| Security Monitor Pro: Camera Settings |
Camera Settings
The Camera Settings window can be opened by clicking the Camera Monitoring Options button in each Preview window ( ), or the identical button on the tool bar. It can also be opened from the Camera Manager.
Camera Settings are slightly different for IP cameras and for directly-attached cameras (USB or FireWire).
The Camera Settings window has these sections
General
The General Settings are
Reconnect/Refresh camera after every x hours.
Some cameras will not permit very long connection times, and automatically disconnect after a certain number of hours. By selecting this option, you direct Security Monitor Pro to automatically reconnect periodically, which permits the program to keep monitoring the camera without its becoming disconnected.
Stop Recording/Photo alerts when disk space is less than x GB left on drive.
To avoid completely filling the hard disk, Security Monitor Pro can be set to halt recording audio and video and taking photos when the drive is almost full. Other alerts (email, audible alarms) continue normally.
Add a Date and Time on Video Recordings and Photos at position
When this option is selected, Security Monitor Pro adds the current date and time (based on the PC's clock) to all video and photos. This makes it easy to determine when an incident took place.
Position can be at the top left, bottom left, top right, or bottom right of the picture.
You can select various formats for the date (05-09-2008, 29-May-2008, etc.) and time (12-hour or 24-hour clock).
You can also choose a color to display the date and time in, which will help it to stand out against various colored backgrounds.
Add a text on Video Recordings and Photos at position
You can add text to the image for both video recordings and photos. One reason to do this is to label which camera took a picture or video recording, e.g. FRONT DOOR CAMERA.
Position can be at the top left, bottom left, top right, or bottom right of the picture. Color lets you change the color of the text, to help it to stand out against the background.
Video/Audio Devices
Video Devices
You can change which video device is being monitored by selecting from this drop-down list. This lets you leave all settings unchanged, but switch to a different camera (for instance, when installing a new USB or FireWire camera).
Audio Devices
As above, you can select from this drop-down list to change audio devices without changing any other setting.
Refresh
If a device isn't shown in one of the drop-down lists, click Refresh to update them both.
IP Camera
Camera Model
Select your camera's model from the drop-down list. If your camera is not listed, contact technical support for assistance.
IP address
Enter the numeric IP address of your camera. If you do not know the camera's address, see Search for IP Camera below.
Search for IP Camera
To find a camera when you know its model, but not its IP address, click the Search button:
Enter a start and end point, and a Port No., for your search, and click OK. You can only search up to a range of 256 addresses (xxx.yyy.zzz.0 to xxx.yyy.zzz.255). When you click OK the Searching IP Cameras window appears, and Security Monitor Pro checks each address in the range you specified to see if a camera is present there. When a camera is found, the search is paused and you are asked if you would ike to add this camera or keep searching.
Port
Change this to the port your camera uses for its video stream. Most IP cameras default to 80, but permit you to change this to any valid port number.
Frame Rate
The Frame Rate is the number of times per second that the video sent by the camera is updated. Higher frame rates will produce video with smoother motion. Higher frame rates increase the load on your computer's system resources and can reduce performance in general.
Dimensions
The size of both still pictures and video is measured in pixels, width x height. Some cameras can send video and stills at several different sizes. For those cameras, this drop-down list lets you pick the dimensions you prefer. As with Frame Rate, very high dimensions will produce high-quality video at the expense of reduced system performance.
URL
IP cameras make their video streams available by providing a URL, which varies from camera to camera. The URL field is automatically filled in for you when you select a camera, unless you select the Generic IP Camera, in which case you will have to enter the URL manually, based on either camera documentation or instructions from DeskShare technical support.
Name
Give the camera any name that will help you to identify it later. Examples include "Front door" and "Parking lot". By default, a device is named after the camera model you select.
Camera Requires Authentication
Most IP cameras can be configured to required a user name and password to allow viewing their video stream. If this camera requires authentication, check this checkbox and enter the User name and Password here.
Test Camera
Press the Test Camera button to see whether the settings you have entered are correct. You will be informed whether Security Monitor Pro has been able to capture the camera's video stream using these settings.
Monitoring With Alerts Settings
This tab is used to control two things:
- When to run alerts
- Which types of alerts to run.
Alerts can be activated in two ways:
You can choose to activate any of these Alerts:
In addition, you can simultaneously turn on multiple Alerts.
Also on this tab, you can automatically begin monitoring when Security Monitor Pro loads.
Scheduler
You can schedule Security Monitor Pro to automatically start and stop monitoring on a schedule.
Broadcasting
Security Monitor Pro can broadcast live video from each camera and/or microphone that is configured. You can broadcast from one camera, all of them, or any combination of cameras. For more information, see Broadcasting Video/Audio.
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