Aimetis Symphony. User Guide. Video Management & Analytics Software. July 2009 Symphony v6.2. Last Reviewed: Product Version: Powered by Vision TM

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1 Aimetis Symphony Video Management & Analytics Software User Guide Powered by Vision TM Last Reviewed: Product Version: July 2009 Symphony v6.2

2 Copyright This document is provided for informational purposes only and Aimetis makes no warranties, either express or implied, in this document. Information in this document, including URL and other Internet Web site references, is subject to change without notice. The entire risk of the use or the results of the use of this document remains with the user. Unless otherwise noted, organizations, products, domain names, e mail addresses, and logos depicted herein are fictitious. Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written permission of Aimetis Corporation. Aimetis may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject matter in this document. Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Aimetis, the furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property Aimetis Corp. All rights reserved. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

3 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide

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5 Table of Contents Welcome to Aimetis Symphony v Welcome to Symphony... 3 What is Symphony... 3 Understanding Symphony Licensing... 4 Symphony Server Licensing... 5 Installation and Activation... 7 Pre-installation Planning... 7 Symphony Installation and Data Folders... 8 Server Farms About Server Farms Creating a Server Farm Installing Symphony Server Installing Symphony Client Installing Symphony Player Post-Installation Post Installation steps Firewalling Symphony Configuring your Mail Server Administration Server Configuration Configuring User Access Device Setup Camera Tree Map Configuration Storage Server Farms Camera Tour General Settings Licenses Manual Configuration Editor Subscriptions rd Party Integration Logs and Audits View Detailed Logs View Logins Managing Symphony Health Health Monitoring Kill All Server Status Symphony Services Video Analytics About Video Analytics PT090 Auto Tracking VE130 Video Motion Detection VE140 Camera Loss VE141 Camera Obstructed VE150 Motion Tracking VE160 Motion Tracking VE161 Motion Tracking VE250 Motion Tracking VE350 Outdoor Left Item Detection VE352 Indoor Left Item Detection Rules iii

6 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide About Rules Events Actions Schedule Symphony Client About Symphony Client Customizing Symphony Client Main Console Customizing Camera Tree Customizing Map View Symphony Client Settings User Interface Searching Video About Searching Search View Search Dialog Other Useful Features Activity for All Cameras Bookmarks Carousels Exporting Video Keyboard Navigation Loading Archived Video Multi View Register New Server Server Sets Using PTZ Cameras Video Wall Symphony Player Symphony Player Symphony Web Access About Web Access Monitoring with Symphony Monitoring with Symphony Alarm Console Disable Alarms for Server Enable Alarms for Server Marking Alarms Reports About Reports Object Counts Across a line Heat Map Object Counts Table Object Statistics Alarm Counts Backup and Restore Backup Configuration Restore Configuration Troubleshooting Troubleshooting iv

7 Welcome to Aimetis Symphony v6.2 The Industry Standard in video management & analytics If you just installed Aimetis Symphony, please take the time to go through Symphony Setup. Symphony help is accessible from any dialog within Symphony Client by hitting F1. The appropriate help page will load. If you are looking for help beyond this documentation, please try one of the following. (Aimetis home page). (Aimetis download page) (Aimetis support page) 1

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9 Welcome to Symphony What is Symphony Aimetis Symphony is an advanced video management software product with integrated video analysis. Symphony simultaneously enables digital video recording, intelligent video analysis and remote access to live and recorded images from any networked computer. Symphony analyzes incoming video against user-defined policies and initiates counter measures when an event violates a Rule. By using Symphony s advanced business intelligence reporting and query tools, users can quickly access information or locate specific video in seconds, saving hours of forensic work. Sample content analysis applications include: perimeter breach protection virtual fence object stolen/left-behind flow control people/vehicle counting vehicle starting/stopping/moving camera obstruction Symphony is a software package installable on any PC running Windows XP or higher. Symphony runs on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and supports CCTV (via capture card), network, megapixel and dome cameras. Symphony can support video streams of MJPEG, MPEG-4 and H.264. Aimetis software is managing thousands of cameras globally in various industries, including transportation, law enforcement, manufacturing, government, military, retail, and telecommunications. 3

10 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Understanding Symphony Licensing Symphony is a software product which is licensed to end users on a PER CAMERA basis. For every camera you connect to Symphony, you require a valid license. There are 3 different camera licenses available with Symphony, and all versions can be installed on the same physical computer. For example, you may connect 16 cameras to a PC, and 10 cameras each have a valid Standard License, 2 cameras each have their own Professional License, and 4 cameras each have their own Enterprise License. Symphony Client is client software that enables users to connect to Symphony Server and view cameras. It is licensed free of charge. Symphony Client can connect to multiple Symphony Servers simultaneously, where each server is connected to multiple cameras. No extra license fee is required to run Symphony Client. Symphony Player is client software that enables users to play back.aira video files, created by Symphony Server. No license fee is required to use Symphony Player. See Also Symphony Server Licensing 4

11 Welcome to Symphony Symphony Server Licensing Aimetis Symphony is licensed on a per camera basis. Each physical computer can have multiple Symphony software licenses. The license types are: Standard, Professional and Enterprise. No server or client license fees apply. Symphony Server Standard License contains all the core video management features such as video recording from network and analog devices, video playback, multi-site capability, integrated PTZ control and an integrated sitemap for easy navigation. Symphony Server Professional License contains all the core features of the Standard License plus intelligent video analysis used for the Timeline feature. This enables quick and efficient retrieval of specific events which occurred in the past without having to manually review all video. Symphony Server Enterprise License is designed to meet the needs of organizations that require real-time intelligence on their camera feeds with enhanced event based search capabilities. With an Enterprise License running against a camera, objects in the scene under surveillance are tracked and classified and real-time information is presented to you as it happens. PTZ cameras can also be automatically controlled via the software. Licenses can be mixed per physical server, allowing Standard, Pro, and Enterprise to be used per single server. Free Client Software Symphony Client (SC): Unlimited installs of the feature-rich client application which enables you to receive live video, conduct intelligent searches, control PTZ cameras and offers complete administration capability of Symphony Server. Note that for some features to be enabled, the appropriate server side camera license must be purchased. Symphony Player: Enables video playback of exported.aira files. Symphony Player is used to play exported.aira files as well as fast forwarding, rewinding, and toggling video overlays on and off on the fly. For more information, visit the Aimetis Symphony License page. 5

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13 Installation and Activation Pre-installation Planning Planning your Symphony Server installation before actually performing it is absolutely critical. Depending on the size of your camera deployment, geographic considerations, and integration with other systems, different Symphony configurations would be recommended. These all impact network and hardware specifications, standalone versus Server Farm configurations and other factors. Aimetis Xnet Account Before installing the Symphony server, you are required to have a valid Aimetis Xnet account. During installation of the software you will be prompted for your Xnet login credentials, so that Symphony can download and install the appropriate license automatically. For more information on the Xnet, visit Hardware and Network Requirements Prior to installing Symphony Server, it is important to properly assess hardware requirements to meet the needs of your organization's deployment plan. An organization with a single location and 10 cameras will have different requirements than an organization with multiple locations and over 1000 cameras. For help on calculating hardware requirements, consult the Aimetis Hardware Calculator at Multi-Server deployments A server farm is a collection of computer servers used to accomplish server needs beyond the capability of one machine. Server farms often have backup (redundant) servers, which can take over the function of primary servers in the event of a primary server failure. Aimetis Symphony takes advantage of server farms by distributing the workload of camera processing across several servers. Symphony also supports server farm redundancy by failing over camera processing from a 'down' server to a 'redundant' server. With Symphony all live and redundant servers are homogeneous in that they all run the same software services and can potentially run the processing of any camera. To learn more about Server farms, visit Server Farms. 7

14 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Symphony Installation and Data Folders Symphony Server Symphony server stores three kinds of data to your hard disk. 1. binary files 2. video data 3. configuration information which is stored in a SQL Server Express Database. Symphony is installed by default in C:\Program Files\Aimetis\Symphony\. The default path for all data (log files, video, etc) is C:\Program Files\Aimetis\Symphony\data\. Both the default installation path and default data path can be changed during installation of Symphony. Below is a summary of key folders (<AppRoot> denotes installation path while <DataRoot> denotes data path): <AppRoot>\_bin Binaries for all of our executables and DLLs. <AppRoot>\_docs small.txt files storing alarm instructions and Aimetis.com's IP address. <AppRoot>\_tools contains useful tools and utilities that Aimetis Support Specialists use to diagnose system problems <AppRoot>\WebRoot the web files & binaries. <DataRoot>\_footagearchive the video data recorded from all cameras. <DataRoot>\_images contains a cache of JPEG images generated from the footage <DataRoot>\_logs2 all server log files useful for debugging and diagnosing problems. For more information, visit section on Detailed Logs. <DataRoot>\_searches Location of stored searches. These files will not be automatically cleaned and searches must be manually deleted by user. <DataRoot>\_signals The timeline data (green, yellow, red) <DataRoot>\_signals2 XML metadata for searches and reports. \windows\temp\config_backup\ Location for automatic backups of server configuration. In addition to the above folders, Symphony server adds the following registry keys: HKLM\Software\Aimetis This is the installation path and licensing information. It is highly recommended that the <DataRoot> folders are not on the same physical Hard Disk as Windows and <AppRoot>. This is to limit the amount of disk read and writes to the OS disk to prevent catastrophic failure. Symphony Client Symphony Client is installed by default in C:\Program Files\Aimetis\Symphony Client\. 8

15 Installation and Activation Below is a summary of key folders: C:\Documents and Settings\%WINUSER%\Application Data\Aimetis\ RegisteredFarms.xml & FarmList.xml All client configuration, such as window layouts, general configuration, logs. These files define the farms that have been registered. The default is whatever the client configuration path is set to but you can override this. These above paths can be configured via the Symphony Client Settings dialog (View->Settings). There are two (optional) variables that can be used in the path names: 1. %WINUSER% represents the Windows username of the current user. This is used in the default path so Symphony can store the configuration in the current user s application data folder. 2. %SYMPHONYUSER% represents the Symphony username. This is only valid if credentials are required for login to Symphony. If it is desired to customer prefers to keep these settings global, do not use either of these variables when specifying the paths. In addition to the above folders, Symphony Client adds the following registry keys: HKLM\Software\Aimetis\AiraExplorer See Also Backup Configuration 9

16 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Server Farms About Server Farms A Server Farm is a collection of computer servers used to accomplish server needs beyond the capability of one machine. Server farms often have backup (redundant) servers, which can take over the function of primary servers in the event of a primary server failure. Aimetis Symphony takes advantage of server farms by distributing the workload of camera processing across several servers. Symphony also supports server farm redundancy by failing over camera processing from a 'down' server to a 'redundant' server. With Symphony all live and redundant servers are homogeneous in that they all run the same software services and can potentially run the processing of any camera. See Also Creating a Server Farm Server Farms 10

17 Installation and Activation Creating a Server Farm There are 2 ways to create a server farm. The first is done at installation time, and the second is done by merging existing farms into a single farm. To learn about merging farms, visit the Server Farm section. Creating a Farm at Installation Time The following steps will create a multi-server farm from scratch (during installation). For more installation details please refer to Symphony Server Installation Guide. 1. Choose the appropriate situation for your installation and proceed to the corresponding steps: a. The configuration database will reside on one of the Symphony servers. Go to Step 2. b. The configuration database will reside on a dedicated external SQL server. Go to Step Choose which server will run the configuration database. Install Symphony on that server first. During installation select the default option for Database Configuration "New Local Database". 3. Enable Remote SQL Connections on this Symphony server (Appendix C of Symphony Server Installation Guide). 4. Go to Step Install SQL server 2005 or later on the computer that will be the dedicated external configuration database server. 6. Enable Remote SQL Connections on this external server (Appendix C of Symphony Server Installation Guide). 7. During installation of (subsequent) Symphony servers, we need to point them all to the existing configuration database. Do this by selecting the option for Database Configuration "Existing Database". 11

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19 Installation and Activation Installing Symphony Server For help on installing Symphony for the first time, visit Symphony Server Installation Guide. After installation has completed, it is required to setup the following, at a minimum, in order for Symphony to function properly. 1. Device Setup 2. User Access 3. Rules The remaining steps (shown below) do not have to be performed but are recommended: Customize Camera Tree - configure a custom camera tree for easier navigation Customize Site Map - enter the map that appears in the top right corner of the Main Console. Post Installation Steps - miscellaneous steps after Symphony is installed. 13

20 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Installing Symphony Client Aimetis Symphony comes standard with client software, called Symphony Client. Symphony Client is installed by default when Symphony Server is installed. Symphony Client is used to configure all settings within Symphony Server, provided the user has sufficient rights (for more information on user access, visit Configuring User Access). However, it is not recommended that Symphony Client be used to constantly stream live video on the server PC itself. Symphony Client may consume significant CPU or other resources on the PC while displaying live video. This CPU utilization would therefore be unavailable for the server software to perform its functions. It is recommended that you install the client software on other PCs on the network for configuration and live video streaming. 14

21 Installation and Activation Installing Symphony Player Symphony Player is installed automatically whenever Symphony Client is installed. Symphony Player is required to play back.aira files. If required, a separate installation package is also available for Symphony Player from To install Symphony Player separately 1. Close any Aimetis applications that are open 2. Download the Symphony Player installation file 3. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete installation 15

22 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Post-Installation Post Installation steps Post-installation steps involve finishing the configuration of your Symphony Server, and changing settings in the operating system. These steps are not mandatory in order for your server to function properly, but are recommended by Aimetis. Firewalling your server Configuring your mail server 16

23 Installation and Activation Firewalling Symphony Default Ports Firewalling your server is a good way to reduce the chances of someone hacking in and damaging your system. To firewall your system: 1. From Control Panel, double click on the Network Connections icon 2. Right-click on your internet connection and select properties 3. Select the Advanced tab 4. Check the "Protect my computer" checkbox 5. Click the Settings button 6. Make sure none of the check boxes in the Services tab are checked. 7. Add a new service entry for every TCP port which you want to allow through. Do this by clicking on the Add... button and filling in the dialog box. Make sure you enter the name of your computer in the Name box, and you can leave the Internal Port number box empty. By default, Symphony uses the following ports: WS WS IntelSend camera1 live camera1 historical camera2 live camera2 historical camera3 live camera3 historical The port list above assumes you are publishing 3 cameras on the Symphony server PC behind the firewall. If you are publishing more cameras on the PC, continue opening ports similar to those above. If Video Wall functionality is being used, the client PC will require port to be open. Publishing Symphony on non-standard port By default, Symphony servers will use port as the default web port. However in some cases the default port may need to be changed. For example, if multiple servers are being published on the same external IP address, the default ports of the subsequent server(s) need to be changed. By changing the BasePort (web port) it will automatically change the other ports as well. To change the default ports, perform the following: 1. From Symphony Client, click on Server > Configuration > Manual Configuration Editor. 2. Enter the following information: 3. Type = Server 4. Section = Main 5. ID = (enter your Server ID) 6. Key = BasePort? 7. Value = (enter your new default web port) 17

24 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide 8. Restart the Symphony services 18

25 Installation and Activation Configuring your Mail Server Configuring your mail server allows your Symphony server to send notifications when events happen. Symphony may send s as a result of Rule (Action) configuration or Subscriptions. Symphony will relay via an server defined in the Subscriptions page. Using Internal SMTP Server The easiest approach is to allow Symphony server to relay through itself using Microsoft SMPT server. 1. From Control Panel, double click on the "Administrative Tools" icon. 2. Double click on the "Internet Information Services" icon (if this is not installed, go to Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, and select Add/Remove Windows Components and scroll to Internet Information Services, click Details, and add SMTP service) 3. Expand the tree by clicking on the + icon. 4. Right click on "Default SMTP Virtual Server" and select Start if it is enabled. 5. Right click on "Default SMTP Virtual Server" and select Properties. 6. Select the Access tab. 7. Click the Connection button. 8. Select the "Only the list below" radio button. 9. Click the Add button. 10. Select the "Single computer" radio button and enter as the IP address. 11. Click OK to close the "Computer" dialog box. 12. Click OK to close the "Connection" dialog box 13. Click the Relay... button. 14. Select the "Only the list below" radio button. 15. Click the Add button. 16. Select the "Single computer" radio button and enter as the IP address. 17. Click OK to close the "Computer" dialog box. 18. UNCHECK the "Allow all computers that successfully authenticate to relay" check box. 19. Click OK to close the "Relay Restrictions" dialog box. Using External SMTP Server If an external SMTP server is used for Symphony relaying, specify this address in the Subscriptions SMTP field. Please note the connection to the SMTP service is un-authenticated, so make sure that the SMTP server allows for unauthenticated connections from the Symphony server IP address. 19

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27 Administration Server Configuration Configuring User Access User access can be configured in two ways. The default method is to add users into Symphony manually, where the users will be stored in the Aimetis Symphony SQL database. The second way is to integrate Microsoft Windows Active Directory users with Symphony. To access the User configuration dialog, select Server > Configuration and select the Users pane. To add users directly into Symphony 1. To add a new user click the New button. The New User dialog appears. 2. Select a default security role from the Select User Type fields, or select Custom Restriction User and Advanced to configure a customized user access level. Here you can define what rights to assign to the current user. The table below summarizes the options. Can add/remove devices Can change rules Can change services Can change settings Can change subscriptions Can change users Can connect using Symphony Client Can control pan-tiltzoom cameras Can delete video and searches Can disable alarms Can export video Can get audit logs Can get information Can mark alarms Can perform searches Can update server to a later version allows users to add or delete a Device allows the users to modify Rule settings allows the user to alter Services allows the user to change configuration settings allows the user to alter Subscriptions settings allows the user to alter another user's settings allows the user to run Symphony Client allows the user to control PTZ cameras allows the user to delete archived video and Search results allows the user to disable alarms so that other users do not get them allows user to export video from Symphony allows the user to view logs, such as the View Logins or View Detailed Logs form allows the user to connect with Symphony Client and get the camera list allows the user to mark alarms allows the user to perform a Search allows the user to initiate an update request to Aimetis for the latest code 21

