed that the software has already been successfully insta lled. 1. Start the A dministrator application an d click the A d d Device… button. The Device Setup Wizard starts. Figure 1 - The ma[...]

Devices - Quick S etup 11 Now that a device has been added we will add the camera to the Monitor application and configure its layout. 1. Click the Monitor Manager button in the A dministrator . Figure 2 - The Monitor Manager window. 2. Select a Layout Size (e.g. 2x2 = 4 cameras) and click on one of the monitor windows. The selected mo nitor window[...]

Devices - Qui ck Setup 12 Using the Monitor application 1. Now open the Monitor application. Y ou should now see the image from your camera. If not, the came ra was not properly added to the Monitor manager . Go back to the previous page and add the camera again. 2. Click the Manual button. This enables the Start , Start All and Stop All buttons. 3[...]

The Administrator Appl ication 13 The Administrator Application The Administrator applicat ion is used when setting up the s ystem for the first time, when new cameras or video servers are added to the system, and whenever the system configu ration needs to be chan ged. It is also used to configure the layout of the Moni tor application, which reco[...]

The Administrator Applic ation 14 • Add Device - Add new cameras or video servers. See the previous section Devices - Quick Setup, on page 10 and the more detailed section Changing Device Settings, on page 15. • Edit Device - Edit/update the configuratio n of an existing device. • Remove Device - Removes an existing device from the system. ?[...]

The Administrator Appl ication 15 MAC address (S/N) - This is the hardware address of the camera/video server, e.g. 00408c291ba2 and it corres ponds to the serial number found on the product’s serial number label. This is the MAC address used to initially install the device. Name - The name for the camera/video serv er should reflec t its usage o[...]

The Administrator Applic ation 16 Configuring Video Servers For video Servers, you must spec ify if the connected cameras are Pan/Tilt/Zoom cameras or not. You ca n also give names to individual cameras. To do this, select the video server in the de vice list and then click the Edit Device button. Then click the Camera Settings button to access the[...]

The Administrator Appl ication 17 Configuring Monitors and the Layout Once the software has been configured for your cameras and video servers, you should then set up the screen layout for the Monitor application, and specif y where each camera should be displayed on the screen. Important! In the Administrator, click the Monitor Manager button. Fig[...]

The Administrator Applic ation 18 Hot Spot Window - This special window can be used for various purposes and will, when enabled, occupy up to 9 (3x3) of the available windows, depending on the layout in use. Th e Hot Spot window can show an enlarged view from one camera, it can be used for interactive PTZ control, or it can be used to browse throug[...]

The Administrator Appl ication 19 Save images within … - If Images with motion has been selected as th e recording condition, it is then also possible save images from immediately before and after the alarm, i.e. when the de tected motion exceeds the given limit. These images are constantly buffered for the sele cted period (e.g. 5 seconds before[...]

The Administrator Applic ation 20 For all cameras combined, a maximu m total of 160 GByte can be saved. Delete images older than - (in minutes, hours or days). Select this to limit the recordings in the database by age. When selected, images will automatically be deleted when older than the specified age. Note that it is not possible to store more [...]

The Administrator Appl ication 21 Exclude Regions Settings It is also possible to set up regions fo r the camera that should be excluded from motion detection. Exclude Regions… - Click this button to specify the ar eas to exclude. See also Defining Motion Det ection Exclude Areas, on page 24. Region Color… - Se lect a color f or the excluded re[...]

The Administrator Applic ation 22 Calibrating Motion Detection The motion detection system can control (a) when images are saved to disk, and (b) when alarms are generated, and is therefore a vital element of the system. Motion detection requires careful calibration or it will not function properly. Follow the instructions below. It is recommended [...]

The Administrator Appl ication 23 Noise Sensitivity Slider - Adjusts the noise sensitivity level of individual picture elements (pixels). The noise s e nsitivity level determines when the change in light intensity and color (light change) of individual pixels should be considered noise (i.e. an insignificant change) and when it should be considered[...]

The Administrator Applic ation 24 Defining Motion Detection Exclude Areas Areas that should not be i ncluded in the motion detection area can be excluded from the image by mark ing the relevant areas in the Exclude Regions settings. Figure 6 - The Exclude Regions dialog. Clicking in the image with the left m ouse button will exclude squares from th[...]

The Administrator Appl ication 25 Setting Up and Using PTZ Preset Positions Up to 25 PTZ preset positions (PP’s) can be created for absolute positioning PTZ cameras. These are then accessible in the Monitor application’s control panel. For relati ve PTZ cameras, the number of PP’s will depend on the Axis video se rver and the PTZ driver used.[...]

