Events and alarms

Alarms (explained)

On the XProtect VMS server, virtually any kind of incident or technical problem - events - can be set up to trigger an alarm. Alarms and events can all be viewed on the Alarm Manager tab, which provides a central overview of your VMS incidents, status, and possible technical problems.

You cannot set up alarm triggers in the XProtect Smart Client. Your system administrator does this when configuring the XProtect VMS system.

The Alarm Manager tab is either displayed or hidden depending on the settings defined by your system administrator.

The Alarm Manager tab provides a dedicated view for your alarm or event handling. The tab itself displays the number of active alarms. More than nine alarms are shown with a . The Alarm Manager tab includes an alarm list, an alarm preview for previewing video associated with individual alarms or events, and possibly also a map that displays the geographical location of the camera associated with the alarm.

Alarm list (explained)

The Alarm List displays incoming alarms by default, with the most recent alarms at the top of the list. Alternatively, the alarm list can display a list of MIPShort for "Milestone Integration Platform". plug-in and analytic events, for example, access control or license plate recognition.

Alarms or events with associated video are displayed with an icon . To preview a still image from the time of the alarm or event, hover over the icon. To preview recorded video from the camera or cameras associated with the alarm or event, select the alarm or event in the list. To stop a repeating alarm sound, select the alarm associated with the sound in the list.

You can decide how you want the list to appear, you can filter the columns, you can drag the columns to different positions, and you can right-click to show or hide certain columns.

The event list does not display system- or user-generated events, such as motion detection or archive failure.

The list is updated every 3 seconds.

To see a list of events, enter setup mode and select Event in the Properties pane. See also Alarm list settings.

Servers in alarm list (explained)

On the left side of the alarm list, you can view the servers that the alarms originate from. Many XProtect VMS systems only have a single server, but some systems may consist of several servers in a hierarchy. All the servers you have access to are listed, and you can filter alarms by servers.

Alarm states (explained)

Alarms can be in one of the following states: New, In progress, On hold, or Closed . You can see the state of each alarm in the Alarm List, in the State Name column. The Filters pane lets you filter according to certain criteria. Initially, all alarms will be in the New state, but when an alarm is being handled, its state is updated.

Filter alarms

There are several ways you can filter the alarm list, so it displays just the alarms or events that you are interested in.

Steps: 

1. In the toolbar of the alarm list, click the Custom (filter applied) or No filter text. The text may differ depending on the filter selected.
   

   

2. Enter filter criteria on any of the columns you want to filter on. For example, if you enter a user ID in the ID field, the list will only display alarms assigned to that particular user.
3. You can combine filters, for example State name and Owner (assigned to).
4. To return to the unfiltered alarm list, click the Clear filter button.
5. To sort the content of the alarm list, in the alarm list, click the title of the column.

If your alarm handling views contain map content, you can also filter the alarm list by right-clicking an element (camera, server, or similar) on the map, then selecting Show Alarms. This will make the alarm list show only alarms from the selected element.

Responding to alarms

Print alarm reports

You can print a report with information about the alarm, including the alarm history and, if available, a still image from the time of the alarm. If you have selected multiple alarms in the alarm list, you cannot use this feature.

Steps:

1. In the alarm list, right-click the alarm.
2. Select Print. A window appears.
3. To add a note, enter the text in the Note field.
4. Click the Print button.

Get statistics on alarms

Get statistical data about the alarms triggered in your XProtect VMS system over the:

• Last 24 hours
• Last 7 days
• Last 30 days
• Last 6 months
• Last year

The Alarm Report window shows two graphs that display the number of alarms filtered by categories, for example Priority or State , allowing you to compare the two graphs side by side.

Steps:

1. In the Alarm List, click the Reports button. A window appears.
2. Above the graphs, select the timespan, for example Last 24 hours.
3. In the Select report list, select one of these categories:
   • Category
   • State
   • Priority
   • Reasons for closing
   • Site
   • Response time
4. For each graph, select a sub-filter. For example if you selected State, you can select New in the first graph and In progress in the second. The graphs are populated.
5. To print the graphs as a PDF report, click .

Alarms on maps (explained)

If your alarm handling view contains one or more map positions, you can view alarms on the maps too. Maps display alarms based on the geographical location of the camera, server or other device triggering the alarms, so you can instantly see where the alarm originates from. You can right-click and acknowledge, disable, or suppress the alarm directly from the map.

Camera elements display video in thumbnail format when you move your mouse over it. When used together with alarms, the graphical elements on maps display red circles around them if alarms occur. For example, if an alarm associated with a particular camera occurs, the graphical element representing that camera will immediately get a red circle around it, and you can then click the camera element and not only view video from the camera, but also handle the alarm through a menu that appears.

If red is not an ideal color for signifying alarms on your maps, you can change this color.

Now, say the camera which has an alarm associated with it, is located on a street level map, but you are viewing a city level map. How will you then notice the alarm? No problem, thanks to hot zones—graphical representations linking different map hierarchy levels together. If an alarm is detected on the street level map, the hot zone on the city level map will then turn red, indicating that there is an alarm on a lower level map—even if there are map levels in between.

To return to an alarm list mode where you can see alarms from more than just the one element, click the required server, priority or state in the alarm list.

Alarms on smart maps (explained)

Smart map displays alarms if they are triggered by a camera and if the camera is added to the smart map. For more information about adding cameras to the smart map, see Adding, deleting, or editing cameras on smart map.

Events (explained)

An event is a predefined incident on the XProtect VMS system that can be set up to trigger an alarm. Events are either predefined system incidents or user-specified events, for example analytics events, generic events, or user-specified. Events are not necessarily linked to an alarm, but they can be.

Typically, events are activated automatically and in the background, for example, as a result of input from external sensors, detected motion or by data from other applications. However, events can also be manually activated. Events are used by the VMS system to trigger actions, such as starting or stopping recording, changing video settings, activating outputData going out of a computer. On IP surveillance systems, output is frequently used for activating devices such as gates, sirens, strobe lights, and more., or combinations of actions. When you activate an event from your XProtect Smart Client, it automatically triggers actions on the VMS system, for example recording on a particular camera with a particular frame rateA measure indicating the amount of information contained in motion video. Typically measured in FPS (Frames Per second). for a particular period of time.

Your system administrator determines what happens when you manually activate an event. Your system administrator may use the terms event buttons, user-defined events or custom events for manually activated events.