28 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Can use audio Can view historical data allows the user to use audio from the Alarm Console allows the user to play back recorded video 3. After selecting the user type, click the User information tab to enter personalized user information. The Priority field is used if two users wish to control a PTZ camera at the same time, the higher priority user will gain control of the PTZ camera. 4. After defining the user information, click the Cameras tab. Select which cameras should be accessible to the user. If the user does not have access to a specific camera, it will not be displayed on the site map. 5. Hit OK to save settings for the new user. To use Active Directory users with Symphony Perform the following to use Active Directory integration for user access: 1. Ensure at least 1 camera is configured with Symphony and the AI Tracker service is started 2. Login to Windows as a domain administrator 3. From Symphony Client, open Server Configuration > Users, change the user model to Active Directory. You might have to specify an address. 4. Stop all services including InfoService (open command prompt and type "killall 9" and hit enter) 5. Re-configure all services to login as a domain user account, so they have access to AD. This user may need to be a domain administrator. 6. Start all Symphony services (from the command prompt, type "killall 5" and hit enter) 7. Make sure all services started (you may have entered the wrong password in step 5, or the user specified might not have permissions to log on as a service. If it is the latter, configure one service manually in Services.msc and it will notify you its adding the permission) 8. Open Symphony Client. 9. Re-register the server using the domain user. You might need to specify the domain (i.e. Aimetis.com\user or user@mycompany.com) 10. Test the system to verify Active Directory integration is working. Note: When a new user logs into Symphony Client, if authentication succeeds on the Active Directory server, a new user will automatically be added for them in the Symphony Server's User table with permissions copied from the DEFAULT_USER. Hence, if by default you do not want all users on your domain to have access to the Symphony Server, remove all permissions from the DEFAULT_USER. 22

29 Administration Device Setup Three kinds of device types can be added to Symphony Server. 1. Network (IP) cameras or video servers 2. Analog cameras (connected using either Winnov Videum 4400 VO or Eltronix MP3000) 3. External I/O Modules Visit for a list of supported devices. To add or modify devices, click Server > Configuration. The Configuration dialog appears with the Devices pane by default. Adding and modifying cameras (and configuring their respective video analytic engines) is explained below, as well as adding I/O Modules to Symphony. Adding Network Cameras or Video Servers 1. To add a new network camera or video server, click New from the Devices pane. The device configuration interface opens. On the Network tab, enter the Name you wish to call the camera, URL which is normally the IP Address, Username and Password and click Connect to Camera to detect the camera type and settings. The model, resolution, Record FPS and Video Format will be auto-detected. If you wish to manually add the camera, do not click Connect to Camera but instead manually select the Manufacturer, Camera Type and set the Resolution, Record FPS and Video Format appropriately. You may also click Discover Devices to locate devices on the network. The Movability option specifies whether the device will automatically move to a redundant server under a failover condition. If it is set to movable then this device can move to another server in the farm during failover. If it is set to unmovable then the device 23

30 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide can't be moved. Any device that requires access to resources only available on a single server (i.e. COM port, special SDK or drivers, etc) is unmovable. All others are typically movable. For more information on Movability and Redundancy, visit Server Farms. 2. Next, click on the Video tab to configure advanced features of the camera. The Recording section is where video recording is configured and where the Symphony Codec can be enabled. Enabling the Symphony Codec could be useful in cases where the network camera only records MJPEG video and Symphony is to recompress the video as MPEG-4. The Record Video combo box allows users to specify when Symphony should record video on the specific camera. Options available are: Always: Schedule: Schedule & Tracked Motion: Pixel Changes: Symphony will also record video for this specific camera will record video on the schedule specified by the user will record video on motion but only during the time period specified by the user video is recorded whenever pixel changes are detected (a tree moving in heavy wind could cause pixel changes and therefore cause Symphony to record video) 24

31 Administration Tracked Motion: Motion on Camera: Schedule & Motion on Camera: Never: video is recorded if objects are tracked through the scene (normally a person or vehicle moving through the scene is tracked as motion, but moving tree branches should not be tracked and therefore video would not be recorded) video is recorded using motion detection capabilities inside network camera itself, not using a video analytic engine from Symphony (quality of motion detection similar to Pixel Changes) Same as Motion on Camera option, however recording will occur if motion is detected during a specific time interval as defined by user. video is not recorded, unless specified to be recorded in a Rule (Action). If the network device allows, additional network video streams can be added from the same physical device. This is useful in the situation where one level of quality of video is defined for recording and another for live video, for example. To add another video stream for the current network device, click Add a new Stream. The video recording options available are the same as to what was defined by the default stream. Further, video resolution can also be defined independently for the additional stream(s). The picture can be rotated by modifying the Rotate Degrees combo box, as well as defining how long a PTZ camera should remain in its current position before it returns to its Home Position after a user moves it by modifying the Maximum Locked Minutes value. The Maximum Locked Minutes value therefore only pertains to PTZ cameras, not fixed cameras. Finally, the Panoramic Settings section allows users to configure settings related to 360-degree camera lenses. Currently Immervision and IPIX 360-degree camera lens technology is supported. By enabling panoramic technology and selecting the appropriate camera type, users can de-warp 360-degree video in Symphony Client. 3. By selecting the Analytics Engines tab, the individual video engines can be added to the camera. An Enterprise license is required to enable video engines in the Analytics Engines tab. This step is only necessary if video analytics are to be configured on this camera. The default engine is the VE250. Different video (analytic) engines detect different events. When configuring Rules, the type of analysis available or "Event" is determined by which engine is selected here. Not all analytic engines can be run in parallel. By selecting the VE250 for example, it will disable other similar engines (such as VE150 or VE160). If an engine you wish to enable is disabled, try disabling other engines to allow the selection of the desired engine. 25

32 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide For information on how to configure and select the video analytic engines, refer to the Video Analytics section. For information on licensing, consult the Licensing section. 4. Click Apply to save your settings and move onto the Analytics Configuration tab, or click OK to save settings and close the dialog without configuring the selected video analytics engines (default configuration settings will be used). For details on the Analytics Configuration tab for each video analytic engine, refer to the Video Analytics section. Cameras can be imported using the Import Cameras function. Adding and Configuring Analog Cameras Analog cameras can be connected to Symphony in two ways. The simplest way is to use a video server (a network device that converts analog video to digital video). In this scenario, Symphony connects to the video server the same way it connects to a network camera, therefore follow the steps above. To add an analog camera directly to Symphony, a capture card must be installed in the server itself (make sure the capture card is supported by Symphony). Next, click on the Devices tab to load the devices window (shown below) and select the down arrow by the New button to select Add An Analog Camera. The Analog tab appears 26

33 Administration On the Analog tab, you can modify basic configuration for the camera. Device Name Resolution FPS Video Format PTZ Camera This combo box allows you to select the available channel on the capture card. Enter the name of the camera here (for example, Lobby Camera) Configure the resolution of the camera Configure the frames per second to record video Configure the video format, such as MJPEG or MPEG-4 Select this if the channel selected in the Device field is connected to an analog PTZ camera. If a PTZ camera is connected to this channel, additional information such as the Type (which denotes the type of analog PTZ camera), Camera Address (which denotes which address the PTZ camera is configured), and Control Port (which denotes which COM port the serial adapter used to send and receive control signals to camera is connected) must also be configured. Next, configure the Video pane and Analytics pane as described in step 2 and 3 above. Adding and Configuring I/O Devices Click the arrow beside the New button and select Add a Hardware Device. The Hardware Device tab appears. 27

34 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide In the Name field, enter a name you wish to use for this device. In the Type field, select the device that is to be configured. The recommended device is the Advantech (Adam) If it is an I/O device that is connected to the serial connection of the server, the COM Port address and Baud Rate must be properly configured. If an IP-based I/O device is configured, enter the IP address of the device and other required information. Movability field defines whether the device can be automatically moved to another server in case of failure. For more information, visit the Server Farm section. For more information on how to configure IO Devices, visit the Aimetis Symphony IO Guide. 28

35 Administration Camera Tree The Camera Tree is the default method of navigating between cameras. By default, all cameras are listed in order of camera ID. Each camera has a unique ID and is set automatically by the system as cameras are added. If the camera tree is not visible, from Symphony Client click View > Camera Tree. The Camera Tree can be docked to the Main Console, or undocked and put to any monitor. To customize the Camera Tree, click Design. The Camera Tree Configuration interface opens. Usage Drag cameras to the custom tree These cameras can be dragged and dropped in the tree structure 29

36 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Show Default Tree Show Device Icons Show Device Numbers Add Delete Arrows Will display the default tree instead of the custom tree in the Main Console This will enable or disable device icons in the tree Will enable or disable camera IDs Will add a folder to the camera tree Delete the current select object, either a camera or folder The green arrows can be used to move objects up or down, and move them left or right within the tree structure 30

37 Administration Map Configuration Aimetis Symphony allows you to upload an image (jpg, gif or bmp file) to be used as a map for your server. If the Map is not visible in the Main Console, click View > Map Navigation. Uploading a Map To customize or change the Map, click Design and Edit Maps. After clicking Edit Maps the Map Configuration dialog opens. 31

38 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide In order to customize the Map, follow these steps: 1. To over-write the default map, select the map and click the Select Image. Alternatively, right-click the map name and click Select Image. 2. Browse for the image file you wish to use for the new map (jpg, gif or bmp). 3. After you have finished uploading a new map, drag your cameras to the map to place them on the map. No cameras are added to the map by default. 4. Right click on a camera and select Rotate Map Icons to position the camera angles as required. 5. Click OK to save settings. Creating Map Hotspots (optional) In larger sites where you wish to have more than one site map, you can layer site maps by making them hyperlinked by creating hotspots on the map. In order to do this, upload your main map using the steps outlined above and perform the following additional steps: 1. Make sure you have at least added two maps using the steps above. Place the cameras to the appropriate map using the steps above. 2. Click the Design button and select Create Map Link. The Create Map Link dialog appears 3. Click on the Map Link pane on the left to create a hotspot. When users click on this hotspot, it will load the map on the right pane. 4. Select the colour or transparency of the hotspot and hit apply. 5. Finally, select if you wish to link to another map on the current server, or to a map on a different server. It may be useful to link to a current map on the server if you have many cameras and the main (default) site map does not show enough detail. In this example, by creating a hotspot over the parking area, we can create a blown up image of the parking area for more detail. See Also Camera Tree 32

39 Administration Storage Aimetis Symphony allows you to customize where video is stored, how much storage to use, and when video should be deleted. To perform these operations, click Server > Configuration. Using the tree view at the left, select the Storage pane. Disk Usage Limits Minimum Disk Space Minimum Disk Percentage Allows you to specify the minimum amount of free disk space on the hard disk. Symphony will start deleting video as soon as free disk space is below this setting. Allows you to specify a percentage of free disk space to maintain. Footage Storage Limit the number of days video is stored Default max storage days Keep metadata In certain situations, there may be disk space available to record more video, but you may wish to artificially have the video removed. This may be the case in certain jurisdictions where there is a legal requirement to delete video after a certain time. If the Limit the number of days video is stored option is enabled, this value specifies the default value in days when video is over written, even if extra hard disk space exists. Alternatively, by adjusting the Max Storage Days value per camera, per camera settings can be controlled which supersede the global setting defined here. Metadata can be stored longer than video. This is useful in order to maintain 33

40 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide longer Default metadata storage days Default path reporting capability. Defines how long metadata will be stored. This is the default path video will be recorded, as defined when Symphony was installed. By adjusting the Storage Path value inside the camera grid, individual camera storage paths can be defined. 34

41 Administration Server Farms A Server Farm is a collection of computer servers used to accomplish server needs beyond the capability of one machine. Server farms often have backup (redundant) servers, which can take over the function of primary servers in the event of a primary server failure. To manage your Farm, click Server > Configuration. The Configuration dialog appears. Click Server Farm. Master At all times one of the servers is considered to be the 'Master'. The Master takes on the slight additional task of controlling the operations of a failover. If the Master happens to be the 'down' server, another master is quickly voted in to take over the failed master's duties. Redundancy A redundant server is a server currently running 0 cameras. Upon detecting a server as being 'down', a redundant server is used to replace the 'down' server's camera and device processing in its entirety. Meaning, all cameras will be moved and run on the redundant server. Video loss will be a little as 15 seconds. To enable redundancy: 1. there must be at least 1 redundant server available at all times (one with 0 cameras). 2. the redundant server must be in the same Redundancy Group as the potential 'down' server. 3. redundancy must be turned 'On' for that Redundancy Group. The following figures come from Symphony Client / Server Configuration / Server Farm tab. Figure 1: All three servers in the same Redundancy Group "1" If either of the first 2 servers fail, their cameras will failover to the 3rd 'Redundant' server. 35

42 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Figure 2: Different Redundancy Groups "1" and "7" If the first server (Redundancy Group 7) fails, no failover will occur, as there is no Redundant server in Group 7. Figure 3: Typical Symphony Server Farm This configuration depicts use of an external database cluster for configuration data redundancy, and a NAS or SAN for historical footage file access after failover Figure 4: Multi-server Farm with configuration database existing on one of the Symphony Servers If server redundancy is a requirement, this is not a recommended setup, since it involves a single point of failure, namely Server 1. If this server fails, configuration is not accessible by the remaining servers. 36

43 Administration Figure 5: Multi-server Farm without a SAN or NAS for footage data This is not recommended, since after failover, the historical footage data prior to the failover time for cameras 1,2 and 3 will not be accessible by Server 2. It will only be accessible by an Aimetis Technician. 37

44 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Redundancy Groups Due to geographical constraints for file storage, it may be necessary for certain servers to only failover to certain other servers. A redundancy group allows you to group your servers such that failover only happens amongst servers within the same group. Therefore ensure that there is at least 1 redundant server within each server group. Failover A 'down' server is detected within 30 seconds, but can be configured for any time threshold. Windows updates or other maintenance that cause a reboot may be reason to increase this threshold to several minutes. To configure this threshold see the section Redundancy Configuration Settings. Failover will transfer all the camera processes from running on the 'down' server to running on a 'redundant' server. It will transfer only cameras that are 'movable' according to the camera configuration: Server Configuration / Devices / <server> / <camera> / Network tab / Movability setting. Some devices are not movable by nature (USB devices, or analog cameras plugged into a video card on the 'down' server for example). When a 'down' server becomes back 'up', if its cameras have been failed over to another server, it will now be considered a redundant server, since it has no cameras. Buddy System Within a Redundancy Group there is a buddy neighbor system where each server monitors the health of its neighbors (or 'buddies'). Each server broadcasts an 'Alive' status every second to each of its buddy servers, and each server listens for 'Alive' messages from other neighbors. It is a connected graph of neighbors such that if more than one server is 'down' there will always be someone to detect them. Each server runs a monitoring thread that receives UDP socket messages from each of its buddies. If the detection threshold time expires without receiving an 'Alive' message from a particular buddy, then that server may be 'down'. A 'possible down server' message is sent to the Master server. If more than 1/2 of the buddies notify the Master of this 'down' server, it is confirmed to be 'down'. In this case a failover camera swapping algorithm takes place to transfer all the 'down' server's camera processing to a redundant server if one is available. Storage Each server will be writing its footage and files to one of the following: 1. a data folder on the server itself 2. a logical drive on a SAN 3. a logical drive on a NAS. If method 1 is applied, the footage files for a given camera will exist on the original server up until the failover swap, from which point they will be created on the redundant server. If method 2 or 3 is applied, the footage files for a given camera will never move. When a failover swap happens, the new server will just point to the data of the 'down' server's logical drive on the SAN or NAS. Aimetis recommends a NAS in cases where fail-over is required. Configuration Database All configuration settings for an entire farm are stored in a single SQL database. For this reason it is recommended that the database reside on a reliable server in the farm, or better yet on a separate 38

45 Administration dedicated database server set up with its own redundancy system (such as a Microsoft Windows cluster). Without such luxury, if the Symphony server that contains the database fails, the entire farm will no longer be able to make any configuration changes, nor will stopped trackers be able to restart. All Symphony servers in a farm must be granted access to the centralized configuration database. To enable remote access to the SQL server please follow Appendix C of Symphony Server Installation Guide. Symphony Client The client application can register (connect to) any server in a farm. In this respect the farm is 'headless'. Upon failover, if the client's registered server is the one that failed, one of the servers will notify the clients that a server is 'down' and the registration will automatically switch to an 'up' server to take future requests. Redundancy Configuration Settings The following are the configurable farm redundancy settings. Setting FarmHealthStartDelayMs FarmHealthSockTimeoutMs FarmHealthMissedUdpMs FarmHealthUdpPort Description On server startup, it will delay by this amount before starting to monitor for one of its buddies being down. UDP sockets are used to receive 'Alive' messages from all buddies. Each receive will have this timeout. (You shouldn t have to change this). The amount of time in milliseconds a server can be down before it is determined 'down' and failover is performed. Some customers may want this to be several minutes to allow a windows update reboot to perform). Only change this if failover is not working at all and the is* log files indicate there are port conflicts. These settings are NOT in the database by default, so if you want to add them use the following lines. The last parameter is the default used. dbupdater "insert into Settings (Type,ID,Section,K,V) values ('Global','','Main','FarmHealthStartDelayMs', '5000')" dbupdater "insert into Settings (Type,ID,Section,K,V) values ('Global','','Main','FarmHealthSockTimeoutMs', '1500')" dbupdater "insert into Settings (Type,ID,Section,K,V) values ('Global','','Main','FarmHealthMissedUdpMs', '30000')" dbupdater "insert into Settings (Type,ID,Section,K,V) values ('Global','','Main','FarmHealthUdpPort', '55439')" Creating a Farm from Multiple Existing Farms The following steps will create a multi-server farm from 2 or more existing farms. 1. If upgrading servers, save configuration settings for each server. 2. If upgrading servers, when uninstalling, select the 'save settings' option. 39