The Administrator Applic ation 26 Tilt (Vertical bar) - Click on the bar to set the tilt position for the camera. When clicking, the tilt level will be se t to the level indica ted by the cursor position on the bar. Pan (Horizontal bar) - Click on the bar to set the pan position for the camera. When clicking, the pan level will be set to the level [...]

The Administrator Appl ication 27 General Settings The General Settings dialog box a llows you to de fine various administrative settings, as described below. Figure 8 - The General Settings window. Logfile Path - Specify the directory on the disk where the log files should be located. The specified directory must already exist, as it will not be c[...]

The Administrator Applic ation 28 E-mail Setup The e-mail aler ting system must be configured pri or to use. The following settings must be configured; Enable E-mail - Select to enable E-mail al erting. Note that camera and system failures will automatically be sent via e-mail if this has not been disabled under Advanced in the General settings win[...]

The Administrator Appl ication 29 Scheduling Camera Activity and Alert Periods Using a a one-week calendar, the bu ilt-in Scheduler provides automatic control over important system functions. The main principle for scheduling is to click and drag in the window to create (or delete) a time period, during which various functions will be enabl ed: •[...]

The Administrator Applic ation 30 E-mail - Check to enable (or delete) periods during which e-mail alerts will be sent for events for the selected camera. Before setting up e- mail alerts, e-mail must be configured in the General Settings dialog, also available from the main Administrator application. See E-mail Setup, on page 28. Sound - Check to [...]

The Administrator Appl ication 31 6. Click the day name again to zoom out. 7. Y ou should now see a purple ba r that represents the times yo u specified. This bar indicates that the selected camera will be active during this period. We now need to cover the rest of the week, but we now only want the camera to be triggered by events, i.e. when somet[...]

The Monitor Application 32 The Monitor Application The Monitor application is the heart of the AXIS Camera Re corder system, and is used for all normal day-to-day operation. Besides being the main user interface, the Monitor starts and stops the cameras, acqu ires and displays images, detects motion, saves images in the databases, sends alarms, etc[...]

The Monitor Application 33 When the Monitor application is star ted, it automatically starts any cameras that have been specif ied in the Scheduler as being Online at that time. The Scheduler can be disabl ed and overridden by pressing the Manual button, which allows all the came ras to be started manually, one at a time, by clicking the Start butt[...]

The Monitor Application 34 Buttons for manual co ntrol of outp uts - These buttons are used to manually control any outputs that have been linked to the came ra currently selected. The outputs contr olled by these buttons can be on any device/camera in the system. To set up outputs, please see page 39. To link an output to a particular camera, plea[...]

The Monitor Application 35 The Hot Spot window supports inte ractiv e Pan/Tilt/Zoom. When PTZ Mode is enabled, click in the Hot Spot window and hold down the mouse button while dragging. A slider (0-100% ) indicating the zoom factor will appear. Move the slider to the desired zoom factor and release the mouse button. The camera will now center on t[...]

The Monitor Application 36 Camera - Select the came ra to view rec ordings from. Data/Time - Use these contro ls and press the Go To button to jump directly to the specified date and time. If no image was recorded for the specified time then the first recorded image fo und after the specified time will be shown. Note that when using times to view r[...]

The Monitor Application 37 Features in Advanced Mode Advanced mode allows you to print or export individual images, create AVI video files and zoom into or out of the images. Clicking the Advanced button displays the following information and buttons: • Records - Shows the number of images cur- rently stored for the selected came ra. • Record L[...]

The Monitor Application 38 • Create AVI - Press this button to create an AVI file, using the images included in th e period/region defined by start time to end time (see previous page.) Enter the name of the AVI file to create in the Create AVI dialog and optionally include a timestamp. Once the file has been named, the dialog will ask for the co[...]

Inputs and Outputs 39 Appendix A - Inputs and Outputs Advanced Control with Input Devices Axis Network Cameras and Video Serv ers support the use of various types of input devices, for example, passi ve infrared sensors, or door and window contacts. Please refer to the device’s manual for a description of how to connect input devices. By using th[...]

Inputs and Outputs 40 A plus sign (+) will now appear to th e left of the device to which the sensor is connected. Click this to se e the defined external event entry. The event name appears under the device, which indicates that this event is controlled through that device. We will now create a timer event , which is tied to the new external event[...]

Inputs and Outputs 41 6. Now find the start time of the event-controlled period and click and drag the mouse to the end time. 7. Y ou will now be asked to define the selected time period as On Events or Always . Select On Events and the selected time period turns yellow in the Scheduler overview . When online event periods have been set, click the [...]

Inputs and Outputs 42 I/O Control Clicking on the I/O Control button brings up a group of panels from where it is possible to define which events will control which outputs. An event can control multiple outputs, and an output can be controlled by multiple events. Figure 17 - The I/O Control window. To attach an event to an output - sele ct the eve[...]