46 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide 3. Ensure all servers are installed as or upgraded to the same version of Symphony (6.2 or later). 4. Save configuration settings for each server. 5. On all servers enable SQL remote access. For help, visit 6. Choose 1 server to be the master, let's call him server A. 7. On the Aimetis XNET web account, select the Servers link from the left panel. a. Click on server A's ID to bring up the Server Settings page. b. The ID for server A will now be considered the Farm Id. All other servers' and their Id's will become void once they're in the Farm. c. Click the link: Add Server to Farm to add the MAC addresses of all child servers to server A. Note: Only add at most 5 servers at a time. To add more than 5 servers to the farm, repeat this step. d. Refresh the Settings page for server A to ensure all MACs have been added correctly. 8. Start Symphony client and register the farm by [farm name] or server A's IP address or DNS name. 9. Open the page: Server Configuration / Licenses. 10. Click the button: Refresh licenses from Aimetis.com. 11. Open the page: Server Configuration / Server Farm. If this page is not available it may be because some standard camera licenses exist. Server farms will only work if there are no standard licenses. All camera licenses must be Professional and/or Enterprise. 12. In the "Server address" text box, enter the IP address or DNS name of a child server to merge into the farm. Add only 1 child server at a time. 13. Click the button: Add server from another farm. This will add the child to the farm, transfer all cameras and rules from the child server to the farm's database (residing on server A or on the dedicated SQL server), and change the database connection string on the child to point to server A's database (or the dedicated SQL server's database). 14. Restart server A and the child that was just added. 15. Ensure that all cameras from the child have been added correctly, as well as all rules and masks. 16. Repeat steps for remaining servers. 40

47 Administration Camera Tour By default, each Pan-tilt-Zoom (PTZ) camera has a Home Position, where it is positioned unless a user manually controls the camera, or if the camera is automatically controlled by Symphony (for more information on auto control, please see the Rule element Actions). Using the Camera Tour function, the camera can be configured to have multiple Home Positions. This effectively allows the camera to cover more area. To configure a Camera Tour, perform the following: 1. Access the Camera Tour dialog. Select the PTZ camera you wish to configure, and right click on the live view of the camera and click Camera Tour and then click Edit. The Camera Tour dialog opens. 3. By default, there is one Camera Tour configuration. It is possible to have multiple Camera Tour configurations with different tour locations and schedule. Select which Tour to modify. 4. Move the camera to the desired location by using the arrows and the + and - buttons to configure the zoom level. To save location, click Add Current Live View PTZ Location To The List. 5. By default, Symphony will move the camera between the different Locations every 600 seconds. To change this value, modify the Pause Time text box. 6. Click Change Motion Mask to modify the Motion Mask for the new Camera Tour location. This enables you to define where Symphony should track or not track objects. Symphony treats each Camera Tour location much like a separate camera, since it has its own field of view. As a result, you need to define the Motion Mask are for each Camera Tour location. For more information on setting a Motion Mask, visit Masks. 7. Click Change Perspective Settings to modify Perspective information for the new Camera Tour location (as required, not all video analytic engines require this). As in step 4 above, the Camera Tour location requires its own Motion Mask and Perspective information (to classify objects properly). Visit the section on Perspective configuration for more information. 41

48 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide 8. Click Set Schedule for This Tour to define when this Camera Tour is active. Since many Camera Tours can be configured you may decide to have a Camera Tour sequence that is different during the day than at night, for example. The Set Schedule for this Tour dialog allows you to configure the Schedule for this specific Camera Tour. Each Camera Tour can run on a separate schedule. Note: Make sure that Camera Tour schedules do not overlap in time. See Also Rules 42

49 Administration General Settings The General Settings dialog is where video overlay information can be configured. To access the General Settings dialog, select Server > Configuration and click the General Settings pane. Usage: Frame stats (FPS and frame time deviation) enable this checkbox to display frame information on live video. Overlay camera name on video enable this checkbox to display camera name on actual live video in addition to video titlebar. 43

50 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Licenses The Licenses dialog allows you to specify which License to run at which camera. To access the license dialog, click Server > Configuration and then select the Licenses pane. The Licenses Summary dialog indicates counts of each license type per server. To modify license settings for a particular server click on the server in the Licenses tree to the left. The Licenses pane for that server appears which details how many licenses are available and what type of license is applied per camera. License types can be changed between cameras by adjusting the combo box adjacent to each camera. If the Licensed Requested field does not equal the License Obtained field, this indicated that this license was not available. Purchase additional licenses This will link you to the Aimetis Xnet where you can login to your account and obtain additional licenses. Refresh license from Aimetis.com If a newer license is available for your server, clicking this will force Symphony to download the latest license file (you must have internet connectivity for this option). Refresh license from file If you have a Symphony server without internet access, or otherwise unable to automatically download a new license, using this option allows you to download the license and then manually apply it to the server. Show Raw License will display the raw license in XML. In a Server Farm, the entire farm shares one license file. All cameras and licenses will be summarized as if it were one physical server. For more information on the different Symphony product versions and there associated features, please visit Symphony Server Licensing. For help on using the Aimetis Xnet and managing your server licenses, visit 44

51 Administration Manual Configuration Editor Deep Symphony settings can be changed by modifying the configuration settings directly, which are stored in the SQL database. The configuration can be accessed directly through Symphony Client. This may be required for less common features that do not have a Graphical User Interface and must be configured through the configuration files directly. WARNING: Modifying configuration incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall Symphony. Aimetis cannot guarantee that problems resulting from incorrectly modifying the configuration files can be solved. Do this at your own risk. To access the configuration files, click Server > Manual Configuration Editor 1. Modify the portion of the configuration by navigating to the value, or add a new value be typing into the Add a new setting... field. 2. Press OK to save changes The Symphony services must be restarted before changes take effect. 45

52 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Subscriptions Use Subscriptions to automatically information to users when one of the below events occurs on the Symphony server. This is useful when you want to be notified automatically when some configuration has changed. All will include the username, IP, date/time, and additional event specific context. To access the Subscriptions dialog, select Server > Configuration and then the Subscriptions Pane. To add subscribers to the individual events, simply enter an address in the corresponding text box. To add multiple recipients of an event, separate the addresses with a semicolon. When finished, click OK to save changes. The different events are defined below: Event Descriptions Alarm marked Audio played Audit log retrieved Client connection Devices changed Exported video Footage/Video deleted Rules changed PTZ Control Search performed Server updated Services changed Settings changed Subscriptions changed Unauthorized access Users changed An alarm was marked as false or real or comments were added via the alarm log panel. A user played a sound file or spoke over the speaker using the Alarm console. The audit logs detailing everything that occurs on the Symphony server were retrieved. A user connected from Symphony Client. A user has added, deleted, or modified a Device. A user has exported video from the system. A user has deleted video from the system. A user added, deleted, or changed a Rule. A user has taken control over a PTZ camera. A user performed a video search. The Symphony server code was updated to a new version from Aimetis. A user changed which Services are running. A user changed camera, video, or other miscellaneous setting. A user changed settings on this form. A user tried to access something they were not allowed to. Users were added, deleted, or changed. Note: In order for this to function properly, a proper SMTP server must be configured on the Symphony PC. Visit Configuring Mail Server for more information. 46

53 Administration Note: If you want to be notified via whenever an alarm occurs, you must set this up under the Rule Actions in the tab. This is designed this way to allow different users to be notified only for specific Rules triggers (for example, user A wishes to be notified in a vehicle parks, user B wishes to be notified if people are loitering). See Also Rules 47

54 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide 3rd Party Integration Symphony can interface with 3rd party systems (such as alarm panels or access control products) using one of following ways: 1. Using IO Device 2. TCP tab in Actions 3. SDK 4. Packaged Integrations Using IO Device Symphony can communicate with external systems by interfacing with dry contact (or Input/Output) devices. This is the simplest form of access control support. To receive alarms via IO device, configure a Rule where the input is the dry contact of a network camera or external IO device. For more information on IO devices, visit Device Setup. Symphony can also close relay's on IO devices by configuring the Actions tab in the Rule wizard. TCP tab in Actions Another way of sending alarms to external systems is by using the TCP tab in the Actions menu. On alarm, the Rule Action will be to send a plain text message to a designated IP/Port on the network. SDK Symphony can communicate more richly with 3rd party systems via the Aimetis SDK. The SDK includes numerous sample applications with source code which demonstrate communicating over a TCP/IP network. Packaged Integrations Symphony has pre-packaged integrations with Access Control Manufacturers. For more information, visit the Technical Paper on Access Control Support. 48

55 Administration Logs and Audits View Detailed Logs View Detailed Logs provides a view of all logs recorded on Symphony server and Symphony Client. To open, select Help > View Detailed Logs. Warning: It could take several minutes to get all of the log files from a slow connection. Usage: By default, the client logs are shown. To access the server logs, click a server in the list. In the example below, [500weber] represents the currently connected server. Copy to Clipboard: Copies Entire text to clipboard. Download: Will zip all log files and place them on your desktop. You can then send them to Aimetis for troubleshooting. Find Next: Enter text to query the log file. Date: Show the logs for the current date. 49

56 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Above: Client logs. Below: Server logs. 50

57 Administration See Also View Logins Symphony Services 51

58 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide View Logins View Logins can be used to see who is accessing a Symphony server. To open the Logins interface, from Symphony Client select Server > View Logins. Select Date to pick a day to view. Select Copy to Clipboard to copy data to clipboard. Select Print and Export to export data and select the format of the data (.txt,.xls,.xml, html) To group by a column header, drag column header to top. 52

59 Administration See Also View Detailed Logs 53

60 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Managing Symphony Health Health Monitoring If the Health Monitoring option has been purchased, Symphony Server sends every 15 minutes for each camera a "health packet" which contains health information about the server. Aimetis offers a managed service which enables users to login to the Aimetis Xnet ( and see the status on all Symphony Services. Health Packets are sent as UDP packets. Each Health Packet contains the following information: Server name Server ID Camera ID Source IP address Version of Aimetis software running on the server Amount of CPU the AI Tracker has used How long the AI Tracker has been running Number of alarms Amount of free disk space The health packet interval can be re-configured in the manual configuration editor. Section = main Key = StatusInterval Value = number of seconds between packets. The default value is 900. To apply change to a single server only, use: Type = Server, Id = the server's logical ID. To apply to all servers in the farm, Type = Global, Id = <empty string>. See Also Manual Configuration Editor 54

61 Administration Kill All Symphony comes with a dos utility which can be used to automatically start, stop or restart the Symphony Services. This can be faster than individually managing the services from the Services console in windows (accessed by running "Services.msc" from the Start > Run command). Using the Killall utility will not restart the SQL Database. Usage: killall <command> Where next command is one of: 1 - Stop Services gracefully 2 - Terminate services 3 - Start services gracefully (restart web) 4 - Terminate services only if necessary 5 - Start services gracefully (leave web alone) 6 - <pid> - Kill the specified pid 7 - Restart web 8 - Get CPU usage from shared memory 9 - Same as 4 except will also kill infoservice r - Restart services (killall 9, killall 5) s - Restart services in sequence t <tracker id> - Restart tracker <tracker id> Usage Example: To restart all system services, from the command prompt type killall r and click ENTER on keyboard to run command. See Also Symphony Services 55

62 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Server Status Symphony server provides detailed logs and monitoring functionality. To receive full diagnostic information on your Symphony server, from Symphony Client, select Server > Get Info. By default, information on CPU, RAM and DISK information is displayed. By selecting Verbose and clicking Get Info, much more information can be displayed. By clicking Copy the text is copied to the clipboard. 56

63 Administration Symphony Services Overview Symphony server runs the following core Services. All Symphony Services are prefixed with an "AI". AI InfoService AI NetSendHist AI Scheduler AI Tracker X Web Server running Symphony's web service which receives all requests from the client. Responsible for historical video streaming and historical.jpeg creation. Responsible for polling hardware alarm inputs, cleaning video, running reports and searches, synchronizes CPU and other processes on system. The process that performs video analysis, saves video to disk, live video streaming. Each camera requires its own AI Tracker service. Troubleshooting Tips: 1. Symphony Requires the AI InfoService to be running properly. Normally connectivity issues between the client and server are caused by a resource conflict between another process using Port 50000, or a Firewall preventing Symphony and the AI InfoService from communicating properly. 2. By default, Symphony installs a Microsoft SQL Server express database during the installation of Symphony Server. Make sure the SQL Server (AIMETIS) service is started. Managing Symphony Services Symphony services can be stopped and started individually. Services can be individually restarted directly from Symphony Client, or from Windows directly by using the Services Console. From within Symphony If you do not have direct access to the windows environment on the Symphony server, you can manage services remotely using Symphony Client. To manually stop and start individual services, from Symphony Client select Server > Services > Manage Services. 1. Select which server to configure from the combo box above the Refresh button 2. Select the services you want start or stop by clicking to the left of the service. 3. Press the "Toggle" button. 4. Press the "Refresh" button to see if the state of the server changed. Warning: Changing service states can adversely affect your Symphony installation. 57

64 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide By default, the Symphony Services start on boot-up of the operating system. If you do not want Symphony Services to automatically start on system startup, uncheck the Automatically Start Symphony Services on system startup checkbox. From Windows directly To restart the Symphony Services directly from windows, (from windows, click on Start > Run > type Services.msc and hit enter). 1. Load the Services Console. 2. Right Click on the service you wish to start, stop, or restart. See Also Kill All utility 58

65 Video Analytics About Video Analytics With Aimetis' video analytics it is possible to detect specific events and activities automatically from your cameras without human intervention. Video analytics makes it possible to filter video and only notify you when user defined events have been detected, such as vehicles stopping in an alarm zone, or a person passing through a digital fence. Today's robust video analytics produce far fewer false alarms than the previous motion detection methods employed in earlier DVRs or cameras. Aimetis offers video analytics add-ons on a per camera basis in the form of Video Engines (VE). Summary of Video Analytics: Engine License Description Required VE130 Standard Simple video motion detection which can be used indoor/outdoor but does not classify object class and does not provide good object segmentation capability (which is required for object counting) VE140 Standard Camera loss detection VE141 Standard Detects if camera's field of view is obstructed (such as spray painting the lens). VE150 Enterprise Good choice for outdoor applications given its ability to classify the object type (vehicle/human) and minimize false alarms caused by shadows, snow, etc. VE160 Enterprise Designed for indoor environments where primary application is people counting VE161 Enterprise Designed for indoor environments where accurate object segmentation is required for people counting VE250 Enterprise No configuration required. Designed for indoor/outdoor environments and is more accurate than VE130 at detecting motion, however object counting not as accurate as VE160/161. This is the default engine when Enterprise license is used. VE350 Enterprise Outdoor object removal/left. VE352 Enterprise Indoor object removal/left. PT090 Enterprise Auto PTZ tracking. Visit Licensing for more information on different license types. In order to receive an alarm in Symphony, three things must be configured: 1. Assign analytic(s) to the camera 2. Configure the analytics 3. Create a Rule and configure the video engine detection capabilities 1. How to select video analytics: 59

66 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Some Video Engines (VE) can be run concurrently per camera with others (such as VE150 Motion Tracking and VE350 Left Item Detection) but others cannot be run concurrently (such as VE160 People Counting with VE150 Motion Tracking). If the desired video engine is not selectable, de-select the current engine in order to select any other. By default, the VE250 is applied to a new camera added to Symphony (assuming an Enterprise license is available). To run other video engines, perform the following steps: 1. From Symphony Client, click Server > Configuration to load the Configuration dialog. This will allow you to configure devices for the currently selected server (see the section Using Symphony > Main Console > Server List Panel). 2. Select Devices from the left pane. 3. Select the camera you wish to configure for use with video analytics and click Edit. 4. Click the Analytics Engines tab. Un-check whatever is currently checked (default is VE250) and select the desired video analytic to run on the current camera. 5. Finally, click OK to save settings and continue (to configure the chosen analytics), or click OK to close dialog (and use the default settings for the chosen analytics). 2. How to configure video analytics: After cameras have been added and analytics have been enabled for cameras, the analytics themselves need to be configured. The Analytics Configuration dialog allows users to configure the analytics. 1. From Symphony Client, click Server > Configuration to load the Configuration dialog, and then select Devices from the left pane. 2. Select the camera you wish to configure for use with video analytics and click Edit. 60

67 Video Analytics 3. Next, click the Analytics Configuration tab to configure the analytics. Each video analytic may have slightly different configuration options, however there are many commonalities. Typically Mask, Analysis FPS / Analysis Resolution and Perspective must be set at a minimum. Masks Masks defines where Symphony can track objects. Anytime an object is tracked through the scene, Symphony will colour that portion of the Timeline yellow. By default, the entire scene is covered in the yellow mask, meaning everything in the field of view of the camera will be analyzed. Symphony has been designed to work well in dynamic outdoor environments. Rain or snow would not normally result in Symphony falsely tracking objects. However, in some cases, you may wish to remove certain portions of the screen from analysis (such as a neighbor's property, or a swaying tree which is causing false alarms). The Motion Mask dialog allows you to modify where tracking should and should not occur. Note: The Motion Mask is different from the Alarm Mask, defined in the Rule section. The Alarm Mask defines the area in the video where alarms will occur, the Motion Mask defines the area of the image where activity is detected. The Alarm Mask cannot be greater than the Motion Mask. The Alarm Mask is bounded by the Motion Mask. Analysis and Resolution Additional features of the analytic can also be configured. The Analysis FPS field allows you to modify the frames per second (FPS) that the analytic should analyze. Normally this field should be left at the default value. It is possible to record at a higher frame rate than what is analyzed by the analytic engine, to reduce CPU utilization (it is unnecessary to analyze 25 frames per second, for example). The Capture Resolution text box displays the original video size, while the Analysis Resolution combo box allows you to specify the image size to be analyzed. To reduce CPU utilization it is common to record at higher frame rates and resolutions than what the video engine is receiving for analysis. Perspective For certain video analytics, Perspective information must be entered for proper functionality. In order for object classification to work properly, for example, Perspective information must be defined. Typically you are required to draw a line representing approximately 5 meters in the top half of the image, and in the bottom half of the image. These settings need to be as accurate as possible for accurate object classification. For more information on setting Perspective information, visit the individual video analytic pages. 3. How to configure analytics for alarming In order to receive real-time alarms for specific events, Rules must be configured. In the Rule section, the alarming capability of the analytic is configured. For more information on Rules visit the Rules section. For specific alarming capabilities of the analytic, visit the desired analytic section below. See Also Rules 61

68 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide PT090 Auto Tracking Overview The PT090 Video Engine is used to automatically control PTZ cameras when activity is detected. After the PT090 is enabled for a PTZ camera, a Rule can be configured where the PTZ camera can be automatically controlled by Symphony to zoom and follow objects that have broken the Rule (such as entered into the alarm zone or crossed a tripwire). Working Scenarios The PT090 is typically used in non-busy environments. If the environment is too busy the PTZ camera may auto-follow many different objects and its usability will decrease as a result. No fixed camera is required to control the PTZ camera. The PT090 analytic can control the PTZ camera using the video from the PTZ camera only. PT090 Video Engine Configuration Steps 1. Select the camera that will be configured. By default, the VE250 analytic is applied to a new camera added to Symphony. Configure the camera to also use the PT090 (see how to select analytics for more help). The PT090 cannot be used by itself, since it is only used when autotracking has started. Typically the VE150 or VE250 analytic is also configured on the camera. 2. From the Analytics Configuration tab, select the PT_090 video engine. 3. It is recommended that all default settings are not modified. 4. Click OK to save settings. 62

69 Video Analytics Other configuration Typically the PTZ Tracking mask does not need to be set. However, in some cases there may be areas where the PTZ camera should not automatically navigate to. For example, if Symphony detects an alarm and the PTZ camera is configured to zoom on the object, it may be required that the camera stop auto following the object when it gets to certain parts of the scene. PTZ Tracking Configuration Steps 1. Select a PTZ camera from the Devices branch of the left pane. 2. In the Analytics Configuration tab, select PTZ Tracking from the Analytics Engines combo box. 3. Mark in yellow the areas where the PTZ camera may auto-follow objects, and exclude areas where the camera is not to auto-follow object (this is only the auto following mask, not the alarm zone in the home position). 4. Select Include Area to mark the image in yellow, or Exclude Area to erase. The PTZ camera will auto follow objects in the yellow mask. The Size slider adjusts the pen thickness. 63

70 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Further notes The camera must be stable, if wind or vibrations causes the camera to move, false alarms will occur. This algorithm does not perform well indoors, or where the objects are very close to the camera, or if the environment is very busy. Not all PTZ cameras will work properly. Absolute positioning cameras are preferred over relative positioning cameras. MJPEG mode, or running MPEG-4 at higher frame rates increases the performance. Troubleshooting Ensure that enough available CPU is present to perform proper analysis. Increase the frame rate and image quality settings. See Also Rules 64

71 Video Analytics VE130 Video Motion Detection Overview The VE130 is a general purpose video motion detection engine and is good choice for static environments (such as indoors or certain outdoor environments). The VE130 is a good alternative over camera based motion detection due to its simplified configuration and higher accuracy. However, for most outdoor applications, use the VE150 which is designed to work better in adverse weather conditions. Working Scenarios The VE130 is a good choice in indoor and simple outdoor environments where only motion is to be detected and the class of object or object count is not required. Camera position, unlike other video engines, is not heavily constrained, making VE130 a good general purpose video engine in many applications. If object counting or dwell time is required, use the VE160 or VE161. For outdoor environments, use VE150 as shadows, lighting changes, etc will cause VE130 to function inaccurately. VE130 Analytic Configuration Steps 1. Select Server > Configuration. 2. Select a camera from the Devices branch of the left pane. 3. In the Analytics Engines tab, select VE130. By default VE250 is selected, in which case you must first deselect VE250 (see how to select analytics for more help). 4. In the Analytics Configuration tab, select Intel_VE130 from the Analytics Engines combo box. 5. In the Motion Analysis tab, define the area in yellow where objects should be detected. Select the Erase radio to erase the yellow mask, and select the Draw radio to draw the mask. The Size slider adjusts the pen thickness. 6. Select the Grid View tab. Normally the default settings and grid spacing is adequate. Move to Step 9 to complete setup or next step to customize the settings. 65

72 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide 8. The following settings can be changed as needed (optional): Analysis FPS Capture Resolution Analysis Resolution Minimum foreground fill (percent) Grid spacing (pixels) Foreground sensitivity Frame rate which the video engine analyzes frames. Can be set lower than the record frame rate. Displays the resolution which the video is being recorded. This can be changed in the Device Setup. Resolution which is used to analyze frames. Normally this is lower than the Capture Resolution to conserve CPU. The scene is divided into a grid. This value specifies how much each grid square must change (in %) before activity is detected in this square. Defines grid spacing as Rows and Columns. Defines how sensitive the video engine should be to scene change. The more sensitive it is to change, the more likely the minimum foreground fill will detect activity in the grid space. 9. Click OK to save settings. Create a Rule using VE130 66

73 Video Analytics Configuring the VE150 (see above) is required before creating a Rule that uses the VE150. To configure a Rule using the VE150, follow the steps below: 1. Open Server > Configuration > Rules and click New. 2. Select the camera (if it is a PTZ camera, select the camera tour position). 3. Pick the VE130 from the video engine combo box. 4. Mark the Alarm zone using the Draw and Erase options. The Size slider changes the drawing or erasing thickness. 5. Click Next to continue to next step in wizard. Further Notes Although the VE130 engine requires less CPU than other video engines, the video still needs to be decompressed in the server for analysis. As a result, the CPU savings are limited. Troubleshooting If too many false alarms are caused by shadows, rain, or other environmental conditions, use the VE150. See Also Rules 67

74 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide VE150 68

75 Video Analytics VE140 Camera Loss Overview The VE140 analytic is designed to detect if video signal loss occurs. Working Scenarios It is a good idea to run the VE140 on all cameras. This analytic is environment independent. VE140 Configuration Steps 1. Add the VE140 Cord Cut analytic to the camera(s) where you wish to detect signal loss (cord cut) events. See how to select analytics for more help. 2. No configuration is required for the VE140 from the Analytics Configuration tab. 3. Click Apply to save settings. 4. Create a Rule to alarm on signal loss events. Create a Rule using VE140 Configuring the VE150 (see above) is required before creating a Rule that uses the VE150. To configure a Rule using the VE150, follow the steps below: 1. Open Server > Configuration > Rules and click New. 2. Select the camera 3. Pick the VE140 from the video engine combo box. No further configuration is required. 4. Click Next to continue to next step in Rule wizard. Further notes The VE140 requires minimal CPU See Also Rules Camera Obstructed 69

76 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide VE141 Camera Obstructed Overview The VE141 Camera Obstructed Vide Engine is designed to detect when the field of view is obstructed. This can occur if the camera has been moved, if the lens is spray painted, or if a large object is placed in front of the camera. Working Scenarios This is a general purpose analytic and should normally run on each camera. VE141 Configuration Steps Add the VE141 Camera Obstructed analytic to the camera(s) where you wish to detect camera obstructed events. See how to select analytics for more help. 1. No configuration is required for the VE141 from the Analytics Configuration tab. 2. Click Apply to save settings. 3. Create a Rule to alarm on camera obstructed events. Create a Rule using VE141 Configuring the VE150 (see above) is required before creating a Rule that uses the VE150. To configure a Rule using the VE150, follow the steps below: 1. Open Server > Configuration > Rules and click New. 2. Select the camera 3. Pick the VE141 from the video engine combo box. No further configuration is required. 4. Click Next to continue to next step in Rule wizard. See Also Rules Cord Cut 70

77 Video Analytics VE150 Motion Tracking Overview The VE150 Video Engine is a good choice for outdoor motion tracking applications in non-busy environments. The engine has the ability to classify the difference between people and vehicles, and can detect if the object is stopping, starting, or simply moving through the scene. Alarm rules can therefore be designed around these features. Typical deployments include commercial buildings, where people or vehicles are to be detected, military bases, where objects entering an alarm zone or crossing a predefined perimeter should be detected, or for car dealers and construction sites, where full time security guards are not a cost effective approach to detecting people or vehicles after hours. The VE150 will produce far fewer false alarms caused by a changing outdoor environment as compared to normal "motion detection" algorithms. Working Scenarios The VE150 is a good choice in outdoor environments, which are not too busy, where people or vehicles are to be tracked and classified. Robust object segmentation is typically not important in VE150 working scenarios (meaning detecting two objects as one object would not be considered a problem, since an alarm would normally occur in either scenario). Camera position should normally be one or two storey's off the ground, and the camera angle should be between degrees. Typical views of environments where the VE150 algorithms has been optimized is shown below: VE150 Configuration Steps 1. Select Server > Configuration. 2. Select a camera from the Devices branch of the left pane. 3. In the Analytics Engines tab, select VE150. By default VE250 is selected, in which case you must first deselect VE250 (see how to select analytics for more help). 4. In the Analytics Configuration tab, select Intel_VE150 from the Analytics Engines combo box. 5. In the Motion Analysis tab, define the area in yellow where objects should be detected. Select the Erase radio to erase the yellow mask, and select the Draw radio to draw the mask. The Size slider adjusts the pen thickness. 6. Select the Camera Position tab. Specify the camera's position relative to the captured image. This is necessary to enable Symphony to accurately classify objects as people or vehicles based on their size while taking into account perspective. Required is the camera's height relative to the ground plane, the horizontal distance measured from the camera to the center of the image, and from the camera to the bottom of the image, and finally a vertical line. Click on the Help button to see a diagram for clarification. Assuming a level plane in the field of view, the 3 red lines in the image should closely represent 5m of distance at those positions in the image (assuming the lines are adjusted to 5m), and the figures standing on the red lines should closely match the size of a person at those positions. If this is not the case, the entered distances must be adjusted. 71

78 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide 7. Further configuration is optional, but may be necessary to fine-tune detection depending on the environmental conditions and the type of events that occur. Ensure the Camera Position and Motion Analysis mask is set properly before modifying the Basic tab. i.the Analysis FPS combo box configures how many frames will be analyzed by the system. Typically the default value should not be altered. However, there may be cases where the analysis frame rate can be reduced to conserve CPU. Doing this may negatively alter the algorithms performance. Like the Analysis Resolution, the Analysis FPS can be set differently than the record FPS. ii.the Analysis Resolution can be adjusted as required. Setting the Analysis Resolution the same as the Capture Resolution ensures that objects will be detected as far away as possible. However, in order to conserve CPU resources it is possible to down sample the video sent for analysis. Downsampling will reduce CPU requirements but may also reduce the detection range of the video analytic. iii.background Model: Select the background model that is best suited for the environment. More complex background models require more CPU but will reduce false alarms. Modes: i. Static: This is to be used in situations where the background is relatively static (no periodic movement in the background such as swaying trees). This is the fastest of our background models. ii. This is to be used in situations where there are periodic moving objects (like a tree branch moving back and forth in a fairly constant wind, or caused by unstable camera mounting). Though this background model can handle both static and dynamic backgrounds, it uses more CPU power than the Static model and thus not recommended for static backgrounds. iii. Dual Layer Dynamic: This is similar to the Dynamic background model but is capable of tracking objects that are stationary for short periods of time. Use it in outdoor areas where you want to for example track people standing still for 30 to 60 seconds. 72

79 Video Analytics iv. Spatio Temporal: This background model will only track consistent motion so it is capable of greatly reducing the false alarms due to tree branches and other objects in the background that can move randomly due to the wind. This will use more CPU and will reduce the detection range of the video analytics. iv. Classification: select classification settings or leave default value. v.click OK to save settings or move to Step 8 for further advanced settings 8. The Advanced tab is for experts only. Values should only be changed in cases where the analytic engine is not functioning properly. Usage: Reset background condition Don't track objects larger than (% of screen) Smallest object size (pixels) Merge objects closer than (meters) Wait after large background change and before starting to track objects (seconds) Foreground contrast Foreground contrast for determining camera obstructed Foreground sensitivity Track small objects Remove ghost pixels: Reduce false track from snow Make all objects foreground Use contourbased If this percentage of the frame changes we reset the background (i.e. it will act like tracker app just started) If a detected object has a width or height greater than the specified percentage of image width or a height respectively, it is ignored. Objects with width smaller than "smallest object size" will be ignored by the algorithm. Any detected objects that are within the specified distance of each other will be merged into one object. Allow the user to set how long to wait after background reset and before starting to track objects. Ideally it should be zero, but if the user is aware of a lighting issue where starting to track immediately can cause false alarms, then the user can set this to the number of seconds needed for the light to stabilize. Foreground contrast: Sets the minimum contrast needed for an object to be detected as a foreground object. If set to a large value, then objects with similar colour as background will not be detected as valid objects to track. Sets the minimum contrast needed between background and foreground before the change is considered for a camera obstructed scenario. Adjusts how sensitive the algorithm is to tracking objects and can be used to reduce false tracks from trees blowing in the wind, or increase the likelihood of tracking a poorly visible object (such as people partially obstructed by vehicles in a parking lot). Objects less than 5/16 meters will not be deleted as snow. Any pixel that doesn't change in value for some time are not considered as foreground. Try to remove tracks created by snow. All detected objects will become foreground objects and be displayed. Better segmentation of moving objects using the contour. 73

80 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide segmentation People-only segmentation Check for sudden background movement: Don't merge overlapping tracks Background learning duration (seconds) Maximum distance in pixels Shadow Sensitivity Illumination Sensitivity Track Slow Moving Objects / Object Speed Will try to keep nearby people as individually tracked objects. There is a potential that large vehicles might appear as multiple smaller objects. Tries to remove false tracks due to sudden movement of objects in the background due to wind. It will also eliminate false tracks due to sudden movements of the camera. When the tracks of two objects meet they will not be merged into one object. Time to learn the background image. This entry determines the approximate length of time it will take a foreground object that becomes stationary to get merged into the background. NOTE: if an object has a periodic movement with a period greater than the specified time, then that object will always be considered a foreground object (never merged into the background). The background is learned based on the last Update Background Seconds of video. The background is updated all the time, not only when the analytics engine starts. A sudden movement is defined as a movement of an object or camera up to this many pixels. Controls how aggressively shadows (decreases in lighting) are ignored when tracking moving objects. Increasing the slider (to the right) will allow the algorithm to correctly ignore more of the shadow areas. However, this will also increase the potential of a person wearing dark clothing on light background to be classified as shadow. Controls how aggressively increases in lighting are ignored. Increases in lighting occur due to a light source such as car headlight or when an overcast day becomes a sunny day. Increasing the slider (to the right) will allow the algorithm to correctly ignore any increases in illumination. However, this will also increases the potential of a person wearing light clothing on a dark background to be classified as an illumination increase. A slow moving object is an object that is moving very slowly across the video. It can also be an object coming directly toward or directly away from the camera; which will appear to be moving slow. If Track Slow Moving Objects is disabled these objects tend to become part of the background and as such will not be tracked. By enabling this option these objects will be tracked. Please be aware this option might increase some false alarms for situations where an object stands still in the video for a long time. Create a Rule using VE150 Configuring the VE150 (see above) is required before Rules using the VE150 can be created. To configure a Rule using the VE150, follow the steps below: 1. Open Server > Configuration > Rules and click New. 2. Select the camera (if it is a PTZ camera, select the camera tour position). 3. Pick the VE150 from the video engine combo box. For a Digital fence, skip to Step 6. For an Alarm zone, continue to Step 4. 74

81 Video Analytics 4. For an alarm zone: Mark the Alarm zone using the Draw and Erase options. The Size slider changes the drawing or erasing thickness. 5. Any part of track, End of track, Beginning of track. Usage: Any part of track denotes the object can be anywhere in the red alarm zone to trigger an alarm. End of track denotes that the object has stopped in the alarm zone. Beginning of track denotes that the object started moving in the alarm zone. For example, if you wanted to alarm on vehicles moving anywhere in the alarm zone, select Any part of track. If you wanted to alarm on vehicles entering the alarm zone and stopping in it, select End of track. If you wanted to alarm on vehicles that were parked in the alarm zone and started to move, select Beginning of track. These settings only apply to alarm zones and not digital fences. Skip to Step For a digital fence: Click the Any Fence or Delete Fence to draw and erase the digital fences. The arrows define which direction the offending object must pass through the line(s) in order to cause an alarm. Double click the arrows to change their properties. Red indicates an object crossing the line in this direction will cause an alarm while the green arrow denotes the object crossing the line in this direction would not cause an alarm. Multiple fence lines can be drawn. If All fences has been selected, the object must cross through all fences drawn to cause the alarm. 7. The Class checkboxes allow specific classes of objects to be filtered or detected. 8. Click Next to continue to next step in wizard. Further Notes In typical situations, the VE150 can detect a person 100 feet from the camera, a vehicle 150 feet from camera (assuming 4CIF or 640x480 and adequate lighting conditions). These distances depend on the lens and zoom used. Keep the camera lens clean from rain droplets or bugs. Rain droplets hitting the camera lens directly will cause false alarms. Bugs will do the same. If a spot light is installed too close to camera, it will attract bugs. 75

82 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide The camera must be stable, if wind or vibrations causes the camera to move, false alarms will occur. This algorithm does not perform well indoors, or where the objects are very close to the camera, or if the environment is very busy. The CPU requirements are less than the VE250. Troubleshooting Ensure the correct frame rate is being utilized, and that enough CPU is available on the system to perform proper analysis. Verify that perspective has been properly set by adjusting the Camera Position tab. If nuisance false alarms occur by trees or reflections, try the Dynamic background model (Environment tab). If problems still persist, contact Aimetis for support. See Also Rules VE250 76

83 Video Analytics VE160 Motion Tracking Overview The VE160 Analytic is a motion tracking video engine designed for a camera height of ~3M and camera position facing directly down. This camera orientation is optimized for people counting applications over a door or hallway. If the camera position is not directly overhead, use the VE150 for outdoor or VE250 or VE161 for indoor. Working Scenarios The VE160 is designed to work with a camera installed directly over head. To decide camera installation height for VE160, ensure that there are at least 6 frames when a person passes through the view at a normal speed and the people have a reasonable size of image. For this reason, camera height should be greater than 3 meters. Optimal camera angle is approximately 90 degrees facing down, but this is not constrained seriously. VE160 Configuration Steps 1. Select Server > Configuration. 2. Select a camera from the Devices branch of the left pane. 3. In the Analytics Engines tab, select VE160. By default VE250 is selected, in which case you must first deselect VE250 (see how to select analytics for more help). 4. In the Analytics Configuration tab, select Intel_VE160 from the Analytics Engines combo box. 5. On the Masks tab, set the Analysis FPS at 8 or higher, Analysis Resolution value should be set to 320x On the Motion Analysis tab, modify the Motion Analysis mask by modifying the yellow mask. Click the Draw radio button to draw the yellow mask area. The Erase radio is selected to erase the yellow mask. The Size slider adjusts the pen thickness. 7. In the Average Person Size tab ensure that the green box represents the average size of a person in the scene. 8. Optional: Modify the Counting line in the Counting Line tab for people counting on the live video. This will not affect reports. 9. Click OK to save settings. Create a Rule using VE160 Configuring the VE160 (see above) is required before Rules using the VE160 can be created. To configure a Rule using the VE160, follow the steps below: 1. Open Server > Configuration > Rules and click New. 2. Select the camera (if it is a PTZ camera, select the camera tour position). 77

84 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide 3. Pick the VE160 from the video engine combo box. For a Digital fence, skip to Step 6. For an Alarm zone, continue to Step For an alarm zone: Mark the Alarm zone using the Draw and Erase options. The Size slider changes the drawing or erasing thickness. 5. Any part of track, End of track, Beginning of track. Usage: Any part of track denotes the object can be anywhere in the red alarm zone to trigger an alarm. End of track denotes that the object has stopped in the alarm zone. Beginning of track denotes that the object started moving in the alarm zone. For example, if you wanted to alarm on vehicles moving anywhere in the alarm zone, select Any part of track. If you wanted to alarm on vehicles entering the alarm zone and stopping in it, select End of track. If you wanted to alarm on vehicles that were parked in the alarm zone and started to move, select Beginning of track. These settings only apply to alarm zones and not digital fences. Skip to Step For a digital fence: Click the Any Fence or Delete Fence to draw and erase the digital fences. The arrows define which direction the offending object must pass through the line(s) in order to cause an alarm. Double click the arrows to change their properties. Red indicates an object crossing the line in this direction will cause an alarm while the green arrow denotes the object crossing the line in this direction would not cause an alarm. Multiple fence lines can be drawn. If All fences has been selected, the object must cross through all fences drawn to cause the alarm. 7. The Class checkboxes allow specific classes of objects to be filtered or detected. 8. Click Next to continue to next step in wizard. Further notes You cannot run the VE160 in combination with the VE150 or VE250. People count is available on live video, or can be generated as a report from the Reports menu from Symphony Client. Troubleshooting If people count reporting is inaccurate, try and place camera higher from the ground, to ensure objects are in field of view longer. Try pointing camera down, if camera angle is not pointed directly down. If problems still persist, contact Aimetis for support (include sample video with support case). See Also Rules VE161 78

85 Video Analytics VE161 Motion Tracking Overview The VE Degree People Counting video engine is used indoors primarily for people counting and measuring dwell time. Even in busy environments, the VE161 can deliver accurate people counting results. Unlike the VE160, the VE161 does not require the camera to be directly over head for operation. Working Scenarios The VE161 is designed for moderately busy environments. To decide camera installation height for VE161, ensure that there are at least 6 frames when a person passes through the view at a normal speed and the people have a reasonable size of image. For this reason, camera height should be greater than 3 meters. Optimal camera angle is approximately degrees facing down, but this is not constrained seriously. VE161 Configuration Steps 1. Select Server > Configuration. 2. Select a camera from the Devices branch of the left pane. 3. In the Analytics Engines tab, select VE161. By default VE250 is selected, in which case you must first deselect VE250 (see how to select analytics for more help). 4. In the Analytics Configuration tab, select Intel_VE161 from the Analytics Engines combo box. 5. Set the Analysis FPS at 8, the Analysis Resolution value should be 320 x In the Motion Analysis tab, configure the motion mask by selecting the Draw or Erase radio, and mark the region where Symphony should analyze scene activity. The video engine will be actively tracking objects in the area marked in yellow. Objects outside the yellow area will not be tracked. 7. In the Perspective tab, set the perspective for the scene: The red lines must be drawn such that they represent a length of 5m at their location in the scene. Click on the end of a red line and drag it larger or smaller as required. Click on the edge of the other red line and drag it larger or smaller to resize it appropriately. The figures standing on the red lines should closely match the size of a person at those locations. 8. In the Counting Line tab, draw the line where people will be counted as in or out as they pass through the line. 9. In the Person size tab, modify the green box to be the typical size of a person. Set the red box to the smallest object size you want to track. 10. Click Apply to save settings. Create a Rule using VE161 Configuring the VE161 (see above) is required before Rules using the VE161 can be created. To configure a Rule using the VE161, follow the steps below: 79

86 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide 1. Open Server > Configuration > Rules and click New. 2. Select the camera (if it is a PTZ camera, select the camera tour position). 3. Pick the VE161 from the video engine combo box. For a Digital fence, skip to Step 6. For an Alarm zone, continue to Step For an alarm zone: Mark the Alarm zone using the Draw and Erase options. The Size slider changes the drawing or erasing thickness. 5. Any part of track, End of track, Beginning of track. Usage: Any part of track denotes the object can be anywhere in the red alarm zone to trigger an alarm. End of track denotes that the object has stopped in the alarm zone. Beginning of track denotes that the object started moving in the alarm zone. For example, if you wanted to alarm on vehicles moving anywhere in the alarm zone, select Any part of track. If you wanted to alarm on vehicles entering the alarm zone and stopping in it, select End of track. If you wanted to alarm on vehicles that were parked in the alarm zone and started to move, select Beginning of track. These settings only apply to alarm zones and not digital fences. Skip to Step For a digital fence: Click the Any Fence or Delete Fence to draw and erase the digital fences. The arrows define which direction the offending object must pass through the line(s) in order to cause an alarm. Double click the arrows to change their properties. Red indicates an object crossing the line in this direction will cause an alarm while the green arrow denotes the object crossing the line in this direction would not cause an alarm. Multiple fence lines can be drawn. If All fences has been selected, the object must cross through all fences drawn to cause the alarm. 7. The Class checkboxes allow specific classes of objects to be filtered or detected. 8. Click Next to continue to next step in wizard. Further notes You cannot run the VE161 in combination with the VE150 or VE250 algorithms. People count is available on live video, or can be generated as a report from the Reports menu from Symphony Client. Troubleshooting Increase camera height to verify if results are better Create Aimetis Support case See Also Rules VE160 80

87 Video Analytics VE250 Motion Tracking Overview The VE250 is a good choice for indoor or outdoor motion tracking applications. The advantage the VE250 has over the VE150, is that no Perspective information is required. It is considered a "plug and play" video engine. It will work at virtually any camera angle. The VE250 also works better in busier environments since it has better object segmentation capabilities as compared with the VE130. However, the VE250 does not have any object classification capability, and will use more CPU. Typical deployments include commercial buildings, where objects are to be detected, military basis, where objects entering an alarm zone or crossing a pre-defined line are to be detected, regardless of class of object (people or vehicles). The VE250 is essentially a big improvement over the "motion detection" technology previously on the market (which would generate numerous false alarms caused by lighting changes or environment changes). Working Scenarios The VE250 algorithm can be used in moderately busy, indoor or outdoor environments, at virtually any camera angle. For best performance, the camera must be mounted far enough away from the objects that 8 frames will contain the moving object as it passes by the camera. Typical scenarios are shown below: VE250 Analytic Configuration Steps 1. Select Server > Configuration. 2. Select a camera from the Devices branch of the left pane. 3. In the Analytics Engines tab, select VE250. By default VE250 is selected. If the checkbox for VE250 is not enabled, you must de-select other algorithms that conflict with VE250 (see how to select analytics for more help). 4. In the Analytics Configuration tab, select Intel_VE250 from the Analytics Engines combo box. 5. The Analysis FPS box configures how many frames will be analyzed by the system. Typically the default value should not be altered. However, there may be cases where the analysis frame rate can be reduced to conserve CPU. Doing this may negatively alter the algorithms performance. Like the Analysis Resolution, the Analysis FPS can be set differently than the record FPS. 6. The Analysis Resolution can be adjusted as required. Setting the Analysis Resolution the same as the Capture Resolution ensures that objects will be detected as far away as possible. However, in order to conserve CPU resources it is possible to downsample the video sent for analysis. Downsampling will reduce CPU requirements but may also reduce the detection range of the video analytic. 7. Modify the motion mask by adjusting the yellow mask as required (see how to configure analytics for more help). Select the Erase radio to erase the yellow mask, and select Draw to draw the mask. The Size slider adjusts the pen thickness. 8. Click OK to save changes. 81

88 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide 9. Create a Rule to alarm on VE250 motion tracking events. Creating a Rule using VE250 Configuring the VE250 (see above) is required before Rules using the VE250 can be created. To configure a Rule using the VE250, follow the steps below: 1. Open Server > Configuration > Rules and click New. 2. Select the camera (if it is a PTZ camera, select the camera tour position). 3. Pick the VE250 from the video engine combo box. For a Digital fence, skip to Step 6. For an Alarm zone, continue to Step For an alarm zone: Mark the Alarm zone using the Draw and Erase options. The Size slider changes the drawing or erasing thickness. 82

89 Video Analytics 5. Any part of track, End of track, Beginning of track. Usage: Any part of track denotes the object can be anywhere in the red alarm zone to trigger an alarm. End of track denotes that the object has stopped in the alarm zone. Beginning of track denotes that the object started moving in the alarm zone. For example, if you wanted to alarm on vehicles moving anywhere in the alarm zone, select Any part of track. If you wanted to alarm on vehicles entering the alarm zone and stopping in it, select End of track. If you wanted to alarm on vehicles that were parked in the alarm zone and started to move, select Beginning of track. These settings only apply to alarm zones and not digital fences. Skip to Step For a digital fence: Click the Any Fence or Delete Fence to draw and erase the digital fences. The arrows define which direction the offending object must pass through the line(s) in order to cause an alarm. Double click the arrows to change their properties. Red indicates an object crossing the line in this direction will cause an alarm while the green arrow denotes the object crossing the line in this direction would not cause an alarm. Multiple fence lines can be drawn. If All fences has been selected, the object must cross through all fences drawn to cause the alarm. 7. The Class checkboxes allow specific classes of objects to be filtered or detected. 8. Click Next to continue to next step in wizard. Further Notes In typical situations, the VE250 can detect a person 50 feet from the camera, a vehicle 100 feet from camera (assuming 2CIF or 320x240 and adequate lighting conditions). Keep the camera lens clean from rain droplets or bugs. Rain droplets hitting the camera lens directly will cause false alarms. Bugs will do the same. If a spot light is installed too close to camera, it will attract bugs. The camera must be stable, if wind or vibrations causes the camera to move, false alarms will occur. This algorithm does not perform well indoors, or where the objects are very close to the camera, or if the environment is very busy. The CPU requirements are more than the VE

90 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Troubleshooting Ensure that enough available CPU is present to perform proper analysis. In low light situations, Infrared Illuminators may be required. If many false alarms are experienced which cannot be avoided by modifying the Motion Mask, contact Aimetis for further support. See Also Rules VE150 84

91 Video Analytics VE350 Outdoor Left Item Detection Overview The VE350 is designed to detect left or removed items in moderately to less busy outdoor environments. Typical deployments include commercial buildings, where items are not to be left behind or removed, as well as less busy locations at airports, bus stations, and so on. Working Scenarios The VE350 is designed to work in outdoor situations. It will not work well in extremely busy environments. Camera position should normally be one or two storey's off the ground, and the camera angle can be flexible, depending on the field of view you wish to capture. VE350 Configuration Steps 1. Select Server > Configuration. 2. Select a camera from the Devices branch of the left pane. 3. In the Analytics Engines tab, select VE350. By default VE250 is selected, in which case you must first deselect VE250 (see how to select analytics for more help). 4. In the Analytics Configuration tab, select Intel_VE350 from the Analytics Engines combo box. 5. Select the Masks tab. 6. Adjust the Length of time (seconds) value to reflect how quickly the video engine should alarm on left or removed items. 7. On the Persistence Mask tab, adjust the yellow mask as required. Select the Erase radio to erase the yellow mask, and select Draw to draw the mask. The Size slider adjusts the pen thickness. 8. Click the Perspective tab and accurately set the scene perspective. 9. Click the Alarm size tab to define the minimum and maximum object sizes which are alarm candidates. 10. Optional: Select the Advanced tab to configure additional settings. Usage: Background Model Different background models do different things. We will continuously develop different models to meet the customer needs. Our current models include: Static: This is to be used in situations where the background is relatively static(no periodic movement in the background such as swaying trees). This is the fastest of our background models. Dynamic: This is to be used in situations where there are periodic moving objects (like a tree branch moving back and forth in a fairly constant wind, or caused by unstable camera mounting). Though this background model can handle 85

92 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Update Background (seconds) Sensitivity Low Contrast Use edge information Reduce false alarms from people Merge stationary rectangles Enable MIM both static and dynamic backgrounds, it uses more CPU power than the Static model and thus not recommended for static backgrounds. Time to learn the background image. This entry determines the approximate length of time it will take a foreground object that becomes stationary to get merged into the background. NOTE: if an object has a periodic movement with a period greater than the specified time, then that object will always be considered a foreground object (never merged into the background). NOTE: The background is learned based on the last Update Background Seconds of video. The background is updated all the time, not only when the analytics engine starts. Sensitivity to sudden appearance of objects. High sensitivity (slider right) means more alarms appear because sudden appearances of objects are allowed. Low sensitivity (slider left) means less alarms appear because we need to ensure the item was dropped off by someone. The detected foreground objects are classified as alarms or non-alarms. Sensitivity controls how many detected objects are classified as alarms but doesn t control the number of detected objects. Warning: the higher the sensitivity (slider right), the higher the chance of false alarms. A foreground object is assumed to have some contrast with the background (ie different colour/intensity from the background). By enabling low contrast, you assume that the contrast between foreground objects and the background objects are much smaller than the default settings. Since contrast is much smaller a different detection algorithm is used to ensure that objects with lower contrast to the background are detected. This checkbox controls the number of objects detected where as sensitivity slider controls the number of objects classified as alarms. Warning: by checking this checkbox the number of false alarms may increase at the same time low contrast objects will be detected and alarmed on. Uses edges to reduce false positives. Attempt to filter people to further reduce false alarms If stationary objects overlaps, merge them into one rectangle. For example, someone drops a box, another box gets dropped which overlaps this box, both objects will be merged if this feature is checked. Leave on by default. 11. Click OK to save settings. Create a Rule using VE350 Configuring the VE350 (see above) is required before creating a Rule. To configure a Rule using the VE350, follow the steps below: 86

93 Video Analytics 1. Mark the alarm zone using the Draw and Erase radio buttons. The Size slider adjusts the pen thickness. 2. Alarm conditions may be set such that an alarm is raised only if 1) a certain number of pixels change in a certain time period; 2) a certain number of alarm-able events occur in a certain time period; 1. Two such conditions can be configured, denoted by "Alarm only, if" and "OR, at least". 2. For each Pixels Change condition that is enabled, a separate image mask will be added to the Current view shown below dropdown box. Use this dropdown box to switch between these views. 3. A Pixels Change condition mask will contain a green box representing the number of pixels specified. You can alter the numeric value, or you can size this green box by dragging its corners, which in turn will modify the numeric value. 3. Click Next to continue to next step in wizard. Further notes Currently, there is no distinction between left and removed items. Leave both selected. Troubleshooting Ensure the correct frame rate is being utilized, and that enough CPU is available on the system to perform proper analysis. If problems still persist, contact Aimetis for support. Have sample video showing problems available for Aimetis support specialist to review. See Also Rules 87

94 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide VE352 Indoor Left Item Detection Overview The VE352 Engine is designed to detect left or removed items in moderately to less busy indoor environments. Typical deployments include retail facilities where detecting removal of merchandise is desired. Working Scenarios The VE352 engine is designed to work in indoor environments in retail. It will not work well in extremely busy environments. Camera position should be at least 15 feet above the ground, and the camera angle can be flexible, depending on the field of view you wish to capture. VE352 Configuration Steps 1. Select Server > Configuration. 2. Select a camera from the Devices branch of the left pane. 3. In the Analytics Engines tab, select VE352. By default VE250 is selected, in which case you must first deselect VE250 (see how to select analytics for more help). 4. In the Analytics Configuration tab, select Intel_VE352 from the Analytics Engines combo box if more than one Engine is running on the camera. 5. By default, the Masks tab is shown. Leave the default settings for the Analysis FPS and Analysis Resolution. 6. In the Persistence Mask tab, adjust the yellow mask as required (see how to configure analytics for more help). Select the Erase and Draw to radio as required to draw the mask. The Size slider adjusts the pen thickness. 7. In the Perspective tab, set the perspective for the scene: The red lines must be drawn such that they represent a length of 5m at their location in the scene. The Person icon will be sized automatically. 8. Select the Basic tab to configure additional settings. Usage: Left item duration (seconds) Initial background model learn time (seconds) Object merge distance (pixels) Check for object drop-off Reduce false alarms from still Specifies how long an object must be left before an alarm will occur. Specifies how many seconds will be used to build background model. If environment is not busy, adjust value higher such that the confidence of the software is higher (in determining the background from the foreground). Determines the distance (in pixels) between objects where they will be automatically merged as one object. This enables the software to check for activity around the left or removed item seconds before the alarm occurred (such as a hand reaching in). The pixel value defines the search area around the alarm. May be used to reduce alarms caused by people standing in scene. The seconds value will determine how long to filter out still moving objects. 88

95 Video Analytics people Reduce reflection Camera looking at shelf Enables another filter which attempts to reduce false alarms caused by reflections. This should be enabled or disabled depending on camera location relative to shelf. 9. Click OK to save configuration changes. Creating a Rule using VE352 Configuring the VE352 (see above) is required before creating a Rule. To configure a Rule using the VE352, follow the steps below: 1. Mark the alarm zone using the Draw and Erase radio buttons. The Size slider adjusts the pen thickness. Objects that are left or removed outside the red alarm zone will not cause alarms. The VE352 does not distinguish between a left or removed item. 2. Specify what percentage threshold for an object which is not fully inside an alarm zone by adjusting the Alarm based on percentage of object inside alarm mask option. 3. Optional: Alarm conditions may be filtered by enabling the Alarm only, if or OR, at least options. Both conditions can be enabled together or separately. The Alarm Only filter is designed for retailers who wish to only alarm if a certain number of alarms (or merchandise) is removed from the shelf in a pre-determined time. For example, 2 LCD monitors must be removed before the event is triggered. The OR, at least option is a work-around if multiple objects are removed but they are so close together it creates one bounding box (and therefore one alarm). Therefore by combining both filters, many small background changes or one large background change (caused by a removed item) can trigger the event. Usage summary: Alarm only, if OR, at least Alarms Occur Pixels Change This filter defines how many alarms must occur in predetermined time. This filter defines the size of alarm before Filter based on alarms detected Filter based on pixels changed 4. Click Next to continue to next step in wizard. Further notes Currently, there is no distinction between left and removed items. Troubleshooting If objects are too small, detection is difficult. Move camera closer to objects that are to be detected. See Also Rules 89

96

97 Rules About Rules A Rule is user-definable and is responsible for creating Alarms in Symphony. Alarms can occur as a result of a video event (such as video motion detection) or a signal from another device (such as alarm IO devices). The Rules Summary dialog lists all the current Rules and allows you to add, edit, delete, disable and enable each one. To access the Rules Summary dialog, click Server > Configuration and select the Rules pane. Usage New Edit Delete Disable Enable Click New to create a new Rule. To modify an existing Rule, select it on the list and click Edit. To delete an existing Rule, selected it on the list and click Delete. To temporarily Disable a Rule instead of Deleting it entirely, select it on the list and click Disable. To re-enable a Rule that has been disabled, select it on the list and click Enable. To quickly enable or disable all Rules, visit the Disable Alarms section. To define a rule, you must configure the following rule elements. Event Actions Schedule Define what causes an Alarm, such as motion detected, people loitering, alarm IO inputs, etc. Define what actions Symphony should take after the alarm is detected. Define which times the Alarm Rule is active. Note: Rule elements can be reused. Above we can see that many Rules are reusing the same Schedule called "24/7". If we change the "24/7" Schedule, it will affect all Rules which use this Rule Element. 91

98 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Events The first Rule Element to configure is the Event. An Event may comprise of one or more sub-events. For example, the Event may involve a car stopping and a person loitering within 30 seconds before the Event is triggered. The Event could also be an input from an Alarm IO device, or VMD detected on a network camera. Caused by Video Analytics To configure the Event dialog when selecting a camera as an input, complete the following steps: 1. Select a camera to assign to this Rule in the dialog shown below 2. Select which video engine to configure from the select video engine from those running on camera. 3. Next, define what alarming attributes this rule will have, such as an alarm zone, or class of object (i.e. people, vehicles). Depending on the video engine, different options will be available. 4. If only one event will be used in the Rule, click Next to continue. If other events are to be included, click New. 5. Repeat steps 1-3 above. It is possible to pick a different analytic engine for the same camera to combine the Events in the Rule. Now in the Sub Events dialog you will notice 2 events listed (by clicking inside the Sub Events dialog and selecting the sub-event, it can be renamed to 92

99 Rules something more descriptive). 6. In the Sub Events must occur section, it is possible to define what order or what period of time all the sub-events must occur in before the alarm will take place. 7. Click Next to configure the Actions Caused by Alarm Input Alarm Inputs include Video Motion Detection (VMD) from network cameras, external IO devices, and many others. To configure the Events dialog when selecting the IO and Camera Motion Detection as an input, complete the following steps: 1. Select which Digital I/O Devices (DIO) to assign to this Rule in the dialog shown below 2. Select which Input Number to control, and then define if it should be Activated or Deactivated to trigger the event. 93

100 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide 3. Click Next to configure the Actions. For more information on how to configure the individual Video Engines, consult the Video Analytics section. 94

101 Rules Actions While the Events Element defines what causes an alarm, the Actions Element specifies what Symphony should do as a result. By default, the Alarm tab is shown. Alarm Tab If Raise Alarm checkbox is selected, the Timeline and Alarm Log will reflect an alarm has occurred. When this is unchecked the opposite is true. However, all other actions specified will still occur. This is useful in the case of zooming with PTZ cameras since it may be unnecessary to show an alarm every time the camera automatically zooms. The Record checkbox will ensure video recording for this camera occurred, even if the default setting for the camera is No Recording as defined in the Device Setup. Choose a camera is required in cases an alarm IO event has been selected as the event, and here it is required to define with camera will be associated with this alarm, for the purposes of adding the event to the camera's Timeline. Relays Use this to automatically send an electrical signal to an external device whenever an alarm occurs. This would be useful if you setup a Rule that detected when cars were stolen and you wanted Symphony to automatically close a gate or turn on a light. Symphony has been designed to work with alarm relays (such as the QK108) to connect via the serial port of the Symphony Server. The Trigger Relay dialog enables you to set if the relay should be turned on, off, or toggled, and the Relay # field allows you to define which address of the relay board to control. The Restore state after field allows you to specify how long the relay should be in its current state before being reset. For more information, visit the Aimetis Knowledge Base article on configuring Alarm Relays. FTP 95

102 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide You can specify Symphony to automatically send a jpg to a FTP site after a Rule is broken. The jpg features and filenames can be configured in this dialog. The filename can be automatically generated based on the date, time, Rule and camera information using the symbols shown in the FTP tab. Examples of filename patterns are shown here: %d 2004_06_30.jpg %t 14_01_45_050.jpg %d-%t 2004_06_30-14_01_45_050.jpg %m-%a-%h jpg %h_%i_%s_%l_%p 14_01_45_050_My_Rule.jpg In the Tab, you can configure Symphony to automatically send messages whenever an alarm occurs. You may specify multiple recipients. Each recipient will receive an with a picture attached of the event which caused the alarm. Symphony runs its own internal SMTP server, so you do not need to configure Symphony with another external mail server. The will include a hyperlink to the Aimetis Symphony Web Access application that will navigate to the alarm in question. The will also include a hyperlink to the alarm's actual jpg file on the server. Blackberry You can configure Symphony to send alerts to Blackberry devices when a Rule is broken. Symphony sends an to the Blackberry device which includes a hyperlink. After clicking the hyperlink, it loads a specially formatted web page for the Blackberry and displays the Alarm information. TCP It opens a TCP socket to some IP & port, and sends the specified ASCII message. This is a generic way to interface with any access control system or other device. Run Program By configuring this, Symphony can execute another 3rd party program. Sounds In this tab you can configure Symphony to play a pre-recorded sound when a Rule is broken. You can upload files to Symphony and select which sound file (such as a.wav file) to play when the current Rule is broken. This might be useful to automatically warn trespassers that the property is under surveillance. Zoom The Zoom tab allows you to specify actions for a dome (PTZ) camera after the current Rule Trigger is detected. By selecting the Zoom radio, the camera will leave its Home Position and automatically zoom and track the object. If you select the Force a PTZ camera to a location radio, you must specify a preprogrammed position for the camera to move to. This is useful if you want to create an alarm Rule where the trigger is a Hardware Alarm input (specified in the Alarm on section). For example, perhaps a motion detector or even a fixed camera caused an alarm, you could force the PTZ camera to automatically move to its location for further investigation. This will not work if the Trigger Rule element is not region specific (such as a Cord Cut alarm). 96

103 Rules See Using Dome or PTZ cameras for instructions on how to manually zoom. Instructions You can bind specific instructions to a Rule. This tells a monitoring agent or operator what to do in case of alarm. When an alarm occurs it appears in the alarm log of the main console. If the user right clicks on the alarm in this log, there is an option for viewing the alarm instructions. If there are any instructions set for the Rule that caused the alarm, it will be shown there. Otherwise the default instructions from the Server Instructions will be displayed. Rule After an alarm occurs, one of the Actions can be to automatically enable or disable other Rules OPC Symphony can interact with OPC servers on alarm by configuring this dialog. SMS Symphony can send messages via SMS as a result of the alarm by configuring the COM Port, Baud Rate and adding a Phone Number as required. 97

104 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Schedule The last Rule Element we define is the Schedule, or time period(s) when this Rule is active. The New Schedule dialog allows you to specify on a weekly basis when the new Rule should be active or inactive. You set different alarm schedules for different Rules. If the Rule is disabled (in the Rules Summary), the schedule is ignored and Actions for that Rule will not be triggered. The alarm schedule is set in 30 minute intervals only. By default, the schedule is completely red (armed). You can modify this by performing the following steps: 1. Click the Armed or Unarmed radio button, and drag over the alarm schedule to set the schedule. 2. Give the new Schedule a descriptive name in the Name field. 3. Click View Exceptions to set an exception to this weekly schedule. An example might be holidays. The Exceptions dialog allows you to set special exceptions to the main weekly schedule. 98

105 Rules To set exceptions, mark each half hour increment in red or green. Red means it is armed, green means it is disarmed. If a day already has exceptions it will be displayed in bold in the calendar. The current day is highlighted in blue. Click OK to save your changes, or the X at the top of the form to close it without saving changes to the current day. 4. Click Next to move to the next dialog in the wizard. 99

106

107 Symphony Client About Symphony Client Using Aimetis Symphony for your video management solution will provide you with a highly flexible, intuitive and intelligent platform. Symphony Client acts as the user interface for all server configuration as well as alarm and report management. This section will outline the key functions of Symphony Client to help you get started. The Main Console is the main window that you will be using within Symphony Client. The Main Console consists of typical Windows application items such as the Title Bar, Menu, Toolbars, and controls for minimize, maximize, and close. Also included are Video Panels used for live mode, historical playback, and analyzing still frames. To fully manage Symphony and take advantage of all its many features there are several other panels available: 101

108 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide 102

109 Symphony Client Customizing Symphony Client 103

110 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Main Console Address Bar The Address Bar contains a Symphony link to the last selected video position. Symphony links are very useful. If you have already installed Symphony Client on a computer you can simply do Start - Run, and paste in a Symphony link, and Windows XP will automatically start Symphony Client and position to the link's location. Using the Forward and Back buttons on the Toolbar on the Main Console will bring you to places you have just visited. For example, each time you click on the Timeline or navigate to a different camera on a different server, this information is being recorded, so it is easy to navigate backwards or forwards from where you are. To view a location you have just visited, clicking the Back button will return you to the camera and time you were just viewing. 104

111 Symphony Client Alarm Log The Alarm Log panel shows a list of alarms for connected servers in the current Server Set. It can be displayed or hidden via Menu item View > Alarm Log, and via a button in the Menu Toolbar. By default, the Alarm Log is docked inside the Main View (shown above). However the Alarm log can be dragged out into a second monitor and configured to show much more information (below). The following table explains each column of the Alarm Log. Customizing Alarm Log 105

112 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide When the Smart-Sizing button is depressed (shown above), the Alarm Log interface will automatically change configuration (add and remove columns and the toolbar) depending on the size of the Alarm Log window. With Smart-Sizing off, the visible columns will remain visible regardless of the Alarm Log window size. The Column Chooser allows you to customize what columns are displayed. To use the Column Chooser, right-click on one of the column headings and select Column Chooser. Then proceed to drag columns from the Customization dialog to the column headings in the Alarm Log, and vice-versa drag column headings from the Alarm Log into the Customization dialog. Grouping by columns is an effective way of organizing the potentially long list of alarms. A typical use would be to group all alarms by Server, then by Camera as shown below. To Group by a column, drag the desired column heading into the Drag area marked by the text "Drag a column header here to group by that column". 106

113 Symphony Client Above: before grouping Below: after grouping by Rule and then Time Clicking the Filters toolbar button displays a treeview of alarm filtering options. 107

114 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Select Viewed to filter the alarm log to show only those alarms that have already been viewed. Select Unviewed to filter the alarm log to show only those alarms that have not yet been viewed. Select All to show all alarms in the alarm log. Clicking the Camera View toolbar button displays a Camera View panel that can be docked within the alarm log, or dragged away onto another display monitor. Clicking the Alarm Details toolbar button displays the Alarm Details panel that can be docked within the alarm log, or dragged away onto another display monitor. 108

115 Symphony Client Clicking the Date Picker toolbar button displays the Date Picker control allowing to load alarms for all connected servers for a specific date. Days that are in BOLD contain video data. Days which do not appear in BOLD do not contain video. See Also Marking Alarms 109

116 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Application Log The Application Log is a panel at the bottom of the Main Console that lists errors and messages that have occurred since Symphony Client was started. It can be turned on and off via Menu item View > Application Log, and via a button in the Menu Toolbar. To reveal more information, simply double click on any entry in the Application Log and the entire message will be displayed. 110

117 Symphony Client Camera Tree By default, the Camera Tree is shown in the top right of the Main Console. To select this view, click View > Camera Tree. For information on how to customize the Camera Tree, visit the Camera Tree section. 111

118 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Customizing Video Panel Properties Each video panel can be configured with advanced options. A video panel can be in the Multi View or Main Console. Right clicking on the camera view launches a dialog box with several settings for appearance, what to do when activity occurs, digital tracking, and other miscellaneous options. Appearance Tab Timeline: enables or disables whether Timeline height should be resized automatically. Video Decorations Overlay: Select if video decorations should be enabled or disabled. Stream Selector: If camera selects multiple video streams, select which video stream to display. Activity Tab Force a Video Panel to automatically switch when an event occurs. This is useful if you want to have a 4 Multi View open and are monitoring 1000 cameras where there is rarely activity. The 4 Video Panels within a Multi View window can be configured to always show video from the last 4 cameras that had activity by using this page. Event The switching event can be an alarm (defined in Rules), or it can be motion (detected by motion analytics engines such as VE150, VE160, VE250). Note that an alarm can be from an I/O device that is associated with a camera. 112

119 Symphony Client Limit action to specific cameras If you are connected to many farms/servers/cameras you may want a view to only automatically switch to a subset of all the cameras. Check off the cameras that should be in this set. Display Choose whether you want to automatically switch to the live video or if you want to automatically switch to the still image. Action - Disable switching after switch occurs Imagine a Video Panel switches, then the operator watches the camera, then another alarm occurs on a different camera that would cause a second switch to this view. The operator may be frustrated that the view automatically changed. With this option the operator needs to right click on the live view and select the Enable Automatic Switching menu option to re-enable the switching. Action - Hide switched view after seconds If the view should be blank unless an event of interest has occurred, then pick this option. When no event has occurred, the panel will be black with the text r;waiting for event. When an event occurs, the video will popup and a countdown timer will be displayed that shows how many seconds are left until we enter the r;waiting for event state. The number of seconds to wait before blacking out the live view can be specified in the text box. Further explanation: Symphony will not automatically switch a Video Panel to a camera that is already being displayed in another camera panel in that Multi-View. After a Video Panel automatically switches it will not automatically switch to another camera for 8 seconds. If multiple Video Panels within a Multi View would switch based on activity, only one will switch - the one that switched furthest in the past. Each Multi View operates independently, therefore if you have 2 cameras in different Multi Views set to automatically switch based on activity, they may both be showing the same camera. If you want to Hide view until next event a single time, don t set it through this setting panel, rather right click on the Video Panel and select the Hide view until next event option. Doing it this way will not automatically hide the view again after the next event. If you want to have a listing of the most recent alarm/motion images, use the View / Recent Alarm/Motion JPEGs window. Child Tab The Slave tab allows you to force a Video Panel (Slave Video Panel) to always show the latest alarm image for the camera being displayed in another Video Panel (Primary Video Panel). When you change the camera being shown in Primary Video Panel (either automatically or manually) the Slave Video Panel switches to the most recent alarm. The ID of the view to enter in the text box is in the red rectangle for the Video Panel Settings of the Primary Video Panel. Tracking Tab Enable or disable digital tracking whereby the client software will automatically digitally zoom on activity. Other Applies changes to all video panels. 113

120 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Server List The Server List is a panel on the right side of the main console that lists the servers that are in the current server set along with their connection status. The menu item View > Server List Panel toggles its visibility. The currently selected server is highlighted, and any server operations that are performed via the Server menu will act on this selected server. By right clicking on the top title bar (i.e. Server) the context menu appears where the Column Chooser allows you to customize which fields are displayed. By right clicking on a server from the Server List panel, a context menu pops up that includes menu items to Add, Edit, Delete, Enable, Disable, and view properties of the selected servers. The Server List can be docked in the Main Console or undocked and moved to another monitor. 114

121 Symphony Client Timeline The Timeline is a powerful way to view everything that has happened in a day at a glance. The Timeline is integrated in the main view of Symphony Client. It can be turned on and off via the Toolbar Timeline button, and via Menu item View > Timeline. The Timeline is also available in every Video Panel, accessible by right-clicking on the Video Panel and choosing Timeline. If you click anywhere on the Timeline, a still image for that time will appear in the main view. Meaning of the bar colors: Green - No relevant foreground activity was detected. Yellow - There is activity (ignores weather conditions and shadows). Red - A Rule was broken that resulted in an alarm being raised. Gray - No video signal. The purple circle always indicates the Timeline position for what is currently being viewed in the Video Panel. By default, rules are summarized on the Timeline using a red square. You can customize how rules are displayed on the Timeline from the Alarms tab in the Settings dialog. See Also 115

122 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Customizing Timeline View - Activity For All Cameras View Previous Day 116

123 Symphony Client Video Panels Video Panels are used to show live video, recorded video, and analyze still frames. All Video Panels, including the Main Video Panel, can optionally include a Timeline and a Navigation Bar. These options and others are available via the context menu by right-clicking on the Video Panel (as seen below). Live View Mode By default, cameras are playing live in the Main Console. To navigate to different cameras, click on the Camera Tree or Site Map to switch cameras. By clicking on Timeline will automatically exit live mode and enter playback mode. Video Playback mode If Timeline or Alarm log is clicked, video playback mode begins. Below is an example of playback mode. If right clicking on playback mode, other configuration options exist. Full Screen Play at RealTime Speed Opens Main Console in Full Screen mode. Set the Speed Slider to Real-time speed. 117

124 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Unlock PTZ (Return Home) Send Picture To Camera Tour Settings Forces PTZ back to home position. Users can automatically send picture to Printer, Recipient, a File, the Clipboard, or to the Clipboard as a Link Allows to Edit (or create) a Camera Tour, and Enable or Disable a Tour. If Enable or Disable is selected while playing historical video, the Video Panel will switch to Live mode. For more information, visit Camera Tour section. Launches a dialog box with several settings for appearance, what to do when activity occurs, digital tracking, and other miscellaneous options. For more information, visit Customizing Video Panel Properties. Navigation Menu Usage (in video playback mode) Navigates forward and backward by alarm, activity (motion), 10 seconds, 1 second, 1 frame. Controls video playback speed as well as reverse playback speed. Switches back to Live mode from playback mode. Multi View Video Panels can also be contained in Multi View displays. Visit Multi View for more information. 118

125 Symphony Client Customizing Camera Tree On the top right of the Main Console, you can specify whether you wish a Camera Tree to provide easy camera navigation. The Camera Tree can also be dragged to a second monitor. To select this view, click View > Camera Tree. For information on how to customize the Camera Tree, visit the Camera Tree section. 119

126 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Customizing Map View On the top right of the Main Console, you can specify whether you wish a Map to display camera locations and positions. This Map can also be dragged to a second monitor. To select this view, click View > Map Navigation. For information on how to customize the Map Navigation, such as placing cameras, visit Map Configuration. 120

127 Symphony Client Symphony Client Settings There are numberous Client side settings that can be configured for individual users. These settings do not affect the Symphony Server directly, only how the information from the Symphony Server is presented. You can customize how Symphony displays information and behaves. To access the Settings dialog, click View > Settings. The following sections describe each tab of the Client Settings dialog. Startup Display The default layout at startup for the current user can be defined. The Symphony Client section allows you to control whether Symphony Client is un-minimized or not when an alarm occurs. The Application Log section allows you to configure how the Application Log displays messages. The Dialog Preferences section allows you to reset all the dialogs such that they are in their initial factory set state, so that they will show the help information with the option "Do not show this again". 121

128 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Alarms The Alarm Notification section allows you to specify if a dialog screen should pop up after an alarm (Rule broken) occurs, or if an alarm icon should be added to the system tray. The Alarm box section allows you to customize alarm colours displayed in the Timeline, and what alarms to show in the Alarm Log by Rule. By default, all alarms will create a Red Dot in the Timeline, and all Rules that are broken will appear in the Alarm Log. By customizing the Timeline, it is easier to locate specific events. You can configure what colour each Rule should represent in the Timeline. For more information on Rules, visit the Rules section. Video The PTZ Movement section allows you to define the PTZ movement behaviour in the live view. The Default Video Decorations section allows you to define how images are decorated. By default, Symphony overlays boxes and paths on the live video as objects are tracked. You can toggle on-the-fly whether or not Symphony should decorate the image. Note, this only affects how live video is displayed and does not change how Symphony records video. Decoration information is always recorded separately and not written directly on the video images. This is a client-side setting that does not affect other users. The same video can be viewed by one Symphony Client user with decorations enabled, and by another without decorations enabled. This setting also effects video play back settings. You can choose to overlay decorations or not for recorded video you are playing back. The Render Mode specifies how Symphony Client renders video. If video is not displaying properly, try changing the Render Mode. Some video cards do not support all video render modes. RGB render modes require more CPU power than the default render mode. Multi View Symphony allows you to open a "split" screen or virtual video matrix window which can show 1 to 64 cameras simultaneously. This requires a lot of CPU resources on the client PC. The Frame Rate section in this tab allows you to configure whether or not to run multi view windows at a decreased frame rate to reduce CPU load on the client PC. For more information on Multi-view, visit the Multi-view section. Sound The Sound tab allows users to customize sound configuration within Symphony Client. All settings are client-side. In the Streaming Sound section, you can specify how Symphony Client will play audio for live and recorded video. In the Event Sounds section you can specify a default sound to be played for alarms. Regional The Regional tab allows you to specify the language of Symphony Client. By default, Symphony Client will use your windows system language. If your Windows is using a language not supported by Symphony Client, it will automatically select English. You can also customize how the date and time are displayed in Symphony Client by selecting the Date Format and the Use 24 Hour Time checkbox. User Settings 122

129 Symphony Client The User Settings tab allows you to directly edit the initialization file which stores all the userspecific settings of Symphony Client. These are advanced settings and not recommended to change. Memory Global The Memory tab allows you to configure memory usage conditions under which Symphony Client will restart. The Login section defines whether users will require to manually enter a username and password on login, or automatically login using saved settings in the Windows registry. In both cases user access is gated and logged. Paths defines where to store client configuration. 123

130 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide User Interface Symphony Client is highly customizable. The follow can be modified and saved in the form of a saved layout: Main Console- moving windows Multi-view This section is not finished yet. 124

131 Symphony Client Searching Video About Searching Symphony provides two methods of searching video: using the Timeline or the Search Tool. The Timeline is integrated in the main interface of Symphony Client and summarizes a full day's activity. This is useful if you want an overview of the entire day on the current camera. The Search Tool allows your to query video for specific events in specific parts of the video. 125

132 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Search Search allows you to search recorded video for motion or alarms in specific areas. Symphony will search based on your criteria and create a mini movie and thumbnails showing the results. For example, you may search for all activity around a car for the last 24 hours. Symphony will create a video only containing activity which occurred in the blue highlighted area (which may result in a 5 minute movie, depending on how much activity was found). To access the Search dialog, select Search > Search from Symphony Client or click CTRL-F from the keyboard.. To perform a search perform the following: 1. From the Analytics Engines section, select the engine. Depending on which engine is selected, different search options will be available. 2. Using VE150 as an example, select Draw to mark the area of interest for searching. The area in blue will be searched for activity. To erase the blue area, select Erase. The Size slider adjusts the size of the brush when marking or unmarking the image. Alternatively, digital fences can be used as the search criteria. Select Any fence to draw a digital fences. Selecting All fences denotes that the object must pass through all fence lines to result in resulting search video. 126

133 Symphony Client 3. Optional: Select the Class of object you wish to search for, such as People, Vehicles or Unknown objects (unknown objects are objects that were tracked but were not classified as people or vehicles). 4. Optional: Select the Behavior to filter by, such as loitering. 5. Specify your Search Type. Enter the date and time range. Other Advanced settings: One Time Search Specified Interval Search Recurring Search The search will only be performed once using the date range you selected. In the above example, Symphony will search for all activity between July 29 7:38pm and July 30 7:38pm. You can specify to search between a date and time range. For example, if we configured the dialog as shown to the right, Symphony would search between July 26 and July 30, but only between 6:38pm and 7:38pm Selecting Recurring Search allows you to specify a search which Symphony will continuously perform until you end it. Using the example below, Symphony will always search between 18:00 and 8:00 each day. This option may be useful if you want automated searches done at specific times for review. 6. If the Search is being conducted against a PTZ camera, select the Home Position to search in. Home Positions are configured in the Camera Tour. 7. Click Search to start search. The View Search Results dialog will now open. Advanced Search Options (optional) By clicking Advanced, other options appear. 1. A user defined Title for the search can be defined, as well as an address (to notify a user the search is complete). Further, the Seconds before clip and Seconds after clip can be modified by entering a numeric value which represents the seconds before or after the event Symphony should begin to play the resulting video. 2. Specify your Search For criteria. Everything Any Movement Alarms Only Selecting the Everything Radio button will not filter any video. The resulting movie will include all frames between the "From" and "To" Search times (see below). In the above example, Symphony will search for all activity between July 11 4:33pm and July 12 4:33pm. Selecting the Alarms Only radio button will allow the user to select which specific events to search for as defined by the Rules (see Rules for more information). The user will specify which Rules to search for in the Advanced Search Options area. 3. Events allow you to combine different search events in order to further filter the results. For example, you can search for people loitering AND cars parking within 60 seconds, and only these combined events would be displayed in the search results. See Also View Search Results Timeline 127

134 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide View Search Dialog After you perform a Search or export video using the Save Clip option, the View Search Results Dialog automatically opens. To manually open this dialog, click Search > View Search Results. The View Search Results dialog shows all your previous searches. There are several operations you can perform on a search result once it is selected from the list: To play a search click the Play button in the toolbar. Symphony Player will automatically open and will play the video of the selected result. To delete a search click the Delete button (X) in the toolbar. The corresponding.aira and.mpeg files will be deleted from the server. To save a search to your computer click the Save button in the toolbar. The video will be saved in.aira format to your PC. You will require Symphony Player to play.aira files. To save as an.mpeg format right-click the search from the list and choose the Convert to MPEG option. This will save it as MPEG4v2 format which can be played in a wide variety of media players including Microsoft Media Player. To a search result video right-click the search from the list and choose the option. The right pane of the View Search Results window shows snapshots of each event for the currently selected search. Clicking on a snapshot will force Symphony Client to navigate to that same frame. 128

135 Symphony Client See Also Search Save Clip 129

136 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Other Useful Features Activity for All Cameras The Activity For All Cameras view makes it easy to compare the Timelines for all the cameras on all the servers in the current Server Set for the specified date range. If you click on the Timeline, the corresponding image will be loaded in the Main View. This also useful if you want a snapshot of all the activity on all your cameras for a day. Upon altering the date range, clicking Reload will load all the cameras' timeline information for the new date range. Zoom In and Zoom Out allow you to quickly change the granularity of the time bars shown. If depressed, the One Camera View button uses one Video Panel to show the result of navigating with the timelines. If not depressed, then each time you click on a timeline a new Video Panel will be created. 130

137 Symphony Client Bookmarks Add Bookmark creates a bookmark for what is currently showing in the Main Video Panel. This could either be live playing video, historical playing video, or a still image. After you have added a bookmark it will appear on the Bookmarks menu, just like favorites in Microsoft Internet Explorer. To add a bookmark, select Bookmarks > Add Bookmark. Enter a name for the bookmark and hit OK to close. To manage bookmarks, select Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks. Select a Bookmark to manage, delete or share. Shared bookmarks are visible to all connected users. 131

138 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Carousels Carousels allow you to loop through multiple cameras across multiple servers, pausing on each camera for a defined period of time. To access Carousels, click Server > Configuration and select Carousels. Creating or Modifying Carousels To create a new Carousel, perform the following: 1. From the Carousels menu, click New 2. Give the Carousel a descriptive name in the Sequence Name field 3. Add cameras from the Available Cameras on Servers tree into the Cameras in Current Carousel tree 4. Note: The same camera can be added multiple times 5. Define a pause time in seconds 6. Click OK to save Working with Carousels 132

139 Symphony Client Carousels can be accessed from Symphony Client by clicking View > Carousels > select your Carousel name. Carousels can also be docked directly inside a Multi View by selecting Carousel from the Multi View navigation bar. 133

140 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Exporting Video You can export video from the Symphony server two different ways. 1. You can perform a Search and save it to disk from the View Search Results dialog. 2. You can export video by selecting a time period to export using the Save Clip button in the Toolbar. Option 1 Using Search Perform your search in the normal way, right-click a search result from the list, and select either Save to save in.aira format, or Convert to MPEG to save as.mpeg format. Option 2 Using Save Clip Button to Export Video 1. Click on the Timeline to the location you wish to begin the export. 2. Click the Save Clip button in the toolbar. 3. By default it sets up the parameters for a movie clip starting 60 seconds before the timeline clicked time, until 60 seconds after it. 4. Alter these settings as necessary. 5. Enter the Clip Name and Click Save Clip. Alternatively, 1. Choose the Pick start time by clicking on timeline radio button, then click on the timeline at the location you wish to start the export. 2. Choose the Pick end time by clicking on timeline radio button, then click on the timeline at the location you wish to end the export. 3. Enter the Clip Name and Click Save Clip. 134

141 Symphony Client Keyboard Navigation In addition to navigating cameras using the Camera Tree or Site Map, Symphony supports keyboard navigation natively. Select View > Goto to and enter the camera ID or alarm ID. Selecing F5 on the keyboard also opens this window. 135

142 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Loading Archived Video To view a previous day's information, select it from the Date button in the Toolbar, or from the Pick A Date button in the Alarm Log toolbar. It loads up a calendar that allows you to view the Timelines and alarms of previous days. By default at startup, Symphony Client only loads alarms for the current day. Days that are in BOLD contain video data. Days which do not appear in BOLD do not contain video. 136

143 Symphony Client Multi View Multi View allows you to view multiple cameras' views at the same time. Multi View can be configured to display 1 to 64 cameras at once. It is possible to have more than one multi view dialog open. Since the Multi View is made up of individual Video Panels, it is possible to configure them individually for appearance, the activities to perform upon alarm events, whether or not to have Timelines, Navigation Bars, etc. Simply drag cameras from the Map or Camera Tree onto panes in the Multi View. Floating Multi View Floating Multi View windows are typically used where the operator has more than one monitor. A floating Multi View can be dragged to the second monitor. The behavior of each video pane can be customized (see Customizing Video Panels for more information). If you would like to save your currently configured Multi View to a file for later retrieval, click the Save button in the Multi View toolbar. To later load a saved Multi View, select View > Load Multi View Layout. Docked Multi View 137

144 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Docked Multi View can be accessed by selecting View > Docked Multi View from Symphony Client. The Timeline will be automatically hidden when docked Multi View is selected. 138

145 Symphony Client Register New Server New Symphony Server Registration allows Symphony Client to connect to a Symphony Server over a network. You need at least one server registered. Address Enter the address of the Symphony Server you want to connect to. You can enter the IP address of the Symphony Server, or the Symphony Dynamic name, which was defined during installation. Aimetis provides support for Symphony Servers that are on dynamic IP addresses. Dynamic names must be enclosed in square brackets (see examples below). If you do not enclose the name in square brackets standard DNS resolution will be attempted. If the Symphony Server is running on a nonstandard TCP port, you can suffix the address with a colon followed by the TCP port number. If you do not suffix with a port, it will try the default port, 50,000. Here are some examples of valid addresses: Address Description symphony1.toyotacentral.com standard DNS IP address [constructix] dynamic name jakescomp.fire.com:9080 standard DNS with TCP port [constructix2]:80 dynamic name with TCP port Note: Symphony Servers listen on port 50,000 to remain invisible to the plethora of port scans. Most port scanners do not scan ports this high. Once the Symphony Client connects on port 50,000 (assuming the default port was not changed), it will receive the other ports to connect to (for more information on ports and firewalls, visit Firewalling your server). 139

146 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Name This is the name that will appear in Symphony Client for this address. This information is not actually used to connect. Type any descriptive name here. User A username with access to connect to the server. Password The password that is set up for the User. 140

147 Symphony Client Server Sets Server Sets allow you to maintain large sites by specifying different sets of servers to connect to. This allows you to monitor selected servers independent of others in groups. By default, there is one Server Set enabled called Servers. All your registered servers will be in this Server Set. To Create or Delete a Server Set Select File > Server Sets - Add/Remove Server Set to create a new server set or remove a server set. To Load a Server Set Select File > Server Sets - (server set you wish to load) 141

148 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Using PTZ Cameras When working with PTZ cameras, you have the ability to set multiple home positions (camera tour), pan, tilt and zoom right from Symphony Client using a standard keyboard and mouse. To move the camera you have three options. You can use the Navigation control (PTZ button on the toolbar), or use the mouse to drag a box around the region you wish to zoom in on. Navigation Menu Usage To open the control dialog of the dome or PTZ camera, click on the PTZ toolbar button, or click View > PTZ Controls. The PTZ Navigation dialog are summarized below. The arrows move a dome or PTZ camera up and down, left and right. If it's a fixed camera, will digitally move camera (must be digitally zoomed first). The +/- allows you to digitally zoom in or out (fixed camera), or optically zoom in and out (dome or PTZ cameras). Clicking Home will automatically bring camera back to its user defined Home Position. The numbers represent camera tour locations and provide easy navigation. Using Mouse to control PTZ Camera Method 1: Left click on the live view to recenter to this position. Method 2: Draw a green box around the object you wish to zoom on (shown below). 142

149 Symphony Client Above: Draw a box around area of interest with mouse Below: After releasing mouse, PTZ zooms on area of interest. Method 3: Right click the live view to simulate a joystick control. Draw the red arrow in the direction you wish to move the camera. Adjust the length of the line to control speed of the camera. 143

150 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Using Mouse to control PTZ Camera Connect a USB joystick to the client PC running Symphony Client. Next, enable joystick control by clicking View > Joystick. To set the PTZ home position, visit the Camera Tour section for help. See Also Camera Tour 144

151 Symphony Client Video Wall Video Wall allows users to remotely control Symphony Client. To configure a video wall, click Server > Video Wall. Perform the following steps from the Client PC(s) that are to be configured as video wall controllers: 1. Install Symphony Client 2. Open Symphony Client and click Server > Video Wall. 3. Click Register current Symphony Client as controller (this will register the client's IP address into the server database) 4. Make sure that port is open on the Client PC, so other Client PCs can interact remotely Configure Video Wall 1. Open Symphony Client and click Server > Video Wall. 2. Click File > Design Video Wall to configure video wall layout and monitor orientation 3. Click Video Wall Monitor and drag it to the wall. Repeat as necessary so each physical monitor connected to the controller(s) is shown on the wall 4. Click File > Save to save layout Using Video Wall 1. Open Symphony Client and click Server > Video Wall. 2. On the Video Wall tab, highlight the monitor and select the camera layout from the Number of Camera Views combo box 3. Drag and drop cameras into the monitor 145

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153 Symphony Player Symphony Player Aimetis Symphony Player is a stand alone program that can be used to view Symphony movies created by Symphony Client. To open Symphony Player, from Windows XP click Start > All Programs > Aimetis > Symphony Player. After a Search is performed, Symphony may find different occurrences of activity at different times. Each occurrence is called a Video Snippet, which is a mini movie of the event. To play a.aira file that you have saved to your computer, select File > Play from File and select the.aira file you wish to play. Usage: Decorations Menu Video decorations can be turned on or off on the fly. Decorations are overlayed by Symphony Player during playback of the video. To turn on or off decorations, 147

154 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide toggle the options from the Decorations menu. Pause Will pause the current video. By default, the video starts automatically. < snippet > Navigate between the different Video Snippets. By default, each Video Snippet contains 5 seconds before and after the activity was detected. < frame > Navigate forward or backward between video frames. Slider Slider moves while the movie is playing. Each notch represents a Video Snippet. Speed Speed slider allows you to control the play speed of the movie. 148

155 Symphony Web Access About Web Access Aimetis Symphony also includes a web interface. Each server has it's own web interface and can be accessed by navigating to (where SERVERNAME can be your windows hostname or the IP address of the server). After logging in, select a camera from the camera tree to view video. 149

156 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide The web interface is designed to mimic the windows rich client (Symphony Client) as much as possible. All core features such as Alarm Log, Timeline, live video streaming is included. To access web based reporting, click the Reports link. Visit Reports section for help on using reports. 150

157 Monitoring with Symphony Monitoring with Symphony Monitoring alarms with Symphony is easy and efficient. Symphony has been designed to maximize human attention on the cameras that need it most. The following are guidelines as to how you can maximize the monitoring experience in Symphony. Use Multiple Monitors Using the Site Map The Alarm Log Marking Alarms Using the Alarm Console Using the Timeline Viewing Activity for all Cameras Carousel Disabling Alarms Using Multiple Monitors For most users, using one monitor with Symphony Client is fine. The Main Console displays and summarizes activity across your enterprise adequately. For more advanced users or monitoring stations, the ability to see multiple windows and cameras at once may be a requirement. Symphony Client supports multiple monitors (the number of monitors depends on your PCs ability to decompress multiple video streams). This gives you the ability to display the Main Console in one screen, and the Multi-live on the other display. The Multi-Live view can be configured to automatically update which cameras are displayed, focusing your attention on only those cameras where activity is detected by Symphony. It is also easy to manually drag and drop cameras into a Multi-Live view window, by left clicking a camera and dragging it into a Multi-Live view pane. Using two monitors with Multi-live and the Main Console makes this less awkward and more efficient. For those who wish to see more than 16 cameras at once, additional monitors can be connected to the PC (provided your video card allows it, and your PC has enough processing power). Using the Site Map Using the Site Map is easy. To navigate to different cameras (to see a live view) simply left click on the Site Map on the camera you wish to see. You can also drag a camera from the Site Map into a Multi-Live view pane. The colours of the camera indicate camera status. Green means a normal video signal is detected, but no activity is detected. Yellow indicates activity is detected, Red indicates an alarm has occurred on the camera (see Rules on how to configure alarms). A grey signal indicates the camera signal is lost, and a white camera indicates a problem with our software on that camera. The Alarm Log The Alarm Log is in the Main Console is much like your inbox. Symphony Client can be connected to multiple Symphony Servers at once. Each time an Symphony Server causes an alarm, it pushes a message to AE, and a new alarm entry appears in the Alarm Log. Simply click on new Alarms as they come in, and Symphony will automatically jump to the correct server and camera which caused the Alarm, allowing you to quickly inspect the video content. It is also a good idea to leave 151

158 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Marking Alarms After a new Alarm comes in, and you have inspected the Alarm, you can now mark the alarm as a real alarm, or a false alarm and leaving your notes. This allows security administrators to generate reports on how many alarms were detected by Symphony, the response time by security personnel, and keep track of real alarms to false alarms. Using the Alarm Console The Alarm Console enables you to respond to Alarms through your internet connection, provided that you have a speaker configured on the remote location. When Alarms arrive through the Alarm Log, and you have assessed the alarm, marked it as false or real and added comments, you may choose to use the Alarm Console to engage a perpetrator. With the Alarm Console, you can speak, play sounds and more. Using the Timeline The Timeline is an integrated display within the Main Console. The Timeline summarizes the activity per bar on a 30 minute basis. It is a quick way to know whether activity was detected before or after the alarm, without having to manually review video. If there is some activity summarized on the Timeline, simply click on it to view a still image of that event. To watch video playback, simply hit Play on the bottom navigation bar. Viewing Activity for all Cameras The View Activity for all Cameras form allows you to see a merged Timeline of multiple cameras. Through the Main Console, the currently selected camera's Time Graph is visible, but if you want to compare that with other cameras, you can see this summary through the View Activity for all Cameras form. Carousel A Caroursel is a user definable group of cameras that will loop through on a pre-determined schedule. Disabling Alarms If too many alarms are coming in from a particular server or camera, you can temporarily disable alarms so the Alarm Log is not flooded with nuisance alarms. 152

159 Monitoring with Symphony Alarm Console The Alarm Console lets you manually speak or play a sound at a remote Symphony server installation. This is useful when manually responding to an alarm event in real-time, where you may wish to ward off trespassers. To access the Alarm Console, select Server > Alarm Console. Usage Speak over Loud Speaker Say it Add to master list Remove from master list Add a wav file from your computer to In the Speak over Loud Speaker section, users can type in text which will be played at the remote location. The master list is a text file that contains different spoken strings, and it appears in the "This is private property." combo box above. It is client-side meaning it is located where Symphony Client is installed. This means that if you have multiple people connecting to the Symphony server from different locations they will each have their own list of things that they can say. After typing new text in the Speak over Loud Speaker combo box, or select existing strings from the combo box, click Say it to play the text at the remote location. Symphony converts the text string into voice at the remote site. You can add text to the master list which will be available as an option in he Speak over Loud Speaker combo box for future use. You can remove stored text from the master list. Upload a wav file from your local PC to the Symphony Server. 153

160 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Symphony: Play Sound Remove selected wav from Symphony Relays Will play the sound you have selected in the Play Sound dialog. Click here to delete a sound file off the Symphony Server. It may be useful to manually turn on or off a relay. A siren or other audible alarm can be connected to Relay inputs or outputs, or doors could be opened or closed by triggering a relay. For more information on Relays (or digital I/Os, visit Device Setup). Select the Device and relay number of the device and click On to turn on the relay or Off to turn off. 154

161 Monitoring with Symphony Disable Alarms for Server The Disable Alarms for Server dialog disables all the alarms for the currently selected server. This is useful in cases where all alarms should be disabled for a period of time on the server. This is faster than manually disabling individual Rules. To access the Disable Alarms for Server dialog, click Server > Disable Alarms for Server. Specify the amount of time to disable the alarms for the current server. See Also Enable Alarms for Server 155

162 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Enable Alarms for Server The Enable Alarms for Server dialog enables all the alarms for the currently selected server, if they were previously disabled using the Disable Alarms for Server dialog. To access the Disable Alarms for Server dialog, click Server > Enable Alarms for Server. See Also Disable Alarms for Server 156

163 Monitoring with Symphony Marking Alarms The Alarm Log panel shows a list of alarms for connected servers in the current Server Set. To mark an alarm do the following: 1. Right click on the alarm you wish to mark. The following context menu pops up. Multiple alarms can be marked simultaneously if you select a range of alarms using standard Windows click followed by Shift-click or Ctrl-click. 157

164 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide 2. Choose an action to perform: See Also Alarm Log Export to Excel to export the entire list to Microsoft Excel. Mark As Alarm to mark as a real Alarm without leaving comments. Mark as False Alarm to mark as a false alarm without leaving comments. Actionable to mark as Actionable. Alarm Details to add comments to the Alarm. The Alarm dialog opens. Add comments as appropriate. You can also mark the alarm as false or real in this dialog. Click Save when finished. 158

165 Reports About Reports Symphony comes standard with the following Reports. Object Counts Across a line Heat Map Object Counts Table Object Statistics Alarm Counts Textual report which shows counts across a user definable line per camera Graphical report which overlays traffic patterns on image Textual report which summarizes in table form object counts across many cameras Graphical report which compares object traffic and dwell time Textual report which summarizes alarm totals In addition to using existing Reports, custom reports can be developed using the Aimetis SDK. For more information, download SDK at 159

166 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Object Counts Across a line This report allows users to generate statistics regarding the number of objects crossing a user defined line. To access the Object Counts Across A Line dialog, click Reports > Object Counts Across A Line Report. Usage: Full Day Partial Day(s) Start: End: Select the 'in/out' Searches Start and End range for a 24h period per day Allows user to specify search time per day (for example, searching 5 days but only between 9am-5pm) Denotes the start date of the report Denotes the end date of the report Draw a line anywhere on the image and click the arrows to change the incoming and outgoing properties. Objects crossing this line are counted for the report. 160

167 Reports boundary. Reverse In and Out Change the In and Out configuration. Click Get Report to generate report. After the report is generated, clicking Export Raw Data will copy data into Microsoft Excel. 161

168 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Heat Map This is a default report which allows users to query the Symphony Server Database and generate a graphical report summarizing object traffic for the currently selected camera. To access the Heat Map dialog, click Reports > Heat Map. The Heat Map dialog opens. The colorful heat map scale to the right is essentially a density scale. For the specified time period, the scale measures the density of object movements at a particular location from low to high. Therefore the pink areas denote heavy traffic, and the blue areas denote very light traffic. Usage Full Day Partial Day(s) Override Automatic Scale Select here to search the full 24h for the days specified Select here to search the days specified during a specific time range By default, Symphony will create object density scale. This scale can be 162

169 Reports Get Report Copy to Clipboard manually changed. Click Get Report to generate the report. Click Copy to Clipboard to Copy the report contents to your Clipboard, which can be pasted in another program for further analysis or manipulation. 163

170 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Object Counts Table This is a default report which allows users to query the Symphony Server Database and generate a report on the number of objects detected per hour per camera. To access the Object Count Table dialog, click Reports > Object Count Table. The Object Count Table dialog opens. Usage Full Day Partial Day(s) Start: End: Export Raw Searches Start and End range for a 24h period per day Allows user to specify search time per day (for example, searching 5 days but only between 9am-5pm) Denotes the start date of the report Denotes the end date of the report This option opens Microsoft Excel and copies results therein 164

171 Reports Data Cameras Get Report Select the cameras to include in the report Generates report. 165

172 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Object Statistics This is a default report which allows users to query the Symphony Server Database and generate a graphical report summarizing activity in one or many cameras. To access the Object Statistics Report, click Reports > Object Statistics Report. Usage Full Day Partial Day(s) Start: End: Cameras Get Data Type of Report Frequency Searches Start and End range for a 24h period per day Allows user to specify search time per day (for example, searching 5 days but only between 9am-5pm) Denotes the start date of the report Denotes the end date of the report Select the cameras to include in the report After the date range and cameras have been selected, click Get Data to query the server After the server has been queried, the Type of Report can be specified Specifies frequency of report Above: Object Counts Below: Dwell times 166

173 Reports 167

174 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Alarm Counts This report provides an overview of all cameras on all currently connected servers which were selected and summarizes the Analytics Engine, etc, and provides accuracy results (based on user input, for more information see Marking Alarms). 1. To access the Alarm Counts Report dialog, click Reports > Alarm Counts. The Alarm Counts configuration dialog opens. 2. Select which cameras to include in the report by expanding the server farm and picking the individual cameras in the Show statistics for these cameras dialog. 3. Select the time interval for the report. One Time interval allows you to define a Start and End time for the report. Specified Interval allows you to further filter by specific hours during the day to include in the report. 4. Click View to generate the report (shown below) 168

175 Reports Optional Steps 5. It is possible to print the report, as well as export it to other formats, like.csv,.txt,.pdf by clicking Print and Export To... To export raw data to Excel, select Export Raw Data. 6. To customize the columns shown in the report, right click on one of the column headers (such as Camera or Total) and pick Column Chooser. 169

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177 Backup and Restore Backup Configuration It is recommended that a backup of the entire Symphony configuration is completed after installation, as well as scheduling automatic backups. The configuration file contains all settings of the server (but no recorded video). To access the Backup configuration, click Server > Backup. 171

178 Aimetis Symphony 6.2 User Guide Manual-backup It is recommended that you backup your entire Symphony configuration after you have completed the first time setup. You may backup to your local PC or the server directly. To backup to local machine: 1. Click To local machine checkbox 2. Click Browse to select location to store the backup file 3. Click OK when finished The server backup will be stored in this location. To backup to the server: 1. Click To server checkbox 2. Type the location to store the backup file (this can also include a UNC path) 3. Click OK when finished The server backup will be instantly stored in this location. To automate backups, follow the steps below. Auto-backup Automatic backups will always be stored in the same location on the server. Only one backup can be saved at the same time (each new backup will automatically overwrite the old one). To configure automatic backups of server configuration, perform the following steps: 1. Click the Scheduled backup on server checkbox 2. Select Daily checkbox for daily backups, and pick an hour 3. Select Weekly checkbox for weekly backups, and pick a day of the week and an hour 4. Click OK when finished See Also Restore Configuration 172

179 Backup and Restore Restore Configuration Symphony can restore the entire configuration to a previous state, including Rule information, log files, alarm masks, site maps and so on in configuration files. The only data not contained in the configuration backup is video data. To Restore Configuration to a previous state, follow the steps below: 1. Click Server > Restore Configuration to open the Restore Dialog. 2. Click the Restore server configuration checkbox 3. If the backup is on your local machine, click From local machine and Browse to select a backup file which was stored on your local PC and proceed to Step If the backup is directly on the server, click From server and enter the path to the backup file and proceed to Step To automatically restore the last auto-backup on the server, click Last scheduled backup on server. 6. Click OK when finished. See Also